21 WWE comebacks we can't wait to see in 2021

We don't deny that Raw, SmackDown, 205 Live, NXT and now NXT UK are packed with talent at the moment, but everyone loves a shock WWE comeback.

As anyone watching the Royal Rumble knows, there's nothing like the giddy nostalgic thrill and potential angles you get from a surprise return.

Related: Is wrestling real or fake? All your WWE questions answered

And as well as those guys and girls in "retirement", AEW, New Japan, IMPACT and the rest are loaded with ex-WWE Superstars.

So from the very obvious to some more out-there returns, here are 21 WWE comebacks we'd absolutely love to see in 2021.

I don't want to see Hulk Hogan back in the WWE. You don't want to see Hulk Hogan back in the WWE. Even if we could leave aside his unacceptable racist comments (we can't), Hogan is 67 (SIXTY-SEVEN! That's long past "Will you still need me, will you still feed me" age).

His ego has bulldozed its way through countless promotions in the twilight of his career, and there isn't really much place for him in the ensemble cast that is the WWE in the 2020s. But he keeps talking about a return, Triple H is refusing to rule it out, and we're bored senseless of reading stories about it.

He popped up as the host of the controversial WWE Crown Jewel, but he's still talking about a REAL comeback. The only way to end this once and for all is to have one final, in-ring return: a defeat in a career versus career match with Kofi Kingston.

The Rock left at just the right time in 2004 when the crowds were beginning to get bored of his antics, but has resurfaced several times over.

A proper comeback happened with his Once Twice in a Lifetime WrestleMania-bookended feud with John Cena, which also included an eighth WWE Championship win with victory over CM Punk.

Injury and a return to Hollywood put an end to that run, and appearances since then have varied in meaning and quality.

There were thumbs up for his WrestleMania XXX co-hosting gig with Hulk Hogan and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and the early introduction of Ronda Rousey to the WWE Universe the following year.

Then there was an ill-advised interjection in the 2015 Royal Rumble that saw both he and Roman Reigns get booed out the building and an even-more ill-advised six-second annihilation of Luke Harper at WrestleMania 32.

He's opted out of the WWE Hall of Fame on the promise of Another Proper Return, but the clock is ticking... the time is now. Not for quick quips and eyebrow-raising to the crowd, but for One Last Run for The Great One.

Lita is still very much part of the WWE. A booker/agent/writer, trainer, commentator, Hall of Famer and frequent on-screen and in-ring presence, the former champ is family.

Alongside Trish Stratus, Lita dragged the then-WWF into the 20th century kicking and screaming by sheer talent and force of will alone, against every sexist obstacle put in her path.

And like returnees, she came back for the recent high point of WWE women's wrestling, that first Women's Royal Rumble. Lita clocked up a brace of eliminations (Mandy Rose and Tamina), and didn't look a second off the pace.

She also returned for the all-woman WWE Evolution in a tag match alongside Trish Stratus, and proved (not that it was needed) that she can handle a full-time return run.

For a while, The Man That Gravity Forgot became the man the WWE forgot. Shunted on to 205 Live, he made a renewed impact as the King of the Cruiserweights, but Neville soon became dissatisfied with his position and faded from view altogether.

Remarkably he stayed at home and sat out his contract for months on end, only resurfacing recently when he was free of the WWE to announce his return to the indies as PAC once more.

While there was obviously some deep dissatisfaction going on, it doesn't seem as though there was serious bad blood between PAC/Neville and the WWE.

Yes, PAC is doing well with AEW and the Death Triangle at the moment, but we're not ruling out a return, and with the explosion of NXT UK, perhaps Neville can find a spot he truly enjoys with the company one day.

Between the bra and panties year and these post-(r)evolutionary times in the Women's Division, there are a few wrestlers who have been unfairly forgotten. Women who kept the flame burning in the WWE and put in the work to help us get where we are today.

A veteran of the original NXT, Kaitlyn won season three and made her way to the main roster in 2010, winning her first and only WWE Divas Championship two years later on the 20th anniversary of Raw.

