The AEW debuts have been on the rise ever since the WWE started canning talent like they were tomato soup. Let's take a look back on the AEW debuts that made us cry tears of joy as we break down the Top 10 AEW Debuts of All Time.
00:00 Introduction
00:56 #10
01:47 #9
02:55 #8
04:04 #7
05:17 #6
06:33 #5
07:40 #4
08:54 #3
09:58 #2
11:10 #1
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
00:00 Introduction
00:56 #10
01:47 #9
02:55 #8
04:04 #7
05:17 #6
06:33 #5
07:40 #4
08:54 #3
09:58 #2
11:10 #1
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 The AEW debut has become a thing in wrestling, aided in no small part by WWE's new favourite
00:06 hobby of firing beloved star out of their company with a goddamn trebuchet.
00:09 It's like what the TNA debut used to be, except with more fans, money and excitement.
00:14 What's Muddy Burfi doing in the Khan Zone?
00:17 That sort of thing.
00:18 There have been some really fun AEW debuts, Ruby Soho and Lio Rush making an impact in
00:23 Casino Battle Royals.
00:24 You could argue that Christians wasn't quite the blow the roof off the joint affair they'd
00:28 anticipated, ditto Jake Hager, and then there's these, the cream of the crop, the top tier
00:33 of "Oh hooray it's them, I like them, it's nice to see them again."
00:37 I'm a poet and I'm very much aware of that fact.
00:39 I'm Adam Hailing from PartsFunKnown and here are the 10 Best AEW Debuts, Ranked.
00:45 Would you like to debut on PartsFunKnown?
00:48 Then all you have to do is like and subscribe.
00:51 There, you've just made your PFK debut, and the crowd goes wild.
00:56 Number 10.
00:57 Santana/Ortiz The closest thing this list has to a deep
01:00 cut, with all the "Oh look it's them"s happening recently, it's easy to forget about the former
01:05 LAX standout Santana and Ortiz making the jump from Impact to big Tony's bros and homies.
01:10 Dateline All Out 2019, which feels like a million years ago at this point, after the
01:15 redonkulous ladder match between the Young Bucks and the Lucha Bros, the men who'd go
01:18 on to be proud and powerful attack both teams while dressed up in rubber president's masks
01:23 for unmasking, to a huge pop.
01:25 What with Santana and Ortiz being part of the Inner Circle's formation on the very
01:28 first Dynamite, it's easy to think they were an AEW from day one.
01:32 Not so.
01:33 They were one of the first big jumps and an instrumental part in establishing AEW as having
01:38 the most exciting tag division in wrestling today.
01:40 Viva Los Puerto Ricanos, he said incredibly whitely.
01:45 Sorry about that.
01:46 Number 9.
01:47 FTR And speaking of the very best tag teams on
01:49 this planet, the men formerly known as The Revival, now known as FTR, finally arrived
01:54 in their version of the promised land on the 27th of May 2020.
01:59 After a match between Matt Hardy and the Young Bucks vs. Private Party and Joey Janela, Butcher
02:02 and Blade, cosplaying as Val Venis during his Right to Censor days, attacked, putting
02:06 the boots to the Young Bucks shortly thereafter, driving down to the ring in a black Chevy
02:11 truck like proper modern white hats, FTR, which stands for Fear the Revolt or Fear the
02:16 Revelation or F*** the Revival, depending on who you ask, made the save, completing
02:20 their long-running Brain Busters cosplay by hitting a Spike Pyle driver before standing
02:25 chest to chest with the Bucks, their long-established internet rival, setting dream match anticipations
02:31 to overdrive.
02:32 While their eventual feud with the Bucks would not be AEW's finest booking hour, this was
02:36 a shrewdly plotted moment, delivering a team whose gimmick had always been "we love tag
02:41 team wrestling" to a company that actually felt the same way and looked down the camera
02:45 lens saying "yeah, we're gonna do Bucks vs. FTR, get excited".
02:49 The only downside is that this moment didn't happen in front of an actual proper crowd,
02:53 because could you bloody imagine?
02:55 8.
02:56 KENTA A debut that's notable more for what it represented
02:58 for the future rather than the actual moment itself, although the moment itself was pretty
03:02 damn great.
03:04 Making a debut that sets the internet wrestling community on fire in the middle of a pandemic
03:07 is a pretty big ask, but dammit, KENTA in all capital letters found a way.
03:12 Fans had been craving a working relationship between AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling since
03:16 the launch of Mr. Karner's Tussle Cabana.
03:19 After two years of waiting patiently, or as patiently as wrestling fans can get which
03:23 is not patient at all, KENTA kicked in the oft-described "forbidden door" invaded
03:28 AEW beach break in February this year, with hair only slightly more purple than mine when
03:33 I first joined WrestleTalk Purple Shampoo for the win, big Ken.
