10 Times WWE Genuinely Shocked The Fans

Let the jaws hit the floor.

chris jericho 2002 world champion
WWE.com

It takes a great deal to truly shock a television audience in 2018. Forty years ago, you could have provoked a reasonable amount of outrage simply by muttering a naughty four-letter word, but these days anything less than full frontal nudity probably isn't going to cut it.

WWE fans, in particular, are perhaps even more difficult to shock. They aren't just desensitised to the ubiquitous sight of near-naked bodies and extreme violence, but also up-to-speed on all of the latest internet rumours. In many instances, they know who the next world champion is before Vince McMahon does.

Under these constraints, the only way the company can truly shock us is to pull something completely out of the blue. Serve up a result that literally nobody could realistically see coming, for instance. Bring in a wrestler fans thought the chairman of the board would sooner die than offer a place on his payroll.

Thanks to our insatiable appetite for online spoilers, they don't accomplish this feat very often. But it does happen from time to time, and we've got 10 examples that prove it.

10. Chris Jericho Wins The Undisputed Title

chris jericho 2002 world champion
WWE.com

On the eve of Vengeance 2001, it seemed almost certain that one of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock would be walking out of the show as the inaugural WWF Undisputed Champion.

At a push, you could perhaps have predicted a Kurt Angle win. Unlike Y2J, he'd already held world title gold, and had also featured prominently in the climax of the Invasion angle, helping Vince McMahon stave off his latest existential threat by switching sides at the last-minute.

Jericho, meanwhile, was a massive outsider. More than two years on the books of the World Wrestling Federation had so far yielded only a smattering of mid-card title reigns. And then there was the timing: a couple of months removed from the biggest show of the calendar is generally an inopportune moment to bank on a relative up-and-comer.

Incredibly, the former WCW star managed not just to emerge from the four-man mini-tournament with the belt, but to do so by beating the Attitude Era's two biggest stars in back-to-back matches. That was pretty much unheard of, and virtually no-one saw it coming.

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