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#AndNEW: WWE 24/7 Championship Changes Hands 9 Times at Raw Reunion

24/7 Championship Raw Reunion

As could be expected, Raw Reunion provided the perfect opportunity for wrestling legends to trade the 24/7 Championship among them. R-Truth may have begun and ended the night in possession of his precious title, but over the course of the three-hour show, eight wrestlers held the belt.

The 24/7 Championship saga at Raw Reunion began with a flashback of R-Truth’s hilarious turn as a penguin at the San Diego Comic Con over the weekend. Truth was disguised and believed no one would find him. But then, Hurricane Helms showed up and attempted a pinfall on the champ before sneaking away. Drake Maverick was also there, in a banana costume. Say what you will about the state of the WWE product but the 24/7 Championship has been a breath of fresh air. It’s been weird and silly and fun, and Maverick and Truth have carried it to tremendous success.

Neither Maverick nor Helms was successful at SDCC, but on Raw Reunion, with Renee Michelle providing the distraction, Maverick snuck a pinfall on Truth to reclaim the 24/7 title for the second time. Unfortunately, his time with the belt didn’t last long as Maverick was spooked by snakes and the Boogeyman. This allowed the 78-year-old Pat Patterson to grab a ref and stick his foot on the already grounded Maverick to win his first championship in 19 years. Ironically, his most recent title before this, which came in 2000, was the WWF Hardcore Championship. The spiritual predecessor of the 24/7 title, Patterson held the hardcore belt for six days, his last known match coming in the first-and-only hardcore evening gown match against Gerald Brisco for the title. It was the 40th championship in his career. Tonight, marked his 41st. But more than that, Patterson made history as at 78, he’s the oldest wrestler to win a title in WWE.

From six days to about 16 minutes, Patterson lost the title to his fellow stooge, Gerald Brisco shortly after. Both Brisco and Patterson were Vince McMahon‘s right-hand men from about 1997-2000. At Raw Reunion, Brisco got the better of his counterpart, winning his 41st career title on Monday night. Much like Patterson, Brisco’s last championship also came with a WWF hardcore title reign in 2000. And much like his hardcore championship reign, which lasted less than a day, the title was barely warm in Brisco’s hands when he was tricked into a pinfall by Kelly Kelly. Under the guise of greeting Brisco and admiring his new hardware, Kelly Kelly stole a victory and walked away in possession of the belt. A wrestler of only six years, this was just the second championship of Kelly’s career. Her first came in 2011 when she held the Divas Championship for 104 days.

Excited to show off her new bling, Kelly Kelly, the first female to hold the 24/7 Championship, came across Candice Michelle, Melina and Naomi backstage. Little did Kelly know, but Melina had come prepared. Noting she had just gotten licensed, Melina unzipped her jacket to reveal a referee’s top. Before Kelly knew what was going on, Michelle pinned her. A staple in the women’s division in the late 2000s and trained in part by Arn Anderson and Finlay, this was just the second title of Michelle’s career. The first came when she defeated Melina for the Women’s Championship in 2007. Michelle went on to hold that belt for 105 days, which is 105 days longer than she held the 24/7 Championship.

Before Michelle could even blink, Alundra Blayze/Madusa put her in a submission hold to which Melina declared the title was Blayze’s. After winning, Blayze cut a short promo in which she put it perfectly, noting she wasn’t going to be 24/7 champion for long. Of course, one would think it was in reference to how quickly a title like that changes hands, but no, Blayze had the intent to throw the title in the trash, a callback to the infamous time she did so with the WWF title when leaving for WCW. Blayze was blacklisted for 20 years following that action, only recently finding her way back into WWE’s good graces. As a pioneer of women’s wrestling, Blayze spent time in WWF, WCW and All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, becoming the first foreigner to work for the joshi promotion. In her Hall of Fame career, Blayze is an eight-time champion, including three reigns with the WWF Women’s Championship and one as the WCW World Cruiserweight Champion.

As noted above, Blayze was set to throw the title out but she was stopped by the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase. Wanting to stop Blayze from doing something she might regret, DiBiase, in another callback to when he bought the World Heavyweight Championship from Andre the Giant, offered to buy the championship off of her, because “everyone has a price.” DiBiase pulled out a stack of hundred dollar bills and handed them to Blayze as she handed him the title completing the transaction. DiBiase was the 24/7 Champion. Setting a new record for the longest amount of time between WWE championships (DiBiase’s last belt in WWE came in 1993; his last overall came in 2013), DiBiase’s Hall of Fame career spanned a little under 20 years. In that time, the 65-year-old DiBiase has won 32 titles and purchased two others. He is also known for creating his own championship, the Million Dollar Championship, which at one point was actually held by Stone Cold Steve Austin.

DiBiase almost got away from the arena with the title, but before his limo could drive away, the distinct sound of a hand hitting the ground was heard three times. Holding the ref’s hand as he escaped the limo, Drake Maverick emerged the new 24/7 champion. Prepared to finally be able to celebrate his long-overdue wedding night with his new wife, Maverick was immediately chased down through the halls and into the ring area, right as Mick Foley was in the ring talking about the last time he appeared on Raw, which was to introduce that very title a few months ago. Foley vowed to get his hands on the belt before the night’s end but Bray Wyatt, or rather the Fiend, got his hand’s on Foley first.

Seemingly out of harm’s way and incredibly eager to finally consummate his marriage, Maverick and Michelle were inches away from escape before R-Truth showed up and once again, became the 24/7 Champion, for the 10th time. Truth snuck into the limo, driving away with both the title and Maverick’s wife.

So to recap, the 24/7 Championship, which had been held 20 different times prior to Raw Reunion, changed hands nine times tonight. From R Truth to Drake Maverick to Pat Patterson to Gerald Brisco to Kelly Kelly to Candice Michelle to Alundra Blayze to Ted DiBiase to Drake Maverick and full circle, back to R-Truth.

 

 

 

 

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