10 Times WWE Swerved The Fans Just For The Sake Of It
4. James Ellsworth Turns Heel
James Ellsworth's unique charisma and his performance in a squash match with Braun Strowman earned him a regular role on SmackDown and, eventually, a WWE contract. As a true underdog and a friend to Dean Ambrose, Ellsworth regularly got huge reactions from the WWE Universe, and he even earned himself a WWE Title match (with some help from "The Lunatic Fringe").
Before that, though, Ambrose and AJ Styles faced off in a TLC match that would put their long-running program to bed. Though Ellsworth had been assaulted by Styles prior to the bout, he came out during the match - clad in a neck brace - to get a better view of how things would play out, and maybe even help his friend. Of course, when Ambrose climbed the ladder to retrieve the WWE Championship, Ellsworth pushed it over, turning heel and giving Styles the win.
It made no storyline sense whatsoever, and it effectively killed Ellsworth as a character (he was always going to have a short shelf life, but that pushed him past his expiration date).
The only reason WWE did it was to present a surprise, and since the company's nonsensical booking is so established and expected, it wasn't even that surprising.