10 Fascinating Facts About WWE In 2011

WhatCulture

CM Punk making history! Randy Orton shooting on WWE! Legends turning down contracts! 2011 was mad.

Transcript

00:002011 was a time, people. Punk went into pipe-bomb mode, Edge retired from the ring for approximately 9 years due to seriously depressing injuries,

00:09WrestleMania 27 remains the most unique entry in the famous pay-per-view series, and The Miz barely remembers any of it.

00:16What a year indeed.

00:17And one full of fascinating facts that you probably didn't even know about.

00:21If only someone decided to make a video about them, eh? Oh wait, yeah, that's my job.

00:25So I am Gareth, this is WhatCultureWrestling, and here are 10 fascinating facts about WWE in 2011.

00:31Number 10. CM Punk's MSG stat still stands.

00:35To this day, CM Punk is the last man to win the WWE title inside the hallowed halls of Madison Square Garden.

00:42Now, it does feel strange to say that WWE's most famous venue hasn't hosted the top prize-switching wrestlers since Survivor Series 2011.

00:49But oh boy, yeah, it's true. Punk was the last guy to do it when he beat Alberto Del Rio that November.

00:54The belt has changed hands in places like The Greatest Place on Earth, Manchester, England, and also Jeddah, Saudi Arabia since.

01:01But not at MSG.

01:02Thinking back though, Punk was probably a little bit peeved at Survivor's 2011, wasn't he?

01:07The Rock returned to the ring for the first time since 2004 for a bumper tag team bout with John Cena vs The Miz and R-Truth.

01:14So that was WWE's leading story for the pay-per-view.

01:17And Punk's annoyance at being pushed behind other top names would become something of a trend until he left the promotion in 2014.

01:23Still, at least he can boast about something, being the last wrestler in promotional history to win the big one inside the world's most famous arena.

01:31It's actually a bit of a shocker that Punk hasn't brought this up in a promo yet.

01:34Perhaps that just sadly speaks to the Garden's decreased importance.

01:38Number 9. John Cena made WWE draft history.

01:41Was this 2011 draft the most useless in history?

01:44Now that's up for debate because WWE does have a habit of stepping on their own toes with this thing.

01:48However, 2011's version was only valid for around 4 months before creative decided to turn Raw into a super show that featured SmackDown stars too.

01:57Now this was a response to the NFL season starting up in September.

02:00Thus it's kinda lost in the mix that John Cena made draft history.

02:04He became the first wrestler to get drafted twice in one night.

02:08Cena jumped to SmackDown as the top pick early in the special broadcast.

02:12Then back to Raw as the final pick.

02:14Quite why WWE thought this was a good idea is anyone's yes really.

02:17Way to dump all over your own draft guys.

02:20Nothing new there though right?

02:21Being honest Cena's on again off again switch to SmackDown didn't do much for the blue brand.

02:26It just looked like a loser's show next to the flagship.

02:28Did Vince McMahon take a knock to the head and think Smackers was originally a WCW product or something?

02:33Stupid stuff.

02:34And while we're talking about the draft I want to know right now what is your favourite draft moment of all time?

02:39You let me know in the comments section down below.

02:41Now back to the video.

02:42Number 8. When Edge knew he was on the way out.

02:45Edge worked versus Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania 27 knowing he had a date with Destiny less than 24 hours later.

02:53The fan favourite had an MRI booked in for the next day and Docs pretty much told him he had to retire from the ring.

02:59So that was actually hanging over Edge heading into Mania.

03:02And it must have been an emotional experience for the rated R superstar.

03:05He'd eventually grit his teeth and work Mania's opener knowing it could be his final match ever.

03:10Of course Edge returned to the ring in 2020 for more magical memories before eventually joining AEW.

03:16But God only knows how he pulled it together versus Del Rio.

03:19WWE didn't seem sure that the MRI would end Edge's career either.

03:22I mean they had him beat Alberto on the big show's opener to retain his world heavyweight title.

03:27They had no clue did they?

03:28Later Christian would be drafted in to replace Edge for a ladder match with Del Rio at Extreme Rules.

03:33And there's just no way that Adam Copeland could have worked that sort of match given his physical condition.

03:38How the fact he was even able to work Mania was a minor miracle.

