Christian returns... Sorta

Well, I told you not to get your hopes up. Christian made his "triumphant" return at Elimination Chamber. How triumphant? Being included in John Laurinaitis' meaningless promo; that triumphant.

Laurinaitis came out with David Otunga to cut a promo about how Teddy Long should be subject to the same vote of confidence by the WWE Board of Directors that Laurinaitis was two weeks ago. Alberto Del Rio, also making his on-air return, then comes out and talks about how corrupt Long is and how he plays favorite. Mark Henry does the same and calls Long a "bully." Christian finally comes out and talks about how Teddy forced him to compete despite having legitimate and injuries and Sheamus "broke" his ankle. Christian said he'd be competing for the World Heavyweight Championship otherwise. Laurinaitis thanks them all for their support, takes a picture with them and that's the end of the segment.

Sorry if I don't sound excited. I guess some Christian is better than no Christian. But let's get real here. Not counting Christian's brief appearances at the 2011 Slammys and the 2011 Tribute to the Troops, Christian has been gone three months. Del Rio on the other hand was gone for just over one month and Henry's been on and off since the Rumble, so it's like he never left. Lumping Christian in with this story is ridiculous. They would've been better suited to stick in Drew McIntyre who's had his own back and forth with Long for the past several weeks. Instead, here's Christian in this awful promo - cementing the fact that not only will he not get any sort of title push for Wrestlemania XXVIII, but that he won't get any sort of singles match whatsoever.

For those of you who marked out for his return, good for you. The fact is, I got that out of the way yesterday when it became apparent Christian was in Milwaukee. It was even more obvious that he was returning when WWE.com ran a story about Christian's tweet today. By the time it actually happened, I wasn't cheering. I was burying my face into my palm - just like Christian's going to be buried back into mid-card hell for God knows how long.

Let's just get Edge's induction out of the way and move on from there.