Your Favorite PPV Surprise...
 

Am a bit saddened at the state of WWE at the moment, just like a lot of us are. Sometimes I feel that I am just growing out of it and expecting different things...while other times I just know that the TV I watched in the past, I would watch today...

I still try to watch every single PPV, and for a long time now, have not been impressed. One of those reasons is poor matches/angles, but another is the lack of surprise.

Was listening through old themes on my itunes, and it got me thinking...

...what is YOUR favorite PPV surprise moment...

My own personal one is different than what I usually like in wrestling...but I remember the reactions of it still to this day...

It was Badd Blood, Oct 5th, 1997, and I had a vested interest in HBK...my favourite of all time. My brother was watching with me and always preffered the Undertaker. Needless to say, if you remember the match...my guy was getting a beating.

Enter Kane, hyped up to be taller than he was...we had never seen anything quite like it. The Undertaker just shocked and looking, even scarred, of this crazy looking beast. Kane proceeded to rip the door clean off the cell and tombstoned Taker giving HBK the victory.

It was the look of shock on my brother, who had not been watching the RAW's building up the mystery character. It was corny, but it was something refreshing and different, and I loved the old monster Kane...


So what was it? A Sting from the ceiling? Cena at the Rumble? One of Undertaker's 327 returns? Tell us about it here...take our mind off some of the stuff we have now!

Screwjob 97'.

nWo formation Bash at the beach 96

Armageddon 1999

Miss Kitty...need I say more?

All time: nWo formation.

Modern: "Kurt Angle is coming to TNA."

Some wrestler who must not be named winning the title belt at Mania 20

Jericho becoming Undisputed Champion
Edge cashing in MiTB at Armageddon
RVD winning at One Night Stand, which was enough of a suprise

Edge cashing in his MITB and WINNING.

Two shocks for me.

1. Edge cashing MITB in after what I was sure was the end of the PPV.

2. Edge winning. I fully expected Edge to lose and to complain about how the WWE wasted the whole MITB concept.

Recently, one of the better surprises for me was the Armageddon Ladder Match of 2006, I believe. It was scheduled to be a regular tag team match between Paul London & Brian Kendrick and William Regal & Dave Taylor, which would have been good enough. Then Theodore Long came out and gave us all a "Christmas present" and made it a Ladder Match also featuring MNM and The Hardys.

I believe the match is actually overrated. It was fun, don't get me wrong, but I wonder how great it would have been if Joey Mercury's face didn't blow up. I was also expecting something from Paul London that would have brought the "Please don't die!" chants to the WWE.

It was also great to see London & Kendrick get to go over The Hardys in Matt and Jeff's own match. It's a shame that the WWE dropped the ball so bad with L&K. Get them back on track, Vince.

I remember someone actually making a post on here saying "Chris Jericho will win, mark my words." Their justification being that all the other three guys got to hit their finishing moves on the last SmackDown! before the PPV, or something. Lo and behold, Jericho did go over.

Two more surprises I liked that are often overlooked:

Kane doing so well in the 2001 Royal Rumble. This cemented me as a wrestling fan. Kane was my favourite, more so than The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker or Chris Jericho (the four most over guys at this time). That he got to enter #6, make it until the very end, got to almost Chokeslam Drew Carrey, and eliminated all people in one Rumble match than anyone else in history really connected with me. My guy unexpectedly did so well, and it's kind of kept me around when I really shouldn't have stuck around.

I also loved Matt Hardy winning the European Championship from Eddie Guerrero in 2001. I was a huge fan of Matt Hardy, but not really The Hardy Boyz. I didn't really like Jeff. Moments where Matt got the girl, and won a second singles title while Jeff still had not accomplished anything by himself made me feel pretty good about where Matt Hardy was heading.

Ric Flair winning the title by winning the 92 rumble.

No way did I think Ric would ever carry the strap, not with Hogan in match.

Stracade 97.

I was surprised that they were actually able to fuck up the greatest PPV match of all time.

When John Cena won at Wrestlemania last year.














:shifty:

WCW Spring Stampede 1999 - DDP turned heel and won the WCW World Title for his first time in a fatal four-way match against Sting, Hogan and Ric Flair.

Undertaker's return at Judgment Day 2000 during Rock/Triple H Iron Man.

Surprised no one has mentioned mayweathers segment at No way out this year? Yeah the feuds been shit, but that was one hell of a moment to watch.

