Multiple Major Returns Take Place On Raw (WWE News)

Four shock returns took place on last night's WWE Raw.

by Andrew Pollard
WWE Raw AJ Lee
WWE

In an extremely newsworthy Raw from Madison Square Garden - John Cena's final ever Raw as an active wrestler, no less - WWE fans were treated to not one, not two, not three, but four major returns.

The first surprise WWE return came in the first round of The Last Time Is Now Tournament, where Solo Sikoa's mystery opponent was Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler had previously been in the WWE system from 2004 through until September 2023, when he was part of that particular round of company releases. Since then, the Show-Off has been a part of the TNA roster, where, under his real name of Nic Nemeth, he's been a TNA World Champion and a TNA Tag Team Champion (with his brother Ryan).

While Ziggler - a two-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion, a six-time Intercontinental Champion, a two-time United States Champion, a four-time WWE Tag Champion, and an NXT Champion - received a solid response from the MSG crowd, he ultimately came up short against Sikoa, falling to the Samoan Spike. Much like Matt Cardona's Zack Ryder return against LA Knight on SmackDown last week, it remains to be seen if there was simply a one-off for Nemeth or if something more will come of it down the line. Interestingly, much like Ryder, there is now new Dolph Ziggler merchandise on WWE Shop.

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The next surprise of the night happened in the Women's Intercontinental Championship match, where Maxxine Dupri challenged Becky Lynch for that prize. As Becky struggled to put away a defiant Maxxine, the Man tried to take off a turnbuckle pad cover when the referee was distracted, only for AJ Lee's music to hit. Lee didn't get physical in any way, but her skipping down to ringside was enough to distract Lynch long enough for Maxxine to hit a top rope crossbody and get the underdog win to become the new Women's IC Champ. It was later detailed that AJ was the person Dupri had been training with recently, and we also got the tease of AJ Lee and Becky Lynch becoming a part of the women's WarGames match at Survivor Series later this month.

This week's Raw closed out with a segment hyping the men's WarGames bout, and it unsurprisingly broke down into a brawl featuring the Vision, Logan Paul, Drew McIntyre, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, and the Usos. With Punk standing tall on his own in the centre of the ring, Brock Lesnar's music blared out of the Garden, and the Beast Incarnate took out both Punk and Cody, before his dominance was likewise brought to a halt by Roman Reigns' music. Raw went off the air as chaos was running wild, including a Superman Punch for Brock Lesnar, Bronson Reed being sent through a ringside barricade, and several 'New York City cops' tangled up in the carnage.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.