25 Facts You’ll Be Shocked To Learn About Wrestling If You Stopped Watching Ten Years Ago

There are two types of wrestling fans — the first are the hardcore followers who ingest the sport daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. These fans subscribe for $9.99, frequent Squared Circle and attend events like WrestleCon on the regular.

The second type of fan is…the rest of us. Occasional fans float in an out of viewing, often lose interest after a half hour of viewing, and don’t check back in with the product for days, months, even years.

When the second type of fan becomes interested again it’s usually the responsibility of the first type of fan to bring those nomads up to speed with all of the events they’ve missed in their time roaming around to other sources of entertainment. Covering everything that happened is exhausting and maybe even impossible.

A Redditor decided to do a friend a favor and bring him up to speed as to all the stuff he’s missed since he stopped watching the WWE. The friend stopped watching in 2002.

It took a while. Here’s everything he remembered to cover.

Eddie Guerrero died

Chris Benoit died

Ultimate Warrior, Test, Crash, Paul Bearer, and Randy Savage all died.

Jamal from 3 Minute Warning got repackaged as a wild Samoan monster, Umaga, who sadly also died.

John Cena became the top guy in the company and went on to become a 15-time World champion.

Christian went to TNA but then came back. Won the World Heavyweight title in 2011 only to lose it to Randy Orton (who is now a 12-time world champion) a few days later. He would later win it back……by disqualification. He quietly retired.

Kurt Angle went to TNA and plans to end his wrestling career there

The Dudleys went to TNA

Booker T went to TNA and came back and is now a commentator on Raw

Batista turned face, won the World title a few times, and then left. Returned last year to main event Wrestlemania and left again. However, he claims he will be back again.

WWE hired a wrestler bigger than the Big Show named Great Khali. He was a pretty good monster heel. He had an impressive debut by destroying Undertaker. But now they turned him into a joke where he was now a comedic face, and also a jobber. He left recently.

WWE hired indy stars CM Punk, Bryan Danielson (who wrestles as Daniel Bryan now), Jon Moxley (who is now Dean Ambrose), and Tyler Black (who is now Seth Rollins) Oh, and some non-indy guy named Roman Reigns (who Vince was strongly trying to push him to be the top face in WWE, unfortunately it became very difficult because he is not well-liked by fans at all)

Daniel Bryan is the most over guy in WWE. He is a 4-time world champion. Sadly, two of those reigns lasted less than 24 hours. He is the current Intercontinental champion.

Ambrose, Rollins, and Reigns debuted as CM Punk’s hired crooks known as The Shield, dressed in SWAT gear, to protect him from losing the WWE title. They were pretty successful as a stable. Until last summer where Rollins turned on them and became the current top heel AND current WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

CM Punk quit because he was worried for his health. He refuses to ever come back. He held the WWE title for 434 days before losing it to The Rock at Royal Rumble 2013.

The Rock turned heel in 2003 and it was fantastic. He left to film movies and didn’t return until 2011 where he won the WWE Championship one last time.

Chris Jericho left after Summerslam 2005, then came back full-time again in 2007 and then left again in 2010. But now he pretty much comes and goes whenever he wants now.

Goldberg debuted in WWE the night after Wrestlemania XIX and left after Wrestlemania XX where he competed against Brock Lesnar. Sounds like an epic dream match, right? Wrong. It was one of the worst matches in the history of the company.

Brock Lesnar also left after Wrestlemania XX. Went to UFC, and returned to WWE the night after Wrestlemania XXVIII.

Undertaker’s Wrestlemania undefeated streak finally came to end last year where he was beaten by Lesnar and went 21-1.

WWE came up with a new concept called Money in the bank. Basically a briefcase would hang above the ring and it would contain a contract guaranteeing a future WWE Championship match ANYTIME. Six or eight men would fight for it in a ladder match at Wrestlemania until it got its own PPV.

Bret Hart returned to WWE. Squashed Vince McMahon in a complete one-sided match at Wrestlemania XXVI, and wrestled a few other matches after that.

Sting finally debuted in WWE at Survivor Series last November and went into a feud with Triple H. They had a match at Wrestlemania. Which HHH won.

Edge became an 11-time World champion. He is now retired and in the Hall of Fame.

Triple H cut off all his hair and is now an authority figure both backstage and on-screen.

Because he couldn’t possibly cover EVERYTHING, what big moments did he miss? Tell us in the comments.

[via r/squaredcircle]

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Chris Illuminati is a 5-time published author and recovering a**hole who writes about running, parenting, and professional wrestling.