Nothing gets a wrestling crowd more excited than a surprise return. For the short time after the first sighting of the wrestler, or just after the familiar entrance music hits, all psychology, storytelling and sense goes out the window. It doesn’t matter about why they’re back, what matters is they’re back. Your blood is pumping, your heart is racing, your goosebumps are…goosebumping (what’s the verb of goosebump?) and nothing in that moment is more exciting than wrestling.
This euphoric feeling has led to some of the greatest moments in professional wrestling history, but having said that, there’re also times when, instead of riding the wave of euphoria, the wrestler drowns in it. Let’s take a look at some of the Best & Worst Surprise WWE Returns.
For fairness and for my sanity, I’m excluding one-time showings such as a special Royal Rumble return, and using this list exclusively for active wrestlers making their return to the company, from hiatus, or from injury with no announcement of their return prior. Also this is entirely my opinion so feel free to tell me how wrong I am on Twitter!
BEST – Brock Lesnar | Raw, April 2, 2012
We start this list looking back at the Raw after WrestleMania 28. John Cena had just lost to The Rock the night before in their ‘Once in a Lifetime’ match, which still makes me angry to this day that they repeated the match the following year, and John Felix Anthony Cena Jr.’s luck was not about to change.
Cena was in the ring, and called out The Rock to congratulate him on his victory the previous night. But he didn’t get Dwayne. He got pain. As in, here comes the pain. As in, holy crap, Lesnar’s back. (How am I managing to rhyme all of these? I’m a poet and didn’t even know I was rhyming those words.)
The crowd erupted when Lesnar’s music hit, to the point where Michael Cole’s call of “the American Airlines Arena has come unglued” didn’t sound ridiculous. For someone who had left on such bad terms, even flipping the crowd off on his departure at WrestleMania 20, seeing Lesnar back in a WWE ring was a welcome sight.
This feeling was only compounded when he then attacked Cena, delivering an F5 and kicking the recipient’s cap away afterwards. Not only was this an amazing moment in and of itself, it can be argued this started the ‘Raw after WrestleMania‘ trend of big returns, NXT call-ups and huge angles taking place on the show, as well as being the starting point of Lesnar’s most dominant WWE run to date.
WORST – Dolph Ziggler | Royal Rumble, 2018
In December of 2017, Dolph Ziggler had just won the United States Championship at Clash of Champions, beating Bobby Roode and Baron Corbin in a Triple Threat, a match no-one expected him to win. On the following episode of SmackDown, he vacated the title, claiming the fans didn’t deserve him as he walked out, leaving the title in the ring. This was a really intriguing angle as fans weren’t sure where they were going with this at all.
Ziggler wasn’t seen on WWE programming until the men’s 2018 Royal Rumble, over a month later. He entered at the coveted number 30 spot, which was genuinely shocking and surprising. This was also great.
So did he win? Nope. Make the final four? Nope. Make any sort of meaningful impact in the match at all? Nope. He entered, eliminated Goldust and was then himself eliminated by Finn Bálor. What was the point of this? He then went on to be confused between a babyface and a heel for a while before regaining his old role as ‘mid-card guy that can put on a good match’ until Drew McIntyre came along. This was just a poor return that could have made so much more impact and left everyone involved needing more.
BEST – The Rock | Raw, February 2, 2011
Okay, I’m stretching when I said ‘active wrestler’ in the rules, but I felt like I had to include this because it was just that good.
The final angle for the go-home show of Elimination Chamber 2011 had absolutely nothing to do with Elimination Chamber 2011, which was pretty weird. The host for WrestleMania 27 was about to be announced, and there wasn’t all that much hype surrounding it. The previous week, Vince McMahon had come out and said that the host for the ‘Show of Shows’ would be announced the following week and that was about it. So when it came time for the announcement, and all the lights in the arena were gradually turned off to build suspense, you could say interest was piqued.
There was a moment of silence in the pitch black arena, before the familiar call of “If you smell” rang out. The crowd exploded, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was literal. The noise was deafening. This was the first time The Rock had been seen in seven years, and he came back and cut a lengthy promo and it was as if he hadn’t missed a beat. It was a nostalgia trip, topped off with the ‘Great One’ cutting down Michael Cole during the speech. He used all the classic catchphrases, and the crowd were eating up every word of it. It was quite the sight to behold and for sure one of the Best returns in WWE history.
WORST – The Undertaker | WrestleMania 34
Okay, bear with me here. It’s always going to be hard to call a surprise return bad simply due to the effect of it being a surprise; it always incites a positive emotion in you despite any other factors simply because it is a surprise. It’s even harder to call a surprise return of a beloved figure like the Undertaker bad, and yet here I am. I’ve pitchfork-proofed my house in preparation.
So, at WrestleMania 34, the Undertaker returned and beat John Cena in a match that lasted about three minutes. It was a nice little moment, and ‘Taker looked in much better shape than the last time we’d seen him. When was the last time we saw him again?
