What gets wrestlers over faster?

Tough one really, Albert was basically a jobber when he left WWE. He went to Japan and became a beast, but when he returned to the WWE he flopped hard.

Then you have Mcintyre who became a mega star when he returned.

I liked Tensai

That’s my thing, they should have just brought him in as Giant Bernard. It was similar enough to A-Train which was AS CLOSE as Albert got to being main event talent in his first run. Giant Bernard would have been like, ok, Albert went to Japan and came back this BEAST! A more dominate version of a character we had already be acquainted with.

As soon as he came out with the Japanese stuff on and his finisher was just a face claw, it didn’t work for me. Where as Giant Bernard would have come off as an evolution of his character, Tensei felt like a rebranding of an established star. This guy never was Albert just like Kane was never Issac Yankem. I wanted to see Giant Bernard in WWE as an evolution of the Albert character.

. But it REALLY didn’t help that he came back on the same show as Lesnar. I was in the crowd that night and I vividly remember thinking, well if we get nothing else it’s cool that we saw Albert come back...and then we got Lesnar and I feel like Albert immediately became an old toy in the toy box for Vince.

well looking at the roster, lets look at those currently that have left and came back (excluding Drew since he was already mentioned...

Bobby Lashley- Yes currently the WWE champ. He left and spent time in MMA & TNA before returning....but when he returned was he over? Majority of people didnt/dont care about Lashley when he returned. There were still a lot of "bath turd" jokes. While he's champion now, I feel it was more WWE's doing than him leaving the company.

Brock Lesnar- You could argue he was more over/popular before his return. Either way its hard to separate between pre MMA Brock and post MMA Brock, Id call it a push

Jinder Mahal- Pretty much a solid lower card/jobber before being let go from the company...However once he left he didnt really do anything either except hit the juice. Once he came back WWE built him back up only to put him back to his normal position on the card.

Johnny Drip Drip- Left as a upper mid card, toured quite a few other companies and became a pretty decent name winning multiple titles. Recently returned to WWE and one would argue he's actually lower on the card than when he left.

R-Truth- Pretty much a mid card/lower mid card talent before he left. I dont remember him having any title runs but I could be wrong. Leaves to TNA becomes NWA World Champion...Returns back to the company and pretty much settles back in as the mid card/lower mid card talent he was before. An argument could be made his skits/segments are more funny now but is that really being "over?"

Shelton Benjamin- Upper Mid card talent, multi time tag champion I believe, US Champion and IC Champion. Arguably one of the best athletes they had in the company during his first run. Didnt accomplishment title wise while in Japan & ROH other than a couple tag titles. Returns to WWE and flounders as a lower tier tag wrestler until finally getting put into a decent story with Hurt Business. Accomplishes a little (winning another tag title) but ultimately has seem to fallen back to the lower tier tag wrestler.

So the results? I dont think leaving & coming back or leaving & going to another company really has any affect on your card status. I think that Drew (and somewhat Lashley) have just been positioned well. Drew was always a guy everyone said was underutilized. Everyone else that tends to leave, for whatever reason, comes back to the same status they were before they left.

Vince liking you

Not reading from a script

Being talented ones.