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WWE is one of the biggest names in the entire entertainment industry today and has managed to branch into several other areas outside of sports entertainment.
The company works hard to deliver something fresh for the WWE Universe. The company has had several crossovers on WWE television over the last few decades, with famous celebrities turning up on WWE to keep viewership and ratings high.
We’ve seen celebrities such as Ben Stiller, Hugh Jackman, and Kim Kardashian appear in WWE, and even Donald Trump and Jon Stewart have played major parts in storyline rivalries.
On the other hand, several appearances have surprised fans in a completely different way as they were set up towards future matches and careers for the men and women involved, leading to something bigger for the WWE.
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These men and women are no less than celebrities themselves as they managed to make a big name for themselves before ever appearing in WWE before.
With that in mind, we take a look at six most surprising appearances in WWE history that has taken place.
#6. Cain Velasquez
While Cain Velasquez is known all around the world as a two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion, he will forever be known in WWE as the man who defeated Brock Lesnar in the octagon.
In 2019, on the October 4th episode of SmackDown, Velasquez surprised the WWE Universe by appearing on the show, accompanied by Rey Mysterio, when Lesnar was in the ring. Velasquez was out to take revenge from Lesnar for attacking Mysterio and his son Dominik, and injuring both men.
The MMA star was expected to have a bright WWE career
The mean MMA star took down Lesnar with ease and continued to deliver punches before Lesnar escaped from the ring. The appearance caused the crowd to erupt as they were glad to see a heel like Lesnar get toppled by someone who had taken out Lesnar previously too.
A match for the WWE Championship was set between the two men at Crown Jewel for later that month, but Velasquez disappointed fans as he lost within minutes.
WWE went on to release Velasquez in April 2020, as the former UFC fighter had one of the shortest WWE careers of all time and failed to compete in any other match after Crown Jewel.
#5 Stephen Amell
Canadian-born actor Stephen Amell is best known for playing Oliver Queen/Green Arrow on The CW superhero series, Arrow. Not many fans would've known before his appearance in WWE that Amell had been a fan of professional wrestling since a young age.
Amell worked out and trained extensively to play The Arrow on television and later started appearing on WWE RAW in 2015. He was shown in attendance a few times on WWE RAW until he finally had a confrontation with Cody Rhodes, who was known as Stardust at the time.
The two had a few exchanges in and out of the ring, after which Triple H announced a big match for SummerSlam 2015 between the teams of Amell and Neville, and Stardust and Wade Barrett.
The Arrow star and Neville went on to win the match, after which Amell also won a Slammy for the “Celebrity Moment of the Year” the same year for his dive onto Stardust during the match.
Amell could potentially make a return in WWE
Even though Amell hasn’t featured in any other matches for WWE, he has worked in Ring of Honor (ROH) in a tag team match and at ALL IN in a singles match.
While Amell can’t really be referred to as a WWE Superstar now, he could return to the largest wrestling promotion in the world at some time to live his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. His initial appearance in a WWE match is already seen as a surprising one.
#4 AJ Styles
While AJ Styles made a few sporadic appearances in WWE, he was best known for his work outside WWE, where many considered him the best wrestler who’d never worked with WWE.
In late 2015, news started to spill out that Styles, along with a few others, had signed with WWE, however, the company tried to keep things under the radar.
A blow-away deal pulled Styles to WWE for the first time in his career for a long-term contract, and he made a big surprise appearance in January 2016 at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. He entered the Royal Rumble match at No. 3 and surprised the entire WWE Universe, including Roman Reigns, who was competing in the match at the time.
Styles has taken WWE by storm ever since
Styles went on to last almost 30 minutes in the match and had a great debut for WWE before being eliminated by Kevin Owens.
He has since become one of the biggest WWE Superstars in action today, and will likely go down in history as one of the top-ten wrestlers of all time.
#3 Sting
Up until 2014, it was impossible to think of a bigger wrestler who'd never wrestled for WWE than Sting. As one of the biggest WCW and TNA wrestlers of all time, Sting was known not just for his wrestling skills but also for his character and mic-work.
The WWE Universe always wanted to see Sting sign with WWE and possibly have a dream match with The Undertaker in the WWE ring, but the former did not happen until 2014.
Sting made a surprise appearance in the company during the 2014 Survivor Series for the first time and attacked Triple H with a Scorpion Death Drop, costing Team Authority their match in the main event.
Sting's WWE debut was massive!
The roof of Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri nearly exploded with the pop he received from the WWE Universe, and the legendary wrestler became a WWE Superstar from thereon.
Sting had matches against Triple H, The Big Show, and Seth Rollins, before an injury in a match against Rollins at WWE Night of Champions in 2015 put an end to his legendary career, to the disappointment of wrestling fans all around the world.
#2 Ronda Rousey
Ronda Rousey is among the biggest names in the world of Mixed Martial Arts and one of the biggest names to come out of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
During WWE SummerSlam 2014, Ronda Rousey was seated in the front row with Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke, and Marina Shafir, collectively known as The Four Horsewomen of MMA. This marked her first surprise appearance in the company, at a time when she was still the UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship.
Later on in the night, she was interviewed by WWE.com backstage and was asked whether she would follow Brock Lesnar’s footsteps and enter the world of wrestling. She simply teased a possible cross-over stating “You never know”.
Ronda Rousey made a big WWE appearance at The Grandest Stage of Them All
At WrestleMania 31, Ronda was again seated in the front row during the event along with the other members of the Four Horsewomen. The Rock was in the ring at one point with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H (known as The Authority at the time) and was slapped by Stephanie during the segment, who asked him to leave the ring.
The Rock walked over to Rousey at ringside and helped her into the ring as she stated that she would be happy to slap Stephanie back for him. This resulted in a great spot where Ronda ended up dumping Triple H and Stephanie out of the ring and stood tall with The Rock.
That's not all as Rousey made arguably her biggest surprise appearance at Royal Rumble on January 28, 2018. Rousey came out after Asuka won the Women's Royal Rumble and was sharing the ring with then SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, and RAW Women's Champion, Alexa Bliss.
Rousey entered the ring and smiled at all three of the WWE Sueprstars before pointing to the WrestleMania sign. She offered Asuka a handshake, which Asuka refused, following which she pointed at the glowing sign again before walking away.
Following the surprise appearance, she announced that she had joined WWE. Her debut match in WWE saw her tag team with Kurt Angle to face off against Triple H and Stephanie at WrestleMania 34.
She went on to win the WWE RAW Women’s Championship and broke the record for being the longest-reigning Champion before losing the title and record to Becky Lynch.
#1 Chris Jericho
Where were you when the ‘Countdown to the new Millennium’ was taking place? Chris Jericho was seen as one of the hottest prospects in the 90s, and WWE decided to make his arrival to the company special in a very unique way.
In his autobiography, A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex, Y2J mentions that he was inspired to use the countdown clock to announce his debut on WWE after he had seen a similar clock at a post office.
With the limited access of the internet, fans had to tune into the show itself on August 9 to see what the countdown was all about as no rumors or spoilers were available.
The WWE "Countdown to the Millennium" was something special
Chris Jericho arrived in WWE during an episode of RAW is WAR when The Rock was in the ring cutting a promo on the Big Show. Jericho arrived in the arena and proclaimed "Raw Is Jericho" in one of the most surprising and memorable moments in wrestling history.
Jericho is now among the biggest wrestlers in the world and the mastermind behind several successful matches, gimmicks, storylines, and even promotions.