Oh yeah, that’s right. We saw him RETIRE in the middle of the ring at WrestleMania 33. He left his gear, he broke character, it was the end of the ‘Deadman.’ (I’m not counting Raw 25, that whole episode was essentially non-canon.) Despite him retiring, here he was, beating John Cena, I’ll say that again, JOHN CENA, in less than five minutes. So he… didn’t retire? He’s still as good as he was? Is he still an active competitor? What was the point of that whole WrestleMania 33 moment then? This surprise return wasn’t bad because the return itself was bad, it makes the Worst list because it absolutely ruined the impact of the previous year’s “retirement,” nullifying an entire arc of Undertaker’s career, as well as a claim that Roman Reigns was making about retiring him. An ill-thought decision.
BEST – Stone Cold Steve Austin | Backlash, 2000
This one features one of the loudest pops of all time, so that alone is reason enough to place it on the Best list. Add on to that it was Stone Cold Steve Austin, and he beat up the biggest heels in the company to ensure the other largest face in the company won the WWE Championship… yeah this is a pretty good one.
Stone Cold had been written off TV nine months prior by being run over by a car. This was so he could receive neck surgery that he desperately needed. He made his grand return in the main event of Backlash 2000, where The Rock was in dire straits against the McMahon-Helmsley regime. Crooked referees Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson were there to count The Rock’s shoulders to the mat, while Triple H and Vince McMahon were decimating the ‘People’s Champ’ with a chair. Just as it looked like it would be all over for Rocky, the glass shattered.
I know I’ve mentioned crowds going wild, but this… this was something else. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend checking it out. The sheer amount of jubilation and euphoria the crowd were feeling fueled their screams and shouts, it provided the epic backdrop as Austin marched down to the ring, chair in hand, and proceeded to hit Triple H, Patterson, Brisco, and finally Vince McMahon before laying in another shot on Triple H as he left.
What an amazing, stunning way to bring back one of the biggest names in history. This is easily one of the greatest returns of all time, and quite comfortably found its way on to the Best list.
WORST – Seth Rollins | Extreme Rules, 2016
If you guys weren’t hunting me down for the Undertaker entry, you might well be after this one. Again, bear with me here.
At first glance, this return was great. Seth Rollins came back from injury at Extreme Rules 2016 after a WWE Championship match between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles, and he delivered a Pedigree to the former of the two, who was the champion. All great stuff, inserting himself straight into the title picture, ending the pay-per-view off on a high note, it ticked all the boxes a surprise return should. So why has this made the Worst list?
He returned as a heel. Seth had been out for nine months due to blowing his ACL at a house show, he missed a WrestleMania, and people were desperate for him to come back. He was the WWE Champion when he left, and despite being a heel, he was the guy. The timing was perfect for a face turn, and he would have easily been the face of the company. Viewers were clamoring for a reason to cheer him and the excitement of seeing him back was marred slightly by seeing him return to his old ways instead of taking his new place as the number one face.
Seth would turn face a few months later, after the pleasure of seeing him return had faded, and it didn’t gel. People had just gotten used to booing him again before they were told to cheer him and now the timing was off. This was a massively wasted opportunity.
BEST – The Hardy Boyz | WrestleMania 33
As usual, we’re ending things off on a positive note and this one holds a very special place in my heart, so it’s time to gather round for Uncle Pete’s story time kids.
WrestleMania 33 was the first WrestleMania I watched in the company of friends, having watched them all previously either by myself or with my best friend. This time, there was a large group of us, and it had much more of a party vibe. We had all made predictions for each match for the show, and for the Raw Tag Team Title match (which was a Triple Threat Ladder match between Enzo & Cass, The Bar, and Gallows & Anderson), one friend in particular (who for ease we’ll call John) had predicted the Hardy Boyz to win. We all scoffed at the idea, and I was adamant that if they’d return, it would obviously be at the Raw after WrestleMania because “that’s when all the returns happen.”
The entrances for the tag match began, and all of us were ribbing John, asking him if the Hardy Boyz were in the crowd somewhere waiting to pop out. Then, the hosts of WrestleMania 33, the New Day, came out onto the ramp. We all had a sharp intake of breath, and gave quick side-glances at John, who had a faint smile on his face. The New Day announced it was now a Fatal Four-way match, instead of a Triple Threat. “DELETE” chants rang out across the arena.
Some of us in our group now began muttering “no…” “no way…,” trying to convince ourselves that this wasn’t about to happen. I said “New Day are going to put themselves in the match, it’s obvious.” I didn’t believe a word I said.
The Hardy Boyz’ music hit and all of us lost our minds. We screamed, we jumped, we high-fived, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. The Hardy Boyz, back in WWE for the first time since I could remember, with that crowd reaction, at WrestleMania, in a Ladder match, for the Tag Team Titles? It was inconceivable.
Once the match started and the euphoria had worn off slightly, I remembered. I glanced at John who had predicted The Hardy Boyz to win and just said “well…you got me on that one.”
And that’s the story of WWE‘s Best surprise return of all time.
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