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The split-second moments of magic that changed EVERYTHING for performers and the very fate of WWE.
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00:00So for a time there, WWE got a little bit predictable.
00:03It was likely due to the fact they were the only game in town,
00:06but still, sometimes you want a bit of madness, and it never arrived.
00:10The reason we did want it, though, is because WWE has done it a lot of times before.
00:15A lot of times!
00:16So, yes, I am signed for WhatCulture.
00:18Please do go and massage that subscribe button.
00:20This is 10 precise turning points when WWE did the impossible.
00:24Number 10, Finn Balor kicks Edge out of the Judgment Day.
00:27So at first, this seems stupid.
00:29The Judgment Day had just defeated the team of Finn Balor, AJ Styles, and Liv Morgan at Hell in the Cell 2022,
00:35and within 24 hours, they turned on Leader Edge and booted him out of the group.
00:39Furthermore, they recruited Balor, so all of this was very confusing.
00:43It was like playing top trumps in reverse.
00:45As it turned out, Vince McMahon wanted to add some spookiness to the faction,
00:49and because the Rated-R Superstar didn't fancy that, we made some changes.
00:52Little did we know how good this was going to be.
00:55Because a month after this, we did get that seismic shift where McMahon was forced out of the company,
00:59and Triple H took over, and do you want to know who really benefited from that?
01:03The flippin' Judgment Day.
01:05They went right after the Mysterios as they actually tried to turn Dominik,
01:08and rather than just have Edge return to save the day, he failed.
01:12Domi Boy was corrupted, and it was the best damn decision of the year.
01:16It turned Mini Mysterio into a wonderful dickhead,
01:19and the whole group now is one of the best aspects of Raw.
01:21No one had that on their bingo cards, with many advocating for WWE to cut their losses and start again.
01:26This is the way to do it, though.
01:28Fix the problem, see what does succeed, and ride that into the future.
01:32I genuinely hope these guys are together forever.
01:35Number 9, The New Day Heel Turn.
01:37So this was quite the revelation.
01:39WWE actually listened to their wrestlers, and what do you know, they were right.
01:43As soon as Big E's, Avia Woods, and Kofi Kingston were given the original New Day gimmick,
01:47they knew it was going to be a disaster.
01:50Motivational Singers was never going to get them over,
01:52so why don't we go the other way with it, be infuriatingly positive,
01:55so that fans would happily boo them out the building.
01:58Kind of sounds like me on this channel.
02:00They had to go through the ringer with this, though,
02:01as Vince McMahon was dead set on them being good guys.
02:04But as soon as those New Day sucks chants began,
02:07they had their ammunition to fight back.
02:09As such, Woods went to Vince and basically put his career on the line,
02:12and promised the boss if they just let the trio run with it,
02:15within weeks they'd be among the most hated acts on the roster.
02:18And man, he smashed that, didn't he?
02:20Within no time at all, what felt like a mistake
02:22became a proper Hall of Fame act that is still going strong today.
02:26I don't actually think I could love them any more than I do.
02:28They are the best.
02:30Number 8, John Cena returns at the 2008 Raw Rumble.
02:33This still makes no sense.
02:34I don't care what your argument for it is.
02:36John Cena tore his peck in a random Raw match against Mr. Kennedy,
02:40Kennedy, and was going to be out for at least eight months.
02:43Even coming back in that time frame would be amazing.
02:46This is a serious injury.
02:47And then we got to January, which by the way,
02:49using your wrestling maths is only three months later,
02:52and Cena was the surprise number 30 entrant in the Rumble.
02:55How?
02:56I need answers.
02:57It was one of the great moments of the show,
02:59and go and listen to the fans.
03:01Even though we were in New York,
03:02a crowd notorious for never giving John an easy ride,
03:05they erupted when his music hit because they couldn't believe it.
03:08This wasn't logical.
03:09The best part is, within seconds they go back to booing him,
03:12as they remember how much they dislike Big Match John,
03:14but it doesn't matter.
03:15This is still so good even today.
03:17It was impossible though,
03:19even though somehow, we did see it happen.
03:21Number seven, Gunter paying off an accidental 25-year story.
03:25So let us be honest here.
03:26Every Intercontinental Champion from about 2003 to 2022
03:30had the same story.
03:32They were going to bring prominence back to the title,
03:34and finally we could care about it again.
03:36Nope.
03:37Some were more successful than others,
03:38but the problem was, this never lasted.
03:41Sure, for a few weeks it felt like we had re-established its former glory,
03:44and then more ridiculous things would happen,
03:46or people would literally forget they were even the champion.
03:50Great.
