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WWE Clash in Paris: Last Three Times a World Title Changed Hands in a Multi-Man Match

Paris, France, the site of Seth Rollins’ upcoming title defense - Source: Unsplash

Following Seth “Freakin’” Rollins' iconic "Ruse of the Century" Money in the Bank cash-in at MetLife Stadium back at SummerSlam, the architect and master manipulator has now become the hunted. At WWE Clash in Paris, the Visionary will make the first Premium Live Event defence of the World Heavyweight Championship he claimed shockingly from CM Punk, and he does so as a marked man. 

Seth Rollins Must Run the Gauntlet to Defend His World Heavyweight Title 

Four men, one prize. The World Heavyweight Title—currently clasped in Rollins’ iron grip—will be up for grabs in a fatal four-way that arrives steeped in a web of grudges on Monday Night Raw. CM Punk, the infuriating disruptor hungry for vindication. LA Knight, the ascendant star whose charisma never dims, eager to seize his first world title. Jey Uso, carrying generational fire and a new mission to return to the top of the mountain. And Rollins, ever the chessmaster… but in a match where even kings fall, will guile be enough?

Earlier this year, each of these men was involved in the Royal Rumble match, a match that would see online betting odds from the likes of Bovada flipped on their head. Back in February, the Bovada website had Jey Uso listed as a whopping +3000 outsider to win the 30-man over the top rope extravaganza, and he duly flipped the script. Heading into Paris, he will be the outsider again as Rollins is the firm favorite to defend his strap and remain the man to beat. 

In recent years, WWE has rekindled the urge to pull the trigger on a title change in a multiman matchup. You have to go back over three years for the last world title change in such a contest, and there have only been three such changes in the last half a decade. Here, we have outlined each of them. 

February 2022: Lesnar’s Carnage in the Elimination Chamber

WWE’s Elimination Chamber is part pressure cooker, part meat grinder—and in 2022, it delivered a masterclass. Bobby Lashley arrived as champion, bruised from a Roman Reigns-aided victory over Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. The Beast Incarnate was gunning for redemption, while Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Riddle, and Theory all harbored outside hopes of leaving the Chamber with the title in tow. 

What transpired next remains one of the most clinical displays of domination in recent memory, all underscored by the cruel randomness of the Chamber. Lashley, blindsided early and deemed unable to continue, was carted out by officials, his reign derailed not by pinfall but by circumstance. 

Sensing opportunity, Lesnar pounced, bursting out of his pod ahead of schedule and destroying everyone in sight. F-5s cascaded, opponents swept aside, and in a final act of near cartoonish brutality, Lesnar launched Theory off the pod to crown himself champion. 

Following the triumph, Lesnar would embark upon a collision course with Universal Champion Roman Reigns, with the two going head-to-head in the main event of WrestleMania 38 with both of their titles on the line in a winner-takes-all match. Unfortunately for the Beast, it was Reigns who would come out on top in somewhat of a lackluster display, unifying his Universal title with his newly claimed WWE gold. 

January 2022: Day 1 and the Five-Way Coup

What’s often forgotten about Day 1, 2022, isn’t only that the WWE title changed hands—it’s how the change was born. With mere hours’ notice, Roman Reigns was ruled out by illness, catapulting Brock Lesnar into the planned four-way WWE Championship match and transforming it into the most chaotic fatal five-way in recent memory.

For defending champion Big E, this was a cruel roll of the dice. He stood tall in a field already rife with killers—Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Bobby Lashley—and suddenly found himself staring down Lesnar, a man with a well-documented history of tilting the championship landscape.

The match exploded with violence. Lashley looked to reassert his own dominance; Rollins and Owens formed fleeting alliances; Big E fought valiantly as always. Yet, in just under ten minutes, Lesnar battered and F-5’d his way to another era—snatching victory after countering Big E’s Big Ending for a clean pinfall that sent shockwaves through the wrestling world.

Lesnar’s grip on the title lasted only until the Royal Rumble, when Lashley snatched it back with help from a lurking Roman Reigns. Still, that single moment at Day 1 became a microcosm of the genre: the best-laid plans upended, dreams dashed, and the “Beast” unchained in a bout most pundits still label one of the company’s wildest pivots.

August 2020: “Tribal Chief” Reigns Seizes Universal Gold at Payback

Rollins may claim “vision,” but there was no bolder strategist than Roman Reigns in 2020. After months away and a heel turn punctuated by a surprise Paul Heyman alliance, Reigns wasted no time crashing the Universal title scene. At Payback, “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman battered one another in a no-holds-barred triple threat, but the real story lurked in the shadows.

Reigns, milking the rules, held off signing his contract to feature in the match until both Wyatt and Strowman were physically wrecked—culminating in a superplex so violent it collapsed the ring itself. Seizing his window, Reigns finally joined, low-blowed The Fiend, and finished off Strowman with a spear. While fans were somewhat underwhelmed at the time, they had just witnessed arguably the most pivotal championship change of the modern era. 

Reigns' title win ignited his now-legendary 1,316-day reign as the Head of the Table. Across the next three and a half years, he would build his Bloodline stable alongside cousins The Usos as well as rookie Solo Sikoa, and defeat all comers. Names like Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Goldberg, and Daniel Bryan - among many, many more - were all put down by the Tribal Chief as he embarked upon the fourth-longest world title reign in company history. 

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