Turd Ferguson
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Joey Mercury will make his return to WWE in the near future according to Buck Woodward of PWInsider.
Mercury is a former WWE Tag Team Champion as part of MNM. The successful stable launched the careers of John Morrison (then Johnny Nitro) and Melina.
He was released by the company in 2007 after a controversial stay including failing a test and going to rehab as part of the WWE Wellness Policy.
It was at that point that Mercury revealed that he had been using drugs since the age of 15. To his credit, Mercury claims to have kicked his demons.
His first run with WWE was highlighted by a gruesome face injury he sustained while working a Fatal Four-way Ladder match at Armageddon in 2006.
I always thought that Mercury was a good enough worker and really underrated as a whole. It's easy to be overlooked, though, when your tag team partner is Johnny Nitro, who you could tell even at the time was going to be a star. As good a worker Mercury is, and he's shown that with runs in ROH since departing the WWE, he's going to need a niche right away to really connect with the crowd. He's not exactly charismatic.
If you read the above story, you'll see that Mercury's had drug problems since a young age, and that his drug problem was the reason why he was let go from the WWE in the first place. I see an easy in for Mercury. All Mercury has to do is be in the crowd, have Punk see him somehow, and initiate him into the Straight Edge Society. It would even be a perfect starting point for a Mercury/Morrison feud.
If he manages to stay healthy as far as both injuries and not using drugs goes, Mercury has potential to remain a very good hand for the WWE to rely on to be a very solid midcarder. He'll never be a star, but he has the potential to get over and connect, especially if he starts back up in the SES.
What do you see for Mercury's future?