Simon Miller on 10 wrestling debuts that didn't go the way everyone hoped!
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00It's really important to always make a good impression.
00:02For example, if I look you in the eyes now and say I don't like cheese and you've
00:06never watched a WhatCulture video before, you're going to shake your head and think
00:09that bordejo, I'm done.
00:10Thankfully I love cheese and I dream about it every single day, but this is much more
00:14pertinent for this video anyway.
00:16When we are talking about professional wrestling, so given things that have happened recently
00:20that sparked debate, please do hit that subscribe button.
00:25This is why 10 debuts really didn't go to plan, or worse to that effect, here's
00:31why.
00:32We will start at number 10 and the most recent one, because yes, in AEW, Satnam Singh did
00:43his big debut and the lights went off and when they came back on again, lots of people
00:48stared at him like I'm not 100% sure who that is.
00:52But look, even Tony Khan came out and said, oh yeah, I made a mistake and I'll learn
00:59from this, I'll educate myself and I'll do better next time.
01:02And that is a nice analogy, a nice metaphor for life.
01:04You can't hit a home run every time, but it's damn sure important that you're always
01:08trying new things, otherwise you can't open the door to happiness.
01:12Still the internet did go crazy into Meltdown and go, oh my gosh, All Elite Wrestling must
01:15be dead, which is a little bit much, because yes, as Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutch were beating
01:19up Samoa Joe, lights went out, light came on, we've already talked about it.
01:23And I do understand it too, because usually when you do this gimmick, it means a massive
01:27star where people are going, oh my gosh, is about to appear.
01:30And while the commentators did do a decent job going, oh, that's Satnam Singh, we know
01:34about him, he's been training here, there and everywhere.
01:36We had thousands of people in the building who couldn't hear the announcers, so they
01:40had absolutely no clue.
01:41It has been far better since though, and I actually thought the angle, the rampage following
01:45this made me go, hi, I'm kind of interested in this giant.
01:48So long as the curve goes that way to the point where we get to the end of it, everyone
01:52is doing backflips, apart from Satnam Singh, because he's way too tall, then we should
01:56just smile and see what's around the corner.
01:59So the main problem really was that there was no noise, and you're always in a big noise
02:02when you get a debut, which moves us on to number nine, Tito Ortiz debuted in TNA, my
02:08gosh.
02:09Happening in 2013, Tito did indeed reveal himself as the mystery man that was going
02:13after the main event mafia and the aces and eights, and, well, it stands to reason that
02:19nobody in the building knew who Ortiz was, because they were super duper silent.
02:24The worst part is, he just stood there with his arms crossed, going like this for what
02:28felt like 47 years, and the commentators didn't say anything at that point.
02:32One of the commentators had gone, oh my gosh, it's MMA's Tito Ortiz, but they said no.
02:36I mean, it was so cringeworthy, I was wanting to get home, and I wanted the ground to swallow
02:40me up.
02:41And honestly, this just felt like one big advert for Tito Ortiz vs. Quinton Jackson,
02:46which was going to happen on a Bellator show, because who else was stood in the ring?
02:50That's right.
02:51It was Quinton flipping Jackson.
02:52So really this was an angle that made you want to die inside, and that is not why I
02:56watch wrestling.
02:57Sheesh.
02:58At least when we get to number eight, it's very funny and a classic, because of course
03:01it's the Shockmaster.
03:02I don't really know what else can be said about this in 2022, because it's become so
03:06popular, it's basically an internet meme.
03:09But when the former tugboat did jump across the WCW, somebody said, put on this sparkly
03:15Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet, which we'll get to in one minute, and why don't you go
03:19smashing through that wall?
03:20And when he did go smashing through the wall, he caught his foot on a step, he fell down,
03:25and that was that.
03:26The character was over.
03:27What no one mentions though, is those words that just came out of my mouth.
03:30Why did Phil Ottman not go to anybody and say, are we not going to get sued by Lucasfilm?
03:37At some point they probably would have done.
03:39This was an absolute weird ripoff.
