Scott,
I randomly saw your old rant for WCW "Great American Bash" 1999 and, during the main event Sid Vicious returns to attack and you seemed legitimately surprised by it. Whether that was the case or not, it got me to thinking: what are some of the best surprises for you in terms of legitimate surprises? Warrior's return at Wrestlemania VIII is at the top of many people's lists of surprises, along with the Hogan turn (many guessed it not many actual KNEW).
To take it further, do you think it's even possible to be shocked at this point? I mean, between Twitter, blogs, and other leaks, I don't know that a company could bring in a guy (Brock Lesnar's return?) without us hearing before hand. Whether true (Brock Lesnar) or false (Batista), no return/debut/turn ends up being a shock because we've heard the rumors already. We're also so conditioned at this point to look for a John Cena heel turn, a McMahon return, or a swerve just for the sake of it that it makes me wonder: are there any legitimate surprises left?
TNA could always make money on something.
Anyway, yeah, Warrior at Wrestlemania was gigantic. I remember Rude debuting in 97 as Shawn Michaels' new bodyguard sending my roommate and me into a frenzy for some reason. Rude as the WCW Halloween Phantom was also pretty great in 91.
I think there's still some left. JoMo could pop up literally any day now for either company and have a big impact. The Brock thing was only leaked the day before, so that was a pretty big one and of course Batista is still lurking as a free agent now. So's Lashley, although his star power is rapidly dropping.