The split-second moments of magic that changed EVERYTHING for performers and the very fate of WWE.
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00:00 So for a time there, WWE got a little bit predictable. It was likely due to the fact
00:04 they were the only game in town, but still, sometimes you want a bit of madness and it
00:09 never arrived. The reason we did want it though, is because WWE has done it a lot of times
00:14 before. A lot of times. So yes, I am sorry for what culture, please do go and massage
00:19 that subscribe button. This is 10 Precise Turning Points When WWE Did The Impossible.
00:24 10. Finn Balor Kicks Edge Out Of The Judgment Day
00:27 At first, this seemed stupid. The Judgment Day had just defeated the team of Finn Balor,
00:32 AJ Styles and Liv Morgan at Hell in a Cell 2022, and within 24 hours they turned on leader
00:37 Edge and booted him out of the group. Furthermore, they recruited Balor, so all of this was very
00:42 confusing. It was like playing Top Trumps in reverse. As it turned out, Vince McMahon
00:46 wanted to add some spookiness to the faction, and because the Rated R Superstar didn't
00:50 fancy that, we made some changes. Little did we know how good this was going to be.
00:55 Because a month after this, we did get that seismic shift where McMahon was forced out
00:59 of the company and Triple H took over. And do you want to know who really benefitted
01:02 from that? The flipping Judgment Day. They went right after the Mysterios as they actually
01:07 tried to turn Dominik, and rather than just have Edge return to save the day, he failed.
01:12 Domi-Boy was corrupted, and it was the best damn decision of the year. It turned Mini
01:16 Mysterio into a wonderful dickhead, and the whole group now is one of the best aspects
01:21 of Raw. No one heard that on their bingo cards, with many advocating for WWE to cut
01:25 their losses and start again. This is the way to do it though. Fix the problems, see
01:29 what does succeed, and ride that into the future. I genuinely hope these guys are together
01:35 forever.
01:35 9. The New Day Heel Turn
01:37 So this was quite the revelation. WWE actually listened to their wrestlers, and what do you
01:42 know, they were right. As soon as Big E, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston were given the original
01:46 New Day gimmick, they knew it was going to be a disaster. Motivational Singers was never
01:51 going to get them over, so why don't we go the other way with it, be infuriatingly
01:55 positive so that fans would happily boo them out the building.
01:58 They had to go through the ringer with this though, as Vince McMahon was dead set on them
02:03 being good guys. But as soon as those New Day sucks chants began, they had their ammunition
02:08 to fight back. As such, Woods went to Vince and basically put his career on the line,
02:12 and promised the boss if they just let the trio run with it, within weeks they'd be
02:16 among the most hated acts on the roster. And man, he smashed that, didn't he.
02:20 Within no time at all, what felt like a mistake became a proper Hall of Fame act that is still
02:24 going strong today. I don't actually think I could love them any more than I do. They
02:29 are the best.
02:29 8. John Cena Returns At The 2008 Raw Rumble
02:32 This still makes no sense. I don't care what your argument for it is. John Cena tore his
02:37 pec in a random Raw match against Mr. Kennedy, and was going to be out for at least eight
02:43 months. Even coming back in that time frame would be amazing. This is a serious injury.
02:47 And then we got to January, which by the way, using your wrestling maths, is only three
02:51 months later, and Cena was the surprise number 30 entrant in the Rumble. How? I need answers.
02:57 It was one of the great moments of the show, and go and listen to the fans. Even though
03:01 we were in New York, a crowd notorious for never giving John an easy ride, they erupted
03:06 when his music hit because they couldn't believe it. This wasn't logical. The best
03:09 part is, within seconds they go back to booing him as they remember how much they disliked
03:13 Big Match John, but it doesn't matter. This is still so good even today. It was impossible
03:18 though, even though somehow, we did see it happen.