A Chickbuster alongside AJ Lee, Kaitlyn didn't get the opportunities she deserved, but she was a massively important part of the story of women's wrestling in the WWE. She retired from the business in 2014, but made her return last December with Coastal Championship Wrestling.

She DID of course return to the WWE in the 2018 Mae Young Classic, but was eliminated in the second round by Mia Yim. In that short mini-comeback she proved that she still has what takes for a proper return to the big time.

One of the original Nexus (their debut is still one of the finest moments in WWE history), Barrett had a hell of a run in his relatively short WWE career. FCW and OVW tag belts in development, NXT season one, KOTR and of course a FIVE-TIME WWE Intercontinental Champion.

He struggled with injuries and some pendulous booking and took some time out from the business. Barrett returned with management roles with What Culture Pro Wrestling and Defiant Wrestling, before heading up ITV's WOS Wrestling, before eventually coming back to WWE as a commentator in August 2020.

But what we really want is an in-ring WWE return. Wade's bare-knuckle boxing past gave him a unique edge (and some legitimacy) and the Bad News gimmick was one of our favourites, but the truth is... well, we spent years trying to make that mooted Manic Street Preachers/Wade Barrett hookup happen. We badgered Wade about it. We badgered Nicky Wire about it. We still want it, and we need a WWE comeback for it to happen, okay?

And the man himself has a dream match in mind...

Unlike many on this list, Sarah Logan didn't exactly take the WWE by storm during her run there.

Nevertheless it was a shock when she was released in mid 2020 during some brutal cost-cutting when the pandemic began to take hold.

As the Riott Squad, Logan, Liv Morgan and Ruby Riott made a fantastic first impression, only for that goodwill to be frittered away by bad defeats and even worse breakups.

But we still felt a proper reunion would surely happen some day. Unfortunately, after her release Logan announced that she would be retiring from wrestling aged just 26.

That young age means that there's no reason why things might not change in the near future. And if she teamed back up with Ruby and Liv a little older and a little more streetwise, the trio could finally make good on all that initial promise and kickstart the next phase of the WWE women's revolution.

Erick Rowan was technically one of the COVID-19 axings, but it felt like he was always going to be out the door soon after Luke Harper successfully agitated for a departure.

First as a member of the Wyatt Family, then a Bludgeon Brother, then as "Harper and Rowan", the duo were pretty much inseparable in the WWE.

And for all their undeniable solo talents, they work so incredibly well as a team, and especially with Bray Wyatt pulling the strings.

Yes, there were missteps (being punked by The Rock AND The Undertaker had to sting), but Bray Wyatt has shrugged off that disappointment to show redemption is possible.

Harper is storming it as Mr Brodie Lee in AEW, while Erick Redbeard (really) is having more low-key success on the indies.

And of course Bray is now buddied up only with his own alter ego in The Fiend, but we still hanker after a return of The Wyatt Family OG version.

Chris Jericho has made so many "shock returns" to the WWE in the past decade that they long ago stopped being even the slightest surprise.

He briefly popped into the Greatest Royal Rumble as entrant number fifty, eliminating Shelton Benjamin before being chucked by eventual winner Braun Strowman, but it's his next return that will be his most interesting in a decade.

That's because since his last comeback he did the unthinkable... not just having run in Japan and appearance at All In, but actually signing up with a rival company in AEW, and becoming their standard bearer and first AEW World Champion.

Forget about his feuds with Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens etc. When Chris Jericho next makes his proper return to the WWE, he'll be doing it from a position of absolute strength, his current run making him as hot as he's been for a long, long time.

He may even bring a few pals with him (and we don't mean his Fozzy bandmates).

Emma was axed from the WWE more than once. A graduate of the Storm Wrestling Academy, she has as much talent as anyone in that locker room today. Her NXT feud/friendship with Paige was legendary and laid the building blocks of the women's revolution.

Emma survived all sorts of difficulties on the main roster, from being Santino Marella's sidekick, all that dancing and the abandoned Emmalina gimmick change.

