10 Biggest Shocks In WWE WrestleMania History
Taken by surprise on the grandest show of all.
Going into a WrestleMania, more often than not you know what you’re going to get. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing - the event sees storylines come to a grand conclusion, and if this means giving the fans what they want to see, that sounds like a sound strategy.
Occasionally, though, WWE has the capacity to shock us. Whether this takes the form of a storyline swerve, an appearance or comeback that has us blindsided, a spellbinding spot, or a performance that way exceeded anything we could possibly imagine, these are the moments that lift WrestleMania to a notch of its own in the sports entertainment character, where something special just might happen.
Not all shocks are for the best - some of these exhibited short term thinking on the part of WWE, the desire to get a reaction for the sake of it - but some of these showed the company’s willingness to take a risk with its product at a time when the eyes of the world (of wrestling fans) were watching.
Whether this year’s ‘Mania will present us with a straight ahead show or something to get us out of our seats, it’s worth remembering the company can surprise when they want to.
10. The Hardyz Return
As we’ve just seen on AEW Dynamite, there are few bigger pops than those afforded to a surprise Hardy return. OK, in the case of AEW, it wasn’t a huge surprise - Jeff’s appearance has been on the cards for a while - but it was a huge reaction, all the same.
Place the Boyz at WrestleMania, make it a genuinely unexpected bit of booking, and you’ve got a seismic response on your hands. At 33, the New Day interrupted a tag title ladder match to announce that another team would be taking part. They hinted that they’d be overstepping their position as hosts - the fans were fine with this. And then, the theme music started.
The best thing about Matt and Jeff’s return is the sweeping shot across the fans. Grown men with hands on their heads in shock, clutching each other with glee. The pair had been gone for eight years; this was the last thing anyone expected to see at WrestleMania.
The team were smuggled in mid-show to preserve the surprise, and it paid dividends. That they went on to win the belts in a pretty cool match made this all the sweeter.