03:50I'd give a pass to The Miz,
03:52who was able to treat it like the biggest prize in the game for a short while there,
03:55but even his attempts don't compare to Gunther's.
03:58The big man won the IC belt ages ago,
04:00and ever since has been singing its praises,
04:02and defending it like nothing else matters.
04:04You do need to give credit to Triple H, who clearly made this a priority,
04:07as well as the likes of Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, and Sheamus,
04:10who also played their role wonderfully.
04:12But ultimately, Gunther has been given the freedom to care,
04:15and look at that, now we care too.
04:17It's also just a good sign for future independent talents who joined WWE,
04:21because again, there was a time when no matter who you were,
04:24nothing was guaranteed,
04:25so Gunther is spearheading that revolution.
04:28Number six, making the best of beating the streak.
04:30Even though The Undertaker himself has said differently in many an interview,
04:33I still think Brock Lesnar beating the streak was a success.
04:37Vince McMahon made this call on the day of WrestleMania 30,
04:40as he told the dead man,
04:41if not Brock, who will ever defeat you at WrestleMania?
04:44I like to think he knew,
04:45and what am I talking about?
04:47Well, after the beast had returned a couple of years prior,
04:50he came across like a megastar.
04:52As the powers that be were upset he left back in 2004, however,
04:56Lesnar had to be punished.
04:57Therefore, he lost to John Cena,
04:59he lost to Triple H,
05:00and any momentum he had was diminished.
05:02I saw it first hand,
05:03it was stupid.
05:04And sure, there were other ways to light a fire under his ass,
05:07but you can't say this didn't work.
05:09As soon as Brock handed the phenom his first loss at the show of shows,
05:12he became the company's end of level boss,
05:15as we did use this to spur him forward to the point he's still riding those waves today.
05:19It got even better when Lesnar destroyed Cena at SummerSlam later that year,
05:23and both of these events were deemed impossible.
05:26Nobody ever thought The Undertaker would lose at the granddaddy of them all,
05:29and Cena was the golden boy.
05:31Seeing him manhandled this way was a genuine shock.
05:33So this is the wrestling heel that I'm happy to die on,
05:36because we did indeed take an unthinkable scenario,
05:39and had Brock dominate both of them.
05:41The results, as far as I'm concerned,
05:43are there for all to see.
05:44Number five,
05:45Vince McMahon tries to reason with Steve Austin.
05:47The 22nd of September 1997 Raw is widely considered as the show,
05:51with a then-WWF strapped a rocket to Steve Austin.
05:54This is when Stone Cold did finally drop Vince McMahon with a stunner,
05:57and the rest, as they say,
05:59is history.
06:00Kinda.
06:00Because while it has been chatted about to death,
06:02the events of that year's Survivor Series cannot be overlooked.
06:05The Rattlesnake was already destined for huge things,
06:08but when McMahon had to come out in defence of the Monstral Screwjob,
06:10only to turn himself mega-heel,
06:12Austin had the perfect foil.
06:14Everybody now wanted to see Vince have his ass kicked,
06:16so he could do that week in and week out to Thunderous approval.
06:20It got better in December,
06:21when Vince demanded Steve forfeit the Intercontinental title and give it to The Rock,
06:25which of course not opened the door for that rivalry,
06:27but set Austin on a course for the World Championship,
06:30he was away.
06:31I suppose the shock side of it is that it wasn't Shawn Michaels or another wrestler
06:34who was going to spark Stone Cold into life,
06:37it was the owner of the company,
06:38who had basically been a lead commentator up to this point.
06:42I mean, did anybody predict this?
06:44I doubt it.
06:44Number four,
06:45Randy Savage falls upwards.
06:46If you want to say that WrestleMania 4 was Randy Savage's WWF highlight,
06:51I get it.
06:52He won the one-night-only tournament and became the WWF champion.
06:56It was great.
06:57You're also thinking long-term here,
06:58because during celebrations,
06:59a quick glance at Hulk Hogan and Miss Elizabeth was going to plant the seeds for the Mega Powers.
07:04In 12 months' time,
07:05the two would be at loggerheads,
07:06thanks to one of the best stories in wrestling history.
07:08The real twist with this one is that it almost didn't happen.
07:11On the same night,
07:12Hogan had been screwed out of the title courtesy of Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase,
07:16with the original plan calling for the Macho Man to defeat the Honky Tonk Man for the Intercontinental Belt.
07:21For some reason,
07:22Honky decided he didn't want to do that,
07:24so as a make-good,
07:25Vince McMahon decided,
07:26well,
07:26why don't we just go one step further with Savage?
07:29And we did.
07:29Without all of this,
07:30though,
07:30you can't do the stuff with Randy and Hulk,
07:33and technically,
07:34it wasn't even the original plan.
