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All Elite Wrestling
- A lot of fans skeptical about the company's success were sold on the announcement that Chris Jericho was going to be a part of it.
- Its inaugural pay-per-view Double or Nothing featured the debut of its biggest acquisition to date: Jon Moxley.
- AEW Dynamite: Winter is Coming on December 2, 2020 was arguably one of the most dramatic episodes in the show's history. For starters: Chris Jericho threatens to disband the Inner Circle in exactly one week if they can't work out their issues, and STING comes out of retirement after half a decade to sign with AEW. And in the night's climactic main event, Kenny Omega wins the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley after knocking him out with a microphone with a little help from Don Callis, signaling one of the most dramatic heel turns of his career. Thus begins Kenny's run as "The Belt Collector", with Callis as his manager.
- In the main event of the April 7th, 2021 episode of Dynamite, Jon Moxley teams up with the Young Bucks against Kenny Omega, Doc Gallows, and Karl Anderson in a three-on-three match. But at the climax of the match, the Young Bucks betray Mox in a dramatic heel turn and decide to rejoin Kenny with Gallows and Anderson by their side—leading to the birth of "The Super-Elite". With both the World Championship and World Tag-Team Championship titles under their belts, the Elite are left more powerful than ever been before, leaving most fans eagerly anticipating their downfall.
- August 20, 2021: After seven years, the second episode of AEW Rampage begins with the long-awaited return and AEW debut of CM Punk.
- The 2021 edition of All Out pay-per-view was this, seeing Adam Cole debut just days after leaving WWE, seemingly looking to challenge Kenny Omega, only to reveal that he's actually joining the Elite. And if that isn't enough, just as Omega is about to gloat about his victory over Christian Cage, Bryan Danielson finally makes his AEW debut, arguably eclipsing Jon Moxley as the biggest star to defect from WWE to date. The pay-per-view itself also qualifies for the company out of kayfabe, as it is widely considered to be the best event AEW has ever put out.
- The special two-year anniversary episode of Dynamite on October 6, 2021 features the unveiling of the new TBS Championship. And in the night's main event: "Hangman" Adam Page is unveiled as the "Joker" in the seven-man Casino Ladder Match, making his dramatic return to the ring for the first time since his humiliating defeat at the hands of The Elite. And he wins, scoring a shot at the World Championship for the second time in his run with AEW. After nearly a year of grueling setbacks and humiliations, Hangman is finally going to challenge his former mentor for the championship.
- At Full Gear 2021, "Hangman" Adam Page finally beats Kenny Omega to become AEW World Champion, bringing a two-year-long saga to an end. Afterwards, Kenny takes a lengthy leave of absence to undergo physical therapy, leaving The Young Bucks as the sole remaining original members of The Elite, making the big match feel like the end of a long chapter in AEW's history.
- Revolution 2022 features (among many other things) Eddie Kingston scoring an upset win over Chris Jericho in the biggest victory of his career, Wardlow finally betraying MJF in his match against CM Punk after months of buildup, and William Regal convincing Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson to bury the hatchet with each other after making a very unexpected AEW debut.
- March 9th, 2022: In the first episode of Dynamite after Revolution 2022, the Inner Circle is disbanded after Chris Jericho and Jake Hager betray Santana and Ortiz to form a new stable ("The Jericho Appreciation Society") with 2.0 and Daniel Garcia, Wardlow completes his face turn by officially announcing his resignation from The Pinnacle, FTR fire Tully Blanchard as their manager, Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson wrestle their first match as a newly formed tag-team under William Regal's leadership, and Matt Hardy is betrayed and savagely beaten by the Hardy Family Office after being ousted as the group's leader by Andrade El Idolo—only to be rescued by his brother Jeff Hardy, who makes his AEW debut. After all that, Scorpio Sky becoming the new TNT Champion was probably the least dramatic thing that happened that night.
- At Double or Nothing 2022, Wardlow finally frees himself from MJF's contract and officially joins the AEW roster (in Kayfabe, that is), a Brainwashed and Crazy Julia Hart finally makes her long-awaited Face–Heel Turn and joins the House of Black as their fourth member, and CM Punk defeats "Hangman" Adam Page in the night's climactic championship match—becoming the fifth AEW World Champion.
- AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door marks the biggest collaboration between AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling to date, with both promotions putting on a joint event at an American venue for the first time in their history, and numerous NJPW stars (including Kazuchika Okada, Jay White, and Zack Sabre Jr.) wrestling their first AEW matches. On a smaller scale: Pac is crowned the very first AEW All-Atlantic Champion, FTR become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions (the first AEW tag team ever to capture the title), and Claudio Castagnoli makes his AEW debut as the fifth member of the Blackpool Combat Club.