03:40When you do look at it in hindsight though, this was the best thing that could have happened,
03:44because that persona was never going to go anywhere, but because it's now drowning in
03:48humour, we are going to talk about it until the end of time.
03:52I was at a wrestling convention the other day, and who was one of the guests?
03:55It was Phil Ottman.
03:56And what did he do?
03:57He pretended to trip up, like the Shockmaster, and made a Philippian career out of it.
04:02Which was almost the same for number seven, but it wasn't.
04:05Brodus Clay.
04:06This was one of those WWE debuts where the intros just went on and on and on, and told
04:11us that when Brodus Clay did arrive on the main roster, he was going to be a big bad
04:15angry bood who was going to beat the crap out of you.
04:18And then when he finally did pop up, he thought he was a dancing dinosaur.
04:23I'm not kidding.
04:24Because he had spangly legs, he was accompanied by the Funkadactyls, and so many wrestling
04:28fans around the world started staring around going, what the hell is happening?
04:32I suppose he did commit to it as best as he could, but surprise surprise, within a
04:36matter of weeks, WWE had started treating this act like a whole joke.
04:40So what did the audience do?
04:42They treated it like a joke as well.
04:43The best part of all of this is that one of the Funkadactyls was Naomi, and ever since
04:47she has smashed it, and as of me talking, is now a WWE Women's Tag Team Champion.
04:53And as for Brodus Clay, well, you can go read about it.
04:56So basically what happened here is that it stunned people for the wrong reasons.
04:59Which brings us to number six, DDP.
05:01Because if you had ever seen Diamond Dallas Page in WCW, you knew he was awesome.
05:06He had this everyman quality to him where you just wanted to cheer him on, especially
05:10when he started winning world titles in his 40s.
05:13So when he arrived in WWE, they went, actually, we see you as a guy that's going to stalk
05:18The Undertaker and his wife.
05:21And if Diamond Dallas Page wasn't doing this face, then something would have been horribly
05:24wrong.
05:25The result of all this too was Page being absolutely destroyed by the Deadman family.
05:30I mean, when he had his match against The Undertaker, he got whooped, and eventually
05:33he faced off against Sarah, and he lost.
05:36The bit that really stung is that Dallas took a chance on himself, and he actually went
05:40over to the WWE in 2001.
05:42He didn't wait for his contract to expire, because he wanted to grab the ball by the
05:46horns.
05:47And if we had just treated him in the same way, he probably could have been WWE Champion.
05:52I will never get it.
05:54Quite ironically, his actual debut was great, because when he ripped off his balaclava to
05:58reveal himself, I was like, oh my gosh, it's DDP.
06:00Then he went, yeah, man, I'm going to go stalk him, and the whole thing was over.
06:04And if you want more proof that sometimes WWE miscast people, in at number five, Lord
06:09Tensai.
06:10I mean, what were we thinking?
06:11Because for one, he was from America, and yet had Japanese symbols all over his face.
06:16But also two, straight away, the fans went, well, no, that's not Lord Tensai.
06:20That's Albert.
06:21That's the A-Train.
06:22That's the hip hop hippo.
06:24So everybody started chanting at him, shave your back, which was a reference to his old
06:28gimmick.
06:29And that wasn't fair, because when he was Lord Tensai, he was basically hairless.
06:33But what are you going to do?
06:34And do not forget either, that WWE had such big plans for Matt Bloom, and don't get me
06:39wrong, he did deserve it, but this was never going to work.
06:41He was meant to have an elongated feud with John Cena.
06:45And did it ever really come to pass?
06:47No, it did not.
06:48And talking about things that totally bombed, it would be remiss of me not to mention at
06:53And we don't need to go on about it too much, because you already know the story.
06:57I had Survivor Series 1990 after weeks of bills and being told, oh my gosh, you're not
07:01going to believe what is going to hatch out of this giant egg.
07:04Hector Guerrero came out, and he was dressed like a massive turkey.
07:07But the best bit, and why I wanted to include it in this list, is that WWE did this because
07:12they wanted a mascot.
