Ranking Wrestling's Most Shocking Surprise Every Year 1990-2020

8. 2013 - Daniel Bryan Beats John Cena For The WWE Championship

Hulk Hogan John Cena nwo
WWE

If only everything that followed that moment was a "shocking surprise".

Capping off a fabulous, fabulous SummerSlam main event, Daniel Bryan was made as a main eventer by virtue of his clean-as-a-sheet victory over 'The Champ'. Randy Orton's cash-in afforded SummerSlam 2013 a thrilling conclusion, because nobody knew how much WWE would try and undo all of Cena and Bryan's hard work over the subsequent months.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett