10 Wrestlers Who Returned From Injury Better Than Before
6. Hardcore Holly
Prior to taking a botched powerbomb from a rookie Brock Lesnar in 2002, the only singles title that Hardcore Holly had ever won was, fittingly, the Hardcore Championship. Fast-forward some 14 months, though, and that botched powerbomb set in motion a main event run that saw Holly hotshot to a WWE title match on pay-per-view for the first time in his 17-year career.
On the 12 September 2002 showing of SmackDown, a run-of-the-mill singles match between Lesnar and Holly saw the latter dumped on the back of his neck after a powerbomb spot went awry. Along with missing more than a year of action, that meant that Holly was after revenge when he returned.
Making his comeback at Survivor Series 2003, Holly went straight after Lesnar and got himself disqualified in the process, before eventually challenging the reigning WWE Champion to a showdown at the 2004 Royal Rumble.
Having been bouncing around the bottom of the SmackDown card prior to going down with injury, Holly was suddenly in the main event scene and working with the company’s next big thing.
Granted, he’d lose come the Royal Rumble, but his stock was undoubtedly higher than it had been before the prolonged lay-off.