WWE facts and trivia can be some of the most interesting and intriguing subjects in the world. From the legendary backstage stories to the booking curiosities, to the lurid personal details that some people salivate over, there is no shortage of fodder for thought and consumption. A lot of these tidbits end up becoming widely known or even famous, but there are many facts, trends, statistics, and oddities that fly under the radar and that is what this list is about. We are going to examine some of the overlooked but no less captivating facts that even some long-term fans wouldn't be aware of. Things that point to the future of WWE by highlighting the past. Some of these may even provide insight into WWE's philosophy on how they run their shows and what they deem important over a long period rather than what we suspect might drive them week to week. That is the power of the things we're examining today.

There are also going to be topics that were simply out of WWE's control, yet they prevail anyway. Happenings that came about which couldn't be foreseen or deterred, and may not have ended their influence over the largest wrestling company in the world. Big and small, vital and fantastical, these facts are the hidden gems worth a closer look.

25 Raven Almost Knocked WrestleMania X-Seven Off The Air

One of the best 'almost' stories in wrestling is Raven's Hardcore Championship defense where his risky decision almost prematurely ended what is commonly thought of as the greatest PPV in WWE history. Defending his championship against The Big Show and Kane, Raven ended up driving a golf cart around the bowels of the arena while The Big Show choked him from behind. The plan for that part of the match was to have Kane commandeer another cart and they'd have a fun chase around the arena, but that never came to be because Raven miscalculated, almost catastrophically.

Raven told the story of how he saw a chain linked fence and thought he could bounce the cart off it and it would look cool while being choked by a giant.

He aimed at the fence, expecting to rebound and continue driving, but instead, the fence simply sagged and the cart ran over the curb it had been protecting, ending the chase and the idea for the next part of the match. What Raven didn't know, and was told later by a technician, was that the cart came within millimetres of severing cables and power lines that powered the entire building. If he'd driven slightly faster or hit the fence at more of an angle, the entire show would've cut to black and the arena would've been plunged into darkness.

24 Several Superstars Had To Change To Trunks To Be 'A Top Guy'

A fashion curiosity that WWE enforced for a long time in the vast majority of cases is that they like their top superstars to show their legs in trunks rather than tights or other forms of wrestling attire. The list of guys who had varying levels of success that were suddenly catapulted to the top highlights WWE's devoted notion that this specific 'look' is a priority.

The Miz had his shorts and gloves look, but after a one night experiment where he wore trunks while competing under a mask, he changed to trunks permanently and within a few months was WWE Champion.

JBL spent his entire run as 'Bradshaw' wearing tights, but when he changed to trunks as part of his re-branding as a Texas tycoon, he almost immediately won a WWE Championship.

Triple H spent his early career as both the blue blood and in D-X wearing tights, but once he became 'The Game' he donned trunks and racked up more than a dozen World Championships.

Chris Jericho managed to become the first Undisputed World Champion wearing tights, although he was treated largely as a joke and afterthought. Once he began wearing trunks during his feud with Shawn Michaels, he suddenly scored WWE and World Championships regularly, again affirming this odd trend.

Jinder Mahal is a recent example, having spent time as a joke in 3MB wearing their outfits, only to turn it around when he returned to trunks and suddenly become a WWE Champion. Don't discount the power of trunks in WWE.

23 Shane McMahon Tested The Armageddon Hell In A Cell Dive Twice To Convince Rikishi To Take It

One of the most underrated high-risk falls in WWE history was pulled off by Rikishi during the Armageddon Hell In a Cell 6-way match in 2000. Rikishi is easily the heaviest man to take the plunge off of the top of the cell, and in his circumstance, they had to make special preparations. A truck loaded with hay and other safety measures including a crash pad was nonsensically brought to ringside and Rikishi was instructed to test the fall before the PPV.

