With the returns of Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar and Lord Tensai (f/k/a A-Train) to the WWE fold thus far in 2012, adding to the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson last year, many professional wrestling fans are of the belief that the “Attitude Era” stars of the past will finally be making their return to the company under a new, so called “People Power” era, as instilled by WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown General Manager John Laurinaitis on last week’s WWE RAW, however upon looking closer within the company, one can see that a very different era is near, a new era, which I’d like to instill as “The Prestigious Era” will be upon us within the next few months.

As was seen on last Friday’s edition of WWE SmackDown, Damien Sandow, f/k/a Idol Stevens during his first-WWE run, debuted in a video package as a noble man and a lover of art, theatre and more, noting that he will be coming to the WWE roster soon, one of many developmental call-ups in the coming months, while Ryback (f/k/a Skip Sheffield) made his much anticipated return following a lengthy injury that could have ended up being career-threatening.

Other names down in Florida Championship Wrestling that are under consideration from the company to be called up are Seth Rollins (f/k/a Tyler Black), Richie Steamboat, Dean Ambrose (f/k/a Jon Moxley), Antonio Cesaro (f/k/a Claudio Castagnoli), Kassius Ohno (f/k/a Chris Hero) amongst many others, all of whom are high-quality wrestlers that have spent their craft working for companies such as Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, Combat Zone Wrestling and more including companies in Japan and Mexico. The Florida Championship Wrestling roster is probably as strong as it has ever been since it began with those names on the developmental territory roster and given that names such as Dave Bautista, Bobby Lashley and others have been discussed amongst many in the company about a potential return down the line, adding those names above to the WWE roster makes for quite an interesting year ahead in terms of star power and potential.

While every era has it’s time in professional wrestling and whilst I hate to make comparisons to the Attitude Era in the WWE, based on what it done for the business, both good and bad, this year ahead reminds me of a pre-Attitude Era in the company when names such as Kevin Nash and Scott Hall departed the then-WWF along with various others to join World Championship Wrestling, as the company worked briefly with Extreme Championship Wrestling, looked towards younger names and built up future stars such as The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, as well as pushing Triple H into a top-level star in the company, something that the latter will be doing these days alongside Canyon Cemen, who replaced Ty Bailey as the Senior Director of Talent Relations.

Now while WWE working with another company to help blood certain superstars to the masses in 2012 isn’t going to happen, signing top stars in said company will be their number one priority. Names like John Cena, Randy Orton, CM Punk and more are not going to last forever in the WWE, which is why the company needs to act on signing top level stars to their developmental territory, while also looking at bringing back former names from the past to the company, including many of those they have actually released in years gone by, names such as Shelton Benjamin, Montel Vontavious Porter and John Morrison spring to mind, and would be very welcome additions to the WWE roster.

Part of my thinking on this “Prestigious Era” is that the company are also planning on making a Cruiserweight-style show for the WWE Network, which means that top-level stars from areas such as Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany and more WILL need to be scouted heavily as they look to bolster both the main roster and the developmental roster ahead of any planning.

Will all of the above make it as a success on the main WWE roster, only time will tell, however given the way the company has been pushing guys like Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and other top-quality wrestlers in recent months, you would have to believe that those being called up from Florida Championship Wrestling will have a good time establishing themselves to the mass WWE audience while also helping to strengthen both the RAW and SmackDown roster, something that it was in dire need of.