It comes down to three moments for me:
- Punk's Shoot
- Rock's Return
- or Edge's Retirement
I would sorely love to vote for Punk's Shoot as 1: It really was shocking the best possible way, 2: It was an amazing promo that still has the lingering question of whether it was real or planned attached to it, and 3: Punk is my favorite wrestler, and I am currently sitting around in my Punk Shirt right now, but it wasn't the shocker of the year for me. For at least the last two years we have known that Punk is simply the best WWE has on the Mic right now, and so to hear him completely kill it once again was shocking, but not too shocking.
I understand why everyone is voting for Rock's Return as it was a HUGE moment for the company, and it is great to have him back in some capacity. It recaptures that nostalgic feeling we all love about Pro Wrestling, however, it loses points for me because it was an absolute secret or surprise that he was coming back. I know not everyone reads dirt sheets, but for those of us who do, we knew he was coming back for at least a month before his music finally hit. It was awesome when he finally walked out on RAW, but it wasn't completely out of the blue.
The one moment that NOBODY saw coming, that definitively NOBODY saw coming, was Edge's Retirement, and so that is what I voted for. Anyone who says that they saw this one coming for years is lying to us and to themselves. Edge had just come off a BIG win at Wrestlemania to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. He looked great while doing it as well, and then BAM! He walks out on Raw and makes the announcement. The Dirt Sheets didn't know, the casual fans didn't know, nobody knew that it was coming. We all figured he had at least a year left in the business to help put over some younger guys. We all figured his feud with Del Rio would continue, and he would lose the strap to him, and help make him a big star. We didn't expect him to just leave. It was shocking, it was completely out of the blue, and it was one of the saddest moments of the year. A Superstar the caliber of Edge is not supposed to have his career cut short like that, without any warning. He deserved one final, great swansong match with one of his best rivals, with John Cena. That is how Superstars are supposed to go out, and the fact that Edge didn't get that, is just another way that his retirement is definitely the most shocking moment of the year.