Which debut intrigued or underwhelmed you the most?

[JaymeFuture]

So, for this week's podcast, we're looking to talk about the debuts in wrestling that personally intrigued you the most or left you underwhelmed. Rather than asking what you think were the best and worst (which would likely bring back a horde of Jericho/Kane/Shockmaster responses), we'd like to know which character introduction, from any company at any time, personally resonated with you the most as a fan, on either end of the scale. And most importantly - why.

 

As always, the best responses will be read on the show and you'll be credited accordingly. So which one stands out for you as blowing you away or deflating your expectations?

 

EDIT - Our show debating the Best and Worst Debuts Ever, featuring many of your contributions, is now online and available to listen to at the following link: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/8yx695/SCG_Radio_94_-_Best_And_Worst_Debuts_Ever.mp3

[DMJ]

BAD - The debut of "RockaBilly Gunn." I remember being pretty interested in who Honky Tonk Man's protege would be in the spring of 97'. Why I cared is a question I don't know the answer to, but I'll chalk it up to being just a lame 13 year old wrestling fan. Anyway, in the weeks before Rockabilly made his debut (at an In Your House, don't remember which one), I believe Honky Tonk Man had asked both Gunn and Road Dogg to be his man. They both turned him down. This was intriguing to me because it meant that his mystery man wouldn't be either of those two guys, opening things up to a possible debut of a new superstar or maybe a former WCW/ECW talent. Then, it turns out it Gunn was the protege after all - turning the entire build-up of the debut into a complete waste of time and serious disappointment.

 

GOOD - Its astonishing, but there is a guy who had not one, but two amazing debuts in the WWE. His name is Sean Waltman. Not only was his RAW debut as 1-2-3 Kid a star-making moment, but when he returned to the company the night after WrestleMania 14, it felt like the WWE had just struck a direct hit at WCW's warship after months of misses doing similar segments (Jarrett's shoot, Cornette's shoot). X-Pac joining DX revitalized the should've-been-dead faction and while I'm not sure any DX segment would ever hit the same "I can't believe I just saw that!" peak, there are less than a handful of moments throughout the entire Attitude Era that meet that high water mark. I vividly remember seeing the segment and instantly grabbing my phone, modem connection be damned, to call my friends about it.

[El-P]

I like creepy. And it seems like in 95/96, the WWF had its share of creepy characters and vignettes. Hell, I dunno why, but it seems like the vignettes from that timeframe resonnated with me in a peculiar way, in that I still hold them in a special place. Not all of them, but for instance I really liked the Fatu "Make a difference" stuff. Probably because I was a big Head Shrinker fan and a Fatu single push sounded nice to me. Plus I enjoyed the smooth ghetto-but-friendly vibe.

 

But like I said, I like creepy. The Mankind stuff in 1996 was some of the most intriguing stuff I've ever seen to that point. Plus I had no idea who Cactus Jack was since I hadn't really seen any WCW or ECW at that point. So yeah, those promos, and the genius of the two different music themes. This was insane. I think people have forgotten how brillant this stuff was and only think of good-old (and annoying crowd panderer) Mick Foley these days, but the early Mankind shit was the best character introduced on WWE TV since, well, the Undertaker (expect much better all around).

 

Creepiness was also a huge part of the appeal of the Goldust vignettes to me. Loved the music. Loved the super bizarre promos and Dustin's delivery, with the shots of Hollywood on green screens. Probably to this day, my all-time favourite vignettes. And yeah, I realize Vince Russo had quite a bit to do with them, so I gues that 0,01% of his contribution to the business was his peak and only streak of greatness. Then, let's say the debut left me a bit puzzled. The robe and wig was great, but Dustin's work wasn't very impressive at first. Really, Goldust didn't click on TV before Marlena came around. Then it was a winner. Finally some glamour back on WWF TV (which had been gone for years now).

 

Another case of great vignette/not so great debut was Waylon Mercy. Those vignettes, to this day. Well, pretty much what I've said about the Goldust ones. Spivey was incredibly spooky and creepy in those. I don't think I had seen the Scorcese movie yet, so some stuff flew over my head. In the ring, it wasn't as impactful though, as Spivey was physically shot and it showed, although the piano music was wonderful and Spivey's "character work" was immediately great too, with truly disturbing facials and fake politeness.

 

Funny, as I also remember the whole Body Donnas stuff well. Goofy but sexy thanks to Sunny and promising of good in-ring stuff thanks to Candido (whom I recognized from old WWF magazine talking about Smokey Mountains in 93).

 

No idea why these years were the most stricking to me. I even loved the Jean Pierre Lafitte "old pirate tells story about his ancester" stuff Maybe because he was throwing a few words of french in those. Yeah, 95/96 was a good time for vignettes to me.