03:21 7. Gunter Paying Off An Accidental 25 Year Story
03:25 So let us be honest here. Every Intercontinental Champion from about 2003 to 2022 had the same
03:31 story. They were going to bring prominence back to the title, and finally we could care
03:35 about it again. Nope. Some were more successful than others, but the problem was, this never
03:40 lasted. Sure, for a few weeks it felt like we had re-established its former glory, and
03:44 then more ridiculous things would happen, or people would literally forget they were
03:49 even the champion. Great. I'd give a pass to The Miz who was able to treat it like the
03:53 biggest prize in the game for a short while there, but even his attempts don't compare
03:57 to Gunther's. The big man won the IC belt ages ago, and ever since has been singing
04:01 its praises and defending it like nothing else matters. You do need to give credit to
04:05 Triple H who clearly made this a priority, as well as the likes of Rey Mysterio, Ricochet
04:09 and Sheamus who also played their role wonderfully. But ultimately, Gunther has been given the
04:14 freedom to care, and look at that, now we care too. It's also just a good sign for
04:18 future independent talents who join WWE, because again, there was a time when no matter who
04:23 you were, nothing was guaranteed, so Gunther is spearheading that revolution.
04:28 6. Making The Best Of Beating The Streak
04:30 Even though The Undertaker himself has said differently in many an interview, I still
04:34 think Brock Lesnar beating The Streak was a success. Vince McMahon made this call on
04:38 the day of WrestleMania 30 as he told the Deadman, "If not Brock, who will ever defeat
04:42 you at WrestleMania?" I like to think he knew, and what am I talking about? Well.
04:47 After the piece of return a couple of years prior, he came across like a megastar. As
04:52 the powers that be were upset he left back in 2004, however, Lesnar had to be punished.
04:57 Therefore he lost to John Cena, he lost to Triple H, and any momentum he had was diminished.
05:02 I saw it first hand, it was stupid. And sure there were other ways to light a fire under
05:06 his ass, but you can't say this didn't work. As soon as Brock handed the Fiend Arm his
05:10 first loss at the show of shows, he became the company's end of level boss. So we did
05:15 use this to spur him forward to the point he's still riding those waves today.
05:19 It got even better when Lesnar destroyed Cena at Summerslam later that year, and both of
05:23 these events were deemed impossible. Nobody ever thought The Undertaker would lose at
05:27 the granddaddy of them all, and Cena was the golden boy. Seeing him manhandled this way
05:32 was a genuine shock.
05:33 So this is the wrestling hill that I'm happy to die on, because we did indeed take
05:37 an unthinkable scenario and have Brock dominate both of them. The results as far as I'm
05:42 concerned are there for all to see.
05:44 5. Vince McMahon Tries To Reason With Steve Austin
05:47 The 22nd of September 1997 Raw is widely considered as the show, with a then WWF strapped for
05:53 Rocket to Steve Austin. This is when Stone Cold did finally drop Vince McMahon with a
05:57 stunner, and the rest as they say, is history. Kinda.
06:00 Because while it has been chatted about to death, the events at that year's Survivor
06:03 Series cannot be overlooked. The Rattlesnake was already destined for huge things, but
06:08 when McMahon had to come out in defence of the Montreal Screwdrop only to turn himself
06:11 mega heel, Austin had the perfect foil. Everybody now wanted to see Vince have his ass kicked,
06:16 so he could do that week in and week out to thunderous approval.
06:20 It got better in December when Vince demanded Steve forfeit the Intercontinental title and
06:24 give it to The Rock, which of course not opened the door for that rivalry, but set Austin
06:28 on a course for the World Championship. I suppose the shock side of it is that it wasn't
06:33 Shawn Michaels or another wrestler who was going to spark Stone Cold into life, it was
06:37 the owner of the company who had basically been a lead commentator up to this point.
06:42 I mean, did anybody predict this? I doubt it.
06:44 4. Randy Savage Falls Upwards
06:46 If you want to say that WrestleMania 4 was Randy Savage's WWF highlight, I get it. He
06:52 won the one night only tournament and became the WWF Champion. It was great.
06:56 You're also thinking long term here because during celebrations a quick glance at Hulk
07:00 Hogan and Miss Elizabeth was going to plant the seeds for the mega powers. In 12 months
07:04 time the two would be at loggerheads thanks to one of the best stories in wrestling history.
07:08 The real twist with this one is that it almost didn't happen.
07:11 On the same night Hogan had been screwed out of the title courtesy of Andre the Giant and
07:15 Ted DiBiase, with the original plan calling for the Macho Man to defeat the Honky Tonk
07:19 Man for the Intercontinental belt. For some reason Honky decided he didn't want to do that,
07:24 so as a make good Vince McMahon decided, well why don't we just go one step further with Savage.
