10 Most Impactful WWE Results Ever
The matches that changed the wrestling landscape.
If the word of Paul Heyman is to be believed, Roman Reigns capturing the Universal Championship at WrestleMania on Sunday would have seen both the ECW mastermind and his client walk out of WWE forever.
Thankfully, that didn't happen. In one of the great wrestling swerves of our time, Brock Lesnar retained his title after about 400 F-5s, ensuring that the Beast Incarnate, alongside his advocate, will remain a part of the Monday Night Raw scenery for - well, at least another month or two.
While WWE didn't deliver on its promise of an Earth-shaking result this time around, however, there have been plenty of bouts from the company's past that have served up outcomes which dramatically shifted the sports entertainment landscape, both in kayfabe and out.
These are the kinds of matches that wrestling historians will study in-depth for years to come. Dissertations will be written about them and their long-lasting impression on the industry, and many of us will be able to smugly claim that we were there to witness them in real time.
Here are the 10 most impactful WWE results ever.
10. Sheamus Def. Daniel Bryan (WrestleMania XXVIII)
At the time, Sheamus beating Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds felt like anything but a positive. Many of us, in fact, took it as a sign that our favourite indie wrestlers could never truly break through Vince McMahon's glass ceiling.
With retrospect, however, its impact has largely been a welcome one. Bryan getting comprehensively buried on the Grandest Stage of Them All helped build a groundswell of support around him, without which he may not have gone on to compete in the main event two years later.
He was already plenty over going into the match, sure, but it was the sense of indignation that fans felt following his WrestleMania humiliation that made him arguably the most heavily backed wrestler of an entire era.
Had he not reached these levels of popularity, who knows what would have happened in the two years ahead? Instead of Bryan leading the fans in a "YES" chant in New Orleans, it may have been Roman Reigns (but probably not).