Surprises in wrestling

[Burke]

What were the biggest ones for you?

Mine will always be John Cena returning at the 2008 Royal Rumble. I thought for sure he was out until after WrestleMania.

Also, Chris Jericho becoming the first Undisputed Champion really shocked me at the time. I figured they’d want that honour to go to either Rock or Austin.

Some things would have been huge surprises to me but they got spoiled. I remember looking forward to finding out who ran over Austin in 2000 but one of my friends told me what happened on the Tuesday morning after it happened, days before it was even on TV here. I really thought he was joking when he said it was Rikishi. Sable’s return in 2003 was also spoiled for me by someone in school looking up the SmackDown spoilers in class and telling me that she interrupted Torrie's Playboy segment.

[Tarry]

The Raw/Nitro simulcast with Shane showing up on Nitro is probably the top of my list tbh.

[Burke]

That whole thing was shocking at the time.

I remember that night when Vince was in the ring naming all the WCW people he could potentially hire/fire. He started off by naming people like Buff Bagwell, Lex Luger, etc. I was pretty much screaming at the TV "say Goldberg!"

Actually, that's another surprise to me. When that Goldberg video package aired at WrestleMania 19 saying that he was coming to WWE. I don't think I looked online at wrestling rumours or anything at the time because I knew nothing about that and was stunned for a second after I saw that video.

[Brandon]

Kharma at the Royal Rumble.

[Tiarnán]

I agree with Cena returning at the Rumble. It was completely hidden and was just a genuine shock for everyone I think. I think the buzz from that is what really drove him out of that murky period where the boos were still stacked up against him; things hadn't been as bad as they were in late 2005 - Unforgiven 2006 but this was the big turning point.

Otherwise I can't really pinpoint any 'recent' ones. I don't know why but Undertaker's gong at Royal Rumble 2004 shocked me, as did Benoit winning the match which just seemed really odd to me at the time.

Cena being drafted is another good one. The draft from the year before featuring the likes of Spike Dudley, Nidia, Mark Jindrak and Rene Dupree, as much as I love some of them, lowered my expectations for the year's in terms of big names so to have one of the biggest names and the WWE Champion move on the first night was massive.

[Burke]

Oh, Undertaker's return at Judgment Day 2000 also. Not the fact that he returned (it was obvious the creepy "he's here" videos must have been for him), but the fact that he returned as a biker and came out to a Kid Rock song.