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Today WWE is the biggest wrestling company in the world. The company has always amazed their fans with a large amount of action, promos, and high flying moves. Almost every wrestling fan knows that WWE matches are scripted. Matches, promos, interviews, and all other things that we see in WWE are scripted.
Everything is scripted except botched moves, wrestling injuries, or sudden illness. Sometimes the unexpected injury or illness can cause a wrestler to relinquish a title without even being defeated in a match.
Nothing is worse than an unexpected injury to a wrestler who is being given a strong push by the company and is in good momentum. Injury can totally destroy the momentum and take them from the main event scene to the mid-card. It not only destroys momentum but stops the push given by the company.
Here are 3 male WWE Superstars who relinquished their championship belts.
#3 Seth Rollins
In November 2015, Seth Rollins suffered a knee injury at a WWE live event in Dublin, Ireland. He tore his right ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus in a match with Kane which kept him out of wrestling for almost 7 months. Due to injury, Seth Rollins missed WrestleMania 32.
After his injury, Seth relinquished his WWE title which was later won by Roman Reigns at Survivor Series. At Extreme Rules 2016, Seth returned and attacked Roman Reigns after his vicious match with AJ Styles. He later challenged Roman at Money in the Bank where The Architect won, but Dean cashed in his MITB briefcase and pinned Seth Rollins to win his first WWE title.
Currently, Seth is the winner of this year’s Royal Rumble and is going to challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 35.
#2 Finn Balor
Finn Balor got a massive push after his main roster debut. He became the first ever Universal Champion at SummerSlam 2016 by defeating Seth Rollins. However, he suffered a massive shoulder injury at the hands of Seth Rollins when Seth power-bombed him on the barricade.
Finn Balor relinquished his Universal title the next night on Monday Night Raw. The injury kept him out of wrestling for several months. After his return from injury, Finn lost all his momentum, and WWE treated him as a mid-card superstar.
Balor became Intercontinental Champion this year at Elimination Chamber by defeating Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a handicap match.
#1 Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns was the face of the company for many years. He main evented WrestleMania for 4 consecutive years and is also a grand slam champion. He became the Universal Champion by defeating Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2018.
On the 22 October 2018 episode of Monday Night Raw, Roman told the WWE Universe that he had been living with leukemia for 11 years. He also said that since the leukemia was back, he couldn't be a fighting champion anymore, so he had to relinquish the Universal title.
Roman was scheduled to defend his title against Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel 2018, but Lesnar and Strowman fought one on one for the vacant Universal Championship instead.
