10 present-day facts WWE fans wouldn't have imagined ten years ago

Ten years back, we would’ve imagined how WWE will look like in 2015; many of those expectations might’ve come to life while some others would’ve still stayed as a dream. Despite this, we did witness some historic moments which changed the landscape of WWE. Professional wrestling has undergone a lot of changes during the past decade as we saw the birth of some new stars while the fall of others left us stunned to the core. Certain things that we never would’ve expected ten years ago did actually happen to add the shock value and here is a rundown of such facts that reminds us how beautiful or tragic the wrestling business could be at times.

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#12 Honorable Mention: Goldust still being better than a major portion of the roster

There wouldn’t be many wrestlers that would’ve had more ups and downs that Goldust. He has seen it all in his 24 year career in professional wrestling and is a sure shot Hall of Famer once he hangs up his boots.

But what the fans didn’t expect is him to be still around and actually considered as one of the best wrestlers in the roster in 2014.

After spending nearly a decade in the independent scene, his return to WWE in 2013 and the fairytale run alongside Cody Rhodes was monumental and at the age of 45, Goldust still has a lot to give before he chooses retirement.

#11 Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero tragedy

2004 is the year which saw Chris Benoit win the WWE championship at WrestleMania XX defeating Shawn Michaels and Triple in that memorable main event. The celebration that he and Eddie Guerrero had after the show was one of those moments that’ll always give Goosebumps to a wrestling fan.

We wanted to see Benoit and Eddie still being around in the main event scene in 2014 just like Undertaker and Triple H but instead, tragedy struck.

Benoit not only lost his identity in the WWE but also tarnished his legacy with the murder-suicide incident. Eddie, on the other hand, passed away abruptly leaving the fans in tears.

It would’ve been great to see how these two would fair in the current roster if they were still alive but this still remains as a big ‘what if’ scenario’.

#10 Lesnar returning to WWE

WWE saw big money in Brock Lesnar and rallied behind him right from his debut. They invested heavily on the Beast but he had other ideas. Lesnar wanted to venture in MMA and NFL and leave WWE in the process.

Though they didn’t want to WWE let go of Lesnar after WrestleMania XX with an agreement that he’ll never wrestle for another promotion. His NFL career got screwed up big time and Lesnar did return to Wrestling. It wasn’t for WWE though.

He worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling and this was a direct violation of the agreement he signed with WWE, this lead to an all-out war between Lesnar and WWE, which was eventually settled outside court. The fans didn’t expect Lesnar to return after all this, but he did return and became the WWE and Universal Champion.

#9 CM Punks title reign

After the Attitude Era was born one thing that fans saw was frequently updated championship reigns. Back in the territory days someone could’ve hold the championship for one or two years but once 2000 turned up, everyone was sure about not seeing a reign like that.

Well, guess what it did happen and of all people, WWE made Punk the champion for a record-breaking 434 days. Seeing such a lengthy run was not only a great surprise to the fans but every PPV that Punk headlined with the title caught eyes once he started breaking records.

The record came to an abrupt end at the hands of Rock at Royal Rumble 2013 and it proved to be one of the reasons that drove Punk out of WWE. Speaking of which…

#8 Punk walking out

The title reign saw Punk’s stock rise up in the wrestling business. The fans were firmly behind him and he was sure to make it into the hall of fame if he went at this rate. However, he shocked the entire world when he walked out of WWE just like that.

Just a year after dropping the title to Rock, Punk decided it was time to hang up his wrestling boots for reasons which recently broke the Internet. He was actually ill-treated in the company and lost love for the business because of that.

It didn’t have a Bret Hart like feel to it, but it was clearly unexpected. No one saw this coming just months before WrestleMania and turned out to be a big blow for WWE as well.

#7 Indy invasion

WWE always knew how to produce stars back in the days. The lights of John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, and many more came out of their development system in OVW while the talent pool of ECW and WCW was recruiting spot as well.