07:28 Without all of this though, you can't do the stuff with Randy and Hulk,
07:32 and technically it wasn't even the original plan. Wrestling is bonkers.
07:36 3. Sami Zayn Joins The Bloodline
07:39 April 2022. This is the first occasion when Sami Zayn started to flutter around the bloodline,
07:45 and if anyone predicted the fallout, I don't believe you. Nobody thought this was going to
07:49 happen. It's important to remember that this group was put in place to help establish Roman Reigns
07:53 as the Mega Champion, which is why we had all that drama with the Usos in 2021. When Jimmy and
07:58 Jey eventually did join up it was a little disappointing, it kinda just happened.
08:02 As soon as Zayn was included though, everybody benefited. The Usos were all of a sudden more
08:07 than just bumping machines for Roman, whereas Reigns' feuds had that extra something something,
08:11 because it would always relate to Sami somehow. Seeing him slowly win everybody over was amazing.
08:16 It gave all this so much more drama, which was even more surprising, because weeks before this
08:20 Zayn had been feuding with Johnny Knoxville. Now that rocked, but did anybody start saying,
08:24 "Oh, I know where this will go"? Of course not, and that's the beauty of it. There was plenty more
08:29 that happened because of this, which is why… 2. Cody Rhodes And Sami Zayn Get Over At The
08:34 Same Time
08:35 Amazingly, before Cody Rhodes won the 2023 Royal Rumble, there was a fear that fans were going to
08:40 turn on the American Nightmare. That didn't happen. I get the logic behind this as Sami Zayn was so
08:45 over and on a collision course with Roman Reigns at the Elimination Chamber, maybe all of this could
08:49 go wrong. The Daniel Bryan situation was used as a comparison, but there was a huge difference here.
08:54 No matter what happened at that Premium Live event, people were still very much into what
08:58 Cody was doing. The joy of this is that WWE handled it all so well, we now have two top
09:04 babyfaces that have the audience in their pocket. The company has been wanting that for years,
09:08 and while this isn't stone cold on The Rock, it has helped no end. All the numbers are going up,
09:13 and therefore everybody is happy. It's also resulted in some tremendous storytelling that
09:17 has helped WrestleMania feel like a huge deal, and don't forget all of this assisted the Elimination
09:22 Chamber show too. That's very much considered a B event, and yet the anticipation going in was
09:27 off the charts. You just don't get that in this era anymore, so it's pats on the back all round.
09:32 Everybody has just done such a good job here.
09:34 1. Jey Uso Turns On Sami Zayn
09:38 And it's also potentially set up two WrestleMania main events.
09:44 On the March 6th, 2022 episode of Raw, Sami Zayn and Jey Uso hugged before Jey slapped the
09:50 shib out of Sami, shouting the whole time "this is about family". The honorary Uso was done.
09:55 He got a great reaction from the fans, because people are invested in this madness, and the
09:59 whole scenario ended with Cody Rhodes coming out to save the day as both he and Zayn sent
10:03 the Usos packing. This just ties into everything we were just talking about.
10:06 The absolute joy of joys though, is that now, should WWE choose to, they can headline Night
10:12 One of Mania with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vs the Usos for the tag titles, and then Night Two
10:17 with Rhodes vs Roman Reigns. This isn't set in stone, but good grief, that's incredible.
10:22 And if Cody is successful, we are going to go home with some serious warm and fuzzy feelings
10:27 in our tum-tums. It's not like this is a happy accident either. We have been building all of
10:31 these for at least eight months, and that should be the way. That's why it's impossible too.
10:36 You think Vince McMahon would have done this? The amount of scripts ripped up in the process
10:39 would have stopped it dead in its tracks. And that, my friends, is why I just can't wait.
10:45 Know of any other precise turning points when WWE did the impossible? Make sure you let us
10:49 know in the comments below and then don't forget to like the video, share the video and subscribe.
10:53 Then head over to whatculture.com where you can read yourself more articles like this with your
10:56 eyes. Come and follow us on social media @whatculturewwe and @taimanmiller316. And if
11:01 you would like to watch another video, kapow, there's some on the screen right now.
11:05 Thank you very much for joining me as always and remember, today I want you to go out there and
11:09 live all of your dreams. The world is your oyster and I totally believe in you. Goodbye.