A handful of WWE Superstars appeared at the Fox Sports studio on Saturday as part of the network’s Founder’s Day event, and the WWE 24/7 Championship wound up changing hands three times in a matter of hours.
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The first change saw R-Truth roll-up Elias during his on-stage performance, resulting in his 13th reign with the title. He then ran around the event while avoiding Drake Maverick, and wound up inside the studio.
He then bumped into the network’s team of college football analysts — Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn, Reggie Bush and Rob Stone — and more shenanigans ensued.
Truth attempted to leave but accidentally tripped and bumped his head. Stone then jumped on top of him and a referee suddenly appeared to make a three-count.
Stone’s celebration was cut short when Elias popped up behind him and rolled him up for a pin.
Even though his reign was short, Stone did not hesitate to gloat on social media.
My wife went to bed with a #247Champion last night. Need any pointers @WWEMaverick ? pic.twitter.com/xMyiVScDNt
— Rob Stone (@RobStoneONFOX) August 24, 2019
Stone’s win marks the first-time a non-wrestler has won the championship, which has been held by 20 people (if you count The Revival’s co-reign as two) since it debuted back in May.
Truth still dominates the title’s record books with 61 combined days as champion across 3 reigns. Maverick and Elias are both tied with four reigns and Maria Kanellis (the first pregnant champion), is the only other person to hold the title for more than a full day. Other former champions include Titus O’Neil (the first champ), Ted DiBiase, Kelly Kelly, Heath Slate, EC3, Cedric Alexander, Alundra Blayze and Jinder Mahal.
WWE’s involvement at the network event was most likely to help promote SmackDown’s move to FOX starting on Oct. 4. Triple H confirmed back in April that the company is also looking to a launch a weekly studio show over on FS1.
“It’s something that I’ve wanted to have happen for a long time,” Hunter said during an interview. “I think this is the perfect opportunity for a studio show for us, because of the sports entertainment aspect of it, it’s an endless show where you’re talking about the athletic component of it, an entertainment [show] where you’re talking about where things are going and the storylines and the characters and all of it.
“This is going to be one of those shows where if you are a WWE fan, across the board, this is the show that will be can’t miss because it’s going talk about everything you love in a way that you can’t get any place else,” he continued.
