At one point this was a staple of the website and then like so many other things I retired the series. But now in a fitting sense it's time for a bit of a throwback with a twist. Originally published on June 21, 2016  

Over the years it's happened more then once that we fans have wanted a variety of talent to return to the company especially after a long time away from the company. In June of 2006 the standing relationship between the WWE and the only "Olympic Gold Medalist in Wrestling History" ended after 9 years with the company due to a disagreement with management. A few months later the biggest announcement in TNA History came out that Kurt Angle would be arriving in TNA Wrestling very soon. Angle sparked up a feud with then unbeaten Samoa Joe and the rest as they say is history.

​Kurt would then remain with TNA from 2007-2016 once again remaining with the company for nine years just like his tenure with the WWE prior to his stay in TNA. I will also mention that Kurt would become the first ever TNA World Champion in June of 2007 after TNA left the NWA.
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​Now with his contract finished in TNA and now him being on the Indies and giving us fans some of our dream matches like his contest against Zack Sabre Jr in England and later this summer when he steps in the ring against Cody Rhodes on August 27 with Northeast Wrestling. But now with the Brand Split on the horizon and now WWE is hastily trying to improve their lack of depth by bringing back former talent like a certain gold medal winner.
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​He hasn't helped the rumors especially by him saying that he has been in contact with Triple H and whatever past issues the two had have been resolved and are behind them. Because as of a few days ago after appearing on Mark Madden's radio show when asked if he would return to the WWE he said "Will I return? Yes, I don't know when." He went on to say that it isn't a matter of if it's a matter of when and he would also mention that he hasn't spoken to Hunter in around a month and a half as of this writing.


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​There have been heavy rumors for months that Kurt would be back in the WWE eventually and with him free it is only a matter of time. As Kurt has stated that not only does he not plan to wrestle much longer, but he would love to work part-time for WWE and also lend a hand as a trainer and possibly even the future manager of American Alpha. Wouldn't that be Sick!!!

In my opinion, 2016 is one of the most underrated years for the WWE in recent memory. Consider this in the first two months of the year the company had signed Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Then the wrestling world was shaken to it's core when the prodigal son returned to the WWE and gave us a moment we wouldn't soon forget. I for one never thought that Shane McMahon would ever return to the WWE as he seemed to have found his footing and made a name for himself outside of the company. Even though things wouldn't really go well to get us to this point, but it did raise excitement and interest for the programming at the time. 

If all that had happened already wasn't enough then when the announcement of the WWE Draft came down it left people wondering what would happen next. The brand split had gone away in 2011 when the company chose to just allow all wrestlers on both brand instead of making them exclusive, but when reality hit and they figured out their roster was overexposed they needed to do something. It is for this reason that they chose to bring back the brand split with Shane & Stephanie McMahon being the top on air executives. Though things would start hot everything would cool off pretty quickly with them setting themselves up for the short term. 

WWE Smackdown Live 
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John Cena Def. (Pin) Luke Gallows
Darren Young & Zack Ryder Def. (Sub) Rusev & The Miz
3Bray Wyatt Def. (Pin) Xavier Woods 
Kane Draw (NC) Kevin Owens 
Charlotte & Dana Brooke Def. (Pin) Sasha Banks Handicap Tag
Chris Jericho Def. (Pin) Cesaro 
Alicia Fox Draw (NC) Natalya 
Dean Ambrose (C) Def. (Pin) Seth Rollins WWE Championship

A few months ago I found an interesting article that the game development company Yukes announced that they were working on a new wrestling game that isn't WWE 2K20. Now even after two months we still don't know much about the game, but we may have found something very interesting about the project. Yesterday WWE Games Development Supervisor Bryan Williams: 

I have been a long time player of WWE games and it isn't an understatement to say that Smackdown Here Comes the Pain is one of the greatest wrestling games ever released. This game was the most complete game of all the WWE games in their library with an incredibly deep roster. Even though the narrator does bring up a good point that some of the wrestlers included in the game at the time aren't on the best of terms with WWE anymore namely one wrestler that is no long with us. In my opinion, the company could allow for fans to add a modern WWE roster to the game as a way to fill in missing stars and add an interesting layer to the game. This is something game designers have done only once before when they gave us the ability to do exactly that on the Legends of Wrestlemania video game allowing us to add the recent Smackdown vs Raw roster to the game. 

Overall this is something completely unexpected even though basically every company is going for the remaster approach specifically most recently with Crash Bandicoot being remastered. I have not really looked forward to any games recently, but I would be counting down the days for the arrival of this game if it did come to be, because this is one of those games that I could play tomorrow and love just as much as I did when it came out 16 years ago.