TJR Blog React: WWE Top 20 Returns of the Decade (VIDEO)

The last time I reviewed one of the WWE Top list videos was last week when they posted the Top 10 Debuts of the Decade. This weekend, WWE posted another list looking at the 2010 decade with this video called “20 Returns of the Decade” so it’s double the usual top 10. Let’s roll.

20. The Dudley Boyz
This was Raw on August 24, 2015. The New Day were in the ring celebrating with the tag team titles when the Dudley Boyz showed up to make their return to WWE. The New Day were heels at this point. Huge pop for the Dudleys making their return to WWE after about a decade.

19. Rey Mysterio
This was during the 2018 Royal Rumble with Mysterio entering at #27. It was a nice surprise to see one of the biggest names in WWE history back in a WWE ring. Since then, Mysterio has become a regular in WWE again while also holding the US Title. Good crowd reaction for this moment.

18. Sting
I’m not sure if this one qualifies in the same way as the others on this list. It was on Raw on August 24, 2015, when Sting showed up under a box to beat up WWE Champion Seth Rollins and Triple H. Sting was inactive for about four months after WrestleMania, but I don’t know if I would count this as a return. The fans reacting to this as a big deal was really cool.

17. The Great Khali
Groan. This was at Battleground in July 2017 when Randy Orton was in an awful Punjabi Prison match with Jinder Mahal. When it looked like Orton might win, Khali made his entrance and prevented it, so Mahal retained the WWE Title. Thankfully, Khali was not brought back as a regular in WWE. Most of his WWE run was as a comedy character after he got a serious push that bored us.

16. Diesel
Fans love surprised during the Royal Rumble match and that’s what this was during the 2011 Rumble match when Diesel returned to WWE as #32 in the only 40-person Rumble match. They don’t show it in this countdown video, but the reactions of the guys in the ring was excellent. The behind the scenes story here was that TNA/Impact thought he was going back there, but then he changed his mind and showed up in the Rumble match. It a genuine surprise for a lot of people.

15. Bobby Lashley
It was the Raw after Mania in April 2018 when Bobby Lashley returned to WWE after over a decade away. I didn’t remember this that well, but he got a pretty good pop for interrupting Elias. There were definitely rumors about this one happening although you never really know until it happens.

14. Paige
This was the November 20, 2017 edition of Raw with a returning Paige leading Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville as the Absolution group. There was a 4-Way match going on with Bayley, Sasha Banks, Mickie James and Alicia Fox, which led to Paige, Mandy and Sonya beating them up. This was Paige’s return after missing over a year after major neck surgery. Sadly, her in-ring career didn’t last much longer after another neck injury.

13. Seth Rollins
This was at Extreme Rules in May 2016. Seth Rollins suffered a torn ACL during a match in November 2015 while he was the WWE Champion. Here he was seven months later to attack Roman Reigns, the WWE Champion, from behind. Rollins was cheered for the surprising return and most of us assumed he would be booked as a face after this. Nope. They kept him in a heel role at least for the short term. I recall that WWE kept this one quiet, but it was definitely rumored because we knew Rollins would return around this time.

12. The Undertaker
It was WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans one year after Undertaker lost to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 33 in what many people believed was Undertaker’s last match. John Cena challenged The Undertaker to a match for weeks, there was no sign of Undertaker and then at WrestleMania, that’s when Taker showed up. They went on to have a quick match with Taker beating Cena in under three minutes. The idea of Undertaker facing Cena at WrestleMania was great, but the execution of this angle wasn’t that interesting. I think if they had more of a regular match it would have been better than this.

In The Undertaker’s case, he makes returns al the time and you could pick so many different times in this decade alone.

11. Sasha Banks
This was a return from this year from August 12, 2019, on Raw. Natalya was in the ring doing a promo, Banks showed up, hugged her and then attacked her. Banks also took off her purple hair wig to show off her blue hair because she was a heel now. Banks was returning from not being booked after WrestleMania. There were a lot of rumors about her being unhappy, but it was really just a four month break to bring her back fresh and turn her heel. It was a good heel turn.

