10 Wrestlers That Became Stars In One Second
The rise of Batista, the fall of Hulkamania, and a Very Nice Very Evil surprise.
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00:00 Wanna know what you can do in a single second?
00:03 Become a star.
00:04 Now when I say this I don't mean it all happened in literally 1000 milliseconds, but within
00:08 this time frame some magic did reach out and tell you that you better start paying attention
00:13 to someone on the screen because good things are happening.
00:16 And yes as ever you will tell me "how dare you shine when that person is not a star"
00:19 but come on now, let's go get a real problem.
00:22 But I am Simon from WhatCulture, please do hit that subscribe button, and this is 10
00:27 wonders that became a star in one second.
00:30 10.
00:31 Steve Austin
00:32 And no, it's not the moment you're thinking of.
00:33 We are going back a good year before that when Steve Austin had left WCW and headed
00:37 to ECW.
00:38 It was September 1995 and the future Stone Cold was kinda left with nothing to do until
00:44 Paul Heyman called him.
00:45 Knowing Austin was injured he was happy for the man to come in and just go off about how
00:48 annoyed he was at World Championship Wrestling and say whatever he wanted.
00:52 Unsurprisingly Steve signed up for this in a heartbeat and he did go after everyone.
00:56 Dusty Rhodes, Eric Bischoff and even Hulk Hogan.
00:59 It was the Hulkster that got the biggest reaction and when Austin was there dressed up in the
01:03 red and yellow doing the most ridiculous parody of the man you can imagine, fans went nuts.
01:08 If nothing else it showed a whole new side to him and from that point on he had a legion
01:12 of supporters that knew with the right push he would go on to great things.
01:15 And what do you know, they were right.
01:17 9.
01:18 Kofi Kingston
01:19 It's such a shame this went the way it did because it rocked.
01:22 Back in 2009 on Raw Kofi Kingston was finally getting his due and was thrust into a feud
01:27 with Randy Orton.
01:28 They were also having a fight in Madison Square Garden which added the needed fairy dust proceedings.
01:32 And when Kofi flew off a barricade smashing Orton through a table the reaction was wonderful,
01:37 we were definitely on to something or we should have been.
01:40 Because as we have been made very aware today after screwing up one spot in a later match,
01:44 Orton got mad in the ring and called him stupid over and over again.
01:48 This led to the powers that be deciding Kingston wasn't ready for this and the program was
01:52 stopped very abruptly and it would be another decade before we got back to it.
01:56 Within four weeks the whole thing had been undone and if you need a reason as to why
01:59 this was such a disappointment, just go and watch it now.
02:03 WWE needed new stars and the fans were ready for one and yet one mistake, throw it off
02:07 course.
02:08 This was silly, especially when one move was enough to make Kingston the man.
02:13 8.
02:14 Batista
02:15 We were in November 2004 for this one where WWE was scrambling.
02:19 We had pushed Randy Orton way too early into the world title picture and when that got
02:22 rejected, some new stories had to be thrown front and centre.
02:26 The answer was to move away from this and as we were doing so, Triple H found himself
02:30 teaming with Edge and Gene Snitsky after Randy had gained general manager powers in order
02:34 to make Hunter's life hell.
02:36 It got worse when the Game found out that his supposed teammates were actually just
02:39 trying to get closer to his world title and when he told Batista to deal with these fools
02:43 he stormed out of the room.
02:44 And do you want to know what Batista did after this happened?
02:47 He sat down, grabbed the big gold belt and lovingly stared at it.
02:52 Instantly this sent sparks through fans' minds about the possibilities and we all decided,
02:55 yeah, that'd be pretty cool.
02:58 And what happened at WrestleMania 21, exactly?
03:01 7.
03:02 Wardlow
03:03 You have to return to 2020 with this one even though that doesn't sound right, but this
03:07 is how long AEW has been teasing a break-up.
03:10 It happened as MJF tried and failed to get the world title from Jon Moxley after he used
03:14 two paradigm shifts, a move that had been banned before the bell had rung.
03:18 The key was that during this Wardlow had also screwed up when he tried to get the Dynamite
03:22 Diamond Ring to his boss and days later Maxwell made his feelings known.
03:26 He was mad.
03:27 Freeman basically screamed in his Hyde Helps face and just as it seemed like Wardlow was
03:31 going to eat him alive, he backed down.
03:34 He didn't want to lose his job.
03:35 This kickstarted the sympathy that was needed to keep Wardlow a bad guy but also make him
03:39 a good guy and ever since we've just wanted to see him smack MJF in the face.
03:45 It took till 2022 till we got that and the first seed was planted here.
03:49 That is some long term storytelling.
03:51 6.
03:52 Wheeler Utah
03:53 This has been anything but rushed but it may be one tiny moment that put it over the top.
03:57 When Wheeler Utah debuted with the Best Friends in June 2021, I don't think anybody had him
04:01 pegged for this, but zoom forward to April 2022 and away we went.
04:05 As Wheels was trying to prove he was worthy of the Black Ball Combat Club, he engaged
04:09 in a war with Jon Moxley where he bled.
04:11 A lot.
