4 Title changes no one expected to happen in the WWE

You never know what is going to happen in the WWE. It’s live television. We can all speculate what we think is going to happen, but nothing is certain. Over the years, there have been times where we’ve all been extremely shocked by the WWE.

Whether it's Paige winning the Divas Championship in her debut match or Hulk Hogan defeating Yokozuna at WrestleMania 9. The very first Money in the Bank cash-in was also a huge shock.

Do I really need to keep going? We’ve all been there. Whether you want to admit it or not, there have been times when WWE caught us off-guard with the decisions they took. I’m going to start off with a title change that wasn’t much of a shock in who won, but how they won. Let’s take a look at some of the most shocking WWE title changes in history.

#4: Brock Lesnar vs John Cena, Summerslam 2014

The beast incarnate, Brock Lesnar had the best year of his career in 2014. Not only did he defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania, a feat that 21 other Superstars failed to accomplish, but he also won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship later that year.

Triple H announced that Brock Lesnar would face John Cena at SummerSlam for the World Championship. In what was built as the biggest fight of the summer, two titans collided in what was speculated to be a hard-hitting, back and forth match. Boy, were we completely wrong. Many people speculated that Brock would defeat John Cena. No one expected the way he did it. He didn’t cheat or pull any dirty tactics. He won fair and square and pinned the 15-time World Champion clean in what was possibly the most one-sided championship match in WWE history. This is where Suplex City was born.

Brock Lesnar threw John Cena around like a rag doll, dished out German Suplexes, an astonishing 16 times. That was after an F-5 at the beginning of the match.

Needless to say, Lesnar didn’t even try in this match. He destroyed John Cena in an epic fashion. Brock pinned the 15-time champion with a second F-5 for emphasis. The winner wasn’t a shock. The entire match, on the other hand, is a different story.

#3: Jeff Hardy vs Triple H, Smackdown 2001

In 2001, two of the biggest stars in the company were Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H. They went together as a tag-team named, Two Man Power Trip, and held the tag team championships. Triple H had the Intercontinental Championship, and Stone Cold held the WWE Championship. It was safe to say that they pretty much owned the show.

With the two stars demolishing the roster on a nightly basis, nothing hit home quite as hard as when Triple H and Stone Cold beat the hell out of the Hardy Boyz. This is the first glimpse of the real toughness of the Hardy’s. Sure they had epic ladder matches, but the guys they faced were nowhere near the calibre of Stone Cold and Triple H.

Jeff Hardy would set out for retaliation against the two stars. After bouncing the steel chair off of Steve Austin’s head and a Twist of Fate to Stephanie, Triple H wanted to get his hands on Jeff Hardy. During an in-ring segment, Jeff would come down to the ring wielding a steel chair, smacking Triple H in the back with it.

An irate Triple H then put his Intercontinental Championship on the line against Jeff on Smackdown. This is where Triple H destroyed Jeff Hardy, but in turn, Jeff's resilience also came into the display. A frustrated Triple H would then knock out the referee, which would turn out to be the reason for his demise.

With the referee down and out, Matt Hardy came to the ring to strike Hunter's head with a chair. With Triple H out, Jeff then hit the Swanton Bomb to secures the victory.

#2: Batista vs Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan, WrestleMania 30

It’s always a shock when the underdog pulls through, that is why they’re the underdog. One of the most shocking moments in all of history is Daniel Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 30. Not only was this a shock, but how he even got into the match is a shocker.

During the 2014 Royal Rumble match, everyone was expecting Daniel Bryan to come in at number 30 and win the Rumble. When Rey Mysterio entered at 30, for the first time in Rey’s career, he was booed out of the building.

Batista went on to win the 2014 Royal Rumble match and secured his spot in the main event of WrestleMania. Not only did fans hate this, but he was facing Randy Orton. How many times have we already seen this match? Fans were not looking forward to this year's show of shows.

This was bad news for the suits in WWE. It’s not like fans weren’t chanting for Bryan for months now. They had to expect the backlash. Triple H had to please the fans. He did it in a way that only the Cerebral Assassin could do. He gave Daniel Bryan an opportunity at the WrestleMania main event. All he had to do was face Triple H at WrestleMania. If he won the match, the main event between Randy and Batista would become a triple threat match.

Remember how Chris Jericho boasted about defeating Stone Cold and The Rock in the same night for years? Daniel Bryan had the chance to top that. During WrestleMania, Daniel Bryan faced Triple H in the opening of the show. He would go on to defeat Triple H, earning a spot in the main event and going on to win the WWE Championship. The biggest moment in Daniel Bryan’s career is also one of, if not one of the most shocking moments in history.

#1: Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar, WrestleMania 31

The most shocking thing about this whole scenario is that the person who won the match wasn’t supposed to be in it.

This earns the number one spot in the list. Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania 31. This was special for a number of different reasons. Not only is Seth the first and only person to cash in at WrestleMania, but he is the only person to cash in during the middle of a match.

Seth’s music hit during the middle of the match. No one in that arena or watching at home wanted to see Roman beat the Beast, and take the title. This was such a surprising turn of events. We all thought that Roman was going to win the title, but that didn't happen.

Most Money in the Bank winners has cashed in their contract after a match. This trend was started by the ultimate opportunist, Edge. Edge cashed in at New Years Revolution in 2006. This was after John Cena had just faced five other superstars in a gruelling Elimination Chamber match. This would soon start a trend as wrestlers would pick their moment when the world champions were at their weakest.

Though Seth didn’t wait until the match was over, he came down to the ring in the middle of the match. After both Roman and Lesnar had beaten the hell out of each other, and Brock had just hit a vicious F-5 on his opponent, Seth Rollins charged the ring. Going for a curb stomp on Lesnar, but Brock picked Rollins up in the air for an F-5 position. As Brock turned around, Reigns hit a massive spear on Brock, dropping Seth. Rollins scurried to his feet and landed a curb stomp on Reigns, pinning him to win his first WWE Championship.

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