Best and Worst Debuts

[The Law]

Thread is inspired by the fact that we'll hopefully be adding Bray Wyatt to the "best" list after tonight. Some of my favorites:

Undertaker, Survivor Series 1990: Other than the fact that it was Brother Love introducing him, this was all kinds of awesome. He looked so fucking badass coming down the aisle. Crowd was in awe of the guy.

Tazz, Royal Rumble 2000: Only worthwhile thing he did in WWE. Great music, great entrance, perfect location, big win over Angle. It was absolutely all downhill from there. Now he's a fat, bald, crappy color commentator for TNA.

Kurt Angle, TNA: Nobody knew that was going to happen.

Chris Jericho, Raw 1999: Probably the best ever. Monster pop, put him against Rock right away, and he held his own on the mic against the best talker in the business at that time.

Worst:

Christian, return in 2009: He just showed up. On ECW. Which was clearly the C show by then. He interrupted Jack Swagger. And the announcers are just like: "Oh, it's Christian." Should have been treated like a much bigger star.

RVD, TNA 2010-Shows up and beats Sting in a five second match. Okay, whatever. Then Sting kicks his ass. Beats him with a bat for several minutes. Hogan has to run down and save him. Way to put the new guy over.

Sin Cara-It wasn't all bad, but they used the wrong shot and showed the trampoline he was jumping off. Then he botched his finisher. Not a good start. We probably would have forgotten about it if the next couple months hadn't been so horrible for him.

NWO in WWE-They showed up on Heat. And then they started the show by cutting a really terrible promo. At the end of the night they beat up Austin and cost him the title, which is how they actually should have debuted.

[Jacknife]

Best:

Lesnar: Still watch this clip to this day. Absolutely awesome.

Worst:

Shockmaster: No explanation needed.

[Hero!]

Best:

Debuting Punk at the ECW arena. The crowd was nuts for him.

The Nexus destroying everything in sight on RAW.

Yoshi Tatsu kicking Shelton's face off after Benjy had spent 3 minutes doing the best mic work he's ever done.

Worst:

Colt Cabana showing up to lose to TBK

Braden Walker coming out on WWE TV as a fat boring fuck with no charisma.

[thesamuelcooke]

Best:

Lesnar - same as above, what a beast!
Nexus - shame they were buried.
Scott Steiner in WWE - dat pop!
Bray Wyatt....?

Worst:

Brodus Clay - could have had a valid upper midcard monster, instead we get a dancing buffoon.
Shockmaster - yep.
Christian in ECW - same as above.

[Kneeneighbor]

Jericho's return with the flashing jacket was great.

[chatty]

The Shield was pretty good, completely destroying Ryback and triple powerbombing him through the announce table. Their debut match might be one of the best ever in TLC v Ryback, Bryan and Kane.

I cant remember who it was against but I'd hazard a guess Khalis ring debut wasnt great.

[Cewsh]

One small correction. We actually DID know that Angle was coming before he actually debuted, as they'd done a video for it at the PPV before. But that just made people wonder what he would be doing and when he would show up for real. His true debut is the finest moment in TNA history.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnpp2VFO-VA

[Jacknife]

I remember Khali's debut being rather awesome. Didn't he squash the Undertaker?

[Ringo]

khali's actual debut was pretty great though.

Kane of course.

[Kneeneighbor]

I always have a soft spot for this one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siaw-vpQ4Ck

[The Law]

I forgot to mention Scott Steiner. That was off the hook. Crowd went absolutely nuts. "To all my freaks in New York City: Big Poppa Pump is your hookup. Holla if you hear me!" At that moment I absolutely believed he was going to tear WWE up. It's too bad that Steiner didn't develop that personality until he had lost most of his wrestling ability.

RVD and Tommy Dreamer showing up in the WWF in 2001 and the ECW invasion was a great, great moment.

Goldberg's WCW debut was great. We thought he was an exceptionally jacked jobber who was just going to lay down for Hugh Morrus. Instead he kicked his ass and pinned him in three minutes. Everybody took notice

[Ringo]

Santino Marella too.

GOLDBERG yus.

[Andy]

Kane's debut was amazing. I've always loved Lesnar's and of course Jericho's.

Those are definitely the three stand outs for me.

[MikeHunt]

I always have a soft spot for this one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siaw-vpQ4Ck

That's brilliant. Never seen tht before.

[Kimura Kid]

The Radicals:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl6iMbCemao

Big Show:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKO3en8HJLM

[Hero!]

One small correction. We actually DID know that Angle was coming before he actually debuted, as they'd done a video for it at the PPV before. But that just made people wonder what he would be doing and when he would show up for real. His true debut is the finest moment in TNA history.



the best part was that Angle had JUST left wwe a month or so prior, so everyone figured that even if he went to TNA it wouldn't be that soon. Just an awesome moment. I remember TNA's website crashing and just being replaced by a picture of Angle for two days after.

[The Law]

Scott Hall walking jumping the aisle in the middle of a match between two jobbers on Nitro and cutting the promo that birthed the NWO. Can't think of a better way for him to have debuted.

Similarly, Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, and Saturn jumping the rail and beating down X-Pac and Road Dogg was fucking awesome. Not just that those guys had immediately been signed by the WWF, but that they were actually going to push them.

Big Show's debut was great. Coming up through the mat and throwing Austin through the cage. Made him look like a total monster. Unfortunately, they subsequently destroyed all that credibility in short order.

I'm having a hard time coming up with ones I didn't like. Usually, when it's a notable debut they put enough effort into it to make it good. I guess DDP being the guy stalking Undertaker's wife was bad. It was a great moment that DDP was in the WWF and he got a huge pop, but him being involved in that storyline was awful and ended up ruining him.

