WWE saves its biggest surprises for its biggest event.
These are the WrestleMania moments that stopped the show.
Surprises in wrestling can be hard to pull off.
They occasionally need to throw in something out of left field to get people talking.
Something unexpected to show how volatile this fictional battleground truly is.
Here are some incidents in the decades ofWrestleManiathat genuinely felt surprising when they happened.
That led to Tito Santana going solo for a while until his buddy could get healthy enough to return.
At this show, they faced off against the Brainbusters.
The two were doing great until a miscommunication led to Santana nailing Martel with a flying forearm.
Santana valiantly fought for his life while Martel stood on the apron, fuming.
Then he got really into modeling, because thats what you do in wrestling.
This culminated in a Career-Ending Match against The Ultimate Warrior atWrestleMania VII.
Prior to the match, an emotional Elizabeth was pointed out as being in the audience.
Quietly phased out, Warrior sat at home while the main event scene in WWF became increasingly chaotic.
Then the night of the show, voodoo practitioner Papa Shango randomly got involved in the storyline.
The match ended in a disqualification and followed with Sid and Papa Shango working over Hogan.
Suddenly, without warning, Warriors iconic music started playing and the facepainted psychopath came to his frenemys rescue.
Hogan was about to leave the company for a bit, so Warrior was there to distract from that.
Elsewhere on the show, Hogan made a challenge to whoever won the main event.
Yokozuna defeated Bret thanks to Mr. Fujis interference and cheating.
Hogan ran out to raise a big stink about it, though he had no storyline connection to Bret.
With Brets blessing, Hogan went in there, sidestepped some more cheating, and won the belt immediately.
Lex Luger would challenge Yokozuna for the title and the winner would face Bret Hart in the main event.
To make things even, Bret would face his pissed off little brother Owen in the opening match.
Win or lose, Bret would advance.
Bret and Owen proceeded to tear the place down with an awesome opener.
Bret returned from a lengthy hiatus, annoyed with Austins lack of honor.
Bret was able to get the better of Austin by outwrestling him atSurvivor Series, but it wasnt enough.
They were going to have a match that could only be won by submission.
The two had possibly the greatest match inWrestleManiahistory, complete with the perfect ending.
Bret locked the Sharpshooter on a bleeding Austin and couldnt get him to submit.
The defiant Austin tried to power out of it, but he finally collapsed, and lost by decision.
He was completely fed up and it had driven him over the edge.
PreviousWrestleManiashave featured the likes of Burt Reynolds and the Wheres the beef?!
Then when Kane made his entrance, the San Diego Chicken jumped him.
Kane easily overpowered him and tore the mask off to reveal a vengeful and sweaty Pete Ross.
Nobody had that on their bingo card.
The final match for the first fifteenWrestleManiasalways had the face standing tall in celebration.
Going intoWrestleMania 2000, it seemed like we were getting another win for the good guys.
Then, thanks to cornerman Vince McMahon betraying Rock, Triple H retained the title.
They finally pulled the trigger on having a heel win the final match of the show.
They instead saved Rocks big victory forBacklash, which absolutely stuck the landing.
Steve Austin Sells his Soul at WrestleMania X-Seven
WrestleMania X-Sevenwas the ultimate victory lap for WWF.
With both as mega-faces, this felt like possibly the biggest main event yet.
At the very least, it gave us alegendary hype package with Limp Bizkits My Way.
Curiously, right before the entrances, the match was announced as no disqualification.
That laid the seeds for the finale, where Vince McMahon came to the ring to aid Austin.
Austin, who then brutally destroyed The Rock with a chair until his body finally gave in.
They played it pretty safe for those years, giving us Cena win after Cena win.
After a while, people started to wonder if they would ever end the Streak.
When Brock Lesnar was Undertakers 22ndWrestleManiaopponent, nobody really thought much of it.
Brock came back hot from a lengthy sabbatical from wrestling, only to immediately lose to John Cena.
There had been many Money in the Bank cash-ins before, but none atWrestleMania.
The fact that this was the first endlessly longWrestleManiadidnt help matters.
So many strange choices from start to finish, giving us such a head-scratcher of a show.
The New Day appeared out of a giant box of cereal while dressed asDragonball Zcharacters.
Obviously, Undertaker was going to show.
Obviously, the two of them were going to have a match.
Hell, that could have been the main event.
Cena and Undertaker had matches early in the formers career, but so much had changed since then.
Now it was more of a dream match.
And so, the bout did happen.
All two minutes and forty-five seconds of it.
Undertaker just completely destroyed Cena and that was it.
No follow-up or anything.
Everyone just moved on like it was nothing.
John Cena Enters the Firefly Funhouse at WrestleMania 36
Plans changed a lot going intoWrestleMania 36.
Then COVID happened and the immunocompromised Roman ducked out, turning the title match into Goldberg vs. Braun Strowman.
Sure, why not?
Weve seen these two face off atWrestleManiasix years earlier.
Without a live audience, they decided to get weird with it.
Love it or hate it, it was definitely unexpected.
No, it seemed that Roman would finally be losing atWrestleMania 39against Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes.
The title run had run its course, and it was time to bring it home.
Except… that wasnt the case.
