Ok, I'll say it, I'm a cyclical insomniac, and its hit me hard over the last week or so. I'm sitting here at one in the morning abouts, and I thought I'd do some late night writing. I'm going to split this into two lists, I'll handle debuts tonight, and returns sometime tomorrow.
Back in the day, wrestler debut's were handled differently. You'd get weeks of vignettes introducing the wrestler, how he was coming to clean up or destroy the territory or in the case of TL Hopper, clean the toilets. They'd never mention where the wrestler had worked before. But you knew when he was showing up and what his character was. That changed, we got the debut of the outsiders un announced. Wrestlers would show up at the Rumble, or any other main PPV, or we'd get mysterious non descript videos that would hint at or never reveal the wrestler. It made things more interesting.
Now before I jump right in, it was the common belief that the debut made the wrestler, but in the case of some of the ones I reveal below, often times while the debut was amazing the wrestler would eventually peter out and fail and have to be repackaged. We'll touch on that tonight.
So without further ado, here we go, the best debuts in wrestling.
1) Chris Jericho - Monday Night Raw Aug 9th, 1999.
I think when we look back of wrestlers as a pure creative force, nobody can beat Chris Jericho. Criminally ignored and under utilized and told to do whatever he wanted to in WCW, Jericho created masterful angles like the man with 1001 holds when he feuded with Malenko. His whiny apologizing heel turn, and of course his feud with Goldberg. In the end though Jericho couldn't wait to go to the WWE and took a paycut to do it. In the months leading up to Raw we didn't get Jericho videos. We got a count down clock, it was amazing and built massive anticipation, and even though most fans figured it was Jericho thanks to the internet, the timing was perfect when the clock ran down to zero in the middle of the Rock promo, and we got this.
Now this was one of those debuts that didn't work out that well for Chris, even in his books he hated his promo because he felt it was weak. There were also complaints that Jericho was arrogant and stiff and he found himself sliding down the card and eventually had to reinvent himself.
2) Scott Hall - WCW Nitro May 27th 1996
In a rare moment of genius that changed the wrestling world forever, Scott Hall debut with no warning. During a jobber match Scott Hall came through the crowd, Grabbed a mic and and said "You know who I am, but not why I'm here." He called out WCW and said "You wanted a war, you got a war". Hinting that Scott Hall was still working for WWE and that things had gotten real. Later on Kevin Nash came out and continued the War narrative, It was so different and so tense, and WCW and Eric played it perfectly. "We are taking over, you wanted a war you got one"
3) Undertaker - Survivor Series Nov 22, 1990
We'd seen big men in the WWE before, but nobody had ever seen a crowd intimidated like it was that night when we first heard the Undertakers funeral based theme and saw him for the first time as he slow walked to the ring, dressed in black and looking like a corpse. Watch the video, the fans were completely intimidated, and it took about 5 minutes to establish Taker as a monster as he destroyed his competition.
4) John Cena - Smackdown- June 22, 2007
John Cena at this point was a relative unknown having just graduated from OVW. On that night Angle who had terrible luck throughout his career with open challenges (See Daniel Puder), called out the roster, and John Cena responded. when Angle asked him why he was worthy of being in the ring with him, Cena replied "Ruthless Aggression", then slapped Angle. This debut wasn't great in terms of fireworks or entrances, but the match itself was outstanding and it established Cena as what you would call a top prospect.
Again this was another case of not living up to his debut as John Cena as a whitebread face just didn't work and he slid down the card to the point that he was informed during the WWE tour of Europe that he was probably going to be released. What saved him was his ability to free style rap to the boys in the back and this lead to the genius Doctor of thuganomics character that propelled him back up the card.
5) Kane - Bad Blood October 5, 1997
This whole thing was brilliantly done as Undertaker had recently broken things off with Paul Bearer and Bearer informed him that his brother was alive. At bad blood and what tends to be forgotten was that Taker had an outstanding cage match with Shawn Michaels. At the end the arena turned red and we got a look at Kane. A mysterious masked man lead to the cage by Bearer, and while Undertaker was a large man, Kane could be best described as a mountain. Kane reached the cage tore the door off and stood face to face with his brother. This was the first time in his career that Undertaker sold as he looked shocked and scared. Kane then scooped up Taker with the Tombstone and planted him. This was an amazing and intimidating debut, and for the first time we saw someone even more frightening the the Undertaker. When you watched this the biggest thing tough that sold it was Vince McMahon at the announcing table "That's got to be Kane!!!"
