WWE: Top 5 wwe debuts ever

[BonMorrison]

Th- that's gotta be Kane!

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Tazz had a great one

 

[ColePens]

My choices.

1. Jericho: No better. Just a great build.

2. Kane: I thought the brother idea was stupid even as a kid... and look how awesome it was.

3. Nexus: Even though they ruined Wade, that night was crazy. One of the coolest moments. So well done.

4. The Shield: Same as Nexus but not as impactful. But what happened after turned into gold. Probably one of the best factions of all time.

5. Undertaker: Watching it back, it is pretty cool that it happened at a PPV. Really cool.

AJ/Naka are very cool but not in top 5. Just outside, IMO.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

John Cena basically single handedly taking them down ruins Nexus for me.

The actual impact of the debut was amazing though. It sucks that it fizzled out but that was awesome for a while.

 

[Paris in Flames]

People want to put Nakamura's debut....at number 1? Great reaction...but come on...he came out...did his schtick and left..it had zero impact on anything.

Kane and Jericho had amazing arrivals and actually did something.

Nakamura probably rank about 34th best ever.

 

[Balls Mahoney]

Jericho.

 

[OmniSens]

God I'm so sick of Nakamura... I don't see what the big deal is with the guy. Yes, he's charismatic, but I need to hear some mic work.

Homers.

And lol. Definitely not the best. Could argue for top 10.

 

[Brodeur]

Kane was crazy built up though, and his debut ripping the door off?

It felt like a totally different from form Taker's previous monster of the week feuds.

I guess it still felt a little cheesy for me at the time. I might have been a bigger fan of Nitro at that point (April '97). WCW was a few months away from peaking and for me Kane felt more like a cartoony early 90s WWF guy than what would eventually become an Attitude era fixture.

 

[The Lunatic Fridge]

Nobody's ever touching jericho.

 

[AfroThunder396]

1. Chris Jericho
2. AJ Styles
3. Taz
4. Kane
5. John Cena

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

Has to be Jericho.

Styles was good but the camera work ruined it.

Tazz was really good too, but then he got hurt/nothing was done with him.


Dreamer and RVD which led to the re-formation of ECW was a mark out moment for me. but then that angle got botched as well.

 

[BonMorrison]

Ah good call on Nexus. That was an incredible debut and had everyone talking like it was the Attitude Era when it happened.

 

[JDinkalage Morgoone]

Shinsuke was so underwhelming... he didn't even do anything! He came out, did his long entrance, and then... what? What is that setting up? Is he feuding with the Miz because he didn't like his Cena impression?

 

[SeidoN]

Shinsuke was so underwhelming... he didn't even do anything! He came out, did his long entrance, and then... what? What is that setting up? Is he feuding with the Miz because he didn't like his Cena impression?

Alvarez theorised that Miz cutting a promo about not seeing Cena for a while then having Shinuske come out was their way of seeing "your top babyface is going away for a while but heres your new one"

 

[Megahab]

He was supposed to be a one-off for Taker to go over iirc, but Glenn Jacobs was so good in the role that he got 20 years out of the Kane character. Amazing, really.

I'd put The Shield in there. Nexus just leaves a sour taste in my mouth because of how that turned out.

Jericho is the best debut of all time imo, though.

Shinsuke for the initial reaction is definitely up there, and I doubt WWE is going to **** up his booking -- mostly because he's on Smackdown. Maybe he's top-5 debut, it's still too early to say, but it's going to take a lot to top Jericho's imo.

.

Was it really that Jacobs was good at the role? I feel like any big man with decent ability could have pulled off the Kane character. It didn't take much. It's not like he was cutting killer promos and having great matches. Respect to Kane for having a 20 year WWE career, but he is probably the most overrated wrestler I've ever seen. 20 years, but what did he actually do? I can't even think of a great Kane match. The TLC match on Raw in late 2002 is all I can think of right now and it's not like he was the reason that that match was so good. The thing people will remember most about him is his association with Undertaker, and pretty much every Undertaker vs. Kane match and feud has been terrible. And I know this is not his fault, but Kane's career has been filled with bad story lines. It's been 20 years, but there's not much that is noteworthy, at least in a positive sense.

His debut was cool but loses points for not knowing where the main camera was when he had Undertaker up for the tombstone.

For me, Jericho's debut is easily #1.

Other ones off the top of my head:
-Lesnar - right away, they made him seem like a really big deal.
-Bray Wyatt - although it was kind of ruined for me by the Husky Harris chants.
-Shield
-Sting - just felt like a special moment.
-Tazz - This was awesome, but I do have a friend that stopped watching wrestling because of Tazz's debut. He knew nothing about ECW and was a strictly WWE/WCW fan, but he got excited about the build to what would be Tazz's debut. But he was very disappointed once seeing how small Tazz was. He was so turned off by it that he never got back into wrestling again.

Nakamura and Nexus was cool. I think we should only focus on the actual debut in this discussion, and not let subsequent booking affect your decision. If Nexus loses points for how they were booked after the debut, then Jericho should too because he was booked poorly for a while after his debut.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

There is no way that Kane character could have been done by just anyone.

First in his prime he was extremely athletic for his size, second there were tons of subtleties because of the mask that he did especially with body language.

I don't think anyone could have done it as well thats almost 7 feet tall

 

[Megahab]

There is no way that Kane character could have been done by just anyone.

First in his prime he was extremely athletic for his size, second there were tons of subtleties because of the mask that he did especially with body language.

I don't think anyone could have done it as well thats almost 7 feet tall

Definitely not just anyone. But I think a big man with decent in-ring ability like Kane could have done it. You can't put guys like Heidenreich or Khali in that role. But was Kane really that much better in the ring than someone like Test or Albert?

I can't agree that he was extremely athletic. Never once thought that. He always had that slow, plodding style. The most impressive thing I've seen him do is the hurricanrana and it was always so sloppy.

 

[GKJ]

I was a bit surprised that he didn't do anything, but Nakamura didn't need to do anything. The whole anticipation was him showing up on the show, and you didn't really want to sully that by having Miz get involved with him, or start cutting promos. Maybe you do want him to do something, but what did you want him to do that would've gotten him more over than he already was? He would've just grabbed a mic and just said "I'm here now. Yeaoh!" Or pose for a while, but he was already doing that.

Or you can tune in next week to find out.

 

[Paris in Flames]

I also don't get the AJ love that much. Obviously the year that followed his debut was fantastic and the best year by a single guy in a long time....but the debut was disappointing to me. Not his fault but 10 seconds of a confused Roman look while the crowd cheered? Not good.

 

[SeidoN]

I also don't get the AJ love that much. Obviously the year that followed his debut was fantastic and the best year by a single guy in a long time....but the debut was disappointing to me. Not his fault but 10 seconds of a confused Roman look while the crowd cheered? Not good.

well at least their youtube *slightly* fixed it lol

 

[FultonReed]

Tazz had a great one

was there as a 9 year old. that place was so hot for Tazz. first match of the night, a train ride away from the man's house.

 

[The Lunatic Fridge]

well at least their youtube *slightly* fixed it lol

10/10 title
Literally unseen.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Lesnar
Jericho
Rikishi
Tazz

 

[Emperoreddy]

I'll never get giving Tazz such a good debut and completely failing to do anything with it.

****ing Vince

 

[TheMistyStranger]

Best debut, for me, has to be

I don't know much post the mid '00s, but Jericho is tough to beat.

But this one is unforgettable for other reasons, too

...that feeling when no words can describe what I just watched...