10. Bill Goldberg
I remember this one well from October 17, 2016 with Goldberg calling out Brock Lesnar to set up their Survivor Series match. The crowd response for Goldberg was tremendous. In his recent WWE Network interview with Steve Austin, Goldberg talked about how much that reaction meant to him. I’m sure he regretted wearing a jacket as well since he was sweating so much during the return promo.

Goldberg’s return was definitely one of those where the term “never say never” needs to apply because he trashed WWE for over a decade, yet there he was back in a ring.

9. Batista
This was a clever way to bring back Batista on the February 25, 2019 Raw that was celebrated as Ric Flair’s 70th birthday. Just when the party was about to begin, Batista grabbed Flair in the backstage area and dragged him on the floor before cutting a promo on Triple H to set up their WrestleMania. Batista actually had three returns on WWE TV this decade including 2014 leading to his Royal Rumble win, 2018 for the Evolution reunion and also this moment.

8. Kurt Angle
The Raw after WrestleMania in 2016 led to the return of Kurt Angle as the General Manager of Raw. Angle’s actual WWE return was at the Hall of Fame from that weekend where he delivered a great speech. The response to Angles return here was pretty huge and I loved seeing it because he was one of my favorite wrestlers in WWE history. It was ten years away from WWE for Angle and I’m sure if he could go back, he would have come back sooner.

7. The Ultimate Warrior
I was actually at this one at the Raw after WrestleMania 2014 in New Orleans. Warrior’s return was at the WWE Hall of Fame a few days earlier and it was nearly 20 years since he was in a WWE ring. Warrior delivered a passionate promo in the ring on Raw talking about how the spirit of Ultimate Warrior will run forever. That promo on Raw was April 7, 2014, then Warrior flew home to Arizona the next day and passed away. If you watched this Raw promo, he had trouble breathing during some of it and I wonder if a doctor checked on him at all during the weekend. It was almost like he knew he was in bad health and this was like a goodbye promo from him. It’s pretty sad to think about.

The relationship between WWE and Warrior was so bad that in the 2000s, the company released a DVD where they trashed Warrior for being such a weird guy. Of course that wasn’t mentioned when he came back. Now they have a statue for the guy, plus a Warrior Award named after him and his wife works for the company too.

6. The Hardy Boyz
It was WrestleMania 33 in 2017 in Orlando. There were all kinds of rumors that the Hardys would be back in WWE. They were wrestling for other companies that weekend and had an incredible Ladder Match with the Young Bucks the night before. They also had an appearance on the day of WrestleMania, then they got driven to the show, they were hidden backstage and apparently the other teams in the ladder match had no idea they would be there. Anyway, The New Day were on the stage talking about how one more team was going to join this Ladder Match with a tease that it might be them, but then that Hardy Boyz music and the 70,000+ fans in that stadium went crazy. The Hardys went on to win the Raw Tag Team Titles that night.

I think it was one of the loudest crowd reactions of all time because it was in a stadium. The pops that guys get in the arenas are loud too, but it’s a different feeling in an outdoor stadium like this.

5. Bret Hart
The first Raw of the decade – January 4, 2010. It was 13 years in the making. Bret did return for his 2006 Hall of Fame induction, but this was the first time on Raw. It was great to see Bret back in a WWE ring after over twelve years since Survivor Series 1997. The part in the ring with Bret and Shawn speaking from the heart about how they forgave eachother was a genuine discussion because they didn’t even talk backstage. When Bret and Shawn hugged, the arena was full of cheers and I’m sure a lot of fans watching at home loved it too. I know I did.

4. Roman Reigns
This was on February 25th of this year with Roman Reigns in the ring doing a promo where he announced that he was in remission from leukemia (a form of cancer). He beat it. In October 2018, Reigns announced he had leukemia for the second time of his life and vowed to fight it, which he did. Reigns said this: “The good news is I’m in remission, y’all.” It led to one of the biggest ovations in WWE this year. This was more important than a wrestling storyline. It was the man’s life and I’m so glad Roman was back in good health.

