10 Greatest Mystery Partner Reveals In WWE History
And their tag team partner...
WWE has a very mixed track record when it comes to mystery partners.
It is one of their favourite cards to play when building a high-profile tag team match. The thought process is simple: get the audience guessing and, more importantly, keep them watching until the reveal, because we can’t not know. But the execution is much trickier as WWE often face a difficult task in balancing genuine surprise with logical storytelling.
Once the suspense is in place, there is always the danger that the revelation will fail to live up to the expectation. This was highlighted on last week’s episode of RAW, when the Hardy Boyz joined Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose for the eight-man tag main event against Sheamus, Cesaro, and The Club - an entirely predictable and disappointing outcome.
If the mystery partner flops, there is no coming back. The main event of No Way Out of Texas: In Your House, 1998, is a prime example. When Savio Vega’s music hit, the match was lost.
But there have been times when WWE have got it right, and for every Savio Vega there is a...
10. Chris Jericho - Night Of Champions 2015
Not only was Chris Jericho the first-ever WWE Undisputed Champion (when he beat The Rock and Stone Cold in the same night), he is also the undisputed king of surprise returns.
Y2J has been keeping us on our toes for the last five years. Since his 2012 return (it will be the end of the world as you know it) Y2J has flitted between short runs in WWE and musical tours with Fozzy, and has used an element of surprise to mark all of his comebacks.
One of Jericho's best homecomings was at Night of Champions 2015, when he emerged as the mystery partner of Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns to face the Wyatt Family.
Although it was Jericho’s first televised appearance in eight months, he had been wrestling house shows throughout 2015 and was thus up to speed in the ring. His last notable feud had been against Bray Wyatt, so it made enough storyline sense for Jericho to make it work.
The Houston crowd were thrilled to see Jericho, who ended up costing his team the match by attempting to steal the pinfall from Reigns. This sowed the seeds for the rivalry between Ambrose and Jericho the next year, so this return was worth more than just a cheap pop.