10 Biggest WWE Return Pops Ever

9. Stone Cold Steve Austin - 2001

Literally speaking, Stone Cold hadn't been off WWE television for very long when he returned to Raw is War during July 2001.

But, in spirit, he kind of had. The Texas Rattlesnake had spent much of the early part of the year in the pocket of Vince McMahon, with whom he formed an unlikely alliance following a (probably misjudged) heel turn at WrestleMania X-Seven.

At the time, it appeared as though the Attitude Era's poster boy - having cleared the ring (and the parking lot) of Alliance trouble-makers - was back to his old crowd-pleasing tricks.

And the fans played along on the night, blissfully unaware that another heel turn was less than a week away (although this time, you had to concede, it may have been necessary to even up the somewhat lopsided Invasion teams).

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