The big man had taken a big fall from a steel cage earlier in the year, but this was a bunch of extra height and was required to fall backward blind, which caused some hesitation. In stepped Shane McMahon, who as we now know is happy to fall off of increasingly high places at any opportunity, and he showed Rikishi that the fall is very doable, by doing it himself. Rikishi might have been convinced, but Shane either wanted to do it again since it was fun or wanted to drive the point home, so he dove off the top again. At that point Rikishi was essentially bound to take the plunge since his boss's son had paved the way and chickening out isn't an option after that kind of display. The fall went off without a hitch, and we have Shane to thank for it.

22 The Hardy Boyz' Seven Tag Team Title Reigns Only Average One Month Each

..Or 30.7 days each to be precise. You'd never guess it from their fame and reputation as a tandem, but in WWE The Hardy Boyz haven't been able to sustain a Tag Team Championship reign of any decent length. This can partially be attributed to their majority of reigns occurring during the height of The Attitude Era where WWE's 'Crash TV' style meant that title changes happened in abundance and holding onto the gold was a difficult task for anyone. However, the other comparably successful teams of the day, Edge & Christian and The Dudley Boyz, both managed to have title reigns significantly longer on their resume, making The Hardy Boyz statistic a significant blemish on their record.

Between shenanigans involving Los Conquistadors where they frequently traded championships back and forth between them and Edge & Christian, and the constant stream of stipulation matches and multi-team matches, they never held the the titles in one reign for more than 2 months and change.

They had three reigns in a row lasting 2 weeks, 2 weeks and one week respectively.

Even with their return this past year at WrestleMania 33, they captured the gold but only managed to hold it a single day longer than their longest reign back during the previous era totaling 64 days. An oddity to one of the best-known tag teams of all time.

21 The Hell In A Cell Match Has Had Two Father And Son(s) Combinations Competing In It

The Hell In A Cell may be just over 20 years old but it's already had multiple generations of the same families competing inside its barbaric structure. It should come as no surprise that the first pair to complete the familial double is the McMahon clan, with Vince and Shane actually competing as a team alongside Big Show to take on D-X inside the cell. It wasn't a great night for the McMahon's though, as it ended with the senior McMahon having his head shoved into Big Show's behind.

The other family combination to compete in the infamous cell is Rikishi and his sons Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso. Rikishi famously stole the show during the Armageddon 2000 6-Way Hell In A Cell match by being chokeslammed (or chokeshoved?) off the top of the cell and into a waiting flatbed truck. Rikishi's twin sons completed the familial link when they battled The New Day over the Tag Team Championships at Hell In A Cell '17. While nobody plummeted off of the top of the cell, they did introduce several novel ways to inflict damage and so continued the evolution of cell matches, while bolstering their families' lineage in professional wrestling.

20 WrestleMania's Rare Double: Only 6 Men Have Main Evented WrestleMania As Both Face And Heel

Batista is the most recent completer of this triumph, having been turned heel by circumstances beyond his control leading into the WrestleMania XXX main event. Combine that with his other main event effort at WrestleMania 21 and The Animal is one of this select group.

Brock Lesnar's first 'Mania was as a face against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XIX, and since then he's racked up two more main events (both against Roman Reigns) as a heel.

Triple H has main-evented plenty of times as a heel but his return from injury to the main event of WrestleMania X8 as a face against Chris Jericho scores him a slot alongside the greats.

Shawn Michaels, did it between his WrestleMania XII Iron Man match with Bret Hart and his WrestleMania XIV retirement to Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The Rock is there having been a heel at WrestleMania XV and a face the other times he's been in the match that ends the show.

Honorable mention to Stone Cold Steve Austin, who turned after the WrestleMania X-Seven main event and could be argued to count, although that doesn't quite fit the criteria we're using here.

Then there's the first man to ever complete the double, the Macho Man Randy Savage, but his situation is even more impressive and deserves its own entry. However, there's another important milestone that has been completed in this vein, and it's even rarer than this short list.

19 WrestleMania's Rarer Double: Only Two Men Have Won The Main Event Of WrestleMania As Both Face And Heel

Before this year's WrestleMania Triple H stood alone with this particular milestone, having been the only heel competitor to win a main event (WrestleMania 2000) who then went on to also win one as a face (WrestleMania X8). This would've left him with a singular achievement, but The Beast is not to be denied.

