When was it TOO obvious?

[MTL722]

Storylines in wrestling can usually be mapped out by fans in advance. Not necessarily match by match, but the outcome and point of a feud are pretty transparent more often than not.

Every so often something will shock the fans. Undertaker losing to Lesnar at WM, Seth Rollins being the one to turn on The Shield, Rollins cashing in at Mania, etc.

What I'm asking is for the moment that you absolutely KNEW was going to happen but ended up being swerved right at the very end. Moments like Reigns winning this years Royal Rumble and headlining Wrestlemania, only to have Rollins cash in and ruin Reigns Mania moment.

Maybe what you expected to happen, should have happened, but didnt. Maybe something that you wanted to happen but thought was too much of a longshot, actually happened. When was it just TOO obvious?

 

[BringThePain834]

There's no such thing as unpredictability in pro wrestling anymore, so everything that happens is too obvious if you ask me. We know that Reigns is gonna win the title, and I won't be surprised if he turns heel in the process.

Undertaker losing to Brock, Rollins turning on The Shield and Rollins cashing in. I saw all of those things coming and deep down inside, all of you here did also, so those don't count as shocking because they were not shocking at all.

 

[@smarkmouth]

There's no such thing as unpredictability in pro wrestling anymore, so everything that happens is too obvious if you ask me. We know that Reigns is gonna win the title, and I won't be surprised if he turns heel in the process.

Undertaker losing to Brock, Rollins turning on The Shield and Rollins cashing in. I saw all of those things coming and deep down inside, all of you here did also, so those don't count as shocking because they were not shocking at all.

Sorry, but I call bullshit on your second paragraph, here. Maybe the Rollins cash in, and maybe his heel turn, but in no way am I giving you all three. Unless you show me posts in which you, or anyone else, predict all three I call bullshit. Prove me wrong and I'll be happy to eat crow.

There is still such a thing as unpredictability, but two essential factors can't be ignored.

1) We're 'IWC'. Everyday we rob ourselves of potential, genuine shock and awe by reading which legend is in town for the pay per view, or the latest creative plans for wrestlers A & B.
2) Unpredictability should never come at the expense of logic. My biggest gripe with fans like me is whining about a lack of unpredictability. You want unpredictable for the sake of unpredictable, you get latter years of WCW. A good swerve needs a strong backbone of logic to it, therefore everyday can't be unpredictable.

Back to the OP, beyond the examples posted, Money in the Bank 2012 was my last PPV of shocks. I fully expected Punk to do the job to Cena, but the bigger surprise was Daniel Bryan winning the briefcase. Mind you this was well before he started yelling 'Yes', nevermind before 'Yes' became the chant phenomenon it is now. Bryan was an excellent wrestler with no discernable character at the time, yet bested Wade Barrett and 'Disfigured' Cody Rhodes, both who had momentum and pushes going at the time.

 

[wrestler36]

What came to my mind right away was The Rock joining the Corporation at Survivor Series '98. He really starting rolling as a face and for sure I thought he was going to be the one who tore down the Corporation one by one. When they did the screwjob at the end, I completely did not see that coming, was really mad, but then happy because I had been swerved.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Cena beating The Rock at Wrestlemania 29 was WAY TOO MUCH OBVIOUS. Of course Cena was going to win. He had to tie the score with Rocky, plus Rock wasn't going to be around after 'Mania so he had to drop the belt..

Actually, Wrestlemania 29 has to be one of the most predictable Wrestlemanias of all time. The only shockers were Henry beating Rybacn and Fandago beating Jericho. But those were bad shockers. Unpredictability is good, only when the results coming from it are good. Nothing good came out of the victories of Henry and Fandago.

Bryan winning the belt at 'Mania 30 was also obvious, but the build-up was quite unpredictable.

 

[therockiswwf]

The OP asked for when you thought something was obviously going to happen but then didn't.

A very obvious choice would be The Streak but I'll go a different route for the sake of not choosing the most obvious one.

My first choice would be Rock vs Cena at Wrestlemania 28. The story for that match made it appear Cena had to win. Cena was defending the flag of full time guys and was ready to take the torch. Then Cena lost. He lost. Cena for a whole year talked about how he needed to win that match. Cena talked about proving his love to the WWE by beating a guy who doesn't truly love it.

