8 Horrible WWE Returns That Absolutely Nobody Asked For
May we never speak of James Ellsworth again.
Dean Ambrose's recent return was a well-played pro wrestling set piece that popped the crowd, added an extra layer of intrigue to Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler's SummerSlam bout, and set 'The Lunatic Fringe' off in an exciting new direction.
Fans were always going to go crazy for his comeback after eight months away, but WWE's execution was strong. Seemingly stripped of the wackiness that once plagued his babyface character, Ambrose swaggered out with a new haircurt, new muscles, and new attitude: refreshed, revitalised, and ready to go.
Such returns are a key component of WWE's moments-first storytelling mechanism. They generate an adrenaline rush unlike anything else in the sport, and are the kind of thing fans watch for in the first place. A positive reaction is usually a given, and screwing the return itself up is remarkably difficult, but do WWE hit the mark every single time? Of course not.
The company don't often succeed at reading their fans' desires, leading to dozens of miserable comebacks starring old faces whose legacies would've been best left in the past, and didn't need trotted out to an audience that had long since moved on from them. Here are the worst offenders.
8. Alberto Del Rio (2015)
Though Alberto Del Rio's surprise comeback made for a fun moment at Hell In A Cell 2015, this was down to a couple of factors:-
1. It came completely out of the blue.
2. He was facing the divisive John Cena, and deposed him as United States Champion in the ensuing bout.
Unfortunately, the run ran out of steam the very next night. Packaged with the awful, nonsensical MexAmerica gimmick with Zeb Colter as manager, Del Rio was doomed from the start. Here was a Mexican grappler alongside a mouthpiece best known for his Tea Party-esque, anti-immigration meanderings. It was horrible, nuked Alberto's chances of ever getting over again, and the man himself did nothing to dispel the criticisms that plagued his previous run.
Though ADR had gotten himself in incredible shape for the comeback, but his work was tedious. Though he can be a credible performer when motivated, Del Rio's tendency to cost through matches and angles in second gear made his work a slog. He spent much of his last WWE run stuck on this setting, eventually transitioning into the disastrous League Of Nations stable, before leaving for good in 2016.