Piper at Mania 19

I was marking like a little bitch

Not that big a deal, but wasn't DDP a face for a bit after that? Then turned heel a month later or so?

Vince getting his head shaved at Wrestlemania 23. :shifty:

<font color=goldenrod>From my early mark days as a fan:

-Goldberg losing at Starrcade 1998
-Mr. McMahon winning the Royal Rumble
-Paul Wight coming from under the ring at St. Valentin's Day Massacre
-Triple H turning on X-Pac at WM15

Those were the days</font> :(

He certainly didn't heel turn the night of the pay per view, I think he did it a few weeks later because Sting won it from and lost it to him in the same night on Nitro, in any event it didn't last long. DDP started tagging with Bam Bam Bigelow and Kanyon in the Jersey Triad in a few months.

The whole of Survivor Series 98, this PPV had unexpected swerves and shocks galore.

Shane screwing Austin after appearing to be on his side.

The show was booked for you to believe that Mankind was winning the title and had the backing of the McMahon's. Then all of a sudden they were behind he Rock all along.

Awesome booking. :)

Agreed...I was praying to god Edge was gonna use it sooner or later...and seeing the crowd pop like mad when he won.

TBH, when Edge cashed in at New Years Revolution 2006, I think that's the most exited I've ever been watching wrestling. I was on the edge of my seat cheering Edge on... when Cena kicked out of the first spear and it's like "Come on come on come on do it again!!!". That was a really awesome moment.

I definitely agree, who would have thought that Austin would sell his soul to Vince McMahon.

Recently, I would have to go with Edge cashing in on Cena.

Years back, I would say the nWo formation at Bash at the Beach 96.

Recently, Edge at NYR 2006...someone who was there live compared the pop to Kerry Von Erich beating Ric Flair at Texas Stadium

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UanK3H8CUfo"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UanK3H8CUfo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

One that stands out for me is Undertaker's return (and debut as ABA) at Judgment day during Triple H/Rock's iron man match. Undertaker had been rumored every single PPV to be returning, yet never happened. I think by Judgment day I had long since given up that he was coming back anytime soon, and then all of a sudden, that creepy video hit the titantron, and Triple H's facial expression was kinda like a "Wtf?". Purely a classic moment.

I was there when Edge cashed in the MITB, Alot of people already started to leave before the Elimination Chamber was even down when it was down to Masters, Carlito and Cena because no way Cena was losing. It was awesome to see it live.

Edge at NYR

Austin returning to help Rocky at Backlash 00 and everything else sucks compared to it

If you mean Austin's heel turn, that was hardly a surprise. That had been in the works, and constantly alluded to online, ever since his return in October 2000. In fact, plans were to turn him heel in time for WrestleMania 2000 until his neck surgery put the kibosh on that idea.

I could see it would be a great surprise at the time to anyone without internet access/dirtsheets etc though.

Now that was a real surprise. I enjoyed that too.

I'm gonna go back a ways.

Survivor Series 1990. Which brought us both the worst surprise and what would end up being the best surprise.

The Worst Suprise: The Turkey Egg Hatching, revealing the Gobbledy Gooker.

The Best Surprise, for two reasons: The match was the Dream Team vs. The Million $ Team. The Dream Team had Dusty Rhodes, the Hart Foundation, and Koko B. Ware. The Million $ Team had Ted DiBiase, I want to say the Orient Express, and a Mystery Opponent. At match time, out came the Mystery Opponent, led to the ring by Brother Love. This guy was a beast, dressed in Black and Gray, and could move like nobody's business. When it was all said and done, he destroyed Koko B. Ware with his finisher and took out Dusty Rhodes before Dusty got him to brawl on the floor for a countout, which was gonna be the only way anyone seemed to be able to stop him. And from there, that mystery opponent's career took off. This man was known as the Undertaker.

The match didn't end with that debut. The last two men in the ring were Ted DiBiase and Bret "The Hitman" Hart, one half of the WWF Tag Team Champions. After many close calls, including a visual pin on the Million Dollar Man while the referee was distracted by Virgil, Ted won with a rollup (and a handful of tights.). This was the first sign that Bret could hang with the best in the WWF, and ultimately led to him getting that singles push.

Rhythm and Blues - Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine

Orient Express were on Sgt. Slaughter's team, IIRC.

Goldberg's streak ended via ownage by TASER at Starrcade.

98 Survivor Series with Rock

WM15 with HHH turning on DX

WM8 with Warrior's return

Oh yeah, that's right.

Thanks Mackem.

Call that some rep going your way.