[Gutenberger]

I was really excited for the debut of Kizarny. I just like stuff that is a little, and maybe sometimes more than a little, weird and strange. And all these vignettes with him talking basically gibberish and standing on fairs (I've been a lifelong funfair visitor myself) just really peaked my interest.

 

Well, we all saw what became of that...

[supersonic]

Styles and Nakamura in 2016 will forever be gold standards for debuts. Styles in NJPW should count as well. Kevin Owens must also be mentioned.

 

Angle was amazing interacting with Joe in TNA a decade ago. It's one of the rare instances in which a TNA debut was actually buzzworthy.

 

Bagwell in WWE is a no-brainer on what to avoid.

 

I'm excluding any surprise debuts as the topic seems to address advertised ones instead, so that'd disqualify the Shield.

[greenmistguy90]

Decay,decay decay !!!!!!!!!

When current tna tag champions debuted earlier this year , I was very intrigued , if not intirely creeped out

[C.S.]

Intriguing

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Razor Ramon yet. Some of the greatest vignettes ever, and he more than lived up to the hype in the ring. Even though I knew he was previously the lame Diamond Studd, those Razor vignettes got me pumped up.

 

They were so effective that when WWE by and large copied them wholesale for Carlito, I was excited about him too. His debut and first few months were actually pretty good, so I don't want to say he wasn't a success just because he eventually descended into midcard purgatory.

 

Underwhelming

 

Maybe I'm the only one, but I liked the Beaver Cleavage vignettes and was actually looking forward to seeing him debut. The minute he stepped out onto Raw though, he was a bust. The character did not translate at all.

 

Sean O'Haire's "Devil's Advocate" vignettes were tremendous, but he lost all momentum the minute he actually had to step into the ring.

 

I remember liking Mordecai's vignettes as well, but he ended up being a major bust.

 

Ditto for Nathan Jones. Those "Colossus of Boggo Road" vignettes were amazing, but his in-ring work was not.

[Memphis Mark]

Stan Hansen in Memphis. Stan ' s buildup promo's were great. He talked about his dad making him chop cotton in Texas and the power of his Lariat . He also explained in detail about how much he wanted to beat hell out a bunch of fruity guys like Austin Idol and the Fabs. I could not wait for Stan to get to Memphis and start kicking ass. Hansen did not stay long but he did not disappoint .

[Alucard]

MVP at No Mercy 2006 was a great one to me. In the weeks leading up with him in the crowd and hyping up the most expensive contract he signed, I wasn't expecting him to be anything special. But the moment he debuted, everything clicked. The music (which had been released on WWE's latest "The Music" volume without anyone using it), the entrance, the ring attire, and the big debut against Marty Garner were all perfect.

[thebrainfollower]

Favorite was the Undertaker. The intrigue was that for the first time, two of my hobbies were merging. As a kid I was hugely into classic black and white monster movies. The Undertaker was almost like a character out of that, the Boris Karloff Frankenstein monster come to life. And when they added Paul Bearer, it resonated with me all the more. I remember being the ONLY kid in the Worcester Centrum cheering as UT took on Hogan in July of 91 in their first singles match together.

[Timbo Slice]

Nak at Dallas still gives me goosebumps. An incredible combination of anticipation and payoff that I don't think WWE has ever really done. Including Styles.

 

Also, the pre-Attitude era answer is Ricky Steamboat as the mystery partner at Clash XVII, damn it. The dragon mask had me intrigued that it was another Muta-type guy, and then when it was Ricky Steamboat, 7-year-old Tim marked the FUCK OUT.

[Gutenberger]

Y2J. What a great debut, building anticipation with the millenium clock and then having him interrupt The Rock. Why hasn't anyone mentioned this yet?

[Johnny Sorrow]

Y2J. What a great debut, building anticipation with the millenium clock and then having him interrupt The Rock. Why hasn't anyone mentioned this yet?

Because lots of folks are still having to come to grips with the fact that Jericho, who became the most hated guy amongst "smart" fans for a myriad of reasons that are totally fucking awful and stink, is currently fucking awesome with his latest reinvention of his character, that is completely based on all the "real life" things dummies were hating him for.

That's a lot for small minds to handle, so his initial debut must have been forgotten. 😎

[Parties]

Lesnar showing up unannounced to destroy everyone in a hardcore match, following by his even more memorable torpedoing of the Hardys were what came to mind. It was specifically augmented by not being a wrestling news/board reader at the time, so I had no idea who he was or that he was coming in. Debuts have become a different and in some ways less exciting concept when it's all "worker who you've seen for 2 years in NXT" or "worker who you've seen elsewhere for 5-10 years." The introduction isn't quite as pointed - for better or worse - as it was seeing someone like Psicosis, Sabu, or Tajiri for the first time out of nowhere.

