5. Mankind Wins The WWE Championship After Pinning The Rock With The Aid Of A Forklift - Halftime Heat, 1999
Super Bowl XXXIII pitted the Atlanta Falcons against the Denver Broncos. The game had a 40.2 rating and had a viewing share of 61% of Nielsen homes. At that point, WWF's ratings for Monday Night Raw were hovering in the 4.5-5 range, making the program the highest rated show on the USA Network and as well one of the most watched programs overall on basic cable television. Thus, the idea of the WWF using 20 minutes of USA Netowrk's airtime to show a WWF Championship match between their two most charismatic performers made sense, and the deal was struck between Vince McMahon and USA Network's Bonnie Hammer. Though much of WWF at that point was moving in a direction that was more Smackdown vs. Raw for the Playstation than Hackenschmidt versus Gotch, nobody had any idea what to expect of this match in front of a potentially much expanded audience. In an empty arena match that included brawling up and down the stairs, and fighting with foodstuffs including cotton candy, loaves of bread, bags of popcorn and picante sauce, it's after exiting an office and happening upon a forklift that the match reaches a conclusion. Foley spies the aforementioned device, and as The Rock is trapped under said forklift, he's inexplicably pinned for the WWE Championship.