10 WWE Surprises That Weren’t Worth The Wait
One of the best ways to get a huge reaction from the fans in professional wrestling is by promoting a surprise of some kind. Whether it be a new debut, a return, a major match, or anything else, hyping it up in a clever way ahead of time is a sure-fire way to get a special reaction. Every wrestling promotion has tried to do something like this, but it can result in a mixed variety of results depending on how it was handled in the build-up.
Wrestling fans love a surprise return, especially when nobody sees it coming. Here are the most shocking surprise returns in pro wrestling history.
WWE has been a victim of the surprise not coming out the way they planned it, resulting in the fanbase being rather displeased or maybe even angry. There are many more than ten examples of this, but let's break down a few of the biggest and a few that aren't as remembered as others. Here are some of the times WWE failed to deliver on a surprise.
It is hard to imagine what would have been worth the wait with a random, comically large egg being promoted for the 1990 Survivor Series, but the Gobbledy Gooker was not the answer fans wanted. The man under the costume, Hector Guerrero, was meant to wear this ridiculous outfit while being an amazing wrestler, but for many reasons, the gimmick would be dropped not long after debuting.
It would make a return here and there in the WWE since, with its biggest moment being at WrestleMania 17 where Guerrero portrayed the character for the Gimmick Battle Royal.
Rikishi had his fair share of fans due to his antics alongside Too Cool and became a beloved name, but only ever floated around the tag and midcard divisions. In 2001, the WWE would try to create a new image for Rikishi as he was established as the person who assaulted and injured Stone Cold Steve Austin, setting Rikishi as a major heel.
For multiple reasons, the audience didn't take to this change, and it wouldn't last long as by the following year, Rikishi was back to what he was doing before the turn.
Cesaro and Sheamus' reign as the Raw Tag Team Champions saw them defeat every possible team on the roster before WrestleMania, leaving room for a new team to be created and challenged. That would come in the shape of Braun Strowman and a mystery partner that he said he would choose.
Once WrestleMania came, instead of this mystery partner being a surprise new debut or a big return from a former talent, Strowman instead went into the audience and picked a child to team with him. The child in question, Nicholas, would be revealed to be WWE referee John Cone's son, but many felt like it was a letdown and an odd choice for the new champions.
WWE in 1999 had the Corporation, led by the McMahon family, and the Ministry of Darkness, led by The Undertaker, as the two biggest heel factions in the company at that time, and they would eventually join forces to take on the likes of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Further down the line in the faction's story, Undertaker revealed that he wasn't in charge as there was a "higher power" pulling the strings and making things happen.
These are the storylines that stand out above the rest as the best in wrestling history. Which one tops the list?
According to Bruce Prichard on Something to Wrestle With, he revealed that the original plan was for Christopher Daniels to debut as this character and become a major star, but plans would change and instead put Vince McMahon in the role. Furthering the storyline feud between McMahon and Austin in a way that was unnecessary and felt convoluted.
Once Erick Rowan was sent to Raw, he would receive a storyline that saw him carry around a giant cage covered in a burlap sack, stopping anyone from touching it or looking at what was underneath. This lasted for months with little teases like it spitting red mist on a jobber, scaring Mojo Rawley, and biting Rowan's hand on a couple of occasions.
Supposedly, the original plan was for someone to either cause Rowan or themselves to fall and crush the cage, with whatever was inside, resulting in Rowan going mad and feuding with this wrestler. Plans would change and instead, Rowan would reveal the contents of the cage to be a giant spider. Plans were made to fix this disastrous reveal, but Rowan would be cut from the WWE not long after due to the pandemic.
It is hard to find a WCW fan who didn't love Diamond Dallas Page and when WCW died, it was obvious that he should join the WWE and become a big star there. 2001 would see that somewhat happen, but instead of being his normal beloved character or anything close to that, he instead was a stalker and started a feud with The Undertaker.
This feud would see him become a World Tag Team Champion, but once that came to an end, he was dropped quite far down the card for the remainder of his WWE tenure. DDP would hover around the European Championship before leaving and working with the fledgling TNA in 2004.
Being known as one of the greatest to ever compete, Bret Hart ended his career with the WWE on a pretty sour note. This led him to join WCW for the final years of his career and retire at the start of the new millennium. The idea of Bret returning to the WWE was pretty out there, let alone having another match, but that would happen in 2010 when Hart competed at WrestleMania 26 in a match against Vince McMahon.
This match was pretty poor as both men had wrestled much in the last several years, but Hart got the win and would go on a run for the year, even capturing the WWE United States Championship from The Miz. Most don't look back on this run fondly and believe that Hart should have just stayed retired at that point.
The early 2010s saw one of the biggest and longest-running stories centered on Michael Cole and a computer on which he would read off things that were being sent to him by the anonymous Raw General Manager. This gimmick lasted about a year before just fizzling out and dropping, with no reveal in sight.
Every top wrestling star wants to become a champion. However, these names didn't expect to shockingly lose their championships the way they did.
Another year would go by before an episode of Raw revealed that it was Hornswoggle the entire time. Hornswoggle himself revealed that he pitched the idea as a joke since there was not going to be a reveal for the character, and WWE went with it. He did admit that the original plan was meant to have a mob boss sort of character, but that never came to be.
Every possible big name from WCW would at some point come to the WWE with a variety of different results, but one man took a bit longer than the rest. When Sting came out at Survivor Series 2014, the crowd erupted with the idea of what he could do in the company and the possible dream matches he could have.
Instead of something like a legendary Undertaker match, fans would instead get a feud against Triple H and a WWE Championship match against Seth Rollins. Sting would also come out on the losing end of these big matches before getting injured and being forced to retire after that Rollins match.
The Undertaker went twenty-one WrestleManias without ever suffering a loss, but that would come to an end at WrestleMania 30. The concept of the streak became bigger and bigger each year, with names like Randy Orton, Edge, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and more all trying to defeat the Deadman at the event.
Some fans never wanted the streak to end and the Undertaker to retire with the streak intact, while others wanted to see a younger star build themselves up by breaking it. Brock Lesnar would be the man to do it, which left a bad taste in some people's mouths, but the match itself wasn't anywhere near the quality fans had in previous Manias due to Undertaker getting injured in the middle of the bout.