10 Times WWE Pulled The Trigger (When You Least Expected It)

Here lies another instance when WWE chose to completely stun their audience, without actually thinking about the repercussions of the event itself.

Coming into WrestleMania X-Seven, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and The Rock were embroiled in a bitter feud over the WWF Championship and many fans simply couldn't predict how things were going to turn out.

Would Rocky manage to avenge his loss to The Rattlesnake two years prior or would Steve Austin make good on his promise to 'do whatever it takes' to become the champion again?

Well - as we all know by now - it turned out to be the latter, but not in the way that fans imagined.

After beating lumps out of each other in the no disqualification main event, the presence of Vince McMahon at ringside eventually paid dividends for Austin. McMahon would deny The Rock a chance to pin Stone Cold (twice!) and gift the challenger with a steel chair. This intervention led to Austin beating the hell out of The Great One with said weapon and finally pinning the champion to claim his fifth WWF Championship, ending the night with a career-altering hand-shake with the boss.

Unfortunately, Austin's run as a whiny suck up didn't generate the kind of response that the company had hoped for and before too long he was back to his old rebellious ways.

That being said, WWE still managed to pull the trigger on a truly unimaginable Austin heel turn and it definitely came at a time when we least expected it.