16 Best WWE Debuts And Returns Of 2018

13. Shawn Michaels

Drew Galloway
WWE.com

And now we get to the first returning superstar, and a controversial entry at that.

Shawn Michaels famously retired in 2010 after Undertaker defeated him at WrestleMania XXVI. In a surprising move, HBK actually honored the stipulation and stayed retired. No one-off matches, no comeback tours. Sure, Michaels showed up on Raw from time to time, but that’s still not violating the stip.

However, earlier this year, Michaels got involved in a strange, forced feud between Triple H and Undertaker, which led to HBK coming out of retirement for a one-off tag match pitting D-Generation X against the Brothers of Destruction in the controversial Crown Jewel PPV in Saudi Arabia.

The match itself was terrible, and Michaels coming out of retirement for a meaningless tag match at a show that was widely criticized by both fans and mainstream media made it even worse.

Honestly, this could easily be put dead last on the list, but given Michaels’ pedigree, we’ll notch it up a little higher. This is being extremely generous.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.