‘The Freak’ Lars Sullivan makes shock return to WWE after 16 months out

Lars Sullivan made a shock return to WWE on Friday night after more than a year on the shelf.

The 32 year old was pushed as a big deal when he debuted on the main roster back in April 2019, but he would only be on the main roster for a few months.

In the summer of that year, Sullivan suffered a bad knee injury during a handicap match with the Lucha House Party that was set to sideline him for six-to-nine months.

During SmackDown last night, Sullivan made his return 16 months later, The Freak returned to WWE and laid out Matt Riddle, The Miz and Jeff Hardy in the process.

Sullivan is a huge, huge man. He’s legitimately around 300lbs of muscle and was very impressive in NXT prior to his call up.

The Freak has had a few bumps in the road already, though.

It emerged around the time of his initial call-up that Sullivan had made hateful, homophobic and racist remarks on an online message board. Sullivan was fined $100,000 by WWE and forced to undergo ‘sensitivity training’.

Sullivan himself apologised, saying “There is no excuse for the inappropriate remarks that I made years ago. They do not reflect my personal beliefs nor who I am today, and I apologise to anyone I offended.”

Sullivan was also originally supposed to debut on the main roster in WWE in January 2019, but he had an anxiety attack outside of the arena on the night he was meant to appear on TV.

That change of plans altered WWE and Sullivan’s plans drastically. At that point, Sullivan was meant to face John Cena at WrestleMania and it can’t be understated what a huge spot that is for any performer.

It’s fair to say not much of 2019 went Sullivan’s way, but now that The Freak has been working hard in the gym and is back in action, WWE have another player on their hands.

If they continue to book him like they originally did, he’s heading for the top. Stephanie McMahon announced he will be apart of Monday’s draft pool.