Sting vs HHH is my second choice. The last massive holdout star from WCW finally comes to WWE and losses. Sting beating The Authority, replaying his classic evil defying NWO storyline. Then he lost and shook hands with a guy who hit him with a sledgehammer. Made zero sense. I get Sting saying he thought it would be his only match and wanted to go out on his back (as is tradition) but that was not expected.

Notable mention would be Sting vs Hogan at Starrcade 1997. Should have been a 5 minute squash with Sting destroying Hogan. NWO crumbles and WCW wins. Sting did win, but the way the match happened was not predictable in a bad way.

If I were Bret Hart, Survivor Series 1997 would be my choice. Bret obviously didn't predict how that one would end.

 

[FromGlasgow]

Undertaker losing to Brock, Rollins turning on The Shield and Rollins cashing in. I saw all of those things coming and deep down inside, all of you here did also, so those don't count as shocking because they were not shocking at all.

If you are that good at match predictions can't you make a ton of money by placing bets on it? Don't know what the odds of Brock breaking the Takers streak would have been or Seth Rollins winning the world title when he wasn't even in the world title match but I imagine the odds on both must have been huge. You must be good as theres no reason to lie unless your trying to impress people by falsly claiming to be some kind of wrestling oracle?

Anyway off the top of my head the main ones I can think of was the crappy ending to the Sting vs Hogan Starcade match and Nash ending Goldbergs undefeated streak at the following years Starcade the biggest shock ending for me you already mentioned would be Brock and Taker at Wrestlemania.

 

[Heartbreak_Kid_707]

There's no such thing as unpredictability in pro wrestling anymore, so everything that happens is too obvious if you ask me. We know that Reigns is gonna win the title, and I won't be surprised if he turns heel in the process.

Undertaker losing to Brock, Rollins turning on The Shield and Rollins cashing in. I saw all of those things coming and deep down inside, all of you here did also, so those don't count as shocking because they were not shocking at all.

That's just funny!! !ol or pathetic one. Nobody knew lesnar was going to break the streak. Numerous reports were only a handful of people!me knew. Taker, lesnar, hetman, the referee, Vince, and triple h. Defiantly not some IWC poster.

 

[Navi]

Undertaker losing to Brock, Rollins turning on The Shield and Rollins cashing in. I saw all of those things coming and deep down inside, all of you here did also, so those don't count as shocking because they were not shocking at all.

I didn't see any of those things coming. I thought Taker would retire taking the streak with him. As for the Shield, if anyone turned heel ever, thought it would be Ambrose. Knew Rollins would cash in at some point, but didn't expect it at Mania, so was shocked when he ran down the ramp. So I call bullshit on what you say as well. Unless of course you can back it up with posts that you made on this site before all these things happened. Then I will apologize.

On topic I really thought they would put Bryan in at number 30 in the Rumble two years ago. It just seemed that the more they said it wouldn't happen, made it seem sure that it would.

Also Cena's showing up at the Rumble in the number 30 spot a few years ago and going over HHH was a shock. He was supposed to be injured and came back early. No one saw that coming.

 

[rmp0012002]

There is no unpredictability like the old days. I'm not saying it in the old school era was better sense but in the information sense. The creative minds in the WWE book their entire company around WM so with so much time too much information comes out and you can usually read how an angle is generally going to end. Its like if you had read the book then you know how the movie ends.

 

[Kris Benwa]

I too saw the Rollins WM cash in coming months in advance. It was solidified when Brock annoucned he was resigning though i predicted that too.

Lesnar beating the Streak came way out of left field to me but once it happened i Realized how it made sense. I also agree with Cena coming out in RR08 too. 2 more i was shocked by were Kurt Angle moving to smackdown in January of 2006 to win the title that Batista had just vacated earlier that night. I didnt get on sites like these until later that year and i had no idea he was leaving RAW anyway. So i was super surprised when he was the last entrant.