With Brock Lesnar's victory over Roman Reigns this year as a heel to add to his victory over Kurt Angle, Lesnar claims the same accolade as The Game.

Both instances came about from extraordinary circumstances, with Triple H being the first heel to ever win the WrestleMania main event to finish the show, defeating Mick Foley, The Big Show, and The Rock in a Fatal-4 Way Elimination match. He was absolutely not expected to win the match for various reasons, so when he overcame his opponents, albeit with plenty of shenanigans to muddy the waters, he opened up future main events to not be so predictable. It may not have gone down well at the time, but it was important for making main events retain their 'live' status as contests.

Lesnar's effort was similar in some regards, with exactly nobody expecting anything but a Roman Reigns victory this year before Brock F-5'd him into red paste. Two men, icons in the WWE, sharing the second rarest WrestleMania accolade. But there's one thing even tougher to do apparently, and it falls to one of the greatest ever as the lone achiever.

18 WrestleMania's Rarest Double: Only One Man Has Main Evented WrestleMania Back To Back As A Face Then A Heel

Even more impressive than the previous entries in this trio is Macho Man's feat here, completing the insane task of ending one WrestleMania as a universally beloved babyface and turning it around to be a despised heel the next year's event. Both Shawn Michaels and Triple H main-evented two years apart having swapped sides of the face/heel dynamic, but only Randy Savage did it back to back, and in one continuous storyline to boot. Randy Savage's WrestleMania IV victory in the WWE Championship tournament sparked rapturous joy from fans unanimously as Savage, Miss Elizabeth, and Hulk Hogan celebrated his night-long odyssey for the gold.

The seeds were planted that night, however, as Hulk Hogan and Elizabeth were shown to be close and that festered within the new WWE champion for most of the year until Savage couldn't contain himself. He turned on The Hulkster and this rift continued right through to WrestleMania V where Randy's Macho Madness battled Hulkamania on opposite side of the coin. It's a true testament to Savage's character and ability that he can alter so precisely and create a completely different outlook for people to react to, but he did it here between the two WrestleMania's coincidentally both held in Trump Plaza back to back as well. The cream rose to the top in this case.

17 Since WrestleMania XX Only Daniel Bryan, The Miz, and Seth Rollins Main Evented WrestleMania Having Never Won A Royal Rumble

Considering the caliber of star required to win a Royal Rumble has a huge cross-over with those who get to main event WrestleMania, these stand out as either anomalies or recognition for how good these three are in their individual ways to buck the trend. WWE likes to crown its surefire champions with the massive recognition and prestige a Royal Rumble brings, so for the last decade and a half all but these three men have scored a previous win in January's traditional marquee match. The Miz is the most surprising of the trio at this point, with his main event coming about by being the right guy at the right time to hold the WWE title while The Rock and Cena set up their feud for the following years.

Seth Rollins' late entry into the WrestleMania 31 main event is akin to having a Royal Rumble win due to the Money In The Bank title shot, but the technicality remains and his 'Heist Of The Century' came about without throwing 29 others out of a ring. Daniel Bryan is the most glaring example though, having no guaranteed title shot like Seth, nor having held the WWE title heading into the event, he is the only man to overcome all of those setbacks to main event WrestleMania sans a Rumble win. Interestingly, all three left the event holding the WWE Championship, and in three distinctive ways that perfectly sum up their character's traits at the time.

16 El Torito Has The 2nd Best Win Percentage (91.7808%) In WWE History, And Will Likely Reclaim The Top Spot

For the record, Asuka is currently holding the honor of the highest winning percentage in WWE history, but considering that's fallen several points after back to back losses at WrestleMania and the following SmackDown, she could very well relinquish the honor back to the tiny taurus. You may be forgiven for thinking it's Goldberg, The Ultimate Warrior, or Brock Lesnar who should be closer to the top, but currently, across all WWE records, El Torito reigns as the 2nd hardest competitor to defeat.

Since his insanely high record isn't about to shift with him out of the company, he could very well reign supreme once again too.