- All Out 2022 was seen as a good, if underwhelming PPV. However, the media scrum that happened afterwards was the real highlight (though likely not for the reasons the company intended). During the scrum, newly crowned world champion CM Punk let out his dirty laundry about Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Adam Page, and Colt Cabana among others. While Punk was always known for his Brutal Honesty, The Elite did not take kindly to his comments, which led to Matt, Nick, and Kenny confronting Punk, as it escalated into an actual brawl between the four that involved biting, chairs being thrown, and shoot punches. Despite all of them being big money makers and champions (Punk was world champion, The Elite were trios champions), Tony Khan had no choice but to strip them of their titles and suspend them all, as many realized the grass wasn't as green in Jacksonville as everyone thought. All men would eventually be reinstated, though Punk took nine months to return due to also suffering from an injury.
- March 15th, 2023: Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara, and "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry all crash MJF's victory celebration to challenge him for the championship—setting up the very first four-way feud between all four of the "Four Pillars" of AEW. While all four men had frequently been framed as AEW's most prominent rising stars long before that point, the ensuing storyline finally makes it explicit that they're destined to become the new faces of the company—but only one of them can take the top spot.
- May 10th, 2023: the long-simmering blood feud between the Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club reaches a new high with a brutal cage match between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley. But in the final moments of the match, just as Kenny is about to pin Mox for the win, he's unexpectedly betrayed by Don Callis.
CHIKARA
- CHIKARA's 2009 Season Finale Three-Fisted Tales, November 22, 2009. CHIKARA Campeones de Parejas
The Colony (Fire Ant and Soldier Ant) successfully defend the belts against The Osirian Portal (Amasis and Ophidian). Then the two masked "BDK" members walk to the ring, with the larger man actually pushing down the guardrail. The regular-sized man takes the mic and cuts a promo starting with, "I told you A War Is Coming, and I'm tired of waiting." Various CHIKARA wrestlers walk to the ring to see what is happening, with Mike Quackenbush and Claudio Castagnoli confronting the two men in the ring. The man points to The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black, Delirious and Vökoder) and says, "Send me the man with the real power." The Order walk to the ring, with Mantis handing Vökoder the Eye of Tyr. Mantis tells the two men, "I'm sick of all your video threats. I'm sick of you interfering in my business, and quite frankly I'm sick of you. I don't even know who you are." The larger man removes his mask to reveal a horned mask underneath. His name would later be revealed to be Tursas. Then the regular-sized man removed his mask, causing Mantis' two years of machinations to completely blow up in his face. The man would be revealed to be Ares, Claudio's former Swiss Money Holding tag team partner who had last been seen in CHIKARA in 2006. Quack turned to Claudio, who gave him a European Uppercut. Carpenter Ant attacked The Colony, Vökoder attacked UltraMantis Black, Sara Del Rey and Daizee Haze made their way out and just attacked whoever was available, and all seven heels cleaned house. They all stood shoulder-to-shoulder, and Ares instructed Carpenter Ant to remove his mask, revealing Pinkie Sanchez. Then Vökoder removed his mask, revealing Tim Donst, who had appeared earlier on the show as himself. They stood in a V-Formation Team Shot and did a cross pose. Then Tursas took out a remote control and turned out the lights. This was the debut of Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes. Over a matter of minutes, the fans' reactions changed from someone yelling "Get out of the ring!" to someone proclaiming, "Wow, this is one of the greatest things ever."
Lucha Underground
- Lucha Underground: "Eye for an Eye" ramps the personal dramas up to new heights as Catrina openly turns on Mil Muertes and aligns herself with Fénix, Chavo flees the temple altogether after the beating Mil gives him, Mascarita and Pimpinella are beaten so badly by the Crew that they're out of action for the immediate future and Big Ryck has come back to get his revenge on the Crew. It also kicks the greater overarching story arc into high gear as the mysterious Black Lotus finally finds what she's looking for, right before a bag is yanked over her head by an unknown assailant...
- Lucha Underground "The Hunt Is On..." turns a good portion of Season 1 on its head by revealing that Cortez Castro is an undercover cop planted in the Temple to try to bring down Dario Cueto.
- Lucha Underground "The Moth and the Butterfly": turns out that Aerostar reviving Fénix turned out to be a very bad thing because Fénix's time was up and resurrecting him will now cause the end of everything.
NJPW
- November 5, 2017. At Power Struggle 2017, Kenny Omega is challenged to a match for his IWGP U.S. Heavyweight championship at Wrestle Kingdom 12 by none other than Chris Jericho, marking the latter's first match outside of WWE in nearly twenty years.
