8 Great Wrestling Matches (That Weren't Supposed To Happen)

5. AJ Styles Vs. Brock Lesnar (Survivor Series 2017)

Stone Cold Triple H Survivor Series 2000
WWE.com

Just as he'd been a month earlier when filling the hole left by the virally floored Bray Wyatt at TLC 2017, AJ Styles was the blue begloved hero we all needed at Survivor Series, swooping in to save the show from a spectacularly crap contest precisely nobody wanted to see.

Pointlessly billed as brand warfare between Raw and SmackDown, in spite of the fact that any suggestion of animosity had only been tuned up for precisely the period of the pay-per-view's relevance, the champions from each show were duly lined up against one another in a test of supremacy. As such, Raw's eternal Universal Champion Brock Lesnar was handed a laughable mismatch opposite SmackDown counterpart Jinder Mahal, during the period of WWE's ultimately injurious attempts to corner an Indian market.

Two weeks out from the event, the company finally realised what a cosmic joke Mahal as their de facto top champ was, and promptly had the Modern Day Maharajah drop his ill-earned strap to actual top star AJ Styles. Overnight, a dismally drawing non-starter transformed into a never-before-seen, legitimately mouthwatering topline clash. It did not disappoint.

 
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Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.