03:36 He hit Jon Moxley with the go to sleep, to much marking out Moxley was the IWGP US Champion
03:41 at the time, a title that had not received much or if any hype on AEW programming, and
03:45 suddenly it was all the commentators could talk about, establishing the New Japan-AEW
03:50 working relationship and sparking fans to wonder who else was gonna cross the Pacific
03:54 to mix it up in an AEW ring.
03:56 Since then, Minoru Suzuki made a pretty wonderful AEW debut at this year's All Out, and Hiroshi
04:00 Tanahashi went, please?
04:02 Please Hiroshi Tanahashi went.
04:04 7.
04:05 Sting And speaking of forbidden doors, if we had
04:07 to rank the most important individual episodes of Dynamite, and hey, that's not a bad
04:12 idea, nestled pretty securely in the top 3 would have to be 2020's Winter Is Coming.
04:18 The show that saw Kenny Omega finally become crowned AEW Champion, finally turned heel,
04:23 and AEW establishing another working relationship, this time with impact, following Don Callis'
04:28 shocking defection.
04:29 Coming perilously close to getting lost in the shuffle, but not quite, was the AEW debut
04:34 of the Man Called Sting.
04:36 Team Taz were in the ring putting the boots to the Jacksonville Blondes Cody Rhodes and
04:40 Darby Allin, when suddenly the lights went out, snow began to fall and holy shit, out
04:44 came the icon, as Tony Schiavone nearly screamed himself into a fine mist.
04:49 The Stinger strode out, looking like he was in bad need of an anti-dandruff shampoo, appearing
04:54 on TNT for the first time in 18 years, baseball bat in hand, standing face to face with his
05:00 sullen teenage boy, establishing the duo that still stands proud today.
05:04 After his WWE career ended in the worst possible way, fans were overjoyed that Sting's final
05:09 run was taking place where it belonged, in direct competition with the company he's
05:13 always been in direct competition with.
05:16 Hooray.
05:17 6.
05:18 Brodie Lee and Matt Hardy
05:19 It's only right to group these two debuts together as they both happened on the same
05:22 episode of Dynamite, and while it might not be the best double debut in AEW's history,
05:26 don't you worry we'll get to that you impatient little sods, it was the company's first
05:30 double debut, and boy howdy did it make headline news.
05:34 The show itself took place March 18th, 2020, and it was already a pretty noteworthy show,
05:39 the first no-fan show of what would come to be a 17-month stretch of pandemic wrestling
05:45 shows, but more than WWE's spooky empty chair Smackdown, AEW found a way to still make it
05:50 appointment telly.
05:51 After months of teasing the debut of The Exalted One, the man who'd become leader of the Dark
05:55 Order and who everyone thought would be spooky Matt "Spooky" Hardy, Brodie Lee was the
05:59 swerve choice, debuting before the main event of the show with a spooky video package and
06:04 a teleportation trick he borrowed from a good friend.
06:06 He then almost decapitated Christopher Daniels with a big boot, followed by his famous Discus
06:10 Lariat.
06:11 That's big news then.
06:12 But Special K's pummeling place wasn't done.
06:15 After the main event of the night, Inner Circle vs Elite, a drone would descend to the ring,
06:19 Vanguard One heralding the arrival of Broken Matt Hardy to end on a whopper of a cliffhanger
06:25 if only it had been one week earlier.
06:27 But hey, in this and many other ways, life is unfair, but even so, what a statement moment
06:32 in the history of Dynamite.
06:33 5.
06:34 Malachi Black Whoopsie.
06:36 This is why you stay on top of your paperwork, I guess.
06:38 The top 5 entries on this list all took place in front of live crowds because I mean, come
06:43 on, of course they did.
06:44 A debut without fans in attendance is a bit like a burger without sauce.
06:48 It's fine, but come on.
06:49 One of the most surprising entries on the list came courtesy not just of Mr. T's Slambery
06:53 picking up a hot free agent, but also because of WWE beefing Aleister Black's contract
06:58 when promoting him to the main roster.
07:00 See following a standard WWE release, fans are conditioned to wait the standard 90 days
07:05 for wrestlers' standard no-compete clauses to expire.
07:08 After just 30 days at AEW Road Rager in July, Malachi Black debuted, blowing wrestling fans'
07:15 tiny minds and also Cody and Arn's minds with his big f***ing shoe.
07:19 You're lucky Arn wasn't packing his Glock though, Malachi.
07:21 You're lucky.
07:22 See WWE had forgotten to update Aleister Black's 30-day no-compete clause, the standard for
07:27 NXT wrestlers, to the 90-day clause standard for those on the main roster, allowing for
07:32 one of the rarest things in modern day professional wrestling.
07:35 An actual surprise.
07:37 It is a very addictive pop to go back and re-watch.
07:40 4.
07:41 Dustin Rhodes
07:42 I thought about just putting Double or Nothing as a concept on this list like a cheeky maverick,
07:46 but the world isn't ready for such trend-setting list making, but your kids are gonna love
07:50 it.
07:51 Sure, the very first Double or Nothing on May 25th, 2019 was pretty much everyone in AEW's
07:56 technical debut, because it was a debut of the entire company, if you want to get pedantic
08:02 about it, and of course you do, you horrible little gremlins, but I don't care.
