The surprises continued in "The Last Time Is Now" tournament during last night's RAW, with Dolph Ziggler making his unexpected return to WWE for a match with Solo Sikoa.
Similar to Matt Cardona/Zack Ryder on SmackDown last week, Ziggler failed to overcome his WWE Superstar opponent. However, the company is already selling merchandise on behalf of the former World Heavyweight Champion on its official WWE Shop, leading to speculation that he's signed a new WWE contract.
As of now, there's no official—or unofficial—word on whether that's the case, but a backstage photo with Triple H may tell you all you need to know.
Like Cardona, Nemeth has been working with TNA in recent years, bringing him back into the WWE's orbit. Both he and Cardona remain firm fan-favourites who have done a lot of great work since being released by WWE (where most fans agree he was poorly utilised).
Their respective returns to WWE would be welcomed. However, the fact that they didn't move forward in this tournament may be an indication that these are one-off appearances (for now, at least).
"WWE was so great," Ziggler previously said while detailing the circumstances behind his release. "I still had a year and a half left on my contract, and I said, 'Please.' I told them, 'I’m not doing anything here. I’m just hanging out and doing cold five-minute matches.'"
"I said, 'I don’t know how much longer I’m a believable world champion for any other company. I might have five more years, I might have two, I might have ten, I don’t know. But sitting here collecting a paycheck and working for five minutes a week is not helping WWE, and it sure as hell isn’t helping me.'"
"Luckily, they gave me the chance to get out of there because I still had time left on my contract," he added. "Being able to get out of that bubble was such a relief."
We'll have to wait and see what the future holds in store for Ziggler in WWE. The prospect of him having another run in the company is exciting, but whether a place can be found for him on an already-stacked roster is tough to say.