Best Debut year in WWE

Sirsok

Sometimes I look at WWE and i wonder how they have all their top guys are no where near the level of other stars they created. It didnt tale Austin very long in WWE to reach his status, Same with Hogan, same with Cena. Where as the likes of Rollins, Reigns, Owens etc have been in WWE for quite sone time just ticking along.

It lead me to think who had the greatest debut year in WWE. Two people spring to mine.

1. Yokozuna
Debuting the end of October 92, he became Royal Rumble champ and won the title twice within his debut year, once from Hogan and once from Hart.

2. Kurt Angle
Got immediately over from my memory, that Taz match, winning the European Title and Intercontinental Title them lost both without ever been pinned. Wins King of the Ring. Headlines Summerslam and then wins the main title at No Mercy.

All in all an amazing year followed by a relatively short run in WWE , about 6 years and Yokozuna even shorter but both very legendary memorable characters, which is lacking nowadays.

Everyone generally wears black or dull colours, nothing prevelent that allows people to stand out and get a personality to shine thru.

What do others think? Other wrestlers can apply, maybe Goldbergs debut year in WCW is a worthy discussion? Seamus shocking the world with a win v Cena?

titan18

Recent ones I can think of are Styles and Balor, if NXT doesn't count.

Lesnars debut year was dominant too. Won KoTR and beat The Rock for WWE title, beat Hogan, won the Royal Rumble, main events WM and beats Angle for the title

PTH2009

2012 with the Shield Debuting on the main roster

Ohmeha

Alberto Del Rio another one who was impactful straight off in his first year

The likes of Yokozuna, Angle, Brock, Seamus, Alberto when debuting WWE had plans for them, they were identifiable and all had their personalities/gimmicks ready to make an instant impact. Not always the case though, Austin, Rock, Cena were all going nowhere until they all diverged quickly into something natural, Orton and Batista were two who struggled during their first 12-18 months before WWE successfully figured out what to do with them

Nowadays you feel WWE are doing well if it takes 5+ years/if ever for them to figure out how to create their stars

Sirsok

titan18 wrote: »

Recent ones I can think of are Styles and Balor, if NXT doesn't count.

Lesnars debut year was dominant too. Won KoTR and beat The Rock for WWE title, beat Hogan, won the Royal Rumble, main events WM and beats Angle for the title

Completly forgot about Lesners year, and his lasting impact until he rejoined in 2012 was pretty immense.

I suppose with Styles and Balor they were pregty proven entities in other promotions or brands id say whereas the other 3 not so much.

Defeating the Rock at Summerslam for the title what 5 months after debuting is pretty significant.

CastorTroy

Paige won the title in her main roster debut.
Didn't Charlotte win the title 36 times in her first year?

Loughc

CastorTroy wrote: »

Paige won the title in her main roster debut.
Didn't Charlotte win the title 36 times in her first year?

34 only. The next 17 came in her second year.

Braun was booked well in his first year if I remember correctly. I think he went 16 months without being defeated.

LineOfBeauty

Saw this opinion before but I'll regurgitate it. Does NXT seriously hinder the impact of a main roster debut? I can see arguments on both sides. One being that maybe your audience won't be aware of the wrestler so a soft introduction in front of an easier crowd helps but I think you lose something when you've already seen these guys wrestle for years on NXT. Nakamura and Balor are the two I think of that were harmed most by this. Both red hot after signing with WWE, both had long enough NXT runs, by the time they get to the main roster some of the shine is already gone off them. Just debut them, have them beat a star and boom, you're at the races.

In kayfabe it's probably Angle or Del Rio.

seandotcomm

Definitely Angle IMO

Necro

Lesnar or Angle for me.

Brocks was a meteoric rise from squashing jobbers the week after Mania to beating The Rock at SummerSlam a couple of months later.

Angles was a slower build but equally as impactful, holding the European and IC titles into Mania and that fabulous match.

Then took the title from Rock at No Mercy (I think) and held it till No Way Out

Probably about even imo.