03:41The man is a superhero.

03:42Number 7.

03:43The Miz doesn't remember his Mania main event.

03:46See here the image of the face of a man who doesn't have a clue where he is or what is going on.

03:50The Miz suffered a concussion when John Cena speared him on the concrete at ringside during Mania 27's main event.

03:56And he still doesn't actually remember what happened after that.

03:59In short Miz can't remember the bout finishing stretch.

04:02Or really anything after his head bounced off the floor.

04:04There is some footage online of Miz asking WWE officials if he did a good job.

04:08He's stumbling around confused and out of it.

04:11It's honestly quite scary to watch.

04:12Knowing all that it is amazing that Cena and The Rock who interfered to give Miz the win were able to pull everything together for the finish.

04:19Miz's old pal Alex Riley was involved too.

04:22It had to be a bummer for Miz to crash back down to earth post match and try to grasp what had actually happened out there.

04:28Like this was his first Mania headliner.

04:30And the poor sod doesn't even remember the most important part of it.

04:33Concussions are serious business folks.

04:35Number 6.

04:36The only Mania with no title changes.

04:38How's that for a crap stat?

04:40WrestleMania 27 remains the only entry in the iconic event series with no title changes to speak of.

04:46Sure the card only had three title bouts on it.

04:49But none of those belts changed hands.

04:51Edge retained the old world title versus Alberto Del Rio.

04:54Sheamus held onto the US strap in a pre-show lumberjack bout versus Daniel Bryan.

04:59And The Miz defended his WWE title versus John Cena in the main event.

05:03This had never happened before and thankfully hasn't happened since.

05:06Every single other WrestleMania show has had at least one title switch on it.

05:10For some reason WWE reasoned that wasn't necessary in 2011.

05:13Even though if you polled 100 people 100 of them would have picked Cena to beat Miz that night.

05:18But The Rock had something to say about that before setting up his once in a lifetime scrap with John the next night.

05:24Yep once in a lifetime.

05:25Royal Rumble winner Del Rio failed to win big gold despite Edge's forthcoming retirement.

05:30And the United States title situation was just dumped onto the non-pay-per-view portion of Mania.

05:35And as legend has it Sheamus picked working Bryan over a match with Rey Mysterio.

05:39You might have regretted that in the end.

05:41Thank you very much for checking out this fascinating video today my friends.

05:44And if you're enjoying what you're watching then hit that subscribe button down below and you'll get more of this fascinating stuff in your life.

05:50Now back to the video.

05:51Number 5.

05:51Randy Orton torched WWE in an interview.

05:54This was a bit unexpected.

05:56But maybe it shouldn't have been considering Randy Orton's bad boy reputation.

05:59The Viper appeared on the Phoenix-based Rock Station 98KUPD to promote WrestleMania.

06:05But instead ended up burning the whole business down around him in a startling interview.

06:10Orton talked candidly about his past drug use.

06:13Claimed The Rock needed a teleprompter because he couldn't remember his promos.

06:16And said that Kelly Kelly liked to sleep around with the whole roster.

06:19Yikes.

06:20Naturally this got Randy some serious heat behind the scenes.

06:24But that wasn't reflected with the demotion on screen.

06:26He was deemed pretty much untouchable as a TV character wasn't he?

06:29In fairness Orton did at least offer an apology to Kelly for his remarks.

06:33Keep in mind that WWE was right in the thick of the PG era around this time.

06:37So corporate child-friendly investors slash sponsors would not have been chuffed to hear Randy scorch the earth like this.

06:43But he did it anyway.

06:45Cause he could.

06:46Number 4.

06:47Kevin Nash was almost the anonymous Raw GM.

06:50Now this right here is something else.

06:51A few former WWE writers have revealed to the media that Big Sexy was originally penciled in to be the anonymous Raw GM.

06:58But WWE had to wait on his TNA contract to lapse before they could pull the trigger.

07:02Now Kevin Nash did get out of his TNA deal to appear as a surprise in the 2011 Royal Rumble.

07:08How could we forget?

07:09He then joined the company later that year for one last run.

07:12But he was ultimately never actually involved with the GM spot.

07:15Apparently plans changed.

07:17Shocking.

