Returns are supposed to be awesome. An old fan favourite or a legend returns sometimes just to entertain their dedicated and avid supporters.
Wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Kurt Angle and John Cena have got amazing pops on their returns from injury. Those returning from a long hiatus like Brock Lesnar too have had enormous pops.
However, not all returns have been that spectacular, sometimes due to the ignorance of the crowd or due to just a bad crowd and sometimes, the commentators themselves are at fault.
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Because of all that, the big return just either gets ruined or becomes awkward.
Here are 5 such returns.
Brian Christopher
Confused? Don’t quite remember who he is? Then it’s hard to blame the crowd too. Back in the day, Brian Christopher used to wrestle in the WWE as none other than Grand Master Sexay.
His return was a part of the god awful feud between Jerry “The King” Lawler and Michael Cole. He was revealed to be Jerry Lawler’s legitimate son.
This happened in 2011, perhaps the crowd consisted of people who hadn’t seen him wrestle with Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi back in the day. This could just be the clearest version of his theme ever with hardly any noise from the crowd.
His jig was very awkward and it was sad to see someone who has entertained fans for so long to return to a crowd like that.
Christian
Christian may be down the pecking order as far as favourites from the Attitude Era are concerned, but he has given some top notch performances befitting a top carder. Who can ever forget his time with The Brood and later on with Edge, with whom he forged one of the greatest tag teams we have ever seen.
You’d expect the commentators to go crazy when a guy like Christian returns, but sometimes, they thought saying “It’s Christian” would be perfect. The crowd’s reaction was pretty good. But the commentator’s reaction was shocking.
Wade Barrett
In August 2012, WWE aired vignettes promoting Barrett's returns. His return had an exciting build-up. Again, dead crowd and bad commentary. It’s the perfect recipe for an awkward return. And it was Yoshi Tatsu that he faced on his big return. The former Nexus leader did deserve a much better pop.
He was returning from a partially dislocated elbow, which he’d suffered about seven months prior to the aforementioned return. Wade Barret will go down as one of those talents that didn’t get the push they deserved in the WWE.
Lord Tensai (A-Train/Albert)
Remember the then 350+ pound wrecking machine? A-Train was one of the best heels during the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
I wasn’t a huge follower of the WWE when Lord Tensai returned so when was mentioned, I didn’t who he was. When he revealed his face, however, it didn’t take long for me to recognise him.
It was booked as a “debut,” however. I didn’t know who they were trying to fool. He didn’t have much of an impact this around. He had to suffer through terrible gimmicks before being shunted out.
Tatanka
Okay, Diamond Dallas Page didn’t get a great reception either, since I’m picking one from each event, I chose this one.
I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Tatanka in there. Absolute astonishment would be an understatement. He didn’t even have his own dedicated entrance. He was not even mentioned.
Mark Henry for some reason had his own dedicated entrance, but this WWE veteran didn’t. Most fans were surprised rather than thrilled to see Tatanka at first. It was almost as if he appeared out of nowhere.
Tatanka might not have been one of the biggest names during his time in the WWE, but he was a force to reckon with. For the most part of his first two years in the WWE, he had an undefeated streak, even more surprising why he didn't get a good reception when he came back.
