Ranking 15 WWE Debuts And Returns In 2020

12. Austin Theory

Edge WWE
WWE

Similar to Brendan Vink, Austin Theory’s call-up to Raw was somewhat unceremonious.

Theory was bumped up because Andrade was unable to perform at WrestleMania 36. So Zelina Vega recruited Austin to team with Angel Garza to challenge the Street Profits for the Raw Tag Team Championship at Mania. They lost, but afterward, Andrade rejoined the group and Vega’s faction looked like it was poised to be a serious force on Raw.

However, a month later, Theory was drummed out of the group and plucked up by Seth Rollins, becoming a second disciple for the Monday Night Messiah. That wouldn’t last long either, as Austin disappeared from WWE programming in June after he was named in the #SpeakingOut Movement. The allegations turned out to be false, but instead of returning to Raw, Theory showed up back in NXT in August, and closed out the year joining with Johnny Gargano, which is about as good a spot as you can get.

While the main roster run was disappointing, Theory didn’t really fail. Plus, he’s still very young (23), so expect to see him back on Raw or SmackDown sometime in the near future.

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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.