Title wins can - and often do unless it's a foregone conclusion - often surprise us wrestling fans when they happen, and often for different reasons. For some, it's because a wrestler(s) have have a title when the booking, and even some mental dread we as wrestling fans have been conditioned to feel due to years of often shoddy booking by a certain despicable waste of human existence named Vincent Kennedy McMahon.

Some title wins annoy us for whatever reason, and some can make us happy and smile, or just be thankful that something good has happened for a certain wrestler, and then there's the surprising title wins, and the many forms of surprising title wins, depending on the person.

And here today, with this chapter, you'll be seeing what 10 title wins surprised me the most in a positive way this year. What title wins surprised you in a positive way in 2024? Feel free to let me know, if you wish. :) Apart from that, enjoy!

#10: Candice LeRae - WWE Women's Speed Championship:

If you had told me that Candice LeRae was going to win a singles title in 2024, let alone become the inaugural holder of a new title in WWE, I'd have been hopeful that it would happen, but slightly sceptical that would happen in WWE, even with Triple H running the show, unless she went back to NXT. The indies, I could absolutely have seen that happen.

So you can imagine my surprise when I came across a post on facebook one evening, and saw a picture of Candice LeRae as the inaugural WWE Speed Women's Champion (4 days before the match would be streamed on whatever social media platform it was shown on that I don't really use...No joke on that front by the way...). 

I was genuinely surprised to find that out, since I had thought that either Iyo Sky or Kairi Sane would have become the inaugural champion, so to see a complete dark horse in LeRae coming along to win the Speed Women's Championship was rather a pleasant surprise. Shame she's not appeared on Raw or Smackdown with the title mind you, even if it has been mentioned that she was the champ.

#9: "The Motor City Machine Guns" Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin - WWE Tag Team Championships:

If you had told me a year or two ago that "The Motor City Machine Guns" would turn up in WWE, I might have been a little sceptical but I could see it happen. If you had told me that they would turn up in WWE and win tag team championship gold within weeks of making their debut? Definitely wouldn't have believed you!

And yet, that's exactly what happened late this year when Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin challenged for and won the WWE Tag Team Championships 2 weeks into their WWE tenure, in what was only their third match on the main roster! 

And you want to know what made this so much more surprising for me personally? I was just waking up and checking my phone at the time of me finding out, and the first clip I see on YouTube as I got my phone up and running was of "The Motor City Machine Guns" winning the tag team championships, so it fully woke me up with quite the start to see that, especially given I'm a TNA/Impact Wrestling fan.

Loved this surprise, loved the result that came from "MCMG" challenging "The Bloodline 2.0" for the belts a week early, and I especially loved this out-of-nowhere booking decision. Everything here, for me at least, worked on all cylinders.

#8: "#DIY" Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa - WWE Tag Team Championships:

Not only did this title win surprise me, but it also made me smile too at seeing Ciampa and Gargano finally winning a title on the main roster after a couple of years of not the strongest booking on the main roster - especially in Gargano's case.

Really my only real gripe that I have with the title reign is that it ended so soon after it started: With Gargano and Ciampa losing the titles to Tama Tanga and Jacob Fatu just 28 days after winning the titles from "A-Town-Down-Under".

December 7th 2024 Edit: Quick disclaimer here, I wrote this down and had this list planned out before "DIY" turned heel and won the tag titles again on the December 6th 2024 episode of SmackDown. To be honest, that would have been a potential candidate for me for this list too, if not then on the honourable mentions...If I did one...

#7: Kazuchika Okada - AEW Continental Championship:

Another example of a promotion putting a title on the shoulders of a recently debuted wrestler 2 weeks after their official debut: Kazuchika Okada's winning of the AEW Continental Championship just 2 weeks after debuting on AEW as a new member of "The Elite" helped - in my opinion - give a spark of surprise and the slightly unexpected in a year that, to be fair and with the power of hindsight, has not been kind to AEW.

Now I'm not going to pretend like I wasn't expecting Okada to win a title so soon after his debut and after joining "The Young Bucks", far from it in fact...however, I can safely say that I didn't expect the title win to come only a fortnight after Okada's debut, or on a random episode of Dynamite for that matter. 

And to be fair, that's not a bad thing at all, I actually liked that they were pushing Okada to win a title so quickly, and I think in the grand scheme of things it actually worked out for the better in Okada's case that they just got straight to it so quickly. Though it is because of that that Okada's title win - as surprising as it was by how quick it was for him to win a title - is at #7 on the list. 