Brocks more meteoric but Angles was more sustained (probably due to Brock fecking off within 2 years mind)

Sirsok

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Saw this opinion before but I'll regurgitate it. Does NXT seriously hinder the impact of a main roster debut? I can see arguments on both sides. One being that maybe your audience won't be aware of the wrestler so a soft introduction in front of an easier crowd helps but I think you lose something when you've already seen these guys wrestle for years on NXT. Nakamura and Balor are the two I think of that were harmed most by this. Both red hot after signing with WWE, both had long enough NXT runs, by the time they get to the main roster some of the shine is already gone off them. Just debut them, have them beat a star and boom, you're at the races.

In kayfabe it's probably Angle or Del Rio.

Interesting point, however not many have managed to bypass NXT to make a comparison.

Styles,Gallows,Anderson and Maria and Mike Kanellis. Styles being the only one to truly shine.

Owens I think was helped tremendously by his time in NXT but i feel that had more to do with his introduction, he had like 4 fueds going on at once Zayn, Balor, Cena and Alex Riley both in NXT and main roster.

I still feel that initial pop and suprise is there when a NXT person goes to a new brand but they need something sustained. Balor hampered by injury and Naka, well i dont have a feckin clue what happened to him but i dont blame NXT.

RocketRaccoon

I don't think anyone comes close to Brocks first year, he was incredible to watch every week. His first feud against the Hardys was perfect for him and he only went up from there.

John Hutton

How far back are we going? It's Hogan in the WWF surely

hynesie08

Rousey? Debuts at mania against triple H and Steph, title shot in her second match, title win, headlines the first ever women's ppv, has a bunch of absolute belters against Charlotte, Sasha even nikki bella, then she caps it all off by headlining wrestlemania (and she's the reason the women headlined). That's a video game career mode.......

CastorTroy

Sirsok wrote: »

Interesting point, however not many have managed to bypass NXT to make a comparison.

Braun pretty much bypassed NXT. He was only on TV as a rosebud.
And seeing Raw Underground it looks like they're giving guys who have had little exposure more time. Like Dabba-Kato and Riddick Moss.

But that's off topic, so never mind

B.A._Baracus

Brock without a doubt.
- Debuted March 18, 2002 on RAW.
- Won the King of the Ring on June 23rd 2002.
- Beat The Rock at SummerSlam on August 25th 2002 to become the Undisputed champion a mere 126 days after his debut.

He also worked with Hogan (briefly) and The Undertaker (Unforgiven, September) of the same year.
He pretty much had a rocket strapped to him and I don't see how anyone else can compare to the debut year he had. Guys can spend years crawling to get to an upper card / main eventer (if they're even lucky to achieve that) and Lensar got it all so fast.

Sirsok

I would say Yoko would give Brock a run for his money. Headlining and winning the title at mania like 150 days after his debut, pretty nuts.

All thought he didnt win king of the ring, he won the title at it against Hogan instead

Clareman

Didn't Ric Flair debut at Surviour Series and won the Rumble which had the championship as well, that's a fairly solid first couple of months.

For a complete newcomer, Sheamus beat Cena for the title shortly after his debut.

Ohmeha

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Brock without a doubt.
- Debuted March 18, 2002 on RAW.
- Won the King of the Ring on June 23rd 2002.
- Beat The Rock at SummerSlam on August 25th 2002 to become the Undisputed champion a mere 126 days after his debut.

He also worked with Hogan (briefly) and The Undertaker (Unforgiven, September) of the same year.
He pretty much had a rocket strapped to him and I don't see how anyone else can compare to the debut year he had. Guys can spend years crawling to get to an upper card / main eventer (if they're even lucky to achieve that) and Lensar got it all so fast.

Brock nearly had it all when he debuted, young age, mean freakish big guy look and of course he was damn fine wrestler but he couldn't talk which may have risked him from ever getting over. WWE then had the nous from minute 1 of his debut on Raw to give him Paul Heyman as his mouthpiece for that first 6 months while he demolished all in front of him and got over in that short period, no way it would have worked out anywhere near as brilliant as it was without putting him with Heyman