5 Most Surprising Pro Wrestling World Champions Of Recent Years

New Japan fans are still trying to wrap their heads around the events of the weekend. Longtime upper midcarder, and LIJ underboss, EVIL won a major two-match parlay, defeating the iconic Kazuchika Okada to win the New Japan Cup on Saturday, before unseating Heavyweight and Intercontinental champion Tetsuya Naito to win both belts at Dominion on Sunday. In between the two bouts, EVIL switched allegiance from LIJ to Bullet Club, and is unquestionably beginning the biggest run of his career.

Fair play to EVIL, but it's a turn of events few would've predicted. As noted, the man was a cornerstone of Los Ingobernobles de Japon, but was never really viewed as the top dog, so seeing it all play out the way it has is quite a shock. It's happened before, the "surprise" World champion - sometimes you get such a title change for shock value, while other times it's a calculated risk to get a new star over. And sometimes, you have a veteran performer breaking through a glass ceiling, long after you'd assumed the door was closed on them.

Wrestling history is filled with such examples, but here are a few from recent years.

New Japan fans are still trying to wrap their heads around the events of the weekend. Longtime upper midcarder, and LIJ underboss, EVIL won a major two-match parlay, defeating the iconic Kazuchika Okada to win the New Japan Cup on Saturday, before unseating Heavyweight and Intercontinental champion Tetsuya Naito to win both belts at Dominion on Sunday. In between the two bouts, EVIL switched allegiance from LIJ to Bullet Club, and is unquestionably beginning the biggest run of his career.

Fair play to EVIL, but it's a turn of events few would've predicted. As noted, the man was a cornerstone of Los Ingobernobles de Japon, but was never really viewed as the top dog, so seeing it all play out the way it has is quite a shock. It's happened before, the "surprise" World champion - sometimes you get such a title change for shock value, while other times it's a calculated risk to get a new star over. And sometimes, you have a veteran performer breaking through a glass ceiling, long after you'd assumed the door was closed on them.

Wrestling history is filled with such examples, but here are a few from recent years.

5. Jinder Mahal (WWE World, 2017)

Fans likened Mahal's flash-quick rise to the main event to JBL's run 13 years earlier - an attempt to turn a career midcarder into a top heel overnight. There was a business side to the decision - WWE was gambling on this Mahal push to boost company viability in India.

It didn't exactly take, sad to say for WWE. Perhaps it was because Mahal was previously too much of an underneath guy to realistically make the leap, and he didn't have JBL's ability to draw heat. It wasn't long after the reign's end that Mahal was back in the middle of the pack.

4. PCO (ROH World, 2019)

The former Quebecer Pierre retired in 2011 at age 43, after a quarter-century as an active wrestler. A gifted heavyweight willing to take copious risks, Pierre had a respectable career, but never rose past a certain level stateside, and his retirement was fairly quiet.

Talk about an unlikely comeback - Carl Ouellet dusted himself off five years later, reinventing himself as PCO, a monster impervious to pain. Raves came in for his renewed work, and ROH saw fit to make him their top champion, weeks before his 52nd birthday.

3. Tessa Blanchard (IMPACT World, 2020)

The rise of women's wrestling in North America aside, it just didn't seem likely that a woman would ever hold a (traditionally) man's World title. There may have been a window for Chyna a generation ago (due to comparable physical standing), but otherwise, it probably wasn't going to happen.

It was this year at the Hard to Kill PPV that IMPACT Wrestling decided to challenge that notion, by having Tessa Blanchard defeat Sami Callihan for their World title. The reign didn't end as the company would've liked, but that's another story.

2. Kofi Kingston (WWE World, 2019)

It was a huge deal when Kingston won the WWE title at WrestleMania 35 last year - the list of African-American World champions in WWE's history (hell, the *industry's* history) is rather paltry. That's why it was a pleasant surprise for so many to see him get that moment.

Going beyond that measure, the reliable Kingston had been with WWE for 11 years and seemed to have gone as far as he was going to go. At the dawn of 2019, he was in year five with The New Day, and "sudden run to the WWE title" didn't seem to be in the cards. Double pleasant surprise.

1. Goldberg (WWE Universal, 2017)

Two decades earlier, "World Champion Bill Goldberg" was no surprise at all. Fast forward to 2016, where a near-50 Goldberg made a brief return to sell a video game, and work a match with Brock Lesnar, before disappearing back into life away from the ring.

The positive ratings and response to Goldberg's comeback led to WWE changing plans, and convincing him to stick around through WrestleMania 33. En route, he squashed Kevin Owens to win the Universal title. Four months earlier, Goldberg was positioned for a one-and-done. How things change.