07:35Wrestling is bonkers.
07:36Number three,
07:37Sami Zayn joins the bloodline.
07:39April 2022.
07:41This is the first occasion when Sami Zayn started to flutter around the bloodline,
07:45and if anyone predicted the fallout,
07:47I don't believe you.
07:48Nobody thought this was going to happen.
07:50It's important to remember that this group was put in place to help establish Roman Reigns as the mega champion,
07:54which is why we had all that drama with the Usos in 2021.
07:58When Jimmy and Jay eventually did join up,
08:00it was a little disappointing.
08:01It kind of just happened.
08:02As soon as Zayn was included,
08:04though,
08:04everybody benefited.
08:06The Usos were all of a sudden more than just bumping machines for Roman,
08:08whereas Reigns' feuds had that extra something-something,
08:11because it would always relate to Sami somehow.
08:13Seeing him slowly win everybody over was amazing.
08:16It gave all this so much more drama,
08:18which was even more surprising,
08:19because weeks before this,
08:21Zayn had been feuding with Johnny Knoxville.
08:22Now that rocked,
08:23but did anybody start saying,
08:24oh,
08:25I know where this will go?
08:26Of course not,
08:27and that's the beauty of it.
08:29There was plenty more that happened because of this,
08:30which is why,
08:31number two,
08:32Cody Rhodes and Sami Zayn get over at the same time.
08:35Amazingly,
08:36before Cody Rhodes won the 2023 Royal Rumble,
08:38there was a fear that fans were going to turn on the American Nightmare.
08:42That didn't happen.
08:43I get the logic behind this,
08:44as Sami Zayn was so over,
08:46and on a collision course with Roman Reigns at the Elimination Chamber,
08:48maybe all of this could go wrong.
08:50The Daniel Bryan situation was used as a comparison,
08:53but there was a huge difference here.
08:55No matter what happened at that premium live event,
08:57people were still very much into what Cody was doing.
09:00The joy of this is that WWE handled it all so well,
09:03we now have two top babyfaces that have the audience in their pocket.
09:07The company has been wanting that for years,
09:09and while this isn't stone cold on the rock,
09:10it has helped no end.
09:12All the numbers are going up,
09:13and therefore everybody is happy.
09:14It's also resulted in some tremendous storytelling
09:16that has helped WrestleMania feel like a huge deal,
09:19and don't forget,
09:20all of this assisted the Elimination Chamber show too.
09:23That's very much considered a B event,
09:25and yet the anticipation going in was off the charts.
09:28You just don't get that in this era anymore,
09:30so it's pats on the back all round.
09:32I mean, everybody has just done such a good job here.
09:35Number one, Jey Uso turns on Sami Zayn,
09:38and it's also potentially set up two WrestleMania main events.
09:42As you can tell, yes, I really like the bloodline angle.
09:44On the March 6th, 2022 episode of Raw, though,
09:47Sami Zayn and Jey Uso hugged,
09:49before Jey slapped the shib out of Sami,
09:51shouting the whole time,
09:52this is about family.
09:53The honorary Uso was done.
09:55He got a great reaction from the fans,
09:57because people are invested in this madness.
09:59And the whole scenario ended with Cody Rhodes coming out to save the day,
10:02as both he and Zayn sent the Uso's packing.
10:04So this just ties into everything we were just talking about.
10:07The absolute joy of joys, though,
10:09is that now, should WWE choose to,
10:11they can headline night one of Mania
10:13with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn versus the Usos for the tag titles,
10:16and then night two with Rhodes versus Roman Reigns.
10:19This isn't set in stone,
10:21but good grief, that's incredible.
10:22And if Cody is successful,
10:24we are going to go home with some serious warm and fuzzy feelings in our tum-tums.
10:28It's not like this is a happy accident either.
10:30We have been building all of these for at least eight months,
10:33and that should be the way.
10:34That's why it's impossible too.
10:36You think Vince McMahon would have done this?
10:38The amount of scripts ripped up in the process
10:39would have stopped it dead in its tracks.
10:42And that, my friends,
10:43is why I just can't wait.
10:45Know of any other precise turning points when WWE did the impossible?
10:48Make sure you let us know in the comments below,
10:50and then don't forget to like the video,
10:51share the video,
10:52and subscribe.
10:53Then head on over to whatculture.com
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10:58whatculture, WWE,
10:59and I'm Emilla316.
11:00And if you would like to watch another video,
11:02kapow!
11:03There's some on the screen right now.
11:05Thank you very much for joining me as always,
11:07and remember,
11:07today I want you to go out there and live all of your dreams.
11:11The world is your oyster,
11:12and I totally believe in you.
11:14Goodbye.
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