10 Times WWE Swerved The Fans Just For The Sake Of It

It made no sense...but you didn't see it coming!

AJ Styles Dean Ambrose
WWE.com

Like it or not, the swerve is a part of wrestling. Though the tactic has gotten a bad rap over the last several years (thanks primarily to Vince Russo), there's really nothing wrong with it, in and of itself. Sometimes, a grand surprise that comes out of nowhere is warranted.

Take, for instance, WrestleMania 31. Brock Lesnar was set to battle Roman Reigns in a match that the live crowd rejected due to the challenger's overbearing presence. At the same time, keeping the title on Brock wasn't really an option due to his part-time schedule. In the end, Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the belt himself. No one saw it coming, and that helped make it a success.

Still, there are many who would consider that the exception to the rule. Often, when WWE decides to swerve the fans, the big twist is something that only the storyteller thinks is compelling (take, for instance, when Vince McMahon was revealed as the Higher Power). Even worse, though, is when WWE decides to swerve fans just for the sake of being unpredictable. In cases like those, they damage their own credibility - and condition audiences not to get their hopes up.

That can be catastrophic in the long run.

10. Chris Jericho Beats AJ Styles At WrestleMania 32

AJ Styles Dean Ambrose
WWE.com

AJ Styles's first program in WWE was a respectful rivalry with Chris Jericho, but when the pair failed to win the WWE Tag Team Titles from The New Day, Jericho turned on Styles and it became a fully-fledged blood feud. Styles picked up the first win at Fastlane, but they were set up for a rematch at WrestleMania 32.

The bout was the best one-on-one match on a weak card, with both guys getting enough time to build something special. In the end, though, Jericho pulled out a surprising win - when Styles came in with the Phenomenal Forearm, Jericho caught him with the Codebreaker and got the pinfall.

Was this part of a longer story WWE was telling? Would the two men meet again at Payback? No.

That was, for all intents and purposes, the end of their feud. The very next evening, they'd be part of a four-way match for WWE Heavyweight Title number one contendership. Styles would pin Jericho for the win, but all that did was put "The Phenomenal One" into a new feud, one with Roman Reigns.

So why did Jericho beat Styles at WrestleMania? Simply because people expected Styles to win. Of course, though, people expected Styles to win because it would have made sense.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013