2012 Is Year of Established WWE Stars Returning to Company

It's only April, but this calendar year has not been about rising stars getting chances or wrestlers in need of a boost getting the chance to lead the roster.

No longer is wrestling about Christian, Mark Henry or CM Punk getting World title reigns. It isn't even about Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes or Zack Ryder getting pushes and becoming relevant.

The year of 2012 has been all about former WWE superstars returning to the company in prominent roles.

Three months ago, on January 2, it was Chris Jericho that returned with the cryptic videos, parading around with a light-up jacket and not saying a word for weeks. January also saw the dominance of Kane return when the superstar resumed an active role. Weeks of promos teasing a return revealed a Big Red Monster that once again donned a crimson-colored mask.

Both men would have prominent roles at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Kane would manhandle both Cena and Ryder, while Jericho would be the final man eliminated in the Royal Rumble match. Both would also be involved in main event matches at Elimination Chamber, and both had good WrestleMania matches.

The Rock actually returned to WWE in 2011 and even wrestled at Survivor Series in November of that year. However, it was 2012 when it became more and more about The People's Champion.

The main event of WrestleMania was all about Boots to Asses and Team Bring It, as The Rock had hype videos, a few in-person promos and a whole bunch of worldwide Twitter trends. WrestleMania was literally all about The Rock, as a half-hour fight with John Cena gave him the victory.

The other major match at WrestleMania did not feature a championship, but the talk of ending an era. Triple H and The Undertaker are still active wrestlers, but both are still considered legends and part-time talent at best.

It's so hard to build for The Undertaker's annual WrestleMania matches when he doesn't appear with the company for months at a time. A Metallica song was brought in just for that specific match.

Between bringing Jim Ross out for that sole match to do commentary, as well as entrances, the match itself and the moments that followed the 20th Undertaker victory at the event, it took about 45 minutes and even challenged an entire hour.

As far as time constraints go, the rest of the card would have worked out like a normal pay-per-view, with this match being the lone reason for another hour of length.

This doesn't even bring up the two returns this week on Raw.

Lord Tensai, a superstar featured with promos for the past few weeks, made his debut on Raw in a match against Alex Riley. Lord Tensai is known by WWE fans under the ring names of Prince Albert, Albert and A-Train. Tensai, a character portrayed by Matt Bloom, made his first WWE appearance since 2004 this week.

Bloom traveled the world in the last eight years, wrestling in New Japan Pro Wrestling since 2005. There, he became known as Giant Bernard and remained among the top in the world. Now as Lord Tensai, WWE has acknowledged a prior WWE career for Bloom, though they did not mention any former ring names for him.

Then, there was Brock, as in Brock Lesnar.

The former WWE champion and former heavyweight champion in UFC would indeed return to WWE after signing a one-year contract and appearing at the end of the Raw broadcast. The crowd was incredible, as Lesnar came to the ring and did an F-5 to John Cena.

Since January 1, not only have these superstars come back, but they have returned and dominated a lot of the programming. During a four-hour WrestleMania, matches featuring The Rock, Chris Jericho and The Undertaker totaled 1:23:47 out of a total time of 1:57:46 of actual wrestling at the event.

This was all done before Tensai or Lesnar appeared on Raw.

On that episode of Raw, WWE GM John Laurinaitis claimed that a new era, which he called People Power, would begin on that night. What it began with was The Rock addressing the crowd and dreaming to become WWE champion once more.

Lord Tensai debuted and manhandled Riley. Instead of pinning him and making it an obvious squash, Tensai forced Riley to become incapacitated and the referee was forced to end the match.

Jericho appeared through the crowd, pouring a bottle of Jack Daniel's on CM Punk, while breaking another over his head. Lesnar's involvement at the end also likely inserts him into a feud with John Cena.

That all means that very little of the actual Raw broadcast had something other than old, former superstars as the focal point of matches and segments.

So, why bring back all of these seasoned veterans and give them important roles in WWE?

It's pretty simple, really. The fans who purchase these types of events are the ones who wish to see this stuff.

WrestleMania brought in millions of dollars for WWE. That's not because of booking a young high-flier nobody had heard of in September. It's because the guy coming to his hometown hadn't wrestled at WrestleMania in eight years.

The reason that the Internet darlings and independent legends aren't having the same impact is because the casual wrestling fan doesn't care. The ones that care about Daniel Bryan are the ones that know who he is. That income will always be there for WWE.

It is the untapped resources of casual fans that WWE craves. That's why celebrities and legends are featured whenever possible. Who sells more pay-per-views: Kofi Kingston or The Rock?

Stars like that have become big over time.

Chris Jericho had to defeat The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin before being a big deal with his own fans. Brock Lesnar was just another guy until he beat The Rock. Now, as Lesnar has gained popularity and notoriety from his MMA days, he has the draw that helps him gain relevance.

Putting stars like these guys on wrestling shows that feature not-as-big names is a way to garner more popularity for the overall product and expand name recognition. It's much like a WWE fan going to see a legend at a booking for an independent promotion. Easily half of the wrestlers in the show are probably new to you, but a good performance can turn you into a fan.

Make all of the comparisons to TNA that you like, because that company has tried the same tactic over the years. TNA has brought in the likes of Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Sting, Rob Van Dam and Hulk Hogan, all in hopes of bringing the same type of popularity, but to no avail.

Angle and Van Dam are not in the same realm as Jericho or Lesnar. An over-the-hill Flair or Hogan loses to an in-shape version of The Rock, who plugs a blockbuster movie every single time.

WWE has already seen teases of a possible encounter between CM Punk and Stone Cold Steve Austin, possibly culminating at WrestleMania XXIX. That's the same WrestleMania where some think that The Rock may wrestle again, possibly against Cena once more.

That hype alone sells a WrestleMania one year before it will even take place. That is the point.

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