10 Lamest WWE Returns
Starring Rusev, The Ultimate Warrior, CM Punk, and more...
CM Punk is back in the WWE fold. Sort of.
The former 'Voice of the Voiceless' strode out at the end of the 12 November episode of WWE Backstage, announcing that "just when they think they got the answers, I change the culture. I'll see you here next week."
He'll now feature as a regular correspondent on the FS1 studio show, though his contract is with FOX, not WWE. Thus, it's hard to say whether this brings him closer to a full-on in-ring return or not but while this has made Backstage must-see television going forward, it blunts the appeal of him potentially showing up on Raw or SmackDown. Punk is back in the ecosystem now. He's about to become the norm, less of a special attraction, and not quite the game-changing mega-surprise he could've been on a proper wrestling show, and that's lame.
But is Punk's one of the lamest returns in WWE history? Not even close.
While many of the wrestlers within were able to recover from their underwhelming comebacks and the dismal weeks and months that followed, the wrestlers within came back in ways that brought little hype, excitement, or reason to feel optimistic about the run that followed...
10. Rusev (Raw - 16 September 2019)
That WWE somehow contrived to make fans cringe at a Rusev comeback in 2019 is quite the achievement.
Once one of the most over acts in the company with this Rusev Day shtick and a fixture on any under-utilised/under-used/under-pushed list worth its bandwidth, 'The Bulgarian Brute' returned to bewildered murmurs of "what the f*ck?!" on this episode of Raw. The setup and execution were impossibly wack. A "gender reveal party" for Maria Kanellis' baby led to Mrs. K pointing the finger at potential father Ricochet, leading to her husband Mike challenging 'The One and Only' to a match. Thwarted in two minutes, Mike was subjected to an emasculating brow-beating from his wife, who was interrupted by Ru-Ru when threatening to reveal the real babby daddy, and she was happy to roll with it.
Rusev proceeded to flatten Mike in the blink of an eye. Though he was only a red herring in this wretched storyline, that he was placed in it on his first night back in months sucked the life out of what could've been a crowd-popping comeback.
Now, he's a cuckolding victim battered by Bobby Lashley on a weekly basis.