Fun/unexpected wrestling returns

[RedTwoster]

Inspired by @Chili's post, pointing out that Tony Schiavone is one of wrestling's greatest comeback stories - but putting a twist on the idea. 

I'm looking for fun or unexpected wrestling returns or comebacks in this thread. There's no need for them to have led to Schiavone-style runs - I'm looking for comebacks such The Headbangers returning to WWE Smackdown in 2016...

And the Spirit Squad who had a brief comeback run - also on Smackdown - in 2016:

And Sycho Sid returning to demolish Heath Slater in 2012: 

Any others come to mind?

[HarmonicGenerator]

Mid-00s SmackDown had a fair few. JBL brought back Gangrel and Viscera to fight Undertaker, and Vis ended up sticking around for years. Tatanka got a run. Road Warrior Animal even became a singles guy for a bit! And over on Raw there was that brief ‘08 return for D’Lo Brown.

Nothing that was ever going to light up the world, but fun for a moment of nostalgia. Bring back the Gimmick Battle Royal.

[Callum1993]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Mid-00s SmackDown had a fair few. JBL brought back Gangrel and Viscera to fight Undertaker, and Vis ended up sticking around for years. Tatanka got a run. Road Warrior Animal even became a singles guy for a bit! And over on Raw there was that brief ‘08 return for D’Lo Brown.

Nothing that was ever going to light up the world, but fun for a moment of nostalgia. Bring back the Gimmick Battle Royal.

Also in 2005(I think) Vader and Goldust returned in the corner of Jonathan Coachman for a match against Batista(Was supposed to be Austin but he bailed after he was told he was losing to Coach). Goldust had another run after this as well. 

[The Gaffer]

Diesel in the 2011 'Rumble for fun. This still wasn't the era where returning 80s/90s gimmicks were guaranteed an in-on-the-joke nostalgia pop and I think the crowd going mental for him surprised and humbled him. 

Kevin Nash at SummerSlam 2011 for unexpected. The UKFF chat's joint boom period, along with the streak ending. It soured almost instantly but as far as pure moments go, it was as excited by wrestling as I'd ever been and yes, Nash was still internet Jesus to me at that point.

Elsewhere, though the thread's probably angling towards more niche/abrupt novelty returns, the 2002 Rumble will always feel like the biggest comeback of the mid-carders to me, which is one of those weird wrestling-timezone things because most of them had only been gone for a cup of coffee in relative terms. But seeing Mr. Perfect, Val Venis, The Godfather and Goldust show up in January 2002 for some reason felt like absolute worlds colliding. 

Venis would get a haircut and become perennial Heat material for his troubles before long, which made him look even weirder as a porn man, until weirdly becoming Eric Bischoff's chief of staff for awhile. 

The Godfather didn't last at all to my recollection.

Goldust done the best of the bunch, seeing a decent amount of longevity on Raw which featured career highlight reel stuff with Booker T.

I remember Perfect's actual 'Rumble performance being fantastic and on the night it looked like you could have just slotted him right back into his old position, but it wasn't to be for various reasons. 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2024 by The Gaffer

[DCW]

Mid 00's were a grim enough place. Tatanka, knackered Big Boss Man, Animal & Heidenreich, Big Vis/Big Daddy V etc should have been nowhere near TV at that stage of their careers. I liked the batch that returned in the 02 Royal Rumble. Godfather, Mr.Perfect, Val Venis & Goldust. Auld Goldust was the only one of them who really made the most of the opportunity & got himself over, with the help of Booker T. Remember also being really disappointed that Perfect was gone by the start of the summer after his plane ride from hell exploits.

One of my favourite less remembered returns was Taker coming back after a newly-heel CM Punk beat Jeff Hardy for the World Title at Summerslam 2010 or 2011. Punk is stood over a broken Hardy holding the title aloft in the middle of the ring. Then Taker's gong hits, lights go out and when they go up Punk is in the exact same position seemingly no worse for wear. Then the camera pulls back and it slowly reveals that Punk isn't standing over a beaten Jeff Hardy, but the dead man instead. Taker sits up and chokeslams Punk to close the show. Really cool little variation of the standard Taker return of the lights going out/back up with him standing behind his opponent.

