10 Real Life Events That Forced WWE Title Changes (1)

1. Kurt Angle Wins WWE Title At Unforgiven 2001 Because Of 9/11

September 11, 2001 is a very famous date for reasons that all of us wish we could forget. When two planes flew into the two buildings at World Trade Center in New York City and approximately 3,000 people died due to the attacks, it sent shockwaves around the world. People started to live in fear with good reason. We had no idea if something like that could or would happen again. We also had a tough time returning back to our “normal” lives whatever that meant.
In WWE, they had a Smackdown taping the night of Tuesday September 11th that they postponed until that Thursday when they aired a live special edition of Smackdown. It was a show where we saw superstars in tears as they honored America and did their best to entertain. That show wasn’t about storylines. It was about trying to cheer people up.
When WWE held their Unforgiven event in Pittsburgh on September 23, 2001, the heel WWE Champion Steve Austin defended against the babyface challenger (and Pittsburgh native) Kurt Angle. They had a very good match like they always did with Angle winning by making Austin tap out to the ankle lock.
It was a clean win although when Austin tapped out, his other hand was under the bottom rope as a way to create a rematch. Seeing Austin tap out was very rare. Two weeks later on Raw, Austin won the WWE Title back from Angle, which meant that Angle had one of the shortest WWE Title reigns ever.
It’s hard to know if WWE would have put the WWE Title on Angle considering he only had a 15 day title reign. What was the point of it? He was booked an American Olympic hero so it was a feel good moment to see him celebrating with the WWE Title just 12 days after 9/11 happened. It was also in his hometown, so that helped the moment too.