12 Best WWE Title Changes At SummerSlam

2. WWE Championship (2013): John Cena (c) Vs. Daniel Bryan; Bryan (c) Vs. Randy Orton

Randy Orton SummerSlam 2013
WWE.com

WWE hadn’t corporate-ized the “Yes Movement” yet in 2013, but Daniel Bryan certainly had a huge following heading into his big SummerSlam matchup against John Cena. He was the undersized, underdog superstar fighting for respect and accolades. On this night, he won both.

Bryan and Cena had a classic match that proved two things: Cena can wrestle, and Bryan can out-wrestle Cena. Bryan’s victory cemented his ascension to the top of promotion, but it was the screwjob that followed with HHH and Randy Orton that would really catapult Bryan to other-worldly stature in the fans’ eyes. Bryan went from the underdog achieving his dream to the underdog who had authority figures actively trying to prevent him from living his dream.

It was that win-loss combo that solidified Bryan’s position within the company and gave WWE a major storyline to play up for the next several months. Yes, the company got seriously sidetracked for a while and very nearly went the route of making Batista the guy with his hand raised at WrestleMania XXX. But WWE came around and did what was best for business.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.