What the fans expected was for WWE to produce similar stars that would make it big someday. Instead, they just took up well established independent wrestlers from smaller promotions and just gave them a bigger stage to perform their crafts.

Daniel Bryan is the prime example for this trend while CM Punk is another one. Now the main roster has likes of Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, AJ Styles, who all were big stars in the independent scene, while the NXT roster holds the likes of Aleister Black, Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Donovan Dijak, Kyle O' Reilly, Bobby Fish and many more!

#6 Getting Pay-Per-View for almost free via the WWE Network

The WWE fans had to pay a whopping 60 dollars to get their favourite pay-per-view before the network came in. Despite such a big price tag, they were willing to spend the money on a monthly basis which in turn did draw some good profits for the company.

In 2014, WWE introduced the Network. By subscribing, the fans were able to see everything they wanted for just 9.99 per month which was a big bargain, to be frank.

I mean who would’ve imagined getting Survivor Series for almost free ten years back? The Network has cut down a lot of income for Vince McMahon’s promotion and though it was a great advantage for the fans, for WWE, it still hasn’t reaped the benefits they expected. However, it's a long-term investment and every financial quarter the subscriptions increase. There's no doubt that with the FOX deals and billions coming in for WWE, they'll be fine with reduced profits(for now)

#5 John Cena vs. Rock headlining WrestleMania

Most of the non-wrestling fan sees WWE as the place from which Hollywood Superstar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson came from, he was that big. Rock outgrew the business that made him and the fans crowned John Cena as a replacement when Rock went to Hollywood.

Though he was expected to make part-time appearance as a guest for the WWE programming, no one saw Rock competing once again in the WWE ring amidst his Hollywood career.

He broke all those expectations in style and came back to headline WrestleMania not once, but twice and that too against John Cena. Seeing an established name coming back into the squared circle is always a great feeling and when Rock is that particular name, it turned out to be electrifying.

#4 Edges retirement

Attitude Era saw Edge becoming a main stay in the midcard alongside his partner Christian. Both men went on to be part of the legendary TLC matches in WWE before embarking on singles career.

While Christian’s career was haunted by injuries throughout, Edge established himself as a Main event player. He had a lot of great feuds and became WWE champion in what was a great story.

Fans started thinking that Edge was here to stay for the long ride but he broke everyone’s heart with his retirement speech. The fans weren’t even able to give a proper farewell to the Rated R superstar due to the surprising nature of his retirement and for WWE it was a big loss as well.

#3 Bret Hart inside a WWE ring

Montreal Screwjob was supposed to burn the bridge between WWE and Bret Hart permanently. After what Vince McMahon did to Bret, everyone thought that he would never be seen in a WWE ring again.

Bret did work with WWE for his DVD back in 2005 but getting in the ring was a whole different story. 2010 changed all that perceptions. Bret patched up with Shawn Michaels on live television and had a match with Vince McMahon at WrestleMania.

After all that heat which was exchanged during the late 90s Bret finally coming into a settlement with WWE was a big moment in history and if Bret can do that we should have high hopes for CM Punk as well.

#2 John Cena turning heel

Oh wait, this didn’t happen yet.

#1 Undertaker's streak ending

Sting was 54 the last time he wrestled, Vince McMahon was in his 60s, so was Hulk Hogan and this was one reason why the fans expected Undertakers streak to extend all the way to a round number of 25 or 30.

Taker is 49 this year and his physical condition has been taking a downfall with each passing year. In what proved to be one of the most shocking moments of the decade, Takers streak ended at an odd number of 21 and that too against Brock Lesnar.

There was a lot of criticism about the choice of WWE to end the streak and the way it ended as no one expected the streak to end in such an abrupt manner. Despite this, it was one of those moments that well never see in wrestling again.

As of 2018, Undertaker's streak is now 24-2, with another loss at WrestleMania 33 to Roman Reigns.