This fact either proves that wins and losses aren't everything in the world of WWE, or they illustrate a critical failure for competitors to take him seriously due to his size, despite his high-flying skillset. The majority of El Torito's wins came against the WWE's other prominent little person, Hornswoggle. In various teams like Slater Gator and alongside 3MB, El Torito battled the former leprechaun countless times with little regard for the growing record he would ultimately establish. Interestingly, the 3rd place record holder is  Rick Steiner, only a few hundredths of a percent behind El Torito, somehow. The jury's out on whether having an animal-themed name is that much of an advantage.

15 The Longest Lasting Match In WrestleMania History Is The Hardcore Championship Match At WrestleMania X8

Technically starting from the beginning of the Maven Vs Goldust scheduled title match, the championship was on the line for a further two-and-a-half hours. The match racking up 2:33:34 on the clock before Maven once again absconded with the belt in a taxi he stole from Christian right after rolling him up for the pin in the parking lot. This was possible due to the active 24/7 rule meaning the championship could be won from the champion as long as a WWE official was present to make the official count.

During the initial matchup between Maven and Goldust, they were interrupted by Li'l Spike Dudley who pinned Maven and ran from the ring with the championship in tow, leaving both competitors in his wake. From there Spike was subsequently pinned by The Hurricane, who then lost the title to his sidekick Mighty Molly after she waffled him with a frying pan.

Molly got caught later in the night sneaking through the halls of Toronto's SkyDome by Christian, who smashed a weird half-door thing into her face. Pinning her, he looked to leave the arena but Maven had the final say. It may never have been the most prestigious championship, but it holds this record as well as gave us a few laughs.

14 At WrestleMania, If Your Theme Is Played Live, Your Chances Are Slim

For the last 12 WrestleManias, a streak has developed. If you have your theme music played live or are accompanied by live musicians, you will lose. This has affected matches up and down the card. From R-Truth singing his own entrance at WrestleMania XXVI to John Cena losing the WrestleMania XXVII main event when a gospel choir sang for him and he lost to The Miz. We saw it this year when Shinsuke Nakamura entered with Nita Strauss on guitar only for him to fall to AJ Styles. WWE claimed Shinsuke changed his music to spite the fans, but we suspect the curse is the reason for the alteration.

At WrestleMania 31 Sting was in a match everyone expected him to win handily, but the San Francisco Taiko Dojo's battle drumming sent him on the road to failure. The next year, Sasha Banks' cousin Snoop Dogg (with Raven Felix) crippled her chances to win the Women's Championship. The list goes on! Randy Orton with Rev Theory lost the WrestleMania XXX main event.

Bray Wyatt had Mark Crozer And The Rels play him to the ring when he faced John Cena that same day, and he's never been the same.

There are many other examples as well.

The last victor to have their music played live was Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania 22 when P.O.D did their version of Booyaka and he managed to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

If you see your favorite wrestler has musical accompaniment next WrestleMania, bet on them coming up short.

13 No Andre Memorial Battle Royal Winner Gets An Entrance

The now annual Andre Memorial Battle Royal has shifted importance and stature over the course of its short existence, but there has been one constant that is at odds with almost everything WWE usually does.

Whoever they have scheduled to win the thing, has come out en masse with the majority of competitors while select others got proper entrances.

Cesaro pulled double duty when he won the inaugural trophy, having competed for the Tag Team Championships on the pre-show, and hence wasn't even announced for the match itself. He won in what is still one of the best WrestleMania moments that was ever squandered.

Next was The Big Show who simply walked out with the majority.

Baron Corbin came closest, walking out with the majority cluster of competitors but he was given a significant camera shot and commentary introduction that was conspicuous in hindsight.

Mojo Rawley came out with the pack in another year.

This year nobody got music, but Matt Hardy won with his new partner Bray Wyatt helping him.

Even the inaugural women's battle royal has this, with Sasha Banks getting an entrance only for Naomi to ultimately win the contest. Watch to see if this trend continues next year.