[CleetusVanDamme]

Marty Jannetty vs Kurt Angle was great. A much easier watch than the overkill Angle/Michaels one it was helping to build to. In my head Marty was hired and fired within a week of that match happening, but a quick google for context says he lasted until July. That's a lifetime for a Marty run!

[wandshogun09]

Perfect at the Rumble in 2002 and Jannetty in 2005 with the Angle match are the big ones for me. Loved both.

I’ll throw in Finlay’s return in 2006. Honestly thought he was done after WCW and, at nearly 50 years old, I wasn’t expecting much at all from his return. But I really enjoyed a lot of his matches at that time against Regal, Benoit, Rey, Matt Hardy and he even had a singles match with Ric Flair in there on a Smackdown which I enjoyed just for the novelty of it. His comeback definitely surpassed my expectations.

I wanna throw in Ultimo Dragon as well but he’s more in the ‘unexpected’ category than ‘fun’. I loved him in WCW and, like with Finlay, I thought his career was over after the botched arm surgery. His WWE stint was bitterly disappointing though. I know he’s wrestled elsewhere over the years since, sure I even saw something about him still having matches quite recently. But I was really happy to see him in WWE at the time and hoped he’d have a bit of a run but it wasn’t to be. 

[Carbomb]

1 hour ago, DCW said:

Mid 00's were a grim enough place. Tatanka, knackered Big Boss Man, Animal & Heidenreich, Big Vis/Big Daddy V etc should have been nowhere near TV at that stage of their careers. 

Big Daddy V was ace, you heathen. Best fat monster since Earthquake and Yoko.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

I’ll throw in Finlay’s return in 2006. Honestly thought he was done after WCW and, at nearly 50 years old, I wasn’t expecting much at all from his return. But I really enjoyed a lot of his matches at that time against Regal, Benoit, Rey, Matt Hardy and he even had a singles match with Ric Flair in there on a Smackdown which I enjoyed just for the novelty of it. His comeback definitely surpassed my expectations.

This is a great shout. It seemed so bizarre at the time, but it quickly felt normal - he fitted in to the roster so well. It's mad, on hindsight, to think he wrestled people like John Cena, Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. And his Wrestlemania match with JBL is an underrated banger. 

50 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Big Daddy V was ace, you heathen. Best fat monster since Earthquake and Yoko.

I totally agree with this! The squash matches early in his run in this gimmick were particularly good: 

 

[DCW]

1 hour ago, Carbomb said:

Big Daddy V was ace, you heathen. Best fat monster since Earthquake and Yoko.

In fairness, I loved his Big Daddy V theme music!

[FUM]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

I wanna throw in Ultimo Dragon as well but he’s more in the ‘unexpected’ category than ‘fun’.

I had never seen really seen the guy wrestle other than if he was on when I flicked to Nitro on a Friday night during the adverts on RAW is WAR but as a youngster decided he was going to be incredible because he was “class in EWR”.

Came in, got my hopes up, fell on his arse.

 

 

[Lorne Malvo]

The Great Khali returned in 2018 for the Greatest Royal Rumble. I marked out. He still moved with all the grace of a reversing dump truck, got eliminated in less than a minute and hasn't wrestled since.

What a man.

[DCW]

I like to imagine Ultimo Dragon's WWE contract negotiations in the style of Partridge.

"I suppose what you're trying to say is, you don't want another Rey Mysterio on your hands"

"No, that's exactly what we want"

"Then I'm your man!"

[garynysmon]

I was never the biggest Shawn Michaels fan but his 2002 in-ring return was pretty unexpected but extremely welcome.

I know 4 years isn’t that long a time and these days it wouldn’t have the same impact, but the company felt like such a different world to the spring of 1998.

In a way its a shame he missed out on the apex of the WWE as he was around for the ascent, missed the peak and was back for the resulting downturn in interest.

In terms of weirdest returns, Greg Valentine wrestling on WWE TV in 2005 was an interesting one.

I’ve always been a sucker for anything late 80’s and early 90’s and essentially anything from that period will always be automatically better than whatever followed.

Roddy Piper’s short return post-WM 19 filled me with unbridled joy.

 

Edited July 24, 2024 by garynysmon

[AshC]

Good thread, this. Enjoyed most of, if not all of these!