Surprise Return Takes Place In Post SmackDown Battle Royal

Get them all in there. The biggest story coming out of this week in WWE has been the return of fans to the arenas. This has been a very long time coming and you could see just how much of a difference the fans being around made for everything else. The energy was back and that was a great thing, including for the wrestlers. Now one more wrestler is back to feel it as well.

According to Wrestlinginc.com, the post SmackDown dark match featured a battle royal, including Big E., Shinsuke Nakamura, Apollo Crews, Commander Azeez, Finn Balor, and more. One of the participants was a returning Shane Thorne, formerly known as Slapjack in Retribution, working his first match since March. There is no word on when Throne will return to television. Big E. won the battle royal and addressed the crowd after the show was over.

Shane Thorne came out after Smackdown went off air ? pic.twitter.com/OFSv4TGcQV

— Bálor Club ? (@BalorsThorne) July 17, 2021

Battle Royal #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/aznDPJuXHx

— POP IT OFF, HELLO! (@DZChoc) July 17, 2021

It was a huge night. Check out Big E.’s promo, what is coming back to WWE and some of last night’s highlights:

Ricochet vs. SLAPJACK: Raw, Nov. 30, 2020

Top 10 Friday Night SmackDown moments: WWE Top 10, July 16, 2021

Opinion: It was a busy night and it makes a lot of sense to send the fans home happy with something like this. Big E. is one of the best wrestlers around to get the fans fired up and that is what they had him do here. A battle royal isn’t going to hurt any of the losers and gives Big E. a nice win to finish up the action before the big speech. It was a fine way to go and Thorne being back could be a bit interesting.

What can Thorne do on the show? How was Big E.’s speech? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books.

Keep up with the LATEST WRESTLING RUMORS! Click here to sign up for the exclusive Wrestling Rumors daily newsletter, delivered right to your inbox.