 

As a kid, I marveled at Adam Bomb's debut as it was an awesome look and gimmick for a seven-year old. Ditto Max Moon. In '91 I actually recall Vince on Superstars announcing the debut the following week of a new character named El Diablo, who sounded super cool to a grade school Parties. I could have never guessed it was the dastardly Jake Roberts under the hood. That I still vividly remember Vince's delivery of a basic, 10 second announcement of some masked nobody in a still frame close-up from 25 years ago tells you about impressionable ages and what enthused novelty brings to wrestling TV.

[elliott]

Glacier was the guy I was most excited for. That didn't turn out well

 

Jerry Lawler showing up in ECW for the first time is my favorite ECW moment by far. Awesome debut.

[NotJayTabb]

Phantasio. As a 13yr old catching his debut (only) televised match on an episode of Wrestling Challenge, he was instantly fascinating. A wrestling magician using tricks to confuse and humiliate his opponents seemed like a great idea to me, and I thought his gimmick of taking off a mask and giving it to a ringside child would make him as big as Bret Hart*. I had a little book I kept of matches I really wanted to see, and I immediately wrote in "Phantasio vs Skip". which I maintain to this day would have been terrific (just for Candido stooging around for silly string and phantom wedgies). As the weeks went by, I kept waiting for my new favourite wrestler to have a second match, but it never happened.

 

*I also thought Jesse Sorenson's TNA schtick of signing a miniature American football and passing it to a lucky kid at ringside would make him a star. I totally overestimate the starmaking power of giving kids gifts.

[AJS]

I remember being Intrigued when Alberto Del Rio made his WWE Debut. If memory serves, his first match was against Rey Mysterio and I was very impressed with his heel work and timing in that match. I thought I was watching a major star of the future. Of course most people look great if there working with Rey and he never lived up to my expectations going forward, but it was a fine debut.

 

Brian Pillman showing up in ECW was a great moment.

 

Angle in TNA. the place went crazy when the announcement was made.

[Infinit]

2 Cold Scorpio's debut as Ron Simmons' mystery partner at the Clash was freaking awesome.

[Jingus]

^{For "underwhelming": it wasn't immediate, but Tazz's WWE introduction comes to mind. They did a rehash of Jericho's Millennium Clock deal with Tazz's orange "13" symbol, except it was way too soon after Jericho debuted and wasn't executed nearly as well. The outcome of his first match seemed to indicate that he'd be pushed as a top guy, beating Kurt Angle's undefeated streak and all; but even in the match itself, something looks kinda odd if you watch it with today's eyes. Tazz has to do a hell of a lot of selling in his big debut, and I think Angle suplexed him just as many times as he Tazplexed Kurt. Having the suplex-heavy midcarders Angle and Benoit who already did Taz's stuff (but did it better) didn't bode well for him fitting in on what was already an overstuffed roster. And then they tried to make him a hardcore brawler in the Bob Holly mode, and it was all downhill from there. Taz's entire gimmick in ECW was based around the fact that he was the only guy who didn't swing chairs or dive off the top rope, but the WWE quickly turned him into just another guy who swung aluminum weapons and jobbed to Crash all the time.}

[peachchaos]

Some obvious WCW clinkers:

 

Shockmaster

 

Renegade

 

GLACIER

 

Warrior

 

Seven

[Alucard]

*I also thought Jesse Sorenson's TNA schtick of signing a miniature American football and passing it to a lucky kid at ringside would make him a star. I totally overestimate the starmaking power of giving kids gifts.

 

I'm down with this! I thought Sorenson was total money, when he cut that promo at Destination X 2012 post-injury in the neck brace... man I was pumped for his eventual comeback for revenge against Zema Ion, who won the X title that night.. perfect story but unfortunately he never returned. Since he's worked a few NXT matches this year, I'd like to see WWE give him a shot.

[JaymeFuture]

I want to thank everybody for the contributions, we got to read many of them on the show, which is now available at the following link:

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/8yx695/SCG_Radio_94_-_Best_And_Worst_Debuts_Ever.mp3

Join us as we discuss the Best and Worst Debuts in Wrestling History! Talking all about the introductions that intrigued or underwhelmed you most, we take your nominations and cover the lofty highs provided by the debuts of Chris Jericho, Kane, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tazz, The Undertaker, The Radicalz, Mankind, Phantasio (!), Sean O'Haire and many more. But fear not, we also cover the staggering lows gifted us by the Shockmaster, Mordecai, Glacier, Seven, Bret Hart in WCW, DDP in the WWF, ROCKABILLY, Tensai and numerous others. A fun show this week, as we banter about some of the most fun memories wrestling provides - check it out!