3. Shane McMahon
File this one under the complete surprise category because most people had no idea this was coming on the February 22, 2016 edition of Raw. I can remember earlier that day a friend texted me about it because they heard it was happening and I didn’t believe it. It was about seven years earlier when Shane McMahon left his father’s company and now Vince’s son was back. This was in Detroit and I thought about making the two hour drive to check out this Raw, but I didn’t. After hearing the crowd response and reaction to Shane’s return, I wish I was there. It was incredible to watch as Vince and Stephane looked genuinely surprised to see Shane. A lot of injuries were hurting the WWE roster, so Vince called Shane to wrestle The Undertaker at WrestleMania and the fans loved it. The story didn’t make sense after that (the “lockbox” angle went nowhere), but this was an incredible moment.

2. Brock Lesnar
The rumors were running wild for about a week before Brock Lesnar returned to WWE on the Raw after WrestleMania 28 on April 2, 2012. I had a great time at that WrestleMania, then I flew home on Monday instead of going to Raw and this was another epic moment I wish I was a part of. It was rumored all weekend, I can even remember reading about how Lesnar was in Miami, so a lot of us thought he would be at WrestleMania. Nope. He was at Raw the next night, though. Huge pop. Lesnar’s first time in a WWE arena in eight years. A lot of WWE fans bitch and moan about him these days, but not on this night.

1. The Rock
It was Valentines Day (that’s Feb. 14) in 2011 when the host of WrestleMania 27 was introduced and it was The Rock in Anaheim, California. There was such a loud, sustained pop for Rock and his return to a WWE ring. It was seven years since his match in the company in 2004 and after that, he became one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Even looking past that, he was one of the most famous people in the world too. This return promo from The Rock was classic Rock with some of his most famous catchphrases and some trash talk towards John Cena to set up their rivalry that would take them through three next three WrestleManias. Plus, Rock made fun of Michael Cole a lot, so I loved that.

I loved this part of the speech: “I need to tell you something as Dwayne. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back. Seven years to be exact. I want to take this moment in the middle of this ring to tell you why I’m back. It’s not because of the money, it’s not to promote a movie – I am back in the middle of this ring because of you. When I left the WWE seven years ago I dreamed big, you dreamed big with me and you helped me accomplish my dreams because you never left my side. I want to tell this moment to tell you all here and millions watching around the world I want to tell you thank you, love you and it is because of you that I am back in ring. And it is because of you that I am never ever going away. Simply put, ladies and gentleman, The Rock is back!”

Did he go away again? Of course, he did. I don’t think anybody expected him to be a full-timer in WWE again. He did what he had to do in his life and the fact that he came back at all in 2011, 2012 and 2013 was pretty cool. This promo from Rock was about 20 minutes long and it was just him talking to the fans. It was unique and absolutely holds up well over eight years later.

Here’s the full top 20 video that had a run time of 14 minutes.

Final Thoughts

This was very well done. I don’t have much I would change. I think they got the top eight right for sure. I would keep the order the same although if somebody said they would change one or two things that’s fine with me. Roman Reigns’ return wasn’t as long as some of the other people on here because some of them were gone for more than five years while Reigns was gone for four months, but frankly overcoming leukemia is bigger than just coming back to WWE. He deserves to be here.

I thought they could have included Bruno Sammartino at the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013 because he was away from the company for over 20 years. That’s a pretty significant return, but they were going for returns on Raw or PPVs.

CM Punk is another name that comes to mind for his WWE Backstage appearance in November. Once again, though, since it wasn’t on a main WWE show they kept it off the list.

The returns of Sting and Sasha Banks really shouldn’t qualify for a list like this. I would have put Mickie James on here instead of Banks because she returned after nearly seven years away.

I enjoyed this video. Well done by the WWE crew. Lots of good memories here.