As John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote, sometimes you have to get by with a little help from your friends. In the world of pro wrestling and WWE, though, you're never quite sure who your friends are or aren't. Sometimes, as we saw in the main event of Hell In A Cell this year (and something we'll get to in just a bit), sometimes your best-friend-turned-greatest-enemy can suddenly become your best friend again.
So, let's take a look at ten times that WWE superstars unexpectedly helped out someone we weren't expecting:
10. Sami Zayn help Kevin Owens (Hell In A Cell 2017)
Let's get the most recent example out of the way first. Not because it's the obvious entry, but also because it's one of the most interesting things on WWE programming right now.
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens's past (even pre-WWE) has been fodder for some great storytelling throughout both of their WWE careers. They excited fans with their battles in NXT, then continued their rivalry on both Raw and Smackdown.
To be fair, at times it felt like "Jeez, Owens vs Zayn again?" But, when Sami pulled Kevin out of the way of Shane McMahon's top-of-the-cell elbow, we knew we were in for something different.
And, in a weird way, it did even more to humanize both characters.
9. Nikki Bella helps Stephanie McMahon (SummerSlam 2015)
Throughout their WWE careers, Nikki and Brie Bella have always been (forgive the pun) a matching set. Whether they were faces or heels, the two twin sisters had always been on the same side. So, it was only a matter of time before one turned on the other. And, as much as a lot of us saw it coming during the summer of 2015, there was still a part of our brains that just refused to admit it could happen.
In what was a pretty convoluted storyline involving Brie's husband Daniel Bryan, Brie had found herself "fired" from WWE, rehired after Stephanie slapped her (and thus caused Brie to "file assault charges") and also granted a match with Steph at Summerslam that year.
Of course, during the match, Nikki came to the ring to distract her sister and give Steph the win, and thus led to, well, not a lot, really.
8. Shawn Michaels helps Chris Jericho (Elimination Chamber 2010)
Sometimes, in these situations we're talking about, a wrestler isn't helping out someone to help that guy, but to screw over someone else. Such was the case in 2010 when Shawn Michaels snuck into the Elimination Chamber to attack Undertaker and give Chris Jericho both the win and the World Heavyweight Championship.
A little background: Michaels and Undertaker had wrestled in a legendary match at WrestleMania the year before that saw 'Taker victorious. Afterwards, Michaels was obsessed with getting a rematch and ending his rival's WrestleMania undefeated streak - especially because Undertaker refused to grant him said rematch.
So, yeah... Shawn wasn't there to help Jericho - another one of his greatest rivals - to get the Big Gold Belt. However, that's exactly what he did.
7. Hulk Hogan returns to WWE to help Bob Backlund
While our younger readers recognize the role Hulk Hogan played in the 1980s WWF, they may not realize that beforehand, he was actually a pretty diabolical bad guy in the promotion before that. It took a couple of boneheaded decisions on a couple of different promoters that finally led to Hogan become Vincent Kennedy McMahon's secret weapon in the 80s.
From 1979 to 1980, Hulk was a heel managed by the legendary "Classy" Freddie Blassie. in the WWF run by McMahon's father, Vincent J. McMahon. At the time, Hulk was given the opportunity to take a role in Rocky III - a role that the elder McMahon refused to let him take. So, he took the role anyway and left the WWF for Verne Gagne's AWA.
Once a part of AWA, Hulk became one of the company's most popular stars. But, Gagne refused to put their world title on him. So, he eventually moved back to the WWF, now under the control of the younger McMahon. Vince, seeing the potential in an ultra-babyface Hogan, reintroduced the Hulkster to the WWF fans by having him rescue their current babyface world champ, Bob Backlund, from an attack.
And the rest is history.
6. The Powers of Pain join forces with Mister Fuji.
In the mid to late 1980s, The Road Warriors were the tag team - and they weren't in the WWF. They dominated both the AWA and the NWA with their intense, hard-hitting offence as well as their terrifying, Mad Max-inspired personas. Eventually, Hawk and Animal would end up working for Vince McMahon but, in the meantime, the Chairman would try and figure out how to capture their magic without them.
While Demolition - Ax and Smash (and others) - were a WWF creation, the Powers of Pain (Barbarian and Warlord) were actually rivals with the Road Warriors in the NWA. Eventually, though, both Demolition and the Powers found themselves in the WWF and facing each other.
During the 1988 Survivor Series, Demolition were the heel team managed by Fuji, while The Powers of Pain on the opposing team. However, The Powers joined forces with Fuji, following him getting knocked to the ground, turning the WWF-created Demolition face, and the Powers into the bad guys.