- January 28, 2018, New Beginning in Sapporo. Kenny Omega is kicked out of the Bullet Club by Cody after losing his IWGP U.S. Heavyweight title to Jay White, shortly afterwards he tearfully embraces his former tag partner and best friend Kota Ibushi.
Ring of Honor
- Ring of Honor's Unscripted: The Prophecy wins all of the belts on ROH with Xavier defeating Low Ki for the World Title, while Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan defeating Michael Modest and Bryan Danielson to become the first ever Tag Team Champions. Follow shows too, such as Unscripted II seeing the one night return of CM Punk to save ROH from a talent delaying snowstorm, and Unscripted 3 seeing former jobber Jimmy Jacobs score a clean win over Bryan Danielson with his new End Time Finishing Move.
- 5/22/2004 - Generation Next: Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Jack Evans, and Roderick Strong make their Ring of Honor debuts by trashing the fan ballots deciding the best wrestlers before destroying Special K, The Christopher Street Connection, The Ring Crew Express, John Walters, and Jimmy Rave. They also had enough in them to beat Special K in a trios match, and then the team of the Briscoes, Walters, and Rave in an eight-man tag later on.
- 2/17/2007 - Fifth Year Festival: Philadelphia - Takeshi Morishima unseats Homicide to become the new ROH World Champion less than two months after Homicide's title win at Final Battle 2006.
WCW
- The 05/27/96 episode of WCW Monday Nitro featured the shocking return of Scott Hall and the beginning of a landmark storyline in the industry, one that would effectively swing the balance of power towards WCW (legitimizing the company in the eyes of the mainstream public) and kept it there until WWE came back with a vengeance a couple of years later.
- Of course, the big Wham of the storyline came at Bash at the Beach '96, when Hulk Hogan went Hollywood.
- The 07/29/96 episode of WCW Monday Nitro opens with the great announcement, tonight we have two title matches: The Giant and Arn Anderson for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and Rey Mysterio Jr. and Eddie Guerrero for the Cruiserweight Title. That alone is awesome, but after the opening match Ric Flair's theme starts and it's Ric Flair and two of The Four Horsemen against Sting, Macho Man and Lex Luger. Man, this show is going to be awesome. I mean, seriously SERIOUSLY awesome. In the middle of the match Stinger is getting the crap beaten out of him, and it's looking like it could be comeback time. But then Jimmy Hart runs into the arena screaming "Get back stage!" and we find Scott Hall and Kevin Nash tearing shit up and beating Arn Anderson and Marcus "Buff" Bagwell up with baseball bats. Then Rey Mysterio comes in only to get picked up and thrown into the side of a trailer HEAD FIRST and lies on the concrete motionless. EVERYBODY runs backstage and there is chaos, wrestlers in agony and people screaming for help. Then it hits you: there are going to be no title matches tonight. The nWo have hospitalized the competitors. Everything is ruined and the entire show is thrown into chaos. Bobby Heenan doesn't feel safe and walks out on the commentary team. Before this the nWo were nothing but Hulk Hogan and his buddies talking shit and pulling silly stunts. This episode, shit got real.
- Uncensored 1997. The nWo win the main event match and what amounts to basically a perpetual "Money in the Bank"-type clause for all WCW titles. The REAL development, however, is Sting ending months of speculation on whose side is he on by kicking the nWo's collective asses, striking the first real blow against the renegade group.
- WCW Monday Nitro Jan 4th, 1999. Finger Poke of Doom.
- The 03/26/01 episodes of WCW Monday Nitro and Raw, in which the last Nitro segment ever was a Raw simulcast. Nitro and Raw both opened with Vince McMahon gloating about his purchase of WCW. WCW was known to be in financial turmoil at the time and there were (mostly unsubstantiated) rumors that McMahon was working to purchase it, but the deal was only announced the weekend before the broadcast. The simulcast segment also culminated in a huge (kayfabe) swerve involving Shane McMahon, as if Vince buying out his bitter rival wasn't huge enough for one night. To say nothing was the same in pro wrestling after this night would be a dreadful understatement.
- And then a few months later, when ECW showed up...
WWF/WWE
- January 23, 1984, New York City. The Iron Sheik is WWF World Heavyweight Champion, and he's scheduled for a rematch with previous titleholder Bob Backlund at Madison Square Garden. Only Backlund couldn't make it - and his replacement turned out to be a rising midcarder named Hulk Hogan. After that, nothing was ever the same.