#6: Ethan Page - NXT Championship:

Let's be honest with ourselves here: I don't think any of us at the time believed that Ethan Page was going to win the NXT Championship from Trick Willaims, especially so soon after debuting for NXT, and given that Trick hadn't held the NXT Championship for that long at that point.

So when Ethan Page won the NXT Championship, essentially by luck and great timing...I was genuinely speechless about it.

I would have bet that his former "The North" tag partner, Josh Alexander, would have won the NXT Championship during the TNA-NXT partnership before Page had won it, or that Shawn Spears would have won the title in the match that saw Page win it instead of Ethan, but it was a very pleasant and out-of-nowhere booking decision and result that I can't stop respecting such a moment.

#5: Jon Moxley - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship:

If you had told me that Moxley was going to challenge for and win a Heavyweight title in New Japan, I would have believed that he would have done both in either 2019 or 2020 in his first year away from WWE. 

So when I heard that he was challenging Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship this year, one of my first thoughts was that he was probably just going to be a strong defence for Naito to win over. I didn't think it would be impossible, but I didn't think it would be likely that Mox would beat Naito for the title whilst under contract with AEW.

Turns out I was wrong and then some, and when I read about Moxley winning the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, I did a double-take at first, and then smirked a bit. And, to be fair, the title looked really good with Moxley, and he had a solid enough title reign too.

Shame he didn't to defend the title more often on AEW, but it was a nice surprise regardless.

#4: "The Hardy's" Jeff and Matt Hardy - TNA World Tag Team Championships:

I think it's safe to say that, sadly, the last few years have not been overly kind to "The Hardys" Jeff and Matt Hardy, and that has, for the most part, really made me become rather concerned for them whenever they are doing anything in wrestling lately, and that's because I adore The Hardy's. I've been a fan of theirs for over a decade at this point, and I don't want anything bad to happen to them, you know...?

That's what makes me reading the news of "The Hardys" winning the TNA World Tag Team Championships for the 3rd time at Bound For Glory 2024 such a really pleasant surprise for me, because at the end of the day: It warms my heart that they've been able to win another tag title in a company that, for now at least, seems to be treating them well and playing to their strengths once more.

I get if this title win wouldn't be on your list, but I felt it was worth mentioning. :) 

#3: Zack Sabre Jr. - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship:

FINALLY!!! After so long, ZSJ has won a World title in New Japan!

Fun fact: That's how I reacted when I saw a post about his title win. It's a shame that it took so long for Zack to win a Heavyweight title in New Japan that wasn't the RevPro British Heavyweight title. Would it have been cool to see it happen at Wrestle Kingdom? Yeah, but honestly I can overlook it and smile at the win all the same.

Here's hoping that Zack Sabre Jr. can have a long run with the title.

#2: Nia Jax - WWE Women's Championship:

Quick question to everyone: Did anyone else think that Bayley was going to retain the Women's Championship at Summerslam like I did? Or am I just being mad here? Because finding out that Nia Jax went and won her 2nd Women's Championship at Summerslam from Bayley took me by surprise. It wasn't even a thought to me in the back of my mind that Jax would win the title from Bayley, but you know what? I can't say I'm mad at the decision looking back on it. Hell, I don't think I was mad at it when I first heard about it, and I'm a big Bayley fan.

I have to say though, she's certainly had a pretty good run - at least in my opinion - with the title since winning it, and Jax working with/teaming up with Miss Money In The Bank herself, Tiffany Stratton, has been rather funny and interesting to see play out. Will this lead to Stratton cashing in on Jax eventually? I'd be up for that for sure.

#1: Jey Uso - WWE Intercontinental Championship:

For me, there was no doubts in my mind what surprisingly positive title win would get the #1 spot for this list, and that's because it's a title change that came completely out of nowhere, when nobody - or at the very least very few people - assumed that Jey would the title, and would have probably been a routine defence for Bron Breakker. So, to see WWE go in completely the opposite direction and give Jey Uso a long overdue singles title win after 14 years on the main roster...it's just wonderful to see honestly.

And even though I may not be the biggest fan of the whole "Yeet!" chant - I do find it funny at times, but not always - I have to confess that even I ended up doing the "Yeet!" thing the Tuesday after the title win, since I saw the title win on YouTube the next day when I was at work. So for that reason, even if it's not the only one, that's why I'm putting this title win at the #1 spot. Though what's your #1 entry?