10 Iconic Wrestling Moments That Weren't Meant To Happen
2. Championship Ascension Ceremony - HIJACKED
On the December 9, 2013 RAW, WWE booked a "Championship Ascension" ceremony. It was nominally designed to put over the WWE/World Heavyweight Championship unification match at TLC over as a major deal.
Nobody cared about the mass of prestige and star power assembled in the ring. Nobody cared about the prospect of a WrestleMania-level angle - one fans had fantasy booked for over a decade - unfolding in front of them. They cared only for the charismatic and likeable in-ring dynamo Daniel Bryan who, despite suffering a dip in onscreen fortunes had suffered no corresponding dip in popularity. As it nearly transpired, Bryan wasn't the next face of WWE, after all; he was Randy Orton's autumn programme - his warm-up ahead of the big Batista match at WrestleMania XXX. Their detachment to the overexposed John Cena and Randy Orton only compounded the sentiment.
This was glorious stuff; the raw emotion of the fandom, transferred to Daniel Bryan's beaming, breezy face, pierced the polished veneer of WWE TV so profoundly that Master of Ceremonies Triple H entered shutdown mode. In that moment, it was our show once again.
As phenomenal as the reaction was, it still wasn't enough to convince WWE to change their plans for the main event of WrestleMania XXX. It would take a shocking, abrupt departure to alter the complexion of the card.
What's sad is that the Championship Ascension ceremony video posted to WWE's YouTube channel is heavily abridged. The real thrust of the moment has been edited out.
Everything in WWE is micromanaged.