Edge had a great build to his debut, but unfortunately he seriously injured his first opponent. I think it was Jose Estrada. He landed a Somersault Plancha wrong and jacked the guy's neck.

Rock had the privilege of debuting at Madison Square Garden and winning a Survivor Series match. Unfortunately, he looked like a fucking goof and his character was horrible. And he sucked in the ring at that point.

[Kimura Kid]

Gangrel had a decent debut.

The video won't upload from dailymotion tho.

[The Law]

Which debuts are better? Surprises or ones they build to? Like everything else, it depends on context. With new wrestlers, it probably makes sense to build them first. Bringing back old-school vignettes has helped establish guys before their debuts. Cara, Kharma, Del Rio, Wyatt, Fandango, they've definitely done a better job in the last few years of establishing guys before they debut.

On the other hand, there's a logic to having surprise debuts for more established wrestlers. If the crowd is going to recognize them when they show up anyway, it doesn't make a ton of difference if you hype them or not. Big Show, Jericho, Hall and Nash, Ric Flair were all guys who didn't need any introduction. Shield's debut was unhyped, but that was a case where they were crashing the party and building it up wouldn't have made sense.

[Kneeneighbor]

Worst nomination: Phantasio


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwmxqEJnzHE

[Kneeneighbor]

Which debuts are better? Surprises or ones they build to? Like everything else, it depends on context. With new wrestlers, it probably makes sense to build them first. Bringing back old-school vignettes has helped establish guys before their debuts. Cara, Kharma, Del Rio, Wyatt, Fandango, they've definitely done a better job in the last few years of establishing guys before they debut.

On the other hand, there's a logic to having surprise debuts for more established wrestlers. If the crowd is going to recognize them when they show up anyway, it doesn't make a ton of difference if you hype them or not. Big Show, Jericho, Hall and Nash, Ric Flair were all guys who didn't need any introduction. Shield's debut was unhyped, but that was a case where they were crashing the party and building it up wouldn't have made sense.

Obviously there are all kinds of Flair ones to talk about but the WWF did hype him before he came the first time and that created a good buzz too.

[Jacknife]

Mordecai I remember being an awesome debut. Squashed Bob Holly.

[chatty]

I cant actually remember if he had a match or what his initial debut was but i remember loads of hype videos for Nathan Jones who was so horrendous that they did a last minute cancellation of his Mania match which he had somehow bagged as Takers partner.

[Mills]

Its a redebut but how about Flair coming back as co gm?

[The Law]

My only problem there was that he was debuting after the Invasion was over. I was just like "Wouldn't he have been helpful to get the Alliance over in the last few months?" I don't know when they actually signed him, but it would have been nice if one of WCW's top guys had been involved when WCW invaded the company.

[Badger]

Bischoff shocked me greatly.

[JP]

Bischoff shocked me greatly.

I made so much noise when he walked up to Booker T - and I mean just noise, not words, just complete jibberish - that I woke up my fella at the time and he initially thought I was having a seizure.

[Kneeneighbor]

That's brilliant. Never seen tht before.

I really enjoyed how there were a good number of fans pointing towards him helping put over that it wasnt a plant.

[Peter Griffin]

Mordecai I remember being an awesome debut. Squashed Bob Holly.
Thought he debuted against Scotty 2 Hotty?

[Jimmy Zero]

What was the deal with Mordecai? I remember them showing a ton of vignettes for the guy, he wrestled, like, two matches and then was gone.

Jericho's first WWE debut was amazing. The one where he interrupted Rock.

[The Law]

According to Wiki, it was a combination of them thinking he needed more seasoning and him getting in a bar fight and sued. I don't remember him being excessively bad in the ring at that point, just green. They had an unfortunate habit of calling people up too soon at that time.

[mth]

He said in an interview that he was not in the best shape at the time, either.

[Jacknife]

Giant Gonzalez: Awesome. Remember watching the 93 Rumble and seeing this guy come out and manhandle the Undertaker. It was surreal. Absolutely loved it. Never seen anything quite like it.

[BullyRayStoleMyLunch]

Bischoff pretty much wins best suprise debut for me - especially ending it with "The Hug".

Loved the build to Flair's first run, with Heenan pimping the Big Gold Belt, and trying to sell him as A-side equal to Hogan.

Mike Awesome's WWE Debut will not go onto manys all time list (winning the Hardcore Title during a Test V Rhino match - RIP 24/7 rules!) - but did the perfect job at the time in the Invasion angle. Vince's "Mike Awesome RAPED me, and he RAPED The Garden" speech put over just how much the first "Invader" to gain WWE Gold meant. If the Invasion had more of that, it could have been better.

[Anaconda Sniper]

My favorite debuts were Jericho, Punk, Xpac when he came back for DX and Lesnar. That I actually saw live on tv at the time.

[chatty]

What was Dolphs like. He was Chavo's caddy right?

It obviously wasn't under that name and he debuted differently a couple more times since before he found his character.

On the same note Kanes former character Isaac Yankem didnt have a great debut coming in as Lawlers dentist.

[The Law]

When he debuted as Dolph Ziggler he just showed up backstage and introduced himself ("Hi, I'm Dolph Ziggler") for a few weeks. Then he wrestled Batista, put up a good fight, and lost. I actually really liked his in-ring debut, because looking good against a top star was a much better way of introducing him than having him squash some jobber. We're really past the point where job matches work.

[Peter Griffin]

I dunno Law, I thought Rybacks squashes on the whole were good.

[milo]

Speaking of Mordecai, Kevin Thorn's Debut match on ECW was a massive beatdown.... although it was against Nunzio.....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vNuNaotdgg

[JRSlim21]

No list of debuts is complete without....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgg7KzO9v10