Mia Yim Talks WWE Return; AJ Styles Praises John Cena; Natalya Undergoes Surgery

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Yim Talks Returning to WWE

Mia Yim made her surprise return to WWE on Monday night's episode of Raw, backing The O.C. in their rivalry with The Judgment Day.

After AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson fell to Finn Balor, Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio at Crown Jewel due primarily to interference from Rhea Ripley, The O.C. found themselves an equalizer in the form of Yim.

After Yim took out Ripley with a kendo stick on Raw, she discussed her return to WWE in an exclusive interview for WWE's social media channels:

Yim noted that she is ready to "get my retribution," which was seemingly a nod to the group she was involved with prior to her release from WWE last year.

After enjoying success in NXT for a couple of years under the moniker "The Head Baddie in Charge," Yim was called up to the main roster as part of Retribution and given the name Reckoning.

Yim also had a far different appearance as Reckoning, as she wore a Hannibal Lecter-style mask to match the unique look of her stablemates.

Retribution ultimately flopped, and Yim was released from her WWE contract almost exactly one year ago. She returned to Impact Wrestling, where she previously held the Knockouts Championship, and enjoyed success before getting the call back to NXT.

Given how poorly her first main roster run went, Yim has plenty of unfinished business, and she is seemingly now in a much better position to establish herself.

Triple H is now the head of creative, and he was chiefly responsible for signing Yim in the first place and pushing her in NXT. Triple H has already placed her in a significant storyline, which bodes well for her moving forward.

Styles Praises Cena's In-Ring Acumen

John Cena is one of AJ Styles' greatest in-ring rivals, but The Phenomenal One wasn't too sure about Cena's wrestling ability until they went at it for the first time.

During an interview with the Halftime Show (h/t WrestlingInc's Phil Hall), Styles divulged that Cena "surprised" him with his in-ring performances since he was "not known for being a technical mastermind in the ring."

Styles added: "[Cena is] just good—there's no way to say it. He knows what he's doing. Again, it's just one of those things where you thought, 'I'm the superior wrestler in the ring.' But once you get in there with John Cena, you realize, 'Well, okay, I didn't know that. Let's keep going.' He's pretty good."

When Styles arrived in WWE as a surprise entrant in the 2016 Royal Rumble match, his reputation preceded him as one of the best pure wrestlers in the world thanks to his time with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor.

At that time, there was no denying Cena's status as the top dog in the business, but a large portion of the WWE fanbase tended to criticize and question his ability to have great matches.

Cena's series of bouts went a long way toward changing the perception, as they had universally praised clashes at Money in the Bank 2016, SummerSlam 2016 and Royal Rumble 2017.

Those matches helped Styles get over as a top star in WWE as well, and it can be argued that they still stand as the best matches he has had during his WWE run.

Natalya Undergoes Surgery on Nose

Natalya announced Monday that she underwent surgery to reset her nose after suffering a dislocation:

Nattie blamed Shayna Baszler for the injury, tweeting a photo of herself with blood around her nose following their match on SmackDown last week:

John Pollock of Post Wrestling later reported that the injury was a work and part of a storyline, meant to allow Natalya to undergo pre-planned nasal surgery.

After years of speculation regarding an alliance between Baszler and Ronda Rousey on WWE's main roster, it finally came to fruition a couple of weeks ago when Baszler attacked Nattie backstage, much to the delight of Rousey.

Baszler then faced her former tag team partner in a match on SmackDown last week, which was when the broken nose angle took place.

Since Triple H took over as head of creative, he has seemingly been hard at work re-establishing Baszler as a threat.

While Baszler has had success on the main roster in tag teams, her greatest success occurred in NXT as a singles wrestler. The Queen of Spades was a dominant force, holding the NXT Women's Championship twice for a total of 548 days, which is the longest cumulative time as women's champ in NXT history.

Rousey and Baszler are both former UFC fighters and close friends in real life, so it makes sense to move forward with them as a dangerous heel pairing.

As for Nattie, she is seemingly in line to miss some time, which will leave SmackDown without an important veteran presence in the women's division.

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