- "Black Saturday". In 1984, the then-burgeoning WWF had purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling, a popular yet struggling Southern-style promotion. Vince McMahon appeared in the opening segment of the July 14 edition of World Championship Wrestling, GCW's flagship nationally televised program, to deliver a show that mostly had material that had already run on other WWF programs. Complaints from the GCW fanbase led TBS to give Bill Watts and Ole Anderson's promotions slots on their schedule in tandem with WCW, and the WWF was ultimately forced to sell the TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett, whose promotion would become WCW. As for the money Vinnie Mac obtained? It was invested in a last-ditch attempt to keep WWE alive, a little show known as the first WrestleMania.
- WrestleMania 13. Face Bret Hart and Heel "Stone Cold" Steve Austin make a Face/Heel Double-Turn after the former starts brutally beating the latter. It marked the beginning of Austin's rise as a main event wrestler and the beginning of the last chapter of Hart's WWF career. The Undertaker also won his second World Title (of seven) in the main event over five years after his short first reign, fully cementing his status as one of WWE's top tenured top guys.
- Survivor Series 1997, which ended with the Montreal Screwjob. For many fans of professional wrestling, this was the first point that Kayfabe was irrevocably broken. If nothing else, the screwjob forever changed the careers of everyone involved.
- The 04/13/98 episode of Raw had the company teasing a match between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince McMahon, leading to the creation of their own Wham storyline which not only broke WCW's 84-week-long winning streak in the ratings war and swung the momentum right back in the WWE's favor, but kept it there permanently long after WCW went bust.
- The first episode of Raw to air in 1999 had what was arguably the definitive moment when the tide turned in the Monday Night Wars. Mick Foley, alias Mankind, won the WWF Title for the first time, a particularly epic moment when the angle leading up to it suggested that Foley would be screwed again. Notably, Eric Bischoff tried to spoil the event on Nitro by having announcer Tony Schiavone give the ending away and sarcastically say "Yeah, that'll put butts in seats." Cue half a million people switching from Nitro to Raw to witness the event. For weeks afterward, the crowds at WWE shows would be filled with fans holding signs saying that Foley did indeed put their butts in those seats.
- WrestleMania X-Seven. Only six days after the final broadcast of WCW Monday Nitro, and in what is considered the end of Attitude Era, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin defeated The Rock for the WWF Championship after revealing that he made an alliance with his longtime Arch-Enemy, Mr. McMahon. Cue the Flying Pigs indeed.
- WrestleMania XXIV. Shawn Michaels defeated Ric Flair, retiring the latter (in WWE at least).
- WrestleMania XXVI. The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels in a Streak vs. Career match.
- The NXT Riot. The "Holy Shit!" Quotient in WWE went through the roof for the first time in years.
- April 11, 2011. Edge announces his retirement from pro wrestling due to injuries and relinquishes the World Heavyweight Championship.
- The June 27, 2011 episode of Raw may have had one of the most unexpected endings of all time. CM Punk would do a run-in and cost John Cena, whom he was feuding with, a tables match against R-Truth. Afterward, however, Punk would deliver a worked shoot promo that nobody saw coming, pretty much tearing apart Cena, Vince McMahon, his idiotic daughter, his doofus son-in-law, his glad-handing nonsensical yes man, Dwayne, and the entire audience. You can find the entire promo on Punk's page.
- WrestleMania XXX, April 6, 2014, is the day Brock Lesnar ended The Undertaker's two-decade long undefeated streak. Not to mention Daniel Bryan's WWE World Heavyweight championship win, which many will argue served as WWE's admission that he has taken the place of John Cena (who wrestled essentially a midcard match, not for a top title, for the first time since his WrestleMania debut ten years ago) as the company's top face.
- June 2, 2014. The RAW after Payback, after The Shield having defeated Evolution once again. But then come the main event that was going to be Randy Orton vs Roman Reigns. However, Seth Rollins wails on Dean Ambrose and Reigns with a steel chair and sides with Evolution.
- July 13, 2015. Three of the Four Horsewomen (Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair) made their main roster debuts on RAW that day several months after a tag team match featuring the Bella Twins versus the team of Paige and Emma lasted all of 30 seconds, hence the #Give Divas A Chance hashtag that would trend on Twitter for three days and prompting the WWE to revamp the WWE Women's Division to focus more on athleticism and less on sex appeal.
- Royal Rumble 2018: At the conclusion of the inaugural Women's Royal Rumble which was won by Asuka, after months of rumors and speculation, Ronda Rousey makes her debut in WWE as a full-time wrestler.
- October 22, 2018: Roman Reigns shocks the wrestling world at the start of RAW when he announces that he is battling leukemia and relinquishes the WWE Universal Championship. The opening segment ends with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins in an emotional Shield fistbump, an image that would be shattered at the end of the night as immediately after Ambrose and Rollins regain the Raw Tag Team Championships, Dean turns on Seth and lays him out on the concrete floor.