08:06 This was the night that Dustin Rhodes debuted for AEW to face off against his brother, and
08:10 it was bloody wonderful and wonderfully bloody.
08:13 The match itself received big Dave "Sweaty" Meltzer's full fat 5 stars, which is not
08:17 bad for your company's first show, and it was the best thing on the card.
08:21 A proper bit of southern gothic heartstrings and headlocks wrestling that showed that AEW
08:27 wouldn't just be about quick lads doing superkicks, but also have plenty of emotional
08:30 heft to it.
08:31 And it cannot be underestimated just how perfectly Dustin Rhodes worked this match.
08:35 It's a long-running gag that Dustin's wrestling career has been aging like Benjamin
08:39 Button, and this is probably going to be the veteran's masterpiece, embracing his brother
08:43 to a huge ovation after a 20 minute war that's still a presence in the conversation of AEW's
08:49 best ever matches, and it still wasn't quite Double or Nothing's biggest surprise.
08:53 That would be...
08:54 3.
08:55 Jon Moxley There are better AEW debuts, but you could
08:58 argue that this was one of the most important.
09:00 The big finish, their first ever pay-per-view, the moment tasked with being the big hook
09:04 to bring fans back for future shows, was Kenny Omega being blindsided by the man formerly
09:09 known as Dean Ambrose, who had publicly and not at all amicably parted ways with the biggest
09:13 company in the world.
09:14 Jon Moxley showed up with a light in his eyes that fans hadn't seen in a long time, a
09:18 shocking defection that cemented the statement that AEW was set on being the alternative
09:23 to WWE.
09:24 While that tribalism is a little played out today, and honestly a little bit toxic, for
09:29 the first major show of this new major company it was exactly the kind of shot across the
09:34 bow buzz generating f*** you that fans desperate for a bit more indie in their major league
09:39 wrestling could truly sink their teeth into.
09:42 Moxley strutted to the ring, through the crowd, like he used to do in the glory days of the
09:46 Shield, the pop was insane and just grew and grew before decking Jericho and savaging Omega,
09:52 ending with a paradigm shift on the stack of poker chips.
09:55 A proper iconic moment.
09:58 Number 2, The Bay Bay Goats.
10:00 This is the noise that Oli Davis made when Bryan Danielson debuted.
10:07 And please can someone make a remix of that?
10:09 I've decided that I need that in my life.
10:11 Like Brodie Lee and Matt Hardy did the double a million years ago at All Out 2021, a strong,
10:16 strong contender for AEW's best show to date.
10:18 The show's main event, a stonker of a surprise considering that A) most people were expecting
10:22 Bryan Danielson and B) the lad was on NXT television less than a month earlier.
10:26 In a lovely surprise, instead of turning on his elite friends, which would be absolutely
10:30 fair by the way in case anyone forgot what happened to Adam Cole baby to end his Bullet
10:34 Club tenure, he made amends with the group with strong BTE energy.
10:38 Huh, responded the audience at home, I mean that kind of makes sense with the character,
10:41 but it's not all that dramatic a cliffhanger.
10:43 And that's when Ride of the Valkyries hit.
10:46 Over to Oli again.
10:49 A sensational one-two punch of top star acquisitions, genuinely the kind of hands on the side of
10:56 your head moment that makes you feel "oh now something is happening, now it is on".
11:01 Before All Out it felt like it could be an actual debate as to which single company has
11:04 the best roster of workers in the world.
11:07 After these debuts, that argument feels just a little less balanced.
11:10 #1 CM Punk Cause it made Oli cry.
11:14 Made a lot of people cry.
11:15 It made a lot of people very, very happy indeed.
11:18 And hey look, is the CM Punk babyface train gonna run out of steam at some point?
11:23 Yes, almost definitely, and maybe some point soon.
11:25 But you simply can't deny that in a year that saw wrestling fans return, Sasha vs Bianca
11:30 at Mania, Edge and Christian hugging, Punk's debut on Rampage The First Dance was the biggest
11:36 swell of emotion that wrestling fans have felt all year.
11:39 A moment 7 years in the making and beautiful in its simplicity.
11:44 CM Punk likes wrestling again, can you believe it?
11:47 It was a moment of understanding between promotion and fan, of AEW at least on this night, in
11:52 this single instance, understanding exactly what fans wanted, needed, what CM Punk wanted,
11:57 needed, and they delivered it.
11:59 Sometimes the perfect wrestling moment just requires you to get out of that moment's
12:03 way and not complicate it.
12:05 A lesson that WWE and hell, even AEW, don't always understand.
12:08 But at the First Dance they did.
12:10 They really, really did.
12:13 And that's our list.
12:14 What's your favourite AEW debut?
12:15 Let us know in the comments, don't forget to like and share this video around if you
12:19 enjoyed it, make sure you subscribe to PartsFunKnown for more silly wrestling content.
12:23 Jam that jam.
12:23 Night.
12:24 [outro music]