The Keg Stand: Top 5 Biggest WWE Surprises in 2011

[Editor's Note: No Random Wrestling Match Review this weekend. Sorry...too busy.]

In my opinion, the WWE is very predictable sometimes. I can look at a Pay-Per-View card and usually successfully pick most of the winners. However, there are times when something happens in the WWE that I never expected to happened. In this Keg Stand, I will look at the top 5 things that happened in the WWE in 2011 that I was almost 100% sure would not happen when the year started.

Before I start my top five, there are two honorable mentions that I want to include.

Honorable Mention #1: R-Truth's heel turn leads to a more interesting gimmick

I didn't like R-Truth as a face. He was a decent wrestler but his rapper gimmick was annoying. R-Truth turned heel in April 2011 and at the time, I didn't really care about the heel turn. I was glad that he wasn't a face anymore but I didn't really think I would like R-Truth a lot more as a heel. I ended up being very surprised because R-Truth became a great heel. It was more than just a change from face to heel...R-Truth changed his gimmick too. He stopped rapping and became a crazy dude who believed in conspiracies and referred to the younger fans as "little Jimmys". The new gimmick is awesome and although R-Truth is now a face again, he kept his gimmick. 

Honorable Mention #2: Mick Foley returns to the WWE

I was not completely surprised that Mick Foley is back in the WWE but I wouldn't believe it was going to happen until it actually happened. It is nice to see Foley back in the WWE and I hope he makes several more appearances in 2012.

Below are my top five biggest surprises in 2011 in order of significance.

5. Zack Ryder wins the United States Championship

Zack Ryder won the United States Championship? Are you serious bro? I'm still surprised that the current U.S. Champion in the WWE is Zack Ryder. In 2010, Zack Ryder's biggest accomplishments were being Titus O'Neil's mentor on NXT and losing to Sheamus in a WWE Championship match that lasted 11 seconds, which was the second-shortest WWE Championship match in WWE history. I'm not sure if Zack Ryder had any good moments in 2010. He had plenty of bad moments including becoming the first NXT Season 2 mentor to lose to a NXT rookie in a singles match when he lost to Percy Watson. There would have been several more bad moments for Zack Ryder if he was on TV more often. Ryder spent much of 2010 performing on WWE Superstars instead of RAW or Smackdown. Ryder realized that the WWE would soon release him and he needed to get more exposure so he created a YouTube show called Z! True Long Island Story in February. Ryder said, "What happened was that about three months ago I was sick of just not being on TV, sick of just sitting in the background on the sidelines. So I created my opportunity. I created my own Youtube account. My parents got me a Flipcam for Christmas. And I started to make my own shows." Ryder's idea worked. Ryder's videos got millions of views, fans started bring Ryder signs to WWE live events, and Zack Ryder's T-shirts started selling out. At the Capitol Punishment Pay Per View, the fans in attendance started a "We Want Ryder" chant. Ryder called it, "The Ryder Revolution". The WWE noticed all of these things and started putting Ryder on TV more. On July 29, Ryder became the assistant to the Smackdown General Manager. On November 7, Ryder was in the RAW main event match for the first time since his WWE Championship match against Sheamus in 2010. Then on December 18 at the TLC PPV, Zack Ryder defeated Dolph Ziggler and became the United States Champion. I was expecting that Ryder would be released by the end of 2011 and I never would have guessed that Zack Ryder would be the United States Champion when 2011 ended.

4. Mark Henry wins the World Heavyweight Championship

I never thought Mark Henry would ever win a World Championship in the WWE. I have always thought he had the right look for a champion but Mark Henry has been in the WWE for 15 years. Usually when someone has gone that long without winning a major championship, it means that person is never gonna win a major championship. I was hoping Mark Henry could get a title match in 2011. Eventually he did and he became the World Heavyweight Champion. It surprised me at first because I had always thought of Mark Henry as a guy who lost several matches despite being The World's Strongest Man. It was hard to forget all of those bad Mark Henry years but after Mark Henry was the champion for several weeks, I truly started believing that Mark Henry was worthy of the championship. It's too bad Mark Henry didn't become the World Heavyweight Champion ten years ago because he could have had at least ten WWE World Championship reigns in his career.