Also when Edge beat Mr. Kennedy for the MITB briefcase then caahed in the next day in real time or 4 days later in wwe time lol. During this time I only watched Smackdown for some reason idr why but I would catch the AM RAWs every Saturday. Well this particular week i missed both Raw and Smackdown but when I caught AM RAW the little thing showed across the bottom of the screen "Edge beat Mr. Kennedy for the Money in the Bank Briefcase then cashed in 4 days later to become World Heavyweight Champion" I WAS LIKE WTFFF??? That was super left field too but I didnt know both Taker and Kennedy were hurt at the time.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Remember when Bam Bam Bigelow fought football player Lawrence Taylor at WM11? In LT, we saw one of the greatest pro football players of all time trying to win a wrestling match. In Bam Bam, we had a blob of a man dressed in a stupid outfit, but a guy who really knew how to work a match.

The allure of the match-up is that we truly had no idea what WWE management was going to do with it......would they have a non-wrestler come in and defeat an experienced wrestler?......or would they have a midcard wrestler totally embarrass one of best athletes in New York sports history? Both results seemed unlikely, which was what was so attractive about it.

I believed there couldn't possibly be a clean ending; they would knock each other around for awhile and wind up with LT's entourage of football players duking it out with Bam Bam's band of wrestlers.......to a no-decision.

In the end, WWE handled it beautifully. LT won clean, being coaxed to a credible match by Bam Bam......team captain Ted DiBiase screamed at Bigelow all the way up the aisle.....and Bam Bam handled the after-effects with class ("I've lost before")

A tremendous event. I'm sure this forum has folks who will say they 'knew all along' how it would end but I attribute that to the human tendency of 'predicting' the result after it occurs.

 

[Wald]

Well I was 100% sure that Booker T was going to beat to Triple H at Wrestlemania 19 for the heavyweight championship. I never thought in a million years that the WWE and Vince would actually book a racist angle where the white guy tells the black guy that black people don't belong in the elite world of the white guy and for them to make the white guy actually win and prove that black people don't belong in that spot.

Goes to show how awful Triple H was for the industry back then.

 

[@smarkmouth]

Well I was 100% sure that Booker T was going to beat to Triple H at Wrestlemania 19 for the heavyweight championship. I never thought in a million years that the WWE and Vince would actually book a racist angle where the white guy tells the black guy that black people don't belong in the elite world of the white guy and for them to make the white guy actually win and prove that black people don't belong in that spot.

Goes to show how awful Triple H was for the industry back then.

Yeah, that angle was starting to get questionable at best, but you'll notice they pulled the plug entirely about halfway through. Both Triple H and Booker at some point say something along the lines of their rivalry 'not being about colour', and all racist moments dissipated from the feud.

And why did they stop the feud? Well, Booker T was pencilled to win the match, seeing as Triple H had beaten literally everyone else on the roster. If Booker lost, there wouod be no one left. However sometime during the weeks building into WrestleMania, WWE signed Goldberg, and suddenly Booker could be another guy to lose to the H's.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Remember when Bam Bam Bigelow fought football player Lawrence Taylor at WM11? In LT, we saw one of the greatest pro football players of all time trying to win a wrestling match. In Bam Bam, we had a blob of a man dressed in a stupid outfit, but a guy who really knew how to work a match.

The allure of the match-up is that we truly had no idea what WWE management was going to do with it......would they have a non-wrestler come in and defeat an experienced wrestler?......or would they have a midcard wrestler totally embarrass one of best athletes in New York sports history? Both results seemed unlikely, which was what was so attractive about it.

I believed there couldn't possibly be a clean ending; they would knock each other around for awhile and wind up with LT's entourage of football players duking it out with Bam Bam's band of wrestlers.......to a no-decision.

In the end, WWE handled it beautifully. LT won clean, being coaxed to a credible match by Bam Bam......team captain Ted DiBiase screamed at Bigelow all the way up the aisle.....and Bam Bam handled the after-effects with class ("I've lost before")

A tremendous event. I'm sure this forum has folks who will say they 'knew all along' how it would end but I attribute that to the human tendency of 'predicting' the result after it occurs.

I don't know, myself....I absolutely hated that match. Bam Bam sold so hard is was pretty ridiculous. If I was a fan of LT then maybe I would've had a different opinion about the match. I was never a big fan of Bam Bam either. IMO it got a little bit too much attention that it didn't really deserve. This would be a middle of the card match in a perfect world.

