Debut Flops | WrestleZone Forums

Debut Flops

justtxyank

Championship Contender
I was thinking yesterday about WCW 1998 for some odd reason, and a debut came across mind that was so stupid that I was wondering if anyone else had some examples of guys who were given a big debut in a company that made no sense. Not something like Shockmaster debuting and falling down, more that a guy was debuted with an important angle or fanfare and the fans just didn't buy it or it didn't matter at all.

Here's the example:
Early WCW 1998, Bret Hart is feuding with the nWo who have attacked his friends Davey Boy and Neidhart. He's been cutting promos about justice and fairness and all that nonsense, but the nWo is pissed at him for costing Hogan the title. One night he's in the ring and enter a new hero, a HUGE name from the WWF that says he's there to help Bret fight for what's right. He says "I've got your back." He then turns on Bret and beats him up and joins the nWo.

Who was this huge name? Brian Adams. Yeah, yawn. Nobody cared. I'm not sure anyone even knew who he was in the audience, despite his run as Crush. The whole thing was a big fail. Adams isn't good on the mic, there was no obvious connection, he was wearing an odd looking jacket...but WCW was trying to make Brian Adams into a big deal. It sucked. He sucked and did nothing of note for WCW until Kronik, despite continually being billed as a badass.
 
Recent history points to Tensai (Prince Albert). He debuted with alot of fan fare and received a heavy push and even beat Cena on a Raw. But fans never took him seriously and within a few months he was nowhere near the main event.
 
In 2004, Kevin Fertig was promoted heavily via vignette on Smackdown every week, as the 'pale rider' Mortdecai. He looked a lock-in for a big name feud with the Undertaker. But he stunk out the place at his debut (Judgment Day?) versus I think Scotty 2 Hotty and within a couple of months was sent back to developmental, later to become the 'vampire' Kevin Thorne
 
Well probably the 3 most recent that come to mind are:

New Day: 3 guys that were all doing decent enough on their own, get taken off TV and built up for what felt like an eternity to tease this new faction, which of course debuted to no fanfare, and is currently eliciting chants of "New Day Sucks", which begs the question why this was done in the first place?

Kizarny: The vignettes would've had you believing this was gonna be a big debut, instead he was employed for like 4 matches.

The Ascension: They have a ton of potential and had good momentum coming out of NXT, but completely changing everything that worked about them and giving them stupid vignettes that looked like they came from 1994, combined with having them run down classic teams pretty much doomed them from the start.
 
Giant Gonzalez.

Guy debuts at the Royal Rumble in the worst looking bodysuit I've ever seen in my entire life, and eliminates The Undertaker. For what reason? Who the hell knows... and he ended up losing to Taker at Mania and than again at Summerslam so what was the point? Just seemed like WWE wanted to sign him because of his height... lord knows he couldn't do anything else. To top it all off, the fans couldn't give less of a shit.
 
You're forgetting most of the biggest stars ever bombed on their WWF debuts... The Ringmaster and Rocky Maivia... both went over like a fart in a wetsuit when they first appeared. Getting chant's telling you to die is not a good thing, even if you take into account what they became there is no disputing how bad their debut periods were.

Isaac Yankem DDS? Glen Jacobs got 2 shitty gimmicks and 2 debuts that shit the bed, Fake Diesel too... that Kane's was so good often masks that his previous 2 were horrific... Al Snow as Avatar, Deacon Batista...

The winner of course has to be the Shockmaster... that Davey was on live and f-bombed and DIDN'T get heat sums it up... poor Uncle Fred... even if he hadn't tripped it was still gonna be horrific, and Lucas was gonna sue over the use of a Stormtrooper helmet, you just knew it.
 
I am thinking more along the lines of a debut built up but went absolutly nowhere and stayed out after getting cut..

First one I think of is Mason Ryan..wasn't is debut as part of cm punk's nexus? Big time flop..
 
Glacier in WCW....they built this guy through promos and vignettes for MONTHS and his debut was flat as a pancake

Rock & Austin are two of weakest debuts ever, especially Rock, he was horrible

Isacc Yankem actually looks good compared to those guys as bad as he was....Yankem the evil dentist had way more appeal than the original Rocky Maivia (that's not saying much though)

Widowmaker Barrry Whyndam ? - Technically that wasn't a debut although it was new gimmick since Whyndam was successful there and won titles in the early 80s
 
I am surprised no one has mentioned Dustin Rhodes as "Seven". He had a few vignettes that looked like he could be someone getting a push, and then he arrives on nitro and removes his costume and gives a shoot interview.

Very strange indeed.
 
Recent history points to Tensai (Prince Albert). He debuted with alot of fan fare and received a heavy push and even beat Cena on a Raw. But fans never took him seriously and within a few months he was nowhere near the main event.

That's what happens when you "debut" a guy whose already been in the company and was there for 5 years.

I still don't know why they gave him a Japanese Gimmick when he's not Japanese. It would have been fine otherwise.

They should probably have just debuted him as A-Train and do some video packages anticipating his return.
 
Glacier in WCW....they built this guy through promos and vignettes for MONTHS and his debut was flat as a pancake

Absolutely. I went back and watched some late 96 Nitros when he finally debuted and despite being heavily pushed in video spots, he was completely flat. I believe this was WCW's attempt to cash in on the Mortal Combat craze by having him feud with Wrath and Mortis. I believe they even had him learn martial arts and then there was that ridiculous angle with Mortis stealing some samurai helmet that was given to Glacier by his master.

