Kevin Nash, who wrestled as Diesel in WWE, didn’t have the most spectacular run with the WWE Championship.
The Hall of Famer won the title in an eight-second squash match against Bob Backlund in 1994 and lost the title to Bret Hart at Survivor Series the following year. Despite his size, Nash’s title reign isn’t as regarded as many others during his time, and he would later find tremendous success after leaving the company thanks to his participation in The New World Order in WCW. In many ways, Nash’s WWE title reign, despite its length, is considered by some to be an afterthought.
One aspect of the reign that’s often forgotten is that Nash promised a title match to Bret right after winning it. The match occurred at the Royal Rumble and ended in a draw thanks to outside interference.
On the latest edition of the Kliq This Podcast, Nash drew comparisons to his reign as champion to that of AEW’s Hangman Adam Page.
“I always like to watch how people handle, when they make somebody champion for the first time and that Hangman [Adam Page] became a champion for AEW. I see where they’re going to have Bryan Danielson fight him … They went like f*cking a draw and I said, ‘Ooh. Royal Rumble. That f*cking match I had with Bret 29 run-ins’. It’s like, my first f*cking title defense is a f*cking draw. Like, wow. Way to put the f*cking bank behind me.”
Page became AEW World Champion right around the time AEW was signing prominent ex-WWE names such as Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson. One of Page’s major tests was against Danielson, who wrestled Page on two separate occasions for the title. Their first encounter took place at the Winter Is Coming event last year. The match ended in a 60-minute time limit draw, leading to a rematch a few weeks later.
Page’s title reign lasted for 197 days. He lost the title to CM Punk at Double or Nothing, who was then forced to relinquish it temporarily due to a foot injury. At AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, Jon Moxley became Interim World Champion and has recently defended it on Dynamite.
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