 

[OYDK]

Completely expected The Rock to win the WWF Title at Mania 16, and I don't think I was alone. Up until that point a heel had never left Wrestlemania with the World championship and the stars were perfectly aligned for The Rock to have his Mania moment... and than he was pinned by HHH.

You think the Rumble crowd was hot when Reigns won. Go watch the end of Mania 16 and watch the fans angrily pelt Vince and HHH with anything they could get there hands on. THAT was an angry crowd.

 

[FlairFan2003]

If you are that good at match predictions can't you make a ton of money by placing bets on it? Don't know what the odds of Brock breaking the Takers streak would have been or Seth Rollins winning the world title when he wasn't even in the world title match but I imagine the odds on both must have been huge. You must be good as theres no reason to lie unless your trying to impress people by falsly claiming to be some kind of wrestling oracle?

Anyway off the top of my head the main ones I can think of was the crappy ending to the Sting vs Hogan Starcade match and Nash ending Goldbergs undefeated streak at the following years Starcade the biggest shock ending for me you already mentioned would be Brock and Taker at Wrestlemania.

The booking of Sting-Hogan yes, Sting winning was as predictable as cold in Alaska, but it should have been clean win, not the cluster it was.

Someone listed the first Cena-Rock match as a shock, I cant think of anyone who watches wrestling who DIDNT think Rock would win, in his hometown no less.....that one went exactly the way me and all my friends thought, good match, equally fought, few tense moments/near falls, Rock wins clean, both guys OK afterwards. If Cena had won I would have been shocked, if for nothing else than how did WWE get Rock to return just to lose in front of his hometown crowd at the biggest show of the year when he had a movie to promote ?

Nash ending Goldberg's streak was predictable to me. The Streak had gone on over a year at that point but it was never the main focal point of programming until the very end. Goldberg was World Champ and wrestling little promoted mid card matches on PPVs when Hogan was still headlining. Goldberg's role at the July, Aug, & Sept PPVs was small compared to Hogan storyline wise despite being champ, it wasn't until OCT, nearly five months into his reign, that WCW let him SHARE main event status on a major PPV. By the time Starrcade came around in 1998 when you watch the pre match hype, with Nash referencing his own year long undefeated streak as WWE champ and take into consideration outside of DDP Goldberg never really had a well developed program with a top star that ended in a win during his title reign, it screamed "Streak Ending". You can argue that Scott Hall returning and interfering on Nash behalf when they had been split and Nash had been a fan fave most of the year was a surprise but like Sting-Hogan the year before the end result wasn't a shock.

 

[yourdamnluck]

I can think of countless matches when it was too obvious.
Rock vs Stone Cold in all 3 of their wm matches. Shawn winning the first elimination chamber. Reigns winning the rumble.
Most obvious were all of punk's title matches during his 435 day reign and Rock vs cena 2. Last couple of taker's wm matcher before Lesner beat him.
I must also add that wwe has also surprised me many times, cena beating jbl and sheamus winning the mitb and the biggest was streak ending.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Note to the OP: make your thread titles more clear as many aren't very bright and don't understand the intention of this thread.

And the obvious answer here is Brock beating Taker. The look of shock on 99% of the arena is explanation enough.

 

[kadroan]

Cena beating The Rock at Wrestlemania 29 was WAY TOO MUCH OBVIOUS. Of course Cena was going to win. He had to tie the score with Rocky, plus Rock wasn't going to be around after 'Mania so he had to drop the belt..

Actually, Wrestlemania 29 has to be one of the most predictable Wrestlemanias of all time. The only shockers were Henry beating Rybacn and Fandago beating Jericho. But those were bad shockers. Unpredictability is good, only when the results coming from it are good. Nothing good came out of the victories of Henry and Fandago.

Bryan winning the belt at 'Mania 30 was also obvious, but the build-up was quite unpredictable.

Right! I hated that WM. I thought Punk had a chance in his match against Taker.

