There are few things more effective in professional wrestling than the surprise debut or the surprise return. While it isn't a 100% foolproof angle, more often than not, it works 100% of the time every time, as Brian Fantana would say, regardless of who is debuting or returning. In truth, the success of a surprise return or debut likely has less to do with who the wrestler is, and more the element of surprise, or the element of being delivered something fans really wanted. After all, there's few things fans love more in wrestling, a business built on swerves mind you, than being caught off guard, or being delivered something they had been dying to see.
In that sense, it's hard to get a surprise debut or a surprise return wrong. However, it's also hard in this day and age to have something that is completely a surprise. Even going to Brock Lesnar's return to WWE in 2012, or Cody Rhodes return to WWE in 2022, most fans had been anticipating such news for weeks, even months, which made the monster reactions both men received upon coming back less about the surprise and more about the anticipation finally paying off. In fact, one of the few true surprises in recent memory was when Roderick Strong showed up in AEW in 2023, a move that caught people completely off guard, as his departure from WWE had been kept secret. That type of surprise has become rare, which is why one that occurred in 2002, involving Eric Bischoff and WWE, remains weird, special, and unforgettable.
While WCW had been bought by WWE just a little over a year before, the wounds of the Monday Night War between the two promotions, that saw a WCW run Bischoff do everything in its power to get under Vince McMahon's skin, were still fresh. On top of that, WWE's poorly conceived Invasion angle feud that saw WWE easily defeat a WCW/ECW Alliance had many believing that there was no way McMahon would want to work with Bischoff, or that Bischoff would potentially want to put himself under the thumb of someone known for settling perceived scores. It was a move that, truthfully, no one in their right mind could see coming.
It's reflected in how Bischoff's debut comes across as well, from the audible gasps/stunned silence from the crowd to wide eyed shock of Jonathan Coachman and Booker T seeing Booker's old WCW boss again to the disbelief of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler at the booth as McMahon and Bischoff hugged, not once, but twice. All of it is why the debut continues to resonate and feel like it was from another planet. It wasn't just that Bischoff showed up on "Raw," it wasn't even that McMahon made him the new "Raw" GM; it was doing all of that after all the hostile history between them, and the two sharing several embraces to boot. Bischoff went on to have a long run as a WWE authority figure, and remains relevant today in wrestling through his WCW history, podcasting and holding numerous anti-AEW takes. But nothing he's done, including orchestrating Hulk Hogan's heel turn in 1996, remains as unforgettable as when he and Vince McMahon buried the hatchet long enough to do business together.