12 At Every 10th Wrestlemania, A Submission Specialist Fought Multiple Opponents And Won The World Championship

This one seems serendipitous since each of the men who won the championship was (at the time) a beloved underdog babyface who had struggled and toiled through years of underappreciated excellence before receiving their due. Bret Hart instituted the tradition, having been unceremoniously cheated out of his WWE championship the previous year by Yokozuna (and Hulk Hogan according to rumors) only to rise again on a wave of fan support. He was competing with Lex Luger to see who could become the new face of WWE and he ultimately triumphed after losing to little brother Owen Hart earlier in the night only to capture the WWE Championship from Yokozuna in the main event.

Ten years later Chris Benoit was a similarly respected and beloved figure (again, times have changed), who defied much skepticism to defeat both Shawn Michaels and Triple H when he made The Game tap out in Madison Square Garden to scenes of unrestrained exuberance.

Finally, at WrestleMania XXX in New Orleans, Daniel Bryan would not be denied as he overcame factors in and out of the ring to defeat Randy Orton and Batista when the latter tapped out to The Yes Lock, triggering thunderous Yes chants. All three men did truly have to earn their place in wrestling history, and considering the fallout which afflicted each of them in the aftermath their wins take on even larger significance.

11 Each Man Who Won At Every Tenth WrestleMania Was Then Cursed

This is the flip side to the previous point and it's a bleak one, so strap in. The unfortunate reality is that each of the three men have all had varying degrees of tragedy and horrific acts occur involving them after they had their most triumphant professional moments at WrestleMania X, XX, and XXX respectively.

Bret Hart was the first, and his parade of cursed events began with the infamous Montreal Screwjob of Survivor Series '97. After he left WWE, his younger brother Owen, the last member of the Hart Foundation to remain with WWE after that fateful night, and passed away at the Over The Edge PPV event when a harness malfunctioned while he was being lowered into the ring. Soon after that Bret himself suffered a career-ending concussion at the hands (and feet) of Goldberg in WCW.

The second man, Chris Benoit, needs little explanation for most but suffice to say that the Benoit tragedy gave all of wrestling a black eye.

The last man to suffer the curse was Daniel Bryan, who left to go on his honeymoon after his big night, only to return to news of his father's untimely passing.

Within another few months he was forced to relinquish the WWE Championship due to complications with concussions and neck problems, and he was forced into retirement a year later over the same issues. He may have now returned (YES!) but the curse did its damage and we can only hope WrestleMania 40's ultimate winner has better fortune.

10 The Shockmaster Has A Higher Winning Percentage Than Hulk Hogan And John Cena

He may have been known as Tugboat or Typhoon in WWE, but he is infamous as the bumbling Shockmaster of WCW fame who crashed through the set of Flair For The Gold and as The British Bulldog put it "fell flat on his ass!". Nevertheless, in WWE he was a successful singles wrestler as Tugboat for a good long time in the early 90s and then he turned bad, became Typhoon, and joined Earthquake to form the also successful Natural Disasters tag team.

John Cena and Hulk Hogan will never be accused of being slouches when it comes to being on the right sight of the win-loss ledger, often winning even when it made little sense for them to do so, but the fact remains that both men, barring a very late career winning streak, are going to be looking up at Fred 'Shockmaster' Ottman in the record books for all of time.

The Hulkster himself even teamed up with the enormous Tugboat in his early WWE tenure, racking up plenty of wins together that further bolstered his ultimately winning resume. Perhaps Hogan may regret those early days of teaming with Tugboat if it meant he could eclipse him in the win-loss columns, but what's done is done. For the record, it's Fred Ottman at 77.3438%, Hulk Hogan at 77.3399%, and John Cena at 77.0975%.

9 The Undertaker Has Only Lost Once By Submission, But...

The official records on the Internet Wrestling Database have The Undertaker only ever losing by submission the one time, to CM Punk at the single Breaking Point PPV in '09. This is only half of the story though. What went down in that match is that Undertaker initially forced CM Punk to tap out to his Hell's Gate finisher, however, SmackDown GM Teddy Long cited an old ruling by former GM Vickie Guerrero that the move was banned and thus the victory was illegal. With that, the match continued, only for Punk to put his Anaconda Vice on The Deadman, wherein WWE pulled one of their favorite tricks and had a screwjob finish. Did we mention this PPV took place in Montreal?