 

[whoopin' ass]

Here is the catch with too obvious - who cares if the story is good? That is what wwe seems to have forgotten - who cares if people know what is coming, your job is to make them want to watch it anyways. We all knew by the end of Batman Begins that Bruce Wayne would be Batman but we still watched the movie. Did that info ruin the film for you? That's why I laugh so much at wwe and their need to be mainstream - most shows are fairly predictable but it is how you get from the start of the story to the end that matters and draws an audience. wwe would rather throw in a dumb twist that ruins the story than to follow through with one that makes sense but is predictable.

Daniel Bryan vs HHH at Mania is a great example - after everything that happened, it wasn't hard to see Bryan was going to main event so really, that match was a given but it added to the story.

 

[therockiswwf]

Someone listed the first Cena-Rock match as a shock, I cant think of anyone who watches wrestling who DIDNT think Rock would win, in his hometown no less.....that one went exactly the way me and all my friends thought, good match, equally fought, few tense moments/near falls, Rock wins clean, both guys OK afterwards. If Cena had won I would have been shocked, if for nothing else than how did WWE get Rock to return just to lose in front of his hometown crowd at the biggest show of the year when he had a movie to promote ?

That was me.

I listed due to thinking that it was the end of the storyline. I thought Rock would go away after it and not wrestle anymore. Obviously I was wrong but at the time, I thought it was a one-off for Rock.

 

[ColeMc]

I do enjoy a good swerve, but I am in the camp of "a swerve for swerve's sake is just bad booking".

But you're right, I saw the cash in coming and the Shield breakup(thought it would be Reigns turning though, as soon as I saw Rollins with the chair I thought, here it comes) and I can't remember the last time I was truly shocked. TBH I didn't give a fuck about the streak but happy it got broken.

To highlight how bad it's been, were we really supposed to buy into the Orton "back with the Authority" storyline? I don't know a single fan who didn't see that coming but it seemed for some reason it felt like we were all sitting in the audience of a pantomime shouting "He's behind you".

I would love to be taken aback and go "Did not see that coming" but I think creative are just photocopying the previous shows and changing a few names.

 

[miamicanes460]

A few that haven't been mentioned.


1. WM 2000. HHH retaining in the fatal 4 way. I thought for sure The Rock would win that match. When HHH ended up getting the victory, it broke my little heart.

2. Jericho beating HHH for the title on Raw for like an hour in 2000. It looked like HHH was gonna hold the belt forever after joining forces with the McMahon's. I was freaking out when this happened.

3. Benoit vs. The Rock @ Fully Loaded 2000. I know The Rock ended up having the decision reversed 2 minutes later (like the one above), but the shock of Benoit beating The Rock for the title was real for me.

4. Taker over Edge @ WM 2008ish? They had me. I thought this was the one where Taker was going down. Especially after the 2nd spear after Taker chokeslammed those 2 jobbers into one another. I thought for sure the streak was over. It just seemed like the perfect time and the perfect guy to let end the streak at the time...if anyone was going to end it.

5. Lesnar over The Rock @ Summerslam 2002. I know Lesnar was super hot at the time & I actually wanted Brock to win, but I was shocked that he went over Rock, given he JUST got into the business & was still so "green."

apparently I always think The Rock is going to win

 

[MTL722]

Note to the OP: make your thread titles more clear as many aren't very bright and don't understand the intention of this thread.

The intention of the thread was to get this exact discussion that is now 3 pages long. People listing moments that were blatantly obvious, and people listing moments that were obvious until the very end, or "swerved for the sake of swerving".

Your example of Brock beating Taker is wrong in this context as that was not obvious. Undertaker beating Brock is what seemed obvious. The swerve at the end is what makes it memorable.

Hope this helps

Hell, I'll throw one in that I haven't seen yet. WWF winning The Invasion Survivor Series match. There was no way that WWF would lose on a WWF PPV. It was TOO obvious. The way they went with it was less so. I was much younger during this time so bear with me.

Kurt Angle (Team Alliance) gets eliminated by The Rock. This leaves Jericho and Rock against Stone Cold. Jericho gets eliminated to give us Rock VS Austin, which was a pretty obvious matchup. The previously eliminated Team Alliance member Kurt Angle then costs his team the win by hitting Stone Cold with the belt, team WWF wins. Obvious result, no so obvious end