As much as WrestleMania is the be-all and end-all of WWE's calendar year, it's certainly not the only evening on the company's schedule worthy of attention. In recent years, some of the company's most amazing surprises have come just 24 hours after the show of shows. The Raw after WrestleMania has played host to some very newsworthy debuts and returns. In 2012, Brock Lesnar made his return to WWE, stepping foot in a Raw ring for the first time in eight years and attacking John Cena. Elsewhere on the card, Albert returned to the company under the name Lord Tensai, dominating Alex Riley in what looked to be the start of a major push. In 2014, NXT Women's Champion Paige answered WWE Divas' Champion AJ Lee's open challenge, debuting on the main roster and capturing Lee's championship in one fell swoop. Rusev, who had appeared in the Royal Rumble, made his official WWE debut, and both Bad News Barrett and Rob Van Dam returned to action. Finally, just last year, both former NXT Champion Neville and former NXT Tag Team Champions The Lucha Dragons joined the WWE roster with big victories, while Sheamus returned from surgery with a new look and attitude. This year, WWE's roster is depleted due to injury, and the time is right for new (or old) faces to jump back into the thick of things...
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
