A period of time away from the cameras of Raw and Smackdown is the worst thing that could happen to a WWE Superstar. Their place on the card is in jeopardy. A wrestler's time away from action allows another to take their place. This has happened countless times throughout history and will continue to happen for all of time. It is the nature of the beast, one cog in the machine gets used up and is replaced by another. The challenge for a superstar, after either taking a break or going through months of gruelling rehab, is to regain their place on the card without seeminng to be receiving any favours. We all saw how well that went for Batista at the start of the year. The thing that will hurt most of all for a potential returnee is becoming irrelevant. Imagine how that must feel, to be 'on top' for a period of time, suffer an excruciating injury and come back to little fanfare. A recent example of this is Curtis Axel. At one time he seemed to be a guy WWE were giving a huge push to. He was the new Paul Heyman guy and the Intercontinental Champion, remember? However, after a pretty pointless spell in the RybAxel tag team and a period on the treatment table, Axel made a less-than triumphant return on Main Event with no build up. More damningly for Henning Jnr is the fact WWE cut his match's highlights from their Youtube highlights package. What an unforgiving business pro wrestling can be.