5. Jimmy Hart tries to help Brutus Beefcake
1993 was a strange year for the WWF. Following WrestleMania VIII, which ended with Hulk Hogan being rescued by the Ultimate Warrior (an honourable mention to this list) from an attack by Sid Justice and Papa Shango, we hadn't really seen Hogan on TV afterwards. Nor had we seen any sign of his buddy, Brutus Beefcake. Although, to be fair, Brutus was away after suffering massive damage to his face in a parasailing accident.
In February of 1993, however, Brutus was about to make his triumphant return on Raw in a one on one match against Ted DiBiase - who was then one-half of the tag team champions, Money Inc., with IRS. At the end of the match, the tag champs attempted to end Brutus's career by smashing his already damaged face with IRS's loaded briefcase.
Shockingly, it wasn't Hogan who came to his friend's aid - but Money Inc.'s manager, Jimmy Hart. While Hart couldn't stop his now-former clients from attacking Beefcake, he did move on to manage Hogan and Beefcake as the Mega Maniacs and ended up being a big part of Hogan's career during that era, and Hogan moved on to WCW.
4. The Shield rescue Jerry "The King" Lawler (2014)
This past Monday, we saw the newly reunited Shield rescue Matt Hardy from the clutches of Braun Strowman - once again reclaiming the mantle of the "Hounds of Justice". However, it was a Monday night on 2014 that the group rescued another WWE legend and got the fans of their side for the first time.
During the March 17th, 2014 episode of Raw - the Director of Operation for the Authority, Kane, saw fit to bring Raw announcer Jerry "The King" Lawler to the ring in order to punish him for perceived transgressions against The Authority - and he expected the Shield to do it for him.
What he - and the rest of us - didn't expect was for Reigns, Ambrose, and Rollins to turn against Kane and to adhere to the cause of "Justice" they always claimed.
3. Jake Roberts turns on Ultimate Warrior and Help Undertaker
In the early 1990s, the two darkest and scariest characters in the WWF were The Undertaker and Jake "The Snake" Roberts. However, despite his dark demeanour, Jake was an extremely popular babyface - especially following his WrestleMania VII feud with Rick Martel, in which "The Model" blinded "The Snake" with cologne (yes... that happened).
Well, shortly after The Undertaker's debut, he began a feud with The Ultimate Warrior - which led to one of the scariest moments of early 90s WWF TV - Undertaker locking Warrior in an air-tight casket. Following what seemed like the Undertaker trying to straight up murder the former WWF Champion, Jake Roberts offered to help Warrior "understand" the Undertaker, telling Warrior he needed to "trust me".
After weeks of putting Warrior through different trials, Jake showed his true colours as his final test saw Warrior bitten by a cobra and his alliance with Undertaker finally revealed.
2. The Undertaker turns on Jake Roberts to save Miss Elizabeth
If you thought that a feud between Jake Roberts and Ultimate Warrior would be intense, it had nothing on the battle between Jake and "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Once again, Ultimate Warrior proved himself unreliable and Jake ended up feuding with, ironically, the man Warrior "retired" at WrestleMania VII, Savage.
Savage had reunited with his original manager/love interest, Miss Elizabeth, during his feud with Roberts. Following a particularly intense televised match that Savage had won, Roberts hid behind the curtain with a chair, ready to hit whoever came through the curtain first - Savage or Elizabeth.
Unexpectedly, as Roberts was about to swing the chair, The Undertaker grabbed it from his now-former comrade, rescuing the first couple of 80s and 90s wrestling. This moment led to 'Taker and Roberts facing each other at WrestleMania VIII - and Roberts's original stumble from fame in wrestling.
1. Mr McMahon helps Stone Cold at WrestleMania X-7
It's interesting that the WWF chose WrestleMania X-7 to align Stone Cold Steve Austin with his archrival, Vince McMahon, considering it was the first major WWF event following the company's purchase of WCW.
The feud between McMahon and Austin was one of, if not the, major driving forces against World Championship Wrestling during the Attitude Era/Monday Night War. The "war" officially ended on March 26, 2001, when Raw and Nitro ran a simulcast, ending WCW as a company and as we knew it.
Even with all that happening, the purchase of WCW didn't really seem to effect that year's WrestleMania. While Shane McMahon was the new owner of WCW in kayfabe, WCW didn't play that much into the event.
Instead, WWF decided to shake everything up in a different way - by turning their biggest hero figure, Stone Cold Steve Austin, into a heel and aligning him with his long-time rival, McMahon, in a team up nobody saw coming.
The Austin/McMahon team up didn't work out in the end, but it was certainly a team up nobody saw coming.
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