11 Surprising WWE Heel Turns You Never Saw Coming
1. Daniel Bryan On AJ Styles (2018)
Necessity is the mother of invention, and it's a shame Vince McMahon isn't pushed into making rash decisions more often - when he does, they so often go his way.
Nia Jax thwacking Becky Lynch on a pre-Survivor Series brawl resulted in her total exclusion from the event. The immediate aftermath was one of cautious optimism for the 'The Man' going forward, but desperate sadness over the lack of a great main event for the 'Thanksgiving Classic'.
With just five days to go, McMahon devised the most unlikely of Plan Bs - the already-ignored file marked "Bryan".
With only a week of teasing that the 'YES!' man may be reconsidering the dark side thanks to some listless scuffling over team captaincy with The Miz, WWE pulled the premature trigger to completely shake the foundations of the entire organisation. In the last main event of the last show before the pay-per-view, Styles' 371-day reign as WWE Champion was terminated by the most beloved babyface in the company turning heel.
Kicking Styles low (and really, he deserved it for still not wearing a cup after all the b*llshots he's sustained this year), Bryan capitalised through chicanery rather than guille to step into his dream match with Brock Lesnar with the belt fans wanted back on him from the day he returned. All it lacked was the WrestleMania XXX megapop - wrestling used to be about the journey as much as the destination. WWE not only barely know where they're going, but gleefully take a scenic route to find it.