- November 13, 2018: Daniel Bryan turns heel for the first time in six years after lowblowing AJ Styles to win the WWE Championship on Smackdown, ending Styles' 371-day reign with the belt.
- February 25, 2019: Roman Reigns returns for the first time since his cancer diagnosis... and announces it's in remission, to a huge ovation. But that Wham is nothing compared to the one used during Ric Flair's 70th birthday party, with glowing tributes to the man, but when it's time for him to show...we cut backstage to Batista dragging a beaten up, lifeless Flair out of his dressing room, and saying to Triple H, "Do I have your attention now?"
- The weekend of WrestleMania 35. A Changing of the Guard of sorts. Between the previous Friday's NXT Takeover: New York and the event itself, ten of the company's seventeen active titles changed hands note . Batista, one of the stars of the Ruthless Aggression Era, announced his retirement from in-ring competition, as did modern era legend Kurt Angle. And, significantly, this was the first WrestleMania since WM 2000 where The Undertaker didn't have a match on the card. Not only did this come off as the swan song for the Ruthless Aggression era, a number of firsts also happened this weekend, all involving well-loved babyfaces.
- Becky Lynch won the first ever Women's main event at WrestleMania, and the first woman to hold both women's titles simultaneously since they were instated.
- Johnny Gargano became the first competitor to win the NXT Triple Crown (NXT Championship, NXT North American Championship, and NXT Tag Team Championship)
- Kofi Kingston finally wins the WWE Championship over eleven years after his debut, becoming the the first African-born WWE champion.
- The November 12, 2019 episode of WWE Backstage ends with Renee Young doing a historical moment for WWE, bringing back a person no one expected to return. (cue static, guitar rift) "Look in my eyes, what do you see?". That's right people, after 5 years of chanting, the Best in the World is back.
- Royal Rumble 2020: In the men's Royal Rumble match, the timer for the 21st entrant counts down and hits zero, the audience waits to hear who it will be. Then the theme starts: "You think you know me...". That's right, for the first time since his retirement in 2011, Edge returns to pro wrestling.
- August 28, 2020: Following his surprise return after five months at SummerSlam the previous weekend (which was Wham enough in itself), Roman Reigns is signing the contract for a Universal Championship match against Braun Strowman and The Fiend... and to the shock of nearly everyone, he didn't come alone: He's now a Paul Heyman guy.
- June 22 - 24, 2007. Chris Benoit and his family's death during those three days, as well as the circumstances behind it, shook Professional Wrestling to its core and its effects are still felt to this day.
- August 29, 2016. A Fatal Four-Way No DQ Elimination match on Raw to determine the new Universal Champion is held between Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens. and Big Cass. Cass gets eliminated in short order, and when Rollins and Reigns spill to the outside, here comes Triple H, who plants Reigns with a Pedigree and has Rollins eliminate him. Then he turns towards Owens...and then spins around and pedigrees Rollins, giving Owens the Universal Championship and anointing Owens as the new face of Raw.
- WrestleMania XXXIII: After losing to Roman Reigns, The Undertaker leaves his hat, gloves, and coat folded up in the middle of the ring, a non-verbal announcement of his retirement. It didn't last.
- September 25, 2017. After three years, The Shield is reunited on RAW.
- WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes returns to WWE to defeat Seth Rollins, becoming the first big name to go from AEW to WWE rather than the other way around, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin comes out of his 19-year retirement to defeat Kevin Owens.
- Survivor Series 2023: After nearly a decade, and just a few months off from publicly falling out with AEW, CM Punk finally returns to the WWE. The event also saw the return of mainstay and another legend Randy Orton after over a year off from back injury.
- WrestleMania XL: Cody Rhodes finishes the story and defeats Roman Reigns, putting an end to the latter's 1,316 reign.
Other
- Championship Wrestling from Florida, October 1982. Kevin Sullivan has been working Tweener for months. Meanwhile Jake Roberts has been bragging about how a "Nivek Navillus" had paid him good money to beat up Barry Windham. Sullivan defeats Windham to win the vacant NWA Florida Heavyweight Title . After the match, Sullivan rips Windham's nose guard off, and kicks him in the head. The following week, he shows up with an "X" on his forehead and ranting and raving about "Abudadein" and "Akbar" and, to everyone's eyes, basically turned into Charles Manson. Announcer Gordon Solie explains that "Nivek Navillus" is "Kevin Sullivan" spelled backwards. Thus begins his whole epic run as a "Satanic" heel.