6) Brock Lesnar -Raw March 18, 2002
Brock Lesnar is the beast, there's no question, and there was no more perfect way to debut him then to have him come out and destroy everyone. Coming through the crowd, he crushed everybody in his path to the glee of Paul Heyman and instantly established himself as a force.
7) The Shield - Survivor Series Nov 18, 2012
We kind of knew the Shield was coming, I mean they'd been put together in NXT as a heel group, destroyed everyone in their path with their gang tactics and had a great feud with the Wyatt family. The Shield came out of the crowd, power bombed Ryback through a table and would go on to establish themselves as a great faction, bringing back an aspect of wrestling that I think needs to be more prevalent.
8) Tazz - Royal Rumble Jan 23 2002
Tazz had gained a lot of notoriety in ECW as the human suplex machine long before Suplex City. Kurt Angle was the WWE undefeated Champion and he was slated to take on a mystery opponent at Raw in New York City. We soon found out who the mystery opponent was as we heard Tazz's awesome theme and he marched out to the ring and had a amazing and physical match with Angle before ending Angle's undefeated sleep with a sleeper.
9) Kevin Owen's - Raw 2015
Kevin Owen's is an exceptional heel, he's great on the mic, and he can flat out wrestle. He ran roughshod over NXT and made his debut on Raw when he confronted John Cena and challenge him When John Cena tried to give Owen's some friendly advice veteran to rookie, Owen's sneered and told Cena that he had basically been wrestling for longer then him, and then did what Kevin Owen's did best.
10) Goldberg - WCW Nitro Sept 22, 1997
I was torn on this one, because Goldberg's WWE debut had a historic feel to it. But this was the start of something special and we didn't know it then, it lead to the rise of a rare homegrown superstar, the start of the streak and a period of dominance in WCW. The debut worked because at the end Goldberg looked at the camera and held up one finger.
Honorable mentions
Paige defeats AJ Lee for the Diva's Championship, AJ Styles WWE debut, Radicalz WWE debut, Ric Flair's WWF debut proclaims himself as the real worlds champion. Mankind debuts on Raw to a creep factor of 10 and beats Bob Holly, later that night he destroys the Undertaker.
Later on today, the greatest returns in wrestling history.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
The Following User Says Thank You to CaptainCrunch For This Useful Post:
ok, time for the returns or as they say in french, pass the ketchup.
Anyways, we all know that wrestlers leave. They go off to do movies, or they go to a part time schedule, or they leave and go work for another company or territory. Sometimes they return, and usually when they do its a special moment with a huge crowd reaction, and most of the time its a surprise. Amazingly some of the wrestler's above who had amazing debuts have amazing returns. So here's a list of returning wrestlers.
1) Chris Jericho Raw Nov 19, 2007
Chris Jericho had been "Fired after his first run". but really he had wanted to focus on Fozzy and other side programs and slow down. In his absence WWE became a much more boring place with the likes of Randy Orton putting everyone to sleep. Suddenly we began to get cryptic messages popping up on Raw, until one night when Randy was in the ring doing his typical Orton interview and talking about the torch being passed to him, the camera flicked to an outside view of a runner carrying a torch, and then brilliance ensued in a sparkly vest.
2) Ric Flair returns - Nitro Sept 14, 1998
Its no secret that Flair hated Erich Bishoff, right to the point where Bish lost his mind when Flair skipped a Nitro to go and watch his son's high school wrestling tournament and fired Flair not fake but for real. However on this Nitro something special happened, and sadly though I can find part of this, I can't find all of this. But Arn Anderson a brilliant worker and promo cutter bought out the reformed Horsemen. then at the end when Flair didn't come out, Anderson exclaimed that he must be getting old because he forgot one man. At that point Flair came out and cut an absolutely emotional rip down of Eric Bischoff.
Part one
3) Stone Cold returns - Backlash 2000
After fighting injuries caused by his match with Owen Hart. Steve Austin went to get neck surgery and basically was on the shelf for nearly 9 months. However at Backlash Triple H with help from Vince and his cronies assaulted the Rock during the main event title match, and things looked bad for the Rock until . . . .