Along those same lines, basically any time the announcers have to go out of there way to the fans that who someone is, it's going to be a flop.

"That's Earnest Miller the world Karate champion!"
 
In recent history I would say Sin Cara.

The dude was huge as Mistico and had a lot of buzz when he had signed with WWE. It was said that he was expected to be the next Rey Mysterio. Later on, the original Sin Cara (Mistico) was released due to backstage issues and him basically being a bust.
The dude could have gone far but I think that with the arrival of Kalisto, Sin Cara will never be what he was expected to be.


Andy Leavine is my second choice. He is the last guy who won Tough Enough. I think he was a big dark horse and not at all my choice to win. However he did win. He became "Silent Rage" and was destroyed in the ring by SCSA and VKM. I didn't ever see main event potential with the guy but I think he would have done decent as a mid card guy or as a tag team guy.
 
WCW's mystery man in the feud between Sid & Scott Steiner. WCW was on it's knees and needed a shot in the arm, a fresh face in the main event, instead we got Road Warrior Animal, not to mention Sid destroying his own leg in the build up.
 
WCW's mystery man in the feud between Sid & Scott Steiner. WCW was on it's knees and needed a shot in the arm, a fresh face in the main event, instead we got Road Warrior Animal, not to mention Sid destroying his own leg in the build up.

Haha, this was a nail in the coffin for WCW for me. So much hype was put into the "mystery man" and it turned out to be RW Animal. Good grief. Hadn't been relevant in years at that point and he was never relevant as a singles star. Total bust.

This is more in line of what I'm talking about.

Stupid characters like The Goon or Gobbledygooker are not really what I was going for. I'm looking for more nuanced failure. Guys that didn't fail because of a stupid gimmick, or falling down, they failed just because...well...because there was just no heat there. Tensai is another good example, good pull. Glacier is a weird case. Hard to know whether he was always destined to fail or if he would have been a success had they not waited so long.
 
That's what happens when you "debut" a guy whose already been in the company and was there for 5 years.

I still don't know why they gave him a Japanese Gimmick when he's not Japanese. It would have been fine otherwise.

They should probably have just debuted him as A-Train and do some video packages anticipating his return.

Dumb ass creative (likely Vince). They were thinking he has been in Japan wrestling for years so give him some lame gimmick. No one cared. They should had signed Anderson w/him. Bad ass tag team.
 
How about debuts that would have flopped had they been carried through? One that comes to mind goes all the way back to Bret Hart's humble beginnings in the WWF. Initially he was saddled with a lame-ass cowboy gimmick. Cowboys and rednecks were a dime a dozen in those days, and Bret certainly would have been lost in the shuffle. Fortunately fate intervened and he was paired with the Anvil, and given a great mouthpiece in the form of the Mouth of the South to manage them. I think Bret described how the idea came up for him to come galloping to the ring on a fake horse or some sort of absurd thing.
 
How about debuts that would have flopped had they been carried through? One that comes to mind goes all the way back to Bret Hart's humble beginnings in the WWF. Initially he was saddled with a lame-ass cowboy gimmick. Cowboys and rednecks were a dime a dozen in those days, and Bret certainly would have been lost in the shuffle. Fortunately fate intervened and he was paired with the Anvil, and given a great mouthpiece in the form of the Mouth of the South to manage them. I think Bret described how the idea came up for him to come galloping to the ring on a fake horse or some sort of absurd thing.

The idea of Bret portraying a cowboy has always been hilarious.

"We have this extraordinary young technician from Canada. Cowboy gimmick. Brilliant." Vince.

Talk about dodging a major bullet.
 
I disagree that Rocky Maivia was a failure. He got a decent reaction at Survivor Series in his debut, and he got a decent pop when he entered the 1997 Royal Rumble; it was only after this that the fans began to turn, after Rocky became Intercontinental Champion a mere 3 months after his debut.

Even then, once the fans turned, yes, they chanted "Rocky sucks" and "die Rocky die", which was the opposite reaction to what WWE planned for (Rocky Maivia was supposed to be a babyface), but ultimately, any reaction is better than no reaction. Abject silence by the fans is the worst reaction they can give; cheers or boos mean the fans care. They certainly cared enough about Rocky Maivia in 1997 to organically turn him heel (after a short-term 'injury', he joined the new Nation of Domination on his return) so I don't class Rocky as a failure (just as I don't class the New Day as a failure)
 
The two flops that come to mind for me (besides Glacier) were Scott Putski and David Flair. Putski had no talent but won a bunch of championships with small indies and Flair had no talent AND was a skinny putz. "The New and Improved Space Mountain" was a jobber with a famous name. Both had WWE debuts that were totally forgettable.
 
In 2004, Kevin Fertig was promoted heavily via vignette on Smackdown every week, as the 'pale rider' Mortdecai. He looked a lock-in for a big name feud with the Undertaker. But he stunk out the place at his debut (Judgment Day?) versus I think Scotty 2 Hotty and within a couple of months was sent back to developmental, later to become the 'vampire' Kevin Thorne

he actually got took off TV in his Mordecai role for barfighting. what he did while he was there wasnt great, just squashed Scotty 2 Hotty and i think Funaki. but its a shame it didnt work as the gimmick was interesting enough
 
I'm going to have to go with Husky Harris. His debut was awful, he was a member of Nexus, but he was never a standout in the stable. Now he is Bray Wyatt, and he is wrestling guys like Cena, and Taker on the biggest wrestling stage of modern times.
 

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