The history of wrestlers refusing to lose matches often featured a title involved as part of the story. Many wrestlers felt it would be better to flat out refuse to lose the gold via the promotion’s pitched ideas. Creative is always subjective, but one constant is that wrestlers will be most loyal to themselves when making such a bold move.

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Various reasons caused the talents involved to draw a line in the sand since wrestling politics are part of the game. Legends like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan found their way into these stories. Each scenario will be viewed in depth to see what caused every individual wrestler to get in this predicament. The following names refused to drop belts for these reasons.

10 Bret Hart: Hatred Of Shawn Michaels

One of the most high-profile stories of a wrestler refusing to lose a belt set up the infamous Montreal Screwjob. Bret Hart agreed to end his 20-year WWE contract after about a year due to Vince McMahon regretting the financial cost and wanting to get out of the deal.

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WWE gave Bret creative control over how he left, and he made it clear he refused to lose to Shawn Michaels after all their bad blood. Hart felt it would be humiliating to lose to someone that disrespected him in his final match that happened to take place in Canada of all peoples. Vince lied to Bret and orchestrated the Screwjob finish for a wild end.

9 Shawn Michaels: Hatred Of Bret Hart/Phony Retirement

Another reason for the tension between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels came earlier when Michaels also didn’t want to lose to Hart. WrestleMania 13 was initially meant to have a main event rematch of the previous year with Bret getting his win back over HBK.

Michaels had his controversial retirement come just a month before the show by vacating the belt and claiming he “lost his smile” as the reason for retiring. Hart and many other WWE wrestlers were livid since this was considered a new low. Michaels didn’t want to drop the belt to Bret after their issues started and opted to have a short-lived retirement instead.

8 Tessa Blanchard: Refused To Travel During Pandemic Without New Contract

Controversy followed Tessa Blanchard’s Impact World Championship from start to finish. Impact did a great job setting up Tessa’s historic moment as the first woman to win that belt. However, things fell apart that same day when other women in the wrestling world accused Blanchard of being a bully and making racist comments to others backstage in the past.

Tessa tried to deny this, but the public looked down on her and Impact for that. More issues came during Blanchard’s title reign when the pandemic shut down most businesses. Impact wanted Tessa back when they started running shows again, but her contract expired. Blanchard didn’t travel to the show without a new deal and vacated the belt.

7 Ric Flair: Issues With Jim Herd

Ric Flair leaving WCW for WWE in the early 1990s was arguably the biggest shock of talents switching companies before Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage joined WCW years later. Jim Herd gaining power in WCW led to him rubbing Flair the wrong way with bad ideas and trying to faze him out.

Flair was still the WCW Champion and turned down ideas to lose the belt after being disrespected. The names and stories pitched to Flair didn’t impress him, and he opted to make things personal. Flair left with the big gold belt and even showed it on WWE TV after refusing to drop it in WCW.

6 Hulk Hogan In WWE: Felt Losing To Bret Hart Would Make Him Look Weak

There is no valid list of wrestlers making selfish demands without bringing up Hulk Hogan. WWE wanted Hogan to put over Bret Hart in a face vs face match before he left the company in 1993 since they were making Bret the next face of the company.

However, Hogan always cared about protecting himself in defeat and not wanting to look weak. Hart being a smaller wrestler than the giants of the time and just getting pushed up from mid-card made Hogan feel he was too weak to dethrone. Hogan instead lost the belt to Yokozuna via outside interference keeping him strong.

5 Hulk Hogan In WCW: Didn't Trust Vince Russo

WCW found themselves in the same situation as WWE when Hulk Hogan didn’t want to drop the world title in what was ultimately his final match in the company. Vince Russo wanted Hogan to lose the WCW Championship to Jeff Jarrett and even booked a lot of outside interference to protect Hulk.

RELATED: 10 WCW Wrestlers Who Were Backstage Politicians

Hogan flat out refused and felt that he didn’t trust Russo’s booking after being burned with previous plans failing. The backstage political dynamic of WCW saw Hogan and Eric Bischoff forcing Russo’s hand to change plans and caused the whole fiasco of Hogan suing Russo after his shoot promo.

4 Bob Backlund: Didn't View Hulk Hogan As Real Athlete

A funny twist about Hulk Hogan refusing to lose a belt to certain talents is that the same thing happened to him. WWE wanted to make Hogan the new face of the company after Bob Backlund, but Backlund flat out refused to lose to Hulk.

The belief of Backlund was that only wrestlers that had real athletic backgrounds should be the top champ and felt Hogan didn’t fit that. WWE had to pivot towards Backlund dropping the gold to Iron Shiek. Hogan would dethrone Iron Shiek after a transitional reign to become WWE Champion and move forward with the push.

3 Rey Mysterio: Wanted Longer Reign After Big Moment Winning Intercontinental Title

One of the more unlikely instances of someone refusing to lose a belt saw Rey Mysterio shutting down WWE’s plans for him to lose the Intercontinental Championship to Dolph Ziggler. Many fans were shocked to read these reports since Mysterio was among the most unselfish wrestlers ever.

Rey was coming off an incredible feud with Chris Jericho that won him the belt and made it feel more important than it had been in years. The belief of Mysterio was that he deserved a longer reign than just dropping it one PPV later. Unfortunately, Rey violated the wellness policy a month later and still had to lose the belt to John Morrison.

2 Brock Lesnar: Insurance Policy For Upfront Payments

New Japan started working with Brock Lesnar after he left WWE and saw his NFL dreams failing. Brock clearly loves having leverage and calling his own shots as seen by his entire career. NJPW not paying Lesnar his full pay upfront was something he disliked about the promotion.

Brock winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship saw him utilizing it as an insurance policy. NJPW wanted Lesnar to lose the belt to Shinsuke Nakamura, but he refused since it was a way to keep his leverage. More tension and Visa issues led to NJPW just vacating the belt even though Brock defended it in other Japanese promotions.

1 Chyna: Didn't Want To Lose To Another Woman

WWE recognized that Lita was going to become a major star for them all the way back in 2000. Lita had her first huge program challenging Chyna for the Women’s Championship. WWE wanted Lita to get the massive win here to start her in-ring push with the biggest possible victory.

Chyna changed those plans since she already felt she was above the women’s division after winning a male title and beating some of the top stars. WWE realized Chyna was not going to lose cleanly to Lita and instead had her retain the gold. The two showing respect after the match was done to try to give Lita something from the loss.