Roman Reigns finally defeated Brock Lesnar to become Universal Champion and Ronda Rousey won gold at WWE SummerSlam.
Time and time again The Big Dog had fallen to The Beast Incarnate with many fans not enamoured by the prospect of either as champion.
Reigns' character has proved unpopular with large swathes of the audience and Brock rarely competes ahead of another UFC heavyweight title tilt.
But WWE skilfully placated the crowd by having Braun Strowman promise to cash in his Money In The Bank contract immediately after the bout.
As soon as the Monster Among Men had declared his intentions not to use the briefcase in a cowardly fashion, Roman ambushed the champion.
In a frantic start he hit Lesnar with three Superman punches and three spears, then powered his way out of a guillotine choke and hit a spinebuster.
He slammed him down to break the same hold, endured three German suplexes, and then tried to spear the Beast again, only for him to wisely sidestep.
Roman instead shot through the ropes and took out Strowman at ringside, who the cocky Lesnar decided to then incapacitate with a monstrous F5.
He tossed Reigns back in the ring and destroyed Braun with his briefcase, before hurling it out of reach and battering him repeatedly with a steel chair.
However, when Lesnar - lean and seemingly ready for the Octagon - stepped back in the ring, Reigns was waiting with a spear to become champion.
The manner of the defeat protected Brock and at least now the Universal Championship should be defended regularly on TV and at pay-per-view.
The other big story of the night was UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey squashing Alexa Bliss to become the new Raw Women's Champion.
Full results:
1. Andrade 'Cien' Almas and Zelina Vega defeated Rusev and Lana in a mixed tag team match.
2. Cedric Alexander (c) defeated Drew Gulak in a singles match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
3. The B-Team (c) defeated The Revival in a tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
4. Seth Rollins (with Dean Ambrose) defeated Dolph Ziggler (c) (with Drew McIntyre) in a singles match to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
5. The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) (with Kofi Kingston) defeated The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan) (c) by disqualification in a tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
6. Braun Strowman defeated Kevin Owens in a singles match for Strowman's Money in the Bank contract.
7. Charlotte Flair defeated Carmella (c) and Becky Lynch in a triple threat match to win the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship.
8. Samoa Joe defeated AJ Styles (c) by disqualification in a singles match for the WWE Championship.
9. The Miz defeated Daniel Bryan in a singles match.
10. Finn Bálor defeated Baron Corbin in a singles match.
11. Shinsuke Nakamura (c) defeated Jeff Hardy in singles match for the WWE United States Championship.
12. Ronda Rousey defeated Alexa Bliss (c) by submission in a singles match to win WWE Raw Women's Championship.
13. Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) in a singles match to win the WWE Universal Championship.
