Your Favorite Surprise

[HeenanGorilla]

Either from back before the internet/spoilers or even more recently where many fans knew but you hadn't found out about it beforehand, what was your favorite surprise in wrestling? You weren't expecting it and loved it when it happened.

I do not watch regularly anymore; but, a few years ago, I decided to not go to wrestling websites from around December through WrestleMania. I wanted Rumble entrants and Mania plans to be a surprise for me. I was rewarded with the Hardys coming back. I always loved their music and when New Day said a new team was joining that match...I legit smiled when their music hit. Very cool moment! It reminded me what it was like to not know what was coming before spoilers were a regular thing.

But a surprise doesn't need to be an unannounced Rumble entrant or a big Jericho countdown reveal. It can be Rick Martel turning on Tito Santana. Some "surprises" like HBK turning on Marty or Orndorff clotheslining Hogan weren't so unexpected, so I don't know if I would count those. They were impactful, and you didn't necessarily know when they were coming, but you had an idea they were coming.

I'm talking pleasant or unpleasant complete surprises where you "marked out".

 

[relentless1]

Biggest surprise I can recall off hand was the Fingerpoke of Doom, didn't see that coming and I was a young teen who loved Hollywoods nWo so seeing them reunite was awesome and I was excited to see what came next.

 

[tdmoon]

-Tommy Rich coming out from under the ring during the Lawler-Idol match. It wasn't very common to see interference in a cage match and Lawler always won hair matches.

-Ric Flair showing up in the WWF with the World Title. It was something I thought I'd never see outside of an issue of Wrestling Superstars. I still feel Flair and Hogan not meeting at Wrestlemania is the biggest lost opportunity in wrestling, at least in my time as a fan.

-Windham joining the Four Horsemen. In hindsight, I guess the clues were there but I was really surprised when Windham turned on Luger. Windham had always been the very definition of a "good guy" to me and it was especially odd since it cost him a title.

 

[JoeMallard]

Recently, Kevin Owens debut against John Cena and when Vince got busted open by the headbutt.

 

[StraightEdge]

When Cena came back from his injury early and won the Royal Rumble. That caught me by surprise. I marked out like crazy when he eliminated HHH.

 

[@smarkmouth]

Edge cashing in, setting the standard for what a cash in could be. Perfect moment.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

When The Nexus arrived on Monday Night Raw. Nobody expected a bunch of guys on what was just a reality competition show at the time to join forces like that. I don't think there was a hint that it would happen either - no standard, non-subtle foreshadowing of any kind which is the norm for pro wrestling. It was just a bunch of guys from "that other place" coming in and marking their territory. Simple but effective. Watching Nexus beat down John Cena before it was cool, Daniel Bryan choking out Justin Roberts with his own tie, and seeing them literally take the ring apart made for fantastic TV. It gets no better than a heel stable nobody sees coming.

 

[Cena Is A Punk Rocker]

Bash 96. Hogan turn. I was around 18 years old and a die hard Hulkamainiac. Around seven or eight of us kicked in like five bucks for the ppv so we had a little party. We watched the show with the sound off so we could do our own commentary. When Hogan came out and dropped the leg on Savage we were all speechless. I can't remember having that feeling about wrestling since.

 

[neildittmar]

In my nearly 30 years as a wrestling fan? Probably Ultimate Warrior winning the WWF Championship against Hulk Hogan at WM6. Warrior was far and away my favorite wrestler at the time. I was excited enough that he was in a title match with Hogan, but I just knew there was no way he was going to win. At the time, seemingly nobody beat Hogan... other than the occasional count out or DQ. Hogan missing the leg drop, Warrior countering with the splash, and getting the 1-2-3 clean (even if Hogan did kick out immediately thereafter) was, and still is, one of the best surprises I've had as a wrestling fan.

More recently? AJ Styles WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble. While WWE is constantly on the lookout for "moments", that one in particular sticks out in my mind as impressively well pulled off. Roman clearing the ring, waiting on the next guy to come down. New entrance music hits... who is it going to be? The slight (and likely intentional) delay in AJ coming out under the hood, the big reveal that "he's here." the look on Roman's face. I wasn't even that big of an AJ fan before then, but everything about that moment in time screamed "main event" to me. Still a clip that I rewatch on YouTube from time to time.

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

Rock V Mankind 98 Survivor Series. I was a huge Rock fan from earlier that year and while I enjoyed being a fan of his as a heel his face turn about a month or so before this event was pretty cool too. Once Austin was eliminated I figured the path was open for face Rock to win it all. Then he wins the title with the same screwjob from the year prior and I didn't think much of it cause he had just won his first world title. Then we get the full heel turn and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Speechless for maybe a minute before coming back to and cheering for The Rock.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

One (reasonably) recent surprise was in 2011, remarkable considering the use of internet these days.

It concerned the guest host of the year’s Wrestlemania. The world and his wife knew who it was going to be, Internet spoilers were aplenty. Justin Bieber was going to be the celebrity guest host of the show of shows.

Then Justin Roberts promoted the announcement on Raw in January, and the lights went out.....

IF YOU SMEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLL!!!!!

The crowd erupted. I was watching on YouTube (2010-11 WWE weren’t as quick as they now are to remove content from YouTube) and I went mental.

Whoever leaked that it would be Bieber created a master stroke, which generated huge interest in ‘Mania, and led to the next two years’ main events (unfortunately - should have stuck with one match, but that’s another story.)

Maybe not the greatest surprise ever, but certainly a brilliantly orchestrated genuine surprise in a day and age where they are few and far between.