Released again last October, she's returned to the indies as Tenille Tayla and naturally impressed there, with runs in Ring of Honor, Impact and (of course) AEW.

She's got plenty of years left in the tank, and we'd love to see her come back to the WWE and finally win that Women's Title she's always deserved.

No-one stays quit forever, they say. Everyone comes back, they add. There's probably one exception. Like many people, CM Punk left the WWE on less than pleasant terms. We've checked with our lawyers and yeah, we're not going to go over all that ground.

It's safe to say that there's no love lost between the WWE and CM Punk. He originally moved on to UFC, where he had two punishing defeats.

His abrubt departure after the 2014 Royal Rumble (from which he was eliminated by a non-legal Kane) meant it always felt like there's unfinished business. Punk's court victory over the WWE was perhaps the very first step in a long road to a return.

Paul Heyman once told us that he hopes Punk doesn't even think about the WWE anymore. That all changed in 2019 when he signed up to feature on Fox's WWE Backstage show.

That means while he's not signed to WWE, he's fully back in the fray, which has led to Twitter spats with full-time talent including Seth Rollins and The Miz.

That's just whet our appetites even more for a possible comeback, and we're still dreaming about having the Straight Edge Superstar headlining WrestleMania. Just imagine that pop if Cult of Personality hits at the Royal Rumble come January.

The Bella Twins have left and rejoined the WWE many times over, with both formally retiring in March 2019.

Both women got plenty of unfair grief from some sections of the WWE Universe during their careers.

Dismissed as models, wannabes, reality TV stars, attachments to their top-tier male partners, now that their retirement has set in and we can look back at their work in its totality, they can be truly appreciated.

Gamechanging, era-straddling superstars, they as much as anyone were at the vanguard of the Women's (R)evolution. Never happy to rest on their laurels, they always strived to improve in the ring. Always brought it as characters.

And with Total Divas (and Total Bellas), they were responsible for some of the best, most consistent, most entertaining content to come out of the WWE.

Both confirmed their retirement in succession on Total Bellas in 2019, with Brie's family life and Nikki's serious neck issues seemingly putting a permanent end to their careers.

But invoking the Daniel Bryan Clause, it's amazing what medical science can do these days, and at only 37 years old, we think both could offer something special to the WWE if their bodies allow it.

It's hard to think of a (current) wrestler who had worse luck with injuries than Hideo Itami.

His signing to NXT in 2014 was supposed to be a game-changing moment.

A massive independent (and foreign) star, the capture of the then-KENTA was a sign that NXT was no longer just a training ground for home grown talent, but something much bigger and better for the industry.

He popped up in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31 and continued to build momentum in NXT before his fledgling WWE career was derailed by injury.

He returned, but other injuries always seemed to disrupt his momentum. The likes of Finn Bálor, Shinsuke Nakamura and others took his place in the pecking order, and he was shunted around NXT and 205 Live before eventually asking for, and getting, his WWE release in 2019.

A return to Japan followed, and since signing up with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, KENTA has found his form. He won the NEVER Openweight Championship in London and held on to it for over 100 days.

At 39 and with his hard-hitting style, his years are maybe numbered, but there's still more than enough time for the triumphant return to the WWE he deserves.

Unlike many wrestlers, Cody Rhodes certainly isn't hankering after a WWE comeback following his departure. He famously wrote a list of things he'd like to achieve in the next phase of his wrestling career, and just went ahead ticking them off one by one.

More than that, he not only moved on past the WWE, he has become the founder of the first company we might consider actual competition for it (or at least a genuine alternative) in All Elite Wrestling.

Back in his WWE days, his Stardust gimmick split the crowed (we were big fans), but there was never been any doubt about the raw ability and pedigree of the American Nightmare.

There's been a bit of bad blood between him and the WWE over trademarks and the like, but nothing nearly as ill-tempered as the feud between CM Punk and the company.

Instead, Cody has just got on with it. He went All In against Nick Aldis and won the NWA title in front of 10,000 fans who sold out the event in half an hour. Since then, AEW was formed and has gone from strength to strength.