4) Brock Lesnar returns Raw 2012
To me whenever you hear the start of Brock's theme you know that business is going to pick up. Brock had left the company to fight in the UFC and because he had grown to hate life on the road with the WWE, that's why it was a surprise at the Raw after wrestlemania while Cena was in the ring that we got this.
5) Bret Hart comes home Raw Jan 04, 2010
We all know the circumstances of Bret's departure 12 years earlier and the long era of hatred between Bret Vince and Shawn. Lets be honest, Bret went through hell over that period of time with the death of his brother, the death of his parents, the dissolving of the Hart Clan and a devastating stroke and end of his career. Earlier in the year there had been a reconcilliation between Vince and Bret after the release of Bret's DVD which to this day is still excellent. Finally Bret could come home. This return was set up so well, with Shawn Michael's telling Vince to bring Bret home because only good things would happen, and Vince's evil smile as he thought that Shawn would finish Bret off once and for all. The video package at the start of Raw really heated things up. When we heard the starting guitar riff, the crowd exploded, and we got a great return.
Sadly however due to his stroke, Bret really couldn't do what he wanted to do and the blow off match was disappointing. But fans were happy to see him return and get some closure.
6) The Rock returns 2011
I loved this one because of the theatrics of it and the crowd reaction. The Rock had left for Hollywood and became the biggest crossover star from wrestling (Sorry Hulk). So his return was amazing, the fans knew there was a return, but there was a mini swerve at the start with the high heeled woman as they waited for the host of Wrestlemania to show up. then the lights went out and business picked up.
7) Vince McMahon returns 2000
Vince was a great heel evil owner, however he had vanished in 1999 after being blown up in his limo and killed off. In his place we had the Authority figures of HHH, Steph and Shane running roughshod over the company. That's why it was such a surprise to see Vince getting out of the limo that night. The reaction of Steph and HHH was brilliant as was Vince punching out his son in law without breaking stride. Vince was here to save WWE from his evil progeny.
8) Undertaker returns - Judgement Day 2000
Its rare that you see a return and a gimmick change rolled all into one, but that's what happened here. The Undertaker had missed nearly a year with injuries and he returned to a huge massive frightening pop, while debuting his American Bad Ass character.
9) Matt Hardy returns 2005
This was interesting because it was the occasion where real life leaked into wrestling. Poor Matt got injured. Had his girlfriend cheat on him for real with his real life best friend Edge. Hardy snapped and went all over social media and was fired for it. Hardy did sporadic appearances on the independents and lost nearly a year due to a knee injury. But wrestling is money, and this had the potential to be huge money for a mid card player like Hardy. So he was talked into returning. This wasn't a dramatic return with big music and fireworks. This was a gritty and real feeling thing as Hardy attacked Edge backstage, What made this really cool was that Hardy had been appearing for ROH, so fans were confused over if this was a shoot or a work.
10) Chris Jericho returns - Raw 2012.
That's right he gets two. Jericho has a masters degree in fan psychology and everytime he returns he cooks up something special. This was no different. After an extended leave for his music career and because he was getting older and tired of life on the road. Jericho once again vanished from the WWE. But in 2012 the weirdness began again with cryptic videos. These video's though were strange and cryptic and felt more like something that the undertaker or Sting would do, and those were the rumors floating around. So fans were genuinely shocked at the Jericho return and gave him a hero's welcome.
This is where his psychology came into play. He returned in a amazing light bright jacket. Returned to the ring, proceeded to say nothing, and then went back up the ramp and then turned around and smirked at the crowd turning the audience that night against him. It was an amazing piece of theatre.
HM Hogan returns to punch out evil foreigners, Mick Foley returns Rumble 2004, Trish returns Royal Rumble
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Surprised you don't have Edge at this year's Rumble.
While rumored, he denied it, and was photographed in New York (somewhere nowhere close to Houston) that afternoon.
Turns out after uploading the picture, he then went to a small airport, boarded a private plane and flew to Houston so the general public wouldn't see him. He then hid in the back of an SUV until his curtain call.
Then you're expecting a mid-carder when you hear "You think you know me"
The crowd went nuts, and Edge was overcome with emotion.
__________________ "Calgary Flames is the best team in all the land" - My Brainwashed Son
The Following User Says Thank You to Maritime Q-Scout For This Useful Post:
yeah, I debated that one for a long time and it should be there, there was just a overall more of a holy shyte to me epicness of the returns that I put in.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Top Wrestling Debuts and returns
