Surprise of the Year

What is the Surprise of the Year in 2011?

  • The Rock Returns

  • Angle Retains at BFG

  • Storm Wins TNA World Title

  • Punk Wins at MITB/Leaves

  • Punk's Shoot

  • Bryan Wins SD MITB

  • Henry Wins World Title

  • Edge Retires

  • Booker T/Kevin Nash Return At Royal Rumble


Results are only viewable after voting.
The Rock's return was an enormous moment, but it was within the realm of possibility looking back. The thing that surprised the hell out of me this year was CM Punk taking a live mic and trashing everyone and everything in that shoot. Again, CM Punk's shoot is my pick to win this award. The man just had a phenomenal 2011.
 
Had to vote for Edge Retires who honestly saw that coming right after WrestleMania this year? The whole time I they were hyping it up I thought it was going to turn into those pseudo retirement things we've seen HBK, Orton, Batista and others do but it ended up being 100% legit and I watched in a sad and stunned silence and had to really think about what I just saw, watching it live was utterly shocking.
 
Daniel Bryan wins at Money In The Bank.

Not the biggest surprise, that would be Punk's 'shoot'. There was a possibility of Bryan winning, but no one could have predicted that promo.

However, this was a better surprise. For me, obviously. You see, Daniel Bryan is my favourite wrestler. No one comes close - I care about everything he does. He's so un-WWE, it seemed unlikely that he's ever get a "big one". So to see him win a guaranteed world championship was simply awesome.
 
Daniel Bryan winning MITB was something NO ONE saw coming. Out of all the participates in the match, he was the last person you would have bet on to win the thing.

That was definitely the biggest surprise for me. Punk's shoot was shocking, but DBD actually winning Money in the Bank this early in his WWE career, when he was being booked to lose pretty much every week before then, I mean... I still can't believe he won it and is now World Champion.
 
Isn't Edge's retirement, I'll tell you that much. I've seen that one sneaking up on us for years.

I'll got with Storm's title win. Shocking how proud TNA made me.
 
DB's Money in the Bank win, although surprising (considering the other opponents in the match) was still a possibility because we knew he was in the match. I never thought he'd win, either, but I wasn't falling out of my chair out of shock. Same goes for Punk's win at MITB and Henry's title win. There was always a chance and a thought in the back of our minds that they might win.

But Punk's promo turned the wrestling world upside down. NO ONE saw that coming. Sure, his mic work has always been positive. But who knew he'd sit down and start saying the shit he said? Once this guy started saying all of that taboo stuff and the WWE actually gave him that much time to deliver that promo, we all freaked out about him basically saying things that went against every dirt sheet report and supposed "rules" that WWE made in regards to how their product is described on the air.

No doubt about it... Punk's shoot should win here.
 
Well seeing as I had drilled it into my head that The Rock would never return and then he did, I would normally say that was the surprise of the year however I didn't see RAW live that night and all of my friends told me he had returned before I even watched RAW so that eliminated the suprise factor for me.

CM Punk's shoot however, I saw live and I must say when he picked up the mic I was expecting him just to say how he would win the title and beat Cena etc etc. Then he broke down the fourth wall and created one of most best promos of all time. At the time, I didn't think it was worked too thanks to some superb delivery from CM Punk.
 
I got to go with storm winning the title. Not only was it surprising that he won the title, but the fashion he won it in was utterly shocking. He squashed kurt fucking angle!
 
So am I the only one who was shocked by Mark Henry's title win? I get what D-Man is saying that once the match was announced most of us acknowledged the possibility that Henry could win, but that's not how I see it. If I was able to go back to one year ago and list these things to my past self I would have said Henry's title win would be least likely. Rock's return and Punk's shoot were nice surprises but if you told me a year ago that they would have happened I wouldn't have been shocked. Mark Henry had been an underachiever for 15 years. He was put in one ridiculous storyline after another. Not just bad storylines; embarrassingly bad storylines. He would disappear for months at a time and although he received a small push with each comeback it quickly fizzled as the fans just could not take him seriously. He didn't even come close to making it on the mania card earlier this year. In the summer Mark Henry did a 180 and finally became what he should have been so many years ago. I think most of us gave up on him around 2000 so for him to finally breakout 11 years later was really a shock.
 
I gotta go with Edge's retirement because it was 100% unplanned. Even as it was happening, many of us felt that it was a 'work'. Surely a real surprise defeats a list of kayfabe surprises?
 
Edge's retirement. As shocking as Punk's shoot was, anyone who had seen Summer of Punk in ROH could see that that was coming. Edge's retirement came out of nowhere. Even now there are people who still think that it is a work and that Edge will return.
 
Daniel Bryan winning the SD MiTB may have been the most shocking thing to ever happen to me since I was told, at the age of four, that the World didn't use to be in black and white until it got change into color. It changed the way I saw things. Suddenly, the grass wasn't green it was asparagus or teal depending on the field.
 
Daniel Bryan winning Money in the Bank was predicted by yours truly. Don't believe me? Look up the WZPC prediction contest for Money in the Bank (I am a tag champ for a reason y'know). With that out of the way, there were three big choices for me:

- Edge Retires
- Rock Returns
- Punk Shoots

Edge retiring came from absolutely nowhere. No one expected it at all. I insisted it was a work at first. Surely it was. Alas that was not the truth and of course he's done.

Punk shooting was a shock for all. I remember freaking out when he name dropped Brock Lesnar, let alone when he mention Colt Cabana and NJPW. When was the last time that happened, especially in this day and age? It was a stunner (pun intended).

Lastly, the one I voted for, The Rock Returns. Of all the nominees this was the least surprising, so why vote for it? Because everyone doubted it was going to happen. Everyone thought that WWE had to somehow fuck that up. It had to be Bob Barker or Pee Wee Herman or Justin Bieber or someone terrible hosting WrestleMania. It had to be. So when the Rock came out after enormous fanfare, it was such a relief and a HUGE moment that will reach it's ultimate payoff in roughly 3 and a bit months.
 
Daniel Bryan for me. I came into MITB with hope that Daniel Bryan, the first guy who really got me into indy wrestling and who i had been watching wrestling in Ring of Honor since 2007. Matches with the likes of Takeshi Morishima, Tyler Black & Austin Aeries impressed the hell out of me. I've always been a huge fan of his since before he came to WWE(Only a few can actually say that) so when he won a fantastic ladder match and was guaranteed a world title match I was a very jolly person.
 
Rocky returning.

Call me the WZ idiot because I was completely thrown off by the white chick that came out of the limo right before the commercial break. I was completely surprised, and his return was one of the handful of times I've actually, "marked-out"

Edge's retirement was just...sad. If there was a tear-jerker of 2011 award he would definitely have my vote there.
 
Call me naive, but I think the surprise of the year was to see The Rock not only return to Raw but to actually be booked in a match with John Cena at WrestleMania 28. Punk's shoot was a huge surprise that no one saw coming as well so I'm kind of torn. I would have never thought Punk would have risen to popularity as fast as he did or even think Rock would ever step back in the ring again.
 
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.
 

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