8 Times Legendary Wrestling Moments Were Reversed

Shocked Undertaker, meet Shocked Undertaker Guy.

by Andrew Pollard
Undertaker Ellis Mbeh WrestleMania Shocked Fan
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The wrestling business is built on memories and moments. If you think about why you really love wrestling – or why you did love wrestling, if you're a little lapsed these days – you can likely trace that back to a certain special moment that still puts a smile on your face to this day.

Now, while professional wrestling is indeed built on such things, it’s also so often based on repeating what has previously worked. For as long as we can all remember, there’s always been talk of how nothing in the wrestling industry is ever really new. Storylines, characters, matches themselves – all of these are often influenced, or outright copied, from what things that have happened years or decades prior. To sum it up it in a nutshell, it's a case of what's old is now new again.

Still, there are those times where what has done well in the past gets revisited with a new spin on it - or with the roles reversed. And it’s those particular moments that are going to be spotlighted here.

Up ahead, we’ve got eight such occasions where WWE has taken a classic, iconic moment of yesteryear and flipped that original moment on its head.

8. Briefcase Buddies

Undertaker Ellis Mbeh WrestleMania Shocked Fan
WWE.com

There are only two people in the history of the Money in the Bank concept to have cashed-in the MITB briefcase on each other. Those two?

Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar.

For so many wrestling fans, the outright best ending in WrestleMania history was Rollins shocking the world by cashing in at WrestleMania 31 during the Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns match for the WWE Championship. Famously, the final shot of ‘Mania that year would be Rollins holding the WWE Title high above his head after hitting a Curb Stomp on Reigns.

More recently, this month’s Extreme Rules concluded with Brock repaying the favour to The Architect. Seth and Becky Lynch may have retained their respective Universal and Raw Women’s Championships in a tag bout against Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans, but Paul Heyman’s Beast was lurking in the shadows to cash in his Money in the Bank contract and take the Universal Championship from Rollins.

The lasting shot of Extreme Rules? That was of Brock Lesnar this time standing on the stage as the new Universal Champion.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.