It's hard to think of an ex-WWE wrestler still doing it in the ring who needs the company less, and that's exactly why we'd love to see him come back and take the place by storm, culminating in a world championship run his talent and charisma deserves, capped with a WrestleMania main event.

Despite two brutal, high-profile UFC losses, Ronda Rousey came to the WWE absolutely dripping with both legitimacy and potential.

What's more, she absolutely delivered on it. From her tag team debut alongside Kurt Angle to her storming title run, RR proved herself as maybe one of the most natural wrestlers in WWE history.

Technically, she went on a break for what she called an "impregnation vacation" with no hard feelings, but things definitely went a bit more sour than they should have.

Her rivalry with Becky Lynch was one of the best in the WWE for ages, but as it spilled over into social media things got a little too real for comfort.

Embracing the "reality era" is one thing, but undermining the business is quite another. But it's nothing that can't be salvaged with the right angle. And Ronda Rousey vs Becky Lynch in a one-on-one match at WrestleMania is just that angle.

After a soft start in developmental, Rusev absolutely exploded onto the main roster of the WWE all the way back in 2014.

He had a strong Royal Rumble debut and bulldozed his way through countless feuds before picking up the United States Championship and setting himself on a collision course with John Cena.

He ultimately lost to Cena at WrestleMania 31 and despite some occasional moments since then he never quite regained that incredible initial momentum.

There were highs (Rusev Day!) lows (The League of Nations) and then that oh-so weird final storyline with Lana and Bobby Lashley.

Rusev was maybe the biggest name to leave in the COVID-19 round of axing, and he's definitely the one we miss most.

He's still a young man (only in his mid-30s) and, of course, was picked up by AEW where he fights as Miro.

But surely he has another WWE run left in him? And we'd love love love to see him rolling into Mania in a tank once more.

Yes, we know Paige still works for the WWE, and did a great job as General Manager of SmackDown Live until the aborted 2019 McMahon-Helmsley takeover. We also know that she's suffered a series of injuries that has ended her in-ring career.

But in 2018 we had Daniel Bryan and Kurt freakin' Angle wrestling, the former doing it week in, week out. We absolutely wouldn't want Paige to rush back to in-ring action, or to do anything that would harm her health or her future.

But we can dream. And we're dreaming that with some medical advances and a massive helping of luck, in a few years time Paige will shock us all by stepping foot back into the ring and getting her hands on a Women's Title or two.

The only ex-WWE star who arguably has as little need for a comeback as Cody Rhodes is Dean Ambrose.

Sure, he's not a co-founder of AEW, but in the short time since his (surprisingly smooth) split from the WWE, the reborn Jon Moxley has taken the independent wrestling world by storm.

His debut at AEW: Double or Nothing got worldwide attention, as did his gruesome Unsanctioned Match with Kenny Omega at Full Gear and his eventual capture of the AEW World Championship as its second titleholder.

What's more, he's not reliant on the fortunes of the fledgling company, with matches in New Japan, Northeast and other promotions meaning he's got a lot keeping him busy.

Mox has been pretty vocal about what he didn't like about WWE (long story short: Vince McMahon's daft ideas), but Vince is in his 70s and seems to be slowwwwwwwly giving up control.

Jon is only half that age, and it's certainly possible to imagine a not-too distant future where Dean Ambrose returns to the WWE with a little more freedom to express himself (though probably with fewer deathmatches).

Of this whole list, our charttopper is the most likely to return, if not imminently.

Bex is only on a hiatus from the WWE after all, with The Man becoming The Mum when she and Seth Rollins welcomed their first child, Roux, in December 2020.

So a comeback isn't going ot happen right away, but despite her enviable experience in the industry, she's got loads and loads left in the tank.

In her absence the Women's Division has ticked on okay. There have been great feuds between Sasha Banks and Bayley and some mixed attempts to give the rest of the roster a bit more time and space, but The Man is irreplacable.

Once little Roux is old enough for babysitters (for some reason we think Big Show would be excellent at this), we'd welcome back Beck Lynch with the most open of arms.