Best Of 2010s: Surprise Of The Decade
IMG Credit: WWE
If you’re reading this, odds are you’re a bigger than average wrestling fan. We spend a lot of time talking about this stuff and you get to the point where you can guess quite a bit of what is about to happen on almost any given show. That being said, everyone gets something wrong every now and then and that’s what we’re looking at today. Some of these are outstanding and among the best ever, which is why they’re on such a list.
Honorable Mentions
AEW – I know they had a big fan base, but who in the world would have seen them getting this far this fast? I was surprised and keep being surprised by what they do. Maybe it can’t last, but for now they’re doing incredibly well.
Brock Lesnar Returns (2012) – Ok so it wasn’t exactly shocking as there were a bunch of signs about him in the crowd, but it was hard to imagine it would actually happen. The reaction from the crowd makes this work so much better, but it was impossible to imagine what it would turn into.
Seth Rollins Cashes In Money In The Bank At Wrestlemania – Everyone talks about doing this, but Rollins actually did it. If nothing else, it was surprising to see WWE come up with a way to get themselves out of a corner.
THEY Are Here Again
This is one you might not remember but back in 2010, the big story in TNA was the rise of Immortal, which came together as part of a big conspiracy involving Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Jeff Hardy among others. After THEY arrived and everything was revealed at Bound For Glory, a few weeks later came an episode called THEY Are Here Again.
It turned out that Fourtune, a subgroup of Immortal, turned on Immortal and had been hinting that they would for weeks. This COMPLETELY got me, to the point where I actually left my house and went for a walk around the block because I was so stunned. That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t happen to me very often but sweet goodness they got me on this one and it was a really fun feeling.
Rock Returns – Raw – February 14, 2011
Much like the Lesnar deal, it’s one of those things where you can imagine it happening but it’s still a shock when it actually goes down. Rock had become a huge movie star (and would become a bigger one) and it was a major favor for him to come back to WWE. He doesn’t need the place but wound up getting into one of the biggest feuds of the modern era and even winning the WWE Title again.
It came at a weird time for WWE but what mattered was that it actually happened. Rock is someone who was an actual game changer for WWE when he was just a wrestler so seeing him at this point in his career made it a much bigger deal than it ever could have been during his career. Hearing that music hit was special though, especially when Justin Bieber had been rumored.
AJ Styles In WWE
One of the biggest regrets about TNA…well existing really is seeing how many of the people who had been loyal to it over the years not getting to spend the primes of their careers in WWE. AJ is near the top of that list and while he’s great now as the still amazing veteran, it isn’t the same as what it could have been when he was still the Phenomenal One. I was very pleased when he finally showed up in Orlando for the Royal Rumble and the execution was great.
Well it would have been great had they not had the camera on Roman Reigns because IT MUST BE ABOUT REIGNS. Styles would take a little time to find his footing but as usual, the natural talent a wrestler has will bring them up to the next level. That and one of the finest heads of hair that a wrestler has ever seen.
The Streak….Is Over
I was in the SuperDome for this one and I actually couldn’t speak. After the three count went down, I sat there in silence for a little while, while grown men were crying, with some people leaving and not coming back. This was one of those things that you never thought you would see, but there was something that keeps it from being all the way at the top of the list.
When you think about it, Lesnar beating Undertaker makes sense. By this point, Undertaker was wrestling once a year and was old and broken down. How believable is it that he could beat the Beast? The more I think about it, the more I can almost maybe kind of sort of be the slightest bit ok with it….and then I realize that the Streak is over and it bugs me again. It’s a shocking moment, and rather sad at the same time.
That leaves the winner, with a familiar name.
Brock Lesnar Conquers John Cena
You can guess a lot of things that are going to happen in wrestling. It wasn’t shocking to see Brock Lesnar beat John Cena and win the WWE Championship, but not in the way that he did. Lesnar annihilated Cena, who got in a tiny handful of offense throughout the match as Lesnar suplexed him over and over again. At the end it was Lesnar standing over the fallen superhero and things changed in a hurry.
The moment that got me in this match was right at the beginning when Lesnar hit an F5 in ten seconds. It was a near fall, but I was shouting “NO WAY! NO WAY!” as I was watching the show. You don’t get that kind of emotion these days and I kept waiting for Cena to make some kind of a comeback. That wasn’t happening this time though and it was clear that something had changed in a big way.
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