04:12 This didn't seem to make a difference to him though because towards the end he took his
04:16 sneaker which was covered in the red stuff and kicked Mox right in the skull.
04:20 You could even say he was booting his flubbin head in.
04:22 As soon as he did this and stared down the camera lens like a loon a lot of people decided
04:26 they liked this man and ever since it's been an upward rise.
04:29 Utah has proven he is an excellent recruit and I suppose now is Best Friends with William
04:34 Regal.
04:35 There are certainly worse people to be buddies with.
04:37 5.
04:38 Eddie Kingston
04:39 Eddie Kingston knew that Eddie Kingston was awesome.
04:41 All he had to do was put a mic in his hand and off he went, but he'd never had a chance
04:45 to do that on a huge stage.
04:47 So when he did get that opportunity on the July 22nd 2020 episode of AEW Dynamite, the
04:52 world imploded.
04:53 Stepping up to challenge Cody Rhodes as he continued to open the TNT title door, Eddie
04:57 was able to win everyone over by spouting lines like "You grew up around legends like
05:01 Arn Anderson.
05:02 Wanna know what I grew up around?
05:04 Alcoholics junkies.
05:05 I had to survive."
05:06 I mean this was pure fire.
05:08 He also mentioned how Tony Khan had paid him to show up and was also going to pay him to
05:11 kick Cody's ass, which is just an awesome sentence.
05:14 And ever since all of this has just got better and better.
05:17 Kingston couldn't be more beloved.
05:19 What a damn hero.
05:20 4.
05:21 Rhea Ripley
05:22 Rhea Ripley had an awesome arrival in NXT back in 2019.
05:26 You know it worked because she was mostly a relatively unknown NXT UK champion at the
05:30 time and then in weeks was a major player.
05:33 Almost like she's pretty good at this stuff.
05:34 This ties into the many issues that plague WWE right now, but as NXT champ Shayna Baszler
05:39 stood in the ring acting like she was unbeatable, out came Ripley, snatched the mic away and
05:44 reminded the Queen of Spades that no matter who else she has beaten, Rhea was not on that
05:48 list.
05:49 Shayna sold this great which was half the battle and even legged it in order to save
05:52 face.
05:53 It absolutely was wrestling done right.
05:54 This was in August and by December we were doing the title match and wouldn't you know
05:58 it, this was the only NXT that outdrew Dynamite when they went head to head.
06:03 I think I know why.
06:05 3.
06:06 Shinsuke Nakamura
06:07 I was there for this and forget one second.
06:09 Shinsuke Nakamura was a made man as soon as the first beat of his entrance music hit,
06:13 everybody thought they were about to see The Greatest Human Ever Created.
06:17 The truth is he was already a star long before his WWE run, but go and watch TakeOver Dallas
06:22 for the moment this was cemented in the West.
06:24 The rabid Texas crowd were just about ready to crown Shinsuke as a future Hall of Famer
06:28 and the match he had with Sami Zayn lived up to that and then some.
06:31 This was also Zayn's NXT send off and the start of Nakamura's run through the company
06:35 and my word, what a terrific, well put together thing this was.
06:38 We often talk about best ever debuts and this isn't mentioned enough, it is fantastic.
06:44 2.
06:45 James Ellsworth
06:46 Want to get scared about time?
06:48 James Ellsworth nonsense with Braun Strowman happened back in 2016.
06:53 My word.
06:54 The real madness with this was that Ellsworth turned a squash match into a multiple year
06:58 run with WWE.
07:00 When does that happen?
07:01 It's a good line that any man with two hands has a fighting chance was enough to peak people's
07:04 interest and by the time we all got obsessed with his no chin, forget about it, he was
07:08 added to the roster.
07:09 This really was somebody taking their opportunity and ensuring they made the most out of it.
07:13 And who else gets a job based on nine words?
07:15 I'm sure that takes longer than one second to say, but no one knew who this was before
07:19 he began.
07:20 Afterwards, he was everybody's favourite new toy.
07:23 1.
07:24 Dan Housen
07:25 Club me, I love Dan Housen.
07:27 He is just so weird in the way that only a wrestling promotion would allow, and it also
07:30 makes me happy we have two major Western companies.
07:33 I don't think we get such debuts in a purely WWE world.
07:37 In January 2022 on Dynamite, however, as Adam Cole was facing off against Orens Cassidy,
07:42 the Undisputed One decided to grab a chair from under the ring.
07:45 Why not?
07:46 When he pulled it out, though, who was holding onto the other end of it for absolutely no
07:50 reason?
07:51 Dan Housen.
07:52 The fans popped instantly as Dan Housen tried to curse Adam before he just walked off and
07:56 that killed me again because it was just so silly.
07:59 This also meant it took all of a flash to not only turn him into a star, but get everybody
08:03 else interested.
08:04 Because they were like, who is this guy and what on earth did he just do?
08:08 It has certainly been a rollercoaster ever since, as it always should have been.
08:12 Long live Dan Housen.
08:13 Know of any other wrestlers that became a star in just one second?
08:16 Make sure you let us know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video,
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08:29 My name is Simon Whatculture, thank you for joining me as always, I am so happy to have
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08:34 I'm doing a hula hoop in the nude.
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08:38 [laughs]