07:14They looked at Nintendo and saw Mario, and they looked at Sonic and went, oh my gosh,
07:17Sega, they've got it down.
07:18But why?
07:19Because in a million years, after what I can only assume was weeks and maybe even months
07:23of marketing ideas, did they go, we've got it, we've got it, and we're going to go with
07:27this monstrosity.
07:28If I tuned into Wrestling in 2022 and I saw that, I would turn it off straight away.
07:34With that all said, at least it wasn't done for licensing reasons, because in at three
07:39is the Kiss Demon.
07:40In case you're not aware, yes, your first thought is correct, because when WCW sat down
07:45with the band Kiss to try and come up with a deal for them to play a WCW show, Kiss went,
07:50well, wouldn't it be great if there was a wrestler based on our music?
07:54And WCW said, oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
07:57Now, you may also be thinking, well, at least WCW made some money from this.
08:01No, they actually paid Kiss to make this happen.
08:04It was even written into the deal that this guy had to main event a WCW show, but thankfully
08:09we found a workaround here.
08:11He main evented the top of an hour on a program and they called that the main event, but believe
08:17you me, it was not.
08:18So if you ever wondered to yourself, I wonder why WCW is not around anymore, it's because
08:23of things like this.
08:24The good news, however, though, is just because you have a bad debut doesn't mean it has to
08:27plague your whole career, because in at number two, it's AEW's The Butcher, The Blade and
08:32The Buddy.
08:33And I think we can all look back on this now and agree it didn't go to plan, because when
08:35this trio did attack Cody Rhodes from nowhere, once again, everybody scratched their heads
08:40because they didn't even know what was going on.
08:42And on this occasion, even Jim Ross was like, I don't know, you ask someone else.
08:47And when that happens, well, we've already talked about it.
08:49Look at it today though, everybody loves these guys because they're absolutely awesome.
08:54They have put in the work and now they have that mutual respect.
08:57And I think all three have such a bright future going forward, which goes to show, even if
09:01you do drop the ball a little bit, as long as the company, the wrestlers and the promotions
09:05all learn from it and do a better job going forward, then all will be fine.
09:10Although that was not the case for number one, Sin Cara.
09:14In many ways, Sin Cara never got over his initial debut because the hype was crazy.
09:18Triple H's first signing ever since he stepped into that role, he had looked down in Mexico,
09:22seen Mr. Co and how massive he was and thought, well, why don't we just replicate that in
09:26America?
09:27And while we tried, it never really hit.
09:29It had gone fine when he made his first appearance and confronted Jack Swagger, but a few days
09:33later, when he debuted on Raw and he was doing his big entrance, he went to jump on
09:37that trampoline like you like to do.
09:39It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but he kind of clipped the top rope.
09:44And from there, these kinds of mistakes happen so much, there are YouTube accounts dedicated
09:49to it.
09:50Now we should all be respectful and remind ourselves this is a human being and human
09:52beings are allowed to make errors and sometimes they're allowed to drop the ball, but this
09:57just hampered Sin Cara's WWE career so much, eventually he got released.
10:02And as we are talking about this, I always have to tell my Sin Cara story.
10:06Somehow I had always missed his entrance, even though I watched every single week.
10:10I went to a live event over here in London where I couldn't see the trampoline.
10:14When he soared over the top rope, I turned to my friend and was like, that is the most
10:18agile thing I've ever seen.
10:20Then he told me and I realized I was stupid.
10:23Now if you have any other horrible debuts that we all talk about still in wrestling,
10:26make sure you let us know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video,
10:28share the video and subscribe.
10:30Then head over to whatculture.com where you can read articles like this, come say hello
10:33on social media at WhatCulture WWE or I'm at SianMetal316 and we have a ton of videos,
10:39go watch one.
10:40My name is Sian for WhatCulture, thank you for joining me as always, and actually I had
10:43a wrestling debut once, which very annoyingly you can watch on YouTube, and I gave the worst
10:48clotheslines of all time, so do I understand how all of these people feel on a very, very,
10:53very small scale?
10:54Yes.
10:55Yes.