Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, Edge Return to WWE

WWE fans have a lot to look forward to in the four months leading up to Wrestlemania. Chris Jericho, Edge and Ric Flair have all returned to the WWE in an eight-day span.

Chris Jericho has the distinction of leaving and returning to the WWE completely on his own terms. In the storyline, Jericho was "fired" by Eric Bischoff, who was the General Manager of Raw at the time. In reality, Jericho wanted to take time away from the ring to heal his body and pursue his dream of being a rock star.

Jericho's band, Fozzy, didn't exactly take the world by storm. However, that doesn't matter because Jericho was able to keep himself from getting stale after five straight years in the WWE. When he returned at the Nov. 19 Raw, everyone went bonkers. Jericho immediately targeted WWE champion Randy Orton, so "Y2J" is poised be a major player in the WWE for years to come.

Edge's career reached its peak when he beat The Undertaker for the World title in May 2007. He had held the WWE title twice, but he was always overshadowed by John Cena, Triple H and Shawn Michaels on the Raw show. Edge was poised to dominate Smackdown for a long time.

Then, disaster struck when Edge was forced to vacate the title due to a muscle tear over the summer. Edge made his return on Nov. 18 when he disguised himself as a cameraman and attacked The Undertaker during the "Hell in a Cell" match.

Now, Edge has become an even bigger player as he has revealed his storyline relationship with Smackdown General Manager Vickie Guerrero. This plays into Edge's persona as a sleazeball heel, as his career took off when he re-invented himself as "The Rated-R Superstar" when Lita was by his side.

This all seems to be leading toward a showdown with The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 24 in March. Undertaker is undefeated at Mania, while Edge has a similar (but shorter) streak of his own at Mania. Edge's streak seemed to end at last year's Mania when Mr. Kennedy won the eight-man "Money in the Bank" ladder match. However, Edge didn't get pinned and didn't submit, so he can always say that he didn't really lose.

As if the returns of Jericho and Edge weren't enough, Ric Flair's return to the ring was scheduled for Nov. 26 in his hometown of Charlotte, N.C. Flair took some time away from the ring because he didn't like the way the WWE was using him. The fact that he is back indicated that the WWE has a meaningful plan in place for the 16-time World champion.

The fact that Flair can still wrestle in his mid-50s is astounding. In fact, he held the Intercontinental title as recently as 2006.