5 Failed Return Runs by Popular WWE Superstars

Working for WWE is a dream for every professional wrestler in this world. However, it is not easy to keep WWE interested as every professional wrestler has to work his/her ass off to impress the WWE officials enough to lengthen their run with the company.

While there are some, like The Undertaker, Triple H, Kane, John Cena and Randy Orton, who have stayed with the company ever since their first appearance, others have not been as lucky. Others had to spend time fighting on independent circuits and other promotions for some time before finally catching to eye of their former employer again.

When Bobby Lashley made his return to WWE after a highly successful run with Impact Wrestling, everyone was expecting him to straight away walk into the main event scene and continue doing what he did during his first run - dominate. However, a string of lackluster feuds have led to him floundering without any real feuds only 6 months after his return.

The same has been the case with Shelton Benjamin and Mickie James, who very highly successful performers during their maiden tenure with the company but, despite early promises, have mostly been used as enhancement talents. Here are the 5 most prominent failed runs by highly popular and successful WWE superstars.

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#5 Dudley Boyz (2015-2017)

At least they ended up getting a place in the Hall of Fame.

If there is a tag team that has the right to be called the best tag team in the history of WWE, then, without any doubt, it is The Dudley Boyz. Along with The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian, the duo of Bubba Ray and Devon revolutionized Tag Team wrestling with their impeccable matches over the three year period between 1999 and 2001.

Their matches at WrestleMania 2000, Summerslam 2000 and WrestleMania X-Seven are still rated as the best tag matches ever produced by WWE. In fact, no team has had more reigns with the tag team title under the WWE banner than them, as the two storyline brother had eight reigns with World Tag Team Titles and one reign each with WWE Tag Team Titles and WCW Tag Team Title, giving them a total of 10 reigns before their departure in 2005.

Basking on the success of WWE, the two not only won more tag titles all over the world but also enjoyed a healthy singles run in Impact Wrestling. The two made a nostalgic return to the company in 2015 and were straight away presented as contenders to the tag titles.

However, as soon as the nostalgia faded down, the two were part of worthless feuds and were presented as enhancement talents until they announced their retirements in 2017. The only plus point of their second run was their long due induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018.

#4 Rob Van Dam (2013-2014)

Van Dam was only used to get Del Rio over as a villain.

For those who have been watching professional wrestling since the turn of the century, everyone has a special kind of respect for Rob Van Dam. Arriving in WWE during the Invasion storyline as a member of the ECW and Alliance stable, RVD soon became one of the most popular superstars on the entire roster, that also despite being a heel.

As a staple and one of the leaders of the WWE mid card throughout his first run between 2001 and 2007, RVD, a six-time Intercontinental and 4-time Hardcore champion, was either holding one of the mid card title or was either a contender for it. Van Dam reached the pinnacle of his first run when he became the only simultaneous holder of the WWE and ECW Championship in the summer of 2006 after winning the Money in the Bank at Mania 22.

After his release in 2007, Van Dam continued his main event run in other promotions, winning both the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and X-Division Championship during his run with them between 2010 and 2013. This success forced WWE to again hire him back in 2013 ahead of the Money in the Bank pay per view.

Upon his return, he was greeted with a heroic reception from the crowd and had a stunning first few months. After that, he was paired with Del Rio in a feud for the World Heavyweight Title, but was only used to get his opponent over as a heel. After staying away for the entire WrestleMania season, RVD only appeared as a contender for the Intercontinental Title before he was again released in the fall of 2014.

#3 Davey Boy Smith (1999-2000)

Instead of getting this, Smith should have stayed away from WWE.

Although the United Kingdom has generated a large number of professional wrestlers in the past 50 years, none of them have been more successful and more popular than 'The British Bulldog' Davey Boy Smith. As one of the most famous graduates of the Hart Dungeon, Smith was one of the best and most reliable performer during his run with the company.

Part of the legendary British Bulldogs along with his cousin The Dynamite Kid, Smith was one of the brightest stars of WWFs Tag Team Division during the late 1980s. Their rivalries with the likes of The Hart Foundation and Dream Team over the WWF Tag Team Titles, which they held for almost a year, brought a new life to the promotions division at that time.

After the disbanding of the team, Smith famously won the Intercontinental Title from his Brother-in-Law Bret Hart in the main event of Summerslam 1992. Even during his second run, Smith was a prominent part of some of the biggest storylines, winning the Tag Team Titles and being the inaugural European Champion, before leaving after the Montreal Screwjob along with other members of the hart family.

Smith final run, however, was exactly opposite of his first two runs. Arriving in the middle of Attitude Era, Smith, now a heel, was only used as a fodder for main event fan favourites instead of fighting for the Top Titles. The only title he held during that time were the Hardcore Title and European Title, before again getting released less than a year after his return.

#2 Batista (2014)

Well, it did give up the main event of WrestleMania XXX.

If there was one superstar who could have given John Cena a run for his money as the most popular wrestler in the world during the late 2000s, then it was undoubtedly 'The Animal' Batista. While John Cena was the poster boy of the Red Brand and was always in the World Title picture, Batista was doing the same thing on the Blue Brand.

After initially appearing as the Muscle Man of Evolution, a period during which he held the World Tag Team Titles with his mentor Ric Flair, Batista made a jump to the main event scene in early 2005. He first won the 2005 Royal Rumble and then the World Heavyweight Title in the main event of WrestleMania 21, and continued to hold the title for a record reign.

By the time he departed from the company in 2010, Batista had accumulated five more reigns as World Champion. After leaving WWE, Batista had a small career as an MMA fighter, where he fought and won his only MMA fight with relative ease. However, after gaining a starring role in Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy, Batista became a Hollywood star and agreed to return to the WWE in 2014.

A lovable hero during his first run, Batista's second run was marred by the fans deliberately turning on him after he won the Royal Rumble in 2014. After getting booed during his feud with Alberto Del Rio, Batista was turned heel and wrestled in the main event of Mania XXX and lost that match. This was followed by an Evolution reunion and a loss to the Shield on two consecutive pay per views as Batista again left the company merely six months after his return.

#1 Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (2002-2003)

NWO - The Biggest Disappointment of 2002.

Bringing the New World Order to the WWE after the Invasion storyline stands as one of the weirdest decision that WWE has ever taken. With the trio of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall returning to the company after a gap of a decade, no one was going to boo them despite being heels, and this ended up bringing an end to NWO just months after its debut.

While this decision turned out to be good for Hulk Hogan, who won the Undisputed Title soon after WrestleMania X-8, the same can not be said about Hall and Nash. After turning on Hogan at Mania, Nash and Hall continued to portray heel characters until Hall was unexpectedly released from his contract following the Plane Ride from Hell, ending his second, disappointing run with WWE just 3 months after his return.

Nash, on the other hand, got injured during the Summer of 2002 and stayed away from the ring for almost a year. Upon his return, he had a horrendous feud with Triple H for World Title, wrestled a Hell in a Cell match, and Elimination Chamber match and a Hair vs Hair match before getting released from his contract later that year.

The two, however, were among the top superstars in WWE and WCW throughout the decade that preceded their return in 2002. In WWF, Hall, as Razor Ramon, was a then record four-time Intercontinental Champion and was regular contender for the WWF Title. Nash fared better than Hall, winning the WWF Title once, the Intercontinental title once and the Tag Title twice, before leaving along side Hall for WCW in mid 1996.

And we all know what they did and achieved in WCW. So, when you consider their career before their WWF return in 2002, their return run was a huge, huge bust.