WWE: From CM Punk to The Rock – 12 biggest returns in WWE history
By Tom Colohue
7. Seth Rollins
In 2015, WWE was suffering badly with a lack of top star power. In fact, this started several years beforehand when it became clear that Triple H was winding down, Batista left and Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker started to make less and less appearances. This should have been the age of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, but that wasn’t to be. WWE was intent on pushing Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio and Ryback. Then came The Shield.
In The Shield (and shortly afterwards, The Wyatt Family), the WWE established the top of its card for years to come. The Shield split up, leaving three top quality main eventers ready to go and Seth Rollins was the one chosen to reach the top of the mountain first.
The Champion. The Man. The Architect. He quite literally took the championship in the main event of WrestleMania 31 and he went on to feud with Orton, Cena, Sting and Kane en route to what should have been an all out war with Roman Reigns. That was not to be.
A knee injury derailed the championship reign just as the crowd had started to show Seth the love and respect that he clearly deserved. Out for months with a major knee injury, the title eventually passed on to Roman Reigns and many fans suddenly realized that the day they feared would come was finally here.
What followed in 2016 was a Royal Rumble met with boos, a WrestleMania main event met with hatred and a champion met with discontent. It was all going wrong until the day that Seth Rollins returned, attacking Roman after his Extreme Rules match with AJ Styles, taking the title away from him clean at the first try and setting in motion a five minute stretch during which all three members of The Shield were WWE Champion.
The legacy of Seth Rollins is yet to be written but it is undoubtedly one of the strongest success stories in WWE history. Right now he is the top man in the company, second only to Becky Lynch in terms of overall popularity. Raw is still Monday Night Rollins.
6. Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels had been injured for essentially the entirety of the fabled Attitude Era. During that time, he had been Commissioner, commentator and repeatedly a special guest referee. He’d even been sold out by DX and attacked by Vince McMahon’s evil Corporation. Despite his injury, he was still a busy man.
That said, it was very clear to anybody following the situation that Shawn Michaels would not be back. There was no dedicated return time and years had passed when, all of a sudden, Michaels officially joined the nWo alongside old Kliq buddies Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. What followed was a new lease on life and a new option. Just like that, a storyline started to build towards a big return match against Triple H at Summerslam.
What came as a result accounts for a huge amount of great moments from 2002 all the way through to the end of the decade. Shawn Michaels, Mr WrestleMania, does not have bad matches. In fact, it seemed more and more unlikely that he would ever again have a bad one. Michaels rarely challenged for titles. He had infamous, memorable match after infamous, memorable match. This all culminated in a series of three at WrestleMania, retiring Ric Flair only to eventually be retired by The Undertaker.
Shawn Michaels has said on a number of occasions that he really didn’t know if he would be able to come back, yet come back he did. WrestleMania, for many, many years, would have been much worse without him. So, too, would the WWE.