3. Edge retires

I knew Edge was going to retire soon but I didn't think it would be in 2011. Edge announced his retirement on April 11, 2011. He said that doctors could not medically clear Edge to compete in a wrestling match without him risking neck-down paralysis or even death. I'm not sad that Edge retired but I'm sad about how Edge retired. No one wants to be forced out of their career. Unlike Mick Foley or The Rock or Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair, Edge will never come back for one more match. We will never see another Edge vs. John Cena or Edge vs. Chris Jericho match. We will never see Edge face The Miz or CM Punk or Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania or any Pay-Per-View event. Many wrestlers who retire from the WWE eventually have one more match, but we will never see Edge in another WWE match ever again. Edge's retirement is permanent.

2. CM Punk wins the WWE Championship

I didn't expect to see CM Punk win any major championship in the WWE in 2011. 2010 was a very bad year for CM Punk and I thought his career had peaked. When I heard that his contract was expiring in July 2011, I expected Punk to leave and I was hoping he would stay until the Money in the Bank PPV in Chicago. I was surprised to see CM Punk get a WWE Championship match against John Cena in Chicago and then win the championship. I thought Punk's career was over. How does somebody go from jobbing to Big Show to defeating John Cena for the WWE Championship in less than a year?! It's amazing how much CM Punk's career has changed in one year. He has gone from a mid-card/occasional main event superstar to the WWE Superstar of the Year. Not only is CM Punk's career still alive but it is stronger than it was in 2009 when he had a great World Heavyweight Championship feud with Jeff Hardy. CM Punk accomplished the unofficial WWE triple crown in 2011. Punk was the best wrestler, had the best promo, and had the best match of 2011. When is the last time someone has done that? I thought at this time in 2012, I would be thinking about how the WWE messed up CM Punk's career. Instead, CM Punk is currently the WWE Champion with several good years left in the WWE.

1. The Rock returns to the WWE

This decision was not hard. In my opinion, the biggest surprise of 2011 was The Rock returning to the WWE. The Rock has made a few WWE appearances in the last few years but they were always via satellite. Before 2011, The Rock's last appearance in a WWE ring was at WrestleMania XX in 2004. His only WWE appearance at a WWE event was in 2008 when he inducted his father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame. I didn't think The Rock would ever come back. He hinted during a Smackdown promo via satellite in 2009 that he would host RAW someday but that never happened so I assumed The Rock was gone for good and he would live the rest of his life as Dwayne Johnson. Then The Rock started a Facebook account and on January 30, 2011, The Rock wrote,

"Vince [McMahon] and myself stay very closely connected and when the opportunity is right - which will be alot sooner than you think - we will do something electrifying and historic for the fans."

I was happy to know that The Rock was planning to return to WWE soon but I had no idea that he would return on February 14. I will never forget that day. The WWE announced they would announce the host of WrestleMania on RAW. The dirtsheets were saying that it was going to be The Rock. I believed them because The Rock posted, "'...FINALLY...' Get ready... DJ" to his Facebook account. At that time, I worked an overnight shift so I left my home before RAW ended. I live in Chicago and Chicago is a great wrestling city. I was listening to a Chicago sports radio station and the two radio guys on the air were wrestling fans. When The Rock was announced as the host of WrestleMania, one of the radio guys said, "Breaking news out of Anaheim, Calfornia. The Rock has just made his WWE return" and then they cut to live audio of The Rock's promo. That was the first and only time I had a WWE mark-out moment in a car while listening to the radio. It was great to hear The Rock's promo as I drove to work and the radio guys were providing some commentary especially after The Rock said that he was never going away. I recorded the entire episode of RAW on my DVR and I watched it when I got home. It was great to see The Rock back in the WWE especially when it looked like he was never coming back. His return led to another thing that I thought would never happen. On March 28, 2011, The Rock made his second WWE appearance of 2011 and this time he was in Chicago. I was at that RAW and it is so great to say that I got to see my favorite WWE Superstar of all-time in-person. I have been a fan of The Rock since 2000. It's amazing that I was finally able to see him 11 years later and 7 years after he retired from the WWE.

At this time, I would like to mention things I don't expect to happen in the WWE in 2012. I don't expect to see Zack Ryder win the WWE Championship, John Cena turn heel, The Rock become WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes win a World Championship, Kofi Kingston get pushed, Hornswoggle to become interesting, the WWE to go TV-14, Michael Cole leave the announce table, Brock Lesnar return to the WWE, X-Pac return to the WWE, Road Dogg wrestle in a WWE match not including the Royal Rumble, or Drew McIntyre win a championship. I'm interested to see if any of those things happen because 2011 proved that unexpected things can happen in the WWE.