Best Of 2019: Surprise Of The Year
Daniel Bryan Turns Heel
This would fall under the “SERIOUSLY???” category on paper, as Bryan is the biggest face since John Cena’s initial push. Armed with the amazing YES chant, there’s a reason why Bryan got pushed to the moon and back in 2014. The idea of having the fans book him sounded ridiculous, yet WWE not only went there, but made it work rather well. The explanation made sense and Bryan is NAILING the new character.
It’s proof that you can indeed turn someone back the other way no matter how good or bad they are. Bryan was the cleanest, most natural face ever and now he’s this hippie environmentalist who you want to see get hit in the face. That’s a hard character to pull off and yet Bryan is doing it incredibly well. I couldn’t believe that WWE would pull the trigger on this, let alone have it hit the target.
Shawn Michaels Returns To The Ring
This one ties into the winner, but there’s something here that holds it back: I believed it could happen one day. Shawn retired back in 2010 and there was little reason to believe that he would ever come back. His retirement match was great and it came on the grandest stage of them all, so why would he do it again? Well when your best friend runs the company and the paychecks became what they were, you had to believe he could one day.
And then he actually did. While I didn’t believe I’d ever see it, I wasn’t actually shocked when it happened. It was in a tag match though, which is the kind of match he had mentioned wanting to return for. Yeah the match was bad, but it’s not like it meant anything at the end of the day. It’s going to be little more than a footnote in the history books, but there was always a glimmer that it could happen.
But that’s not true with the winner.
Daniel Bryan Returns To The Ring
I didn’t believe it. I did not believe that this was going to happen and I didn’t think there was any chance of it ever happening. And yet, somehow it did. Over the years, Bryan talked about going to one doctor after another and getting good reports, but not good enough for WWE. That sounded like the kind of thing where WWE would never say yes….and then they freaking said yes.
I can’t believe that Bryan actually got back into the ring because there was no reason to believe it other than Bryan saying it could happen. That’s what the kid in Angels In The Outfield kept saying and this is no whimsical Disney comedy featuring Tony Danza. It’s something I never thought I would actually see and yet it’s been better than….well I can’t say expected because I didn’t have expectations. This was the surprise of the year, because I don’t believe what I saw.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:
https://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/
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I would have bet money that Daniel Bryan’s return won this.
LOL! Just saw that there was a page 2!! Disregard!
Yeah I need to stop doing those.
Finisher Of The Year, again?
What’s with this pages thing? Not a fan. I like how everything with you is usually on one page. I almost didn’t click on the second page because I thought this was an ad hidden as content due to it.
Just something I was trying. I’ll drop them.
I stopped looking at Whatculture a long time ago due to this. They had ads upon ads and you have to click for each page. Couldn’t stand it. I love your format. Ads that aren’t annoying. Everything is on one page. Straightforward. No clickbait.
Yeah I wasn’t wild on it but someone mentioned it was an easy way to make the revenue go up. That….hasn’t really been the case yet so it’s not worth it if people don’t like it.