10 Best Surprise WWE Returns
It's been twenty years since Ric Flair made his shocking return on a monumental episode of Monday Night Raw...
Today marks 20 years (yes 20) since Ric Flair returned to WWE on the post-Survivor Series 2001 episode of Raw.
Colour commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler had already shockingly returned to the announce desk following the storyline firing of Paul Heyman earlier in the show, but The Nature Boy showing up and announcing that he was the kayfabe co-owner of WWE was a twist that nobody saw coming.
Slick Ric was appearing on Raw for the first time since losing a Loser Leaves Town match to Mr. Perfect on the January 25, 1993 episode of the show.
It obviously helped that Raw was taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina that night, but a surprise return done well is always guaranteed to get a reaction.
Don't believe me? Well, I don't know why you wouldn't believe me, but there are plenty of examples of excellent surprise returns.
And by 'surprise' returns we mean those that came with no prior advertising or announcement.
Anyway, on with the countdown! Would you like to know what number one is?
Tough. It's a surprise.
Duh.
10. Chris Jericho - Royal Rumble 2013
From 2010 onwards, Chris Jericho would become a part-time WWE performer.
He would leave for months at a time to pursue outside endeavours (usually touring with his band Fozzy) and took the whole of 2011 off. He returned in early 2012, but left once again that August.
Whenever he was due to come back, it was usually advertised and/or hyped up in advance.
That was not the case at the 2013 Royal Rumble, however, where Jericho entered at number two. He immediately got into it with the number one entrant, Dolph Ziggler, the man who had been responsible for his exit five months prior.
The pop that Y2J received for his return was huge and WWE did well to get a little bit of suspense of it by having Ziggler cut a promo beforehand, while also waiting several seconds before playing Jericho's music.
This was no mere cameo from the first-ever Undisputed Champion, either, as he lasted a whopping 47:53 (before being eliminated by the Show-Off).
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.