07:17It is rather interesting that creative would pin their hopes on a wrestler contracted elsewhere in the first place.

07:22That'd be like WWE's writers drafting up a storyline today with an AEW star in mind.

07:27And then just waiting for their deal to run down before they can actually do anything with it.

07:31It's a strange way to do business.

07:33In retrospect, Nash would have been a much better choice for the laptop GM reveal than Hornswoggle.

07:38This is simply what happens when wrestling books a story without thinking of the conclusion first.

07:43Let's just see what happens.

07:45Or here's a thought, let's not.

07:46Number 3.

07:47CM Punk was ready to fight post-Pipebomb.

07:49CM Punk's Pipebomb promo on the 27th of June 2011 episode remains one of the most shocking moments in Raw's rich history.

07:58But there was almost more drama behind the curtain than in front of it.

08:01In fact, Punk thought his speech would annoy so many people backstage that they'd all be waiting for a fistfight.

08:06So he exited to the side of the Raw stage rather than through Gorilla.

08:10Sure enough, the hallways were empty because the entire roster was jammed up close to the entrance waiting to see what might happen.

08:17And shortly thereafter, Punk had one of the trippiest conversations of his entire life.

08:22Chris Masters hilariously walked up and asked Punk,

08:24Did you just hear what Punk said?

08:26Somehow, Masters didn't realise it was him at first.

08:29Brilliant.

08:29Even Punk was confused, like Chris, it's me.

08:32Punk told this story on AEW's Unrestricted podcast in 2021, before that company's name was mud to him.

08:39WWE's roster didn't erupt into a brawl, of course.

08:42But it's still fun to find out that CM figured he'd ruffled a fair few feathers with his work.

08:46Number 2.

08:47Brock Lesnar almost did a Floyd Mayweather.

08:49Did you know the stare down Brock Lesnar had with The Undertaker at UFC 121 was supposed to facilitate something more at WrestleMania 27?

08:57UFC head Dana White said no chance, though.

09:00So Taker's moment just became a curious cameo more than anything else.

09:04There's actually nothing stopping WWE from pulling something similar in 2024 with other MMA fighters.

09:10But maybe they wouldn't be stars of the stature of a Brock.

09:12Regardless, some sort of WWE and UFC interaction is surely on the cards now both companies are under the same umbrella, right?

09:19But back to the subject of Lesnar and Undertaker, it's believed that Lesnar would have worked some sort of wrestler vs fighter scenario at Mania 27.

09:26Yep, akin to Floyd Mayweather vs Big Show back in 2008.

09:30Brock's WWE history would have been easy to explore here, but he wasn't actually the first choice that Vince McMahon had in mind for The Undertaker on the biggest card of the entire year.

09:39Dana may have said no for Brock, but this legend said no for himself.

09:44Number 1. Sting turned down WWE's Hall of Fame.

09:48WWE's bold plan for WrestleMania 27 included inducting Sting into the Hall of Fame, then lining up a huge dream match vs The Undertaker.

09:57What a weekend that would have been.

09:58As the story goes, the Stinger was hesitant to agree due to WWE's checkered past when booking ex-WCW stars.

10:05So in the end, he said thanks, but no thanks.

10:07Cryptic teasers did air on television before the plug was pulled though, which is quite interesting.

10:12That just did not matter to Sting though.

10:14And come to think of it, what was it with WWE in 2011 and starting angles with TNA's top talent in mind?

10:20Very specific.

10:21The Stinger wouldn't sign with Vince McMahon's league until 2014, but his 2014-2015 run there is generally considered a bit of a waste of everyone's time.

10:30And another thing, where would Triple H vs Taker have fit into all this?

10:33Perhaps that was a last-minute switcheroo once it became clear that Sting was not playing ball.

10:38WWE got things rolling on Trips vs The Dead Man in late February after all.

10:42The same 21st of February date that had been referenced in those teasers.

10:46Hmm, what could have been, eh?

10:48Have you enjoyed this fascinating look at the year of 2011 in WWE?

10:51Well, go and check out this other video right here about some fascinating WrestleMania facts.

10:56You're gonna have such a fun time, you lucky person.

10:58Now, bye-bye.

10:59I'm sorry.

11:17I'm sorry.

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