On July 21, 2016, Myers signed to make his return to WWE and joined the SmackDown brand. Myers returned to WWE under his Curt Hawkins ring name in vignettes, stating that it was "time to face the facts" in similar vein of the well-known Chuck Norris facts, beginning in August. This continued until it was announced that he would make his televised in-ring return at the No Mercy pay-per-view. At the event, he "stepped into the ring" and announced his debut match to take place on that week's episode of "SmackDown Live". However, the scheduled match was bumped from the show due to time constraints. The week after on "SmackDown Live", Hawkins was scheduled to face Apollo Crews. After Crews punched Hawkins, Hawkins left the ring before the match could start.