10 Last-Minute WWE Champions

WWE would love to have people believe that the plan for WrestleMania XXX all along was for Daniel Bryan to exact revenge on The Authority and to walk out of the Superdome as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The reality is that original plans called for super babyface Batista to defeat Randy Orton for the title, and head into a summer where the new WWE Champion would be on a media blitz, promoting Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy while wearing the WWE title.

After Bryan failed to defeat The Authority in the fall of 2013, WWE had hoped fans would forget about Bryan, or at the very least "move on" to cheer for someone else. As WWE presented Big Show, John Cena, and Batista as The Authority's next challengers, support for Bryan only got louder with fans "hijacking" numerous episodes of RAW in Bryan's favor.

Eventually, due to a number of factors including the sudden departure of CM Punk, the failure that was Batista's 2014 babyface return, and Bryan's continuous massive reactions, WWE was forced to make Daniel the focal point of WrestleMania XXX.

Shortly after winning the title at WrestleMania XXX, Bryan was forced to vacate it due to injuries that would eventually end his in-ring career in 2016. Considering how things would go south for Bryan personally coming out of WrestleMania, this is one last-minute decision that the company must be happy with.