{"id":147790,"date":"2025-12-05T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=147790"},"modified":"2025-12-04T18:58:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:58:52","slug":"5-notable-champions-in-wwe-who-lost-their-title-in-their-first-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/05\/5-notable-champions-in-wwe-who-lost-their-title-in-their-first-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Notable Champions in WWE Who Lost Their Title in Their First Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WWE has featured many championships throughout its history. Winning a title is a significant milestone in any wrestler&#8217;s career, as it signifies that WWE has confidence in the performer&#8217;s ability to hold the prize. Typically, when a wrestler wins a championship for the first time, they enjoy an extended reign filled with successful title defenses that help establish their credibility as a champion.<\/p>\n<p>However, not every title reign follows this ideal trajectory, as some wrestlers lose their championship in their very first defense. While some quick title changes make sense due to the story, they often completely derail the momentum of the wrestler. Let&#8217;s take a look at 5 such instances where a champion lost their belt without a successful title defense.<\/p>\n<h2>5. John Cena (Intercontinental Championship)<\/h2>\n<p>Throughout his legendary WWE career, the Intercontinental Championship remained the one major title that eluded John Cena. That changed during his 2025 retirement tour recently, when Cena captured the IC Title from Dominik Mysterio in an impromptu match on Monday Night Raw, finally becoming a Grand Slam Champion. With only two premium live events remaining on his farewell tour, it was clear Cena&#8217;s reign would be brief.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">LIV MORGAN IS BACK!!! \ud83d\ude31 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IoRQ9bQjz0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/IoRQ9bQjz0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WWE (@WWE) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1994943176558121106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Fans believed Cena would hold the belt until his final match, but WWE had other plans. At Survivor Series, Cena defended the Intercontinental Title in a rematch against Dominik, which was his first and only title defense. With the help of a returning Liv Morgan, Dominik managed to defeat Cena, ending his title reign just 18 days later.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>4. Kane (WWE Championship)<\/h2>\n<p>When Kane made his explosive debut in October 1997, The Big Red Monster instantly became one of WWE&#8217;s hottest stars. His immediate impact fast-tracked him to main event status, resulting in him winning the WWE Championship against &#8220;Stone Cold&#8221; Steve Austin in a First Blood match at King of the Ring 1998.<\/p>\n<p>However, Kane&#8217;s reign as WWE Champion proved remarkably short-lived. Just 24 hours after capturing the title, he lost it back to Austin on the following Monday Night Raw. Kane would have a decent run as the World Heavyweight Champion later in his career, but this was the only time he was the WWE Champion.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FULL MATCH: Kane vs. &quot;Stone Cold&quot; Steve Austin \u2013 WWE Title Match: Raw, June 29, 1998\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/izvVZIreC4k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>3. Jeff Hardy (WWE Championship)<\/h2>\n<p>After years of success as a tag team specialist alongside his brother Matt Hardy and a decorated mid-card performer, Jeff Hardy&#8217;s immense popularity with the fans finally earned him a main event opportunity. WWE finally pulled the trigger in late 2008, when The Charismatic Enigma won the WWE Championship in a triple threat match against Edge and Triple H at Armageddon 2008.<\/p>\n<p>It was a great moment and is widely considered as one of the best underdog title wins in WWE history. However, as memorable as the title win was, the reign proved far less memorable. Jeff Hardy lost the championship in his first defense at Royal Rumble 2009 against Edge, ending his WWE Title reign without a successful title defense.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>2. Randy Orton (United States Championship)<\/h2>\n<p>Similar to his long-time rival John Cena, Randy Orton had captured nearly every major championship throughout his WWE career, with one exception being the United States Title. In 2018, The Viper finally achieved this milestone by defeating Bobby Roode at Fastlane, claiming the US Championship for the first time and becoming a Grand Slam Champion.<\/p>\n<p>However, just like Cena, Orton&#8217;s reign didn&#8217;t last long either. Just a month later at WrestleMania 34, Orton lost the United States Championship in his first title defense to Jinder Mahal in a Fatal 4-Way match that also featured Bobby Roode and Rusev. Since then, he hasn&#8217;t recaptured the gold, and it is highly unlikely he&#8217;d win it again.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Randy Orton hits RKOs on English, Rusev and Mahal: WrestleMania 34 (WWE Network Exclusive)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pTbb8fZUN8A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>1. Goldberg (Universal Championship)<\/h2>\n<p>When Goldberg made his WWE return in 2016, no one expected him to win a championship. Yet at Fastlane 2017, just months after his comeback, Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens to win the Universal Championship. The reign existed purely to set up the rematch with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33, where Goldberg lost the title without ever successfully defending it.<\/p>\n<p>Three years later, Goldberg would win the Universal Championship again in a similar fashion, against &#8220;The Fiend&#8221; Bray Wyatt at Super ShowDown 2020, to set up a match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 36. However, Reigns withdrew from the event due to health concerns and was replaced by Braun Strowman. With Goldberg scheduled to depart after WrestleMania, WWE had no choice but to put the title on Strowman, ending Goldberg&#8217;s title reign once again without a successful defense.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Header photo \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:WWE_Raw_IMG_5396_(13772790825).jpg#\/media\/File:WWE_Raw_IMG_5396_(13772790825).jpg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a> \u2013 Stay tuned to the <\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><em><u><i>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0for more on John Cena and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/tubitv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aetv.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>A&amp;E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/events\/1773457579022155776?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WWE has featured many championships throughout its history. Winning a title is a significant milestone in any wrestler&#8217;s career, as it signifies that WWE has confidence in the performer&#8217;s ability to hold the prize. Typically, when a wrestler wins a championship for the first time, they enjoy an extended reign filled with successful title defenses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5707,"featured_media":147844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7205,2192,3],"tags":[430],"class_list":["post-147790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe-universe","tag-wwe-championship"],"modified_by":"Laci Schlatz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147790"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147846,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147790\/revisions\/147846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}