10 Times WWE Pleasantly Surprised Their Audience
You get a happy ending! You get a happy ending! You get a happy ending! FINN GETS A HAPPY ENDING!
Perhaps by fluke rather than force, WWE has cultivated a mutually abusive relationship with its fanbase over the last decade or so. John Cena's crowd-dividing craic may have been well-handled by 'The Champ' himself, but it foreshadowed the opening of a wound between audience and office WWE never managed to heal.
Wrongly assuming every performer could cope under challenging similar circumstances, the company allowed Roman Reigns' own fractured relationship with the "Universe" to descend into the sort of incendiary hatred that could be heard from space. Hopefully 'The Big Dog' kicks out of his current ill health, but it took some scale of mismanagement to reach a point where - without a shred of flippancy - it took his devastating leukemia diagnosis to gain him unanimous love and support from the crowd.
This is a company that once used a Royal Rumble finish as a live litmus test when Vince McMahon couldn't decide between a 'Hitman' and a supposed American hero. An group that presented previously-suspended Superstar Jeff Hardy as a great babyface hope because the fans understood him even if the office didn't. An organisation that - eventually - realised that Daniel Bryan had to be a part of the WrestleMania 30 because it made pro wrestling sense even if it confused Vince McMahon himself.
The undercurrent of nastiness is new, and certainly shouldn't ever be the norm. Sometimes it's simply nice to be nice...
10. Hulk Hogan's 2002
Hulk Hogan's WWE Championship run may not have been the needle-mover Vince McMahon hoped for in 2002, but the version of the man he knew was the one he enjoyed pushing after a New World Order return quickly stalled after a WrestleMania 18 babyface turn.
Reinventing him as a contemporary version of his older self, Hogan's return to red and yellow didn't come with the laboured condescension of WCW's 1999 attempt but a hybrid blend of the 'Hollywood' gimmick that had served him well and the 'Hulkamania' look Vince constructed an empire around.
Though middling figures at the time suggested he wasn't a long term prospect on top, there was clear emotional investment if not financial from a dissilusioned and dissolving fanbase.
Hogan worked beyond expectations as result of the push. Defeating Triple H in an April 2002 clash that was better than it had any right to be, he lost clean(ish) in a stinker against The Undertaker the following month, squeaky clean to Kurt Angle in a fabulous match a month after that, and clean - save for the claret that covered his face - to Brock Lesnar on television to prep 'The Next Big Thing' for a SummerSlam main event against The Rock.
Never since then has he felt quite so welcome on the show.