So while The Undertaker has an official submission loss on the record, he didn't tap or submit in any way.

However, there are a few instances where he did actively tap out only for the referee not to be in position to make the call or in matches where submissions couldn't result in victory.

The closest he genuinely came to losing by legitimately giving up was at SummerSlam '15 when an overzealous timekeeper and the referee missing the actual tapout resulted in confusion and The Undertaker escaped with the victory. All in all, the record books don't always tell the entire story, and in this case, The Undertaker is both more and less than that statistic reveals.

8 The Ultimate Warrior Was Almost Perfect In 1990

Considering the roll he was on it may come as little surprise to some, but The Ultimate Warrior truly lived up to his name in this year. With the exception of The Royal Rumble, where he was eliminated by eventual WrestleMania opponent The Hulkster, The Ultimate Warrior won every single match he had over the course of this year, televised or otherwise. He held his Intercontinental Championship right through until he won the WWE Championship, whereupon he relinquished the lesser belt in favor of defending the WWE's top prize.

Not for nothing, he's also the only man to simultaneously hold those two championships despite the wealth of years in between (depending on how you classify Triple H's 2002 merging of the belts). A bonus pair of factoids there.

The Ultimate Warrior defended the WWE Championship for the rest of the year, including once in Japan against Ted DiBiase, and finished off his near perfect run with back to back victories during the 1990 Survivor Series. Sure he only had 21 matches total and went 20 - 1, but in those days, that was a full schedule or as close to one as The Warrior was going to work.

Extra tidbits are that he spent the most time beating up Dino Bravo in the first half of the year, and ended the year almost exclusively beating up the formerly longest ever reigning tag team champions, Demolition. So bravo on demolishing everyone that year, Warrior.

7 Raven Holds The Record For Most titles Held According To WWE

Raven getting the double-dip in this list! The ECW alumnus may be considered one of the WWE's biggest missed opportunities in terms of his character and promo skills going underutilized, but he didn't skimp on racking up title reigns. Hardcore Title reigns to be exact. The flannel aficionado repeatedly collected the Hardcore Championship on live shows and some televised events until he ballooned his record out to an astounding 27 reigns! That's five more than the similarly hardcore inclined Crash Holly who got to 22.

A majority of Raven's reigns didn't last the length of the show he won them on, but someone was keeping a tally and so the history books filled up with his name over and over again.

Other top title takers like Edge and Chris Jericho may look more at home on this list, but Raven's exploits didn't stop at the Hardcore Championship. He was a two-time ECW Champion, as well as a WCW United States and Tag Team Champion. He is even recognized under his previous 'Scotty Flamingo' moniker as having held the old WCW Light-Heavyweight Championship to edge him past.... Edge on the list of championships collected. While there's still a chance Jericho could eventually eclipse him on this list with a few more titles, Raven currently stands alone in the WWE record books. That's "what about Raven".

6 'Loose Cannon' Brian Pillman Tricked Eric Bischoff Into Firing Him To Go To WWE

There are some conflicting reports of this incident but this is the general series of events that led one of WCW's hottest rising prospects to jump ship to WWE right at the turn of the tide in the Monday Night Wars. Brian Pillman wanted out of WCW, seeing no clear path to the top. His 'Loose Cannon' character was taking off, but he wanted to really take it further than Eric Bischoff seemed willing to go along with, so he devised a plan. He said to Bischoff that because nobody knew if he was really crazy he needed to act like it, which would involve threatening to leave to WWE. To do so, he'd need an official contract he could present to make that case legitimate.

Bischoff provided the documentation and so Pillman simply used it to open discussions with WWE without breaching contract. Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman were working together at the time, and both loved Pillman, so Vince organized for Pillman to stop over in ECW en route to WWE so that everything was above board due to both companies threatening legal action over the other negotiating with under-contract wrestlers. Heyman was happy to get some time with Pillman, Brian got to get out of his WCW situation, and Vince got his man.