New stars on the road with WWE, others return

As I said in a previous article, a lot of new faces have been springing up in WWE lately, and it appears that the trend is going to continue through the next couple of months, with both new faces debuting with the company and several familiar faces returning.

Over this past weekend at WWE house shows, one return was made official and another was a pseudo-return. First off, FCW talent Xavier Woods appears to be back on the road with WWE. The former Consequences Creed in TNA signed a developmental deal in July of 2010 and has been honing his craft in FCW since then. Woods has gone on the road with WWE several times, usually putting in very impressive performances. Considering Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s new orders that he has been putting out with as he gains more backstage responsibility, including one about bringing in more new talent, there’s a good chance Woods will get to debut before the end of the year. He was on the road this weekend, losing to Damien Sandow.

This weekend also saw the return of Ted DiBiase (Jr.) to the company. In March of this year, DiBiase broke his ankle during a Smackdown! taping, and has been sidelined ever since. At a live event in Jackson, MI on Friday night, DiBiase made his return, helping WWE Tag Team Champions Kofi Kingston and R-Truth successfully defend their titles against The Prime-Time Players. It originally appeared PTP had won the belts, however DiBiase showed up in a referee’s shirt, pointing out to the original referee that Kingston had in fact kicked out of the pinfall attempt. The referee continue the match, and the champs retained, but not before DiBiase decked the manager of the Players, that being AW. Last night, in Sioux City, IA, DiBiase made his in-ring return as well, defeating Jinder Mahal.

Another debut occurred over the weekend, as Roman Leakee wrestled at the same Jackson, MI show, making short work of Curt Hawkins. Leakee has been signed to WWE since 2010, training at FCW for the duration of that time. Leakee is a second generation star, being the son of former 3-time Tag Team Champion Sika of the Wild Samoans, and is also the brother of former WWE Tag Team Champion Matt Anoa’i, better known as “Rosey”.

In other returns, Wade Barrett is due back any day. He is fully recovered from his injury, suffering from a dislocated elbow that occured in a battle royal the night after Elimination Chamber. Since then, Barrett has recovered and has also been filming a supporting role for the WWE Films movie Dead Man Down, starring Colin Farrell. Barrett is expected to be brought back on TV after Summerslam, where he is rumored for a World title run.

Finally, despite rumors that she may be leaving the company soon, former WWE Divas Champion Kelly Kelly will be returning to WWE after a brief hiatus, confirming on her Twitter account that she will be on-hand for RAW 1000 tomorrow night.