10 Big WWE Returns That Could Happen In 2022

Bray Wyatt won't be the only old name WWE brings back in in 2022...

The Fiend is back
WWE

Returns are valuable currency in pro wrestling. Big, crowd-popping comebacks from John Cena, Becky Lynch, CM Punk, Edge, and countless others provided some of the sport's most memorable moments in 2021, as they will next year, when the sheer volume of absentees available made this list easy to populate.

2021's most iconic and impactful comeback happened when Living Colour hit a Chicago sound system one Friday night in August. It's unlikely that 2022 will deliver anything of that magnitude, but how could it? The circumstances were too perfect.

Nonetheless, no wrestling promotion is better equipped to deliver awesome returns than WWE over the next 12 months. Vince McMahon's is the biggest and oldest shop in town, with decades of history, and while his follow-ups are rarely as riveting as the moments themselves, he at least has the opportunity to spring a stack of wild returns as we move through another wild year.

Injured wrestlers won't be accounted for here, because of course they're coming back. Similarly, other full-time contractors who have disappeared while still under McMahon's employ (hello, Elias) shall not be found within either.

But former developmental prospects, combat sports athletes, "retired" legends, and horror movie monsters? Now we're talking...

10. CJ Parker

The Fiend is back
WWE/NJPW

Only a fool would have bet on Juice Robinson ever returning to WWE a few months ago.

Flourishing for New Japan after a woeful developmental run as CJ Parker (an eco-warrior jobber character whose most memorable moment was playing squash fodder for a debuting Kevin Owens), Robinson entered the Young Lion program in August 2015 and was soon flourishing as a foreign prospect. Building in popularity, Robinson scored two IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship wins, looking better than ever and totally at home across the Pacific, though his fortunes have since declined.

Shuttled down the card through 2019 and 2020 and opting out of competing in Japan in early 2021, Juice may now be on the verge of leaving the King of Sports. His contract reportedly expires in just over a month.

One of the world's most improved wrestlers since departing WWE six years ago, Robinson will have no shortage of suitors come January. That he and tag team partner David Finlay (whose NJPW deal is also up soon) have IMPACT Wrestling tenure may lean them in that direction. Nonetheless, he would return to WWE better than the wrestler he was as CJ Parker - and with a bigger name to boot.

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for six years and is currently WhatCulture's Senior Wrestling Reporter. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.