Following A Young Wrestler's Rise To The Top...

[Pay Per Ghost]

...has to be the most exciting part about wrestling. At least in the top 3 of being a fan. There have been a handful of wrestlers that instantly strike a chord with the audience, and just trigger that sense in us which makes us say 'Ye he should make it'. Some are built as jacked-up monsters, some are big in stature and aura, some are technical cheftains, all in all there is a wide variety of stars whose careers we must've followed to the top. And when that moment comes, I think we have all professed to sprouting goosepimples and resisting running on the street screaming their name with endless 'Woos' and 'Yeah baby'-ies.

Allow me to share from my amnesiac mind:

Brock Lenar pins The Rock, Summerslam 2002​

Now this was a dominant, dominant rise. Man debuts the day after Mania and is champion in what like 6 months? With his size and speed, Lesnar was easy to follow and his arsenal of moves were exciting and different at the time. Here was a technical monster in the truest sense of the term. Him winning the KOTR having great matches (especially the two KOTR matches with Test and RVD, which just showed how easy he could into other people's style) displayed his legitimacy as to why he was being groomed as the top dog. Leading upto SSlam there was the buzz that Rock was leaving and when we got to the Nauseau Colliseum, the crowd had all but embraced Brock Lesnar as their man. Great moment.

John Cena pins JBL, Wretlemania 21[​

I really liked how he pearl-harbored into the crowd celebrating. His rapper gimmick was so much fun. The rhymes were dope, his matches were smash-mouth AND ENTERTAINING. Yes they were. His feud with Colon and Jesus is one that actually ended in a very good brawl match. He was getting that rebel reaction (I'm not typing tweener. Hate that word.) and the crowd was way into his character. You could see a face turn was eminent and then it culminated to SSeries 2004 where John Cena FU'd The Big Show. Soon to be was the great moment of him and Batista winning the Rumble in 2005 and was pretty much the poster to the world of the faces of future from WWE. All this brought about an ok feud and match with JBL at Mania. I personally hold that him winning the title didn't really do justice (feud, match length blah blah) to the his intense roller-coaster of a rise.




So you gogglehausers...


Favorite Wrestler's rise to the top?

 

[Rayne]

To the top? I'm going to use that term in a very, very subjective sense.

Barry Horowitz defeats Skip (Chris Candido)
​

The Barry Horowitz role has disappeared from mainstream professional wrestling, but for those of you younger fans, Barry Horowitz epitomizes what the term "jobber" means. He was a face that the fans recognized, connected with, and knew would lose within five minutes, week after week after week.

So one night on WWF Action Zone, Barry Horowitz is sent out against Skip, who's star had shined bright early but was in the midst of a spell which would see fans lose interest in him, starting with this feud and moving into a pretty gruesome tag team with a bleach blond Tom Prichard.

[youtube]qE8cB01ANFk[/youtube]

It happens two minutes into the match. An overconfident Skip performs pushups in the ring, looks at Sunny as she completely eclipses his popularity- and Horowitz comes in from behind with an inside cradle. The referee counts to three, and Jim Ross screams, "HOROWITZ WINS! HOROWITZ WINS! HOROWITZ WINS!!!"

In today's current age, where the jobbers are all people who get credibility wins every now and again, it's unimaginable. In that day, it was unthinkable. It led to a month-long program, with Horowitz continuously getting the victory over Skip.

It wasn't a World Championship, it wasn't a man basking in glory before millions of adoring fans. It was a guy, finally getting his moment of recognition.

 

[Killercam]

I remember the Horowitz win, that was a good jobber moment and they even gave him a rematch with Skip at summerslam that year. But when the 123 Kid beat Razor on Raw that was probably the most shocking moment of that year. Razor was huge then and I'm pretty sure waltman had been jobbing for a while so most people probably assumed thats what he would be. It's a shame people can't get over like that anymore. But to the original question I have to say watching Austins rise to the top in WWE was my favorite. He started off pretty low on the card for a while (and at the time I didn't know of his past in wcw because I didn't follow it) and he was a true rebel back in 96-97 which led to one of the top 5-10 careers ever.

 

[HBsam31]

HBK had already had his classic ladder match at Mania 10 when he entered the 1995 Royal Rumble at number 1. He outlasted all 29 guys to win in incredible fashion with one foot dangling before coming back in to eliminate Bulldog. This is when I realized myself that he was going to be big. He went on to lose his championship match with Diesel at Mania 11, but he was definitely the bright spot of an otherwise dismal ppv. He was "injured" by Sid shortly after that loss only to come back as a face where he won the IC belt again and had an amazing ladder rematch with Razor at Summerslam before having to relinquish the title due to injury. He came back and he won the 1996 Royal Rumble and earned a title match with Bret Hart at Mania 12 in an ironman match. They had the whole boy hood dream thing going on, and even at the age I was at I knew HBK was being built to win the title. He did it in overtime of the iron man match winning his first WWE title. I chose this one because it was a slow but always uphill climb to the top. When he won that first Rumble I knew he would hold the title eventually, and his rise to the belt over that span of time was really fun to watch as a fan.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

I though I'd die before I would hear the term 'a great jobber moment'. Sadly, now I die hearing and seeing it. God bless Rayne for his leftest of left nomination.

Anyway, back in the mainstream:

[YOUTUBE]byfACUVzB-k[/YOUTUBE]​

Man, this was one of those moments that made me fight back tears. You know all that Eddie Guerrero overrated nonsense I don't get because he was very much OVER when he died. Here was not a case of 'great potential taken away', here was a case of great talent who wanted to quit WCW coz of the politicking, came to WWF, spiraled into drug abuse, almost lost his family and then got his life back together. Benoit was right when he said Eddie's story is one that needs to be told.

And then we got this match. And the crowd. Kudos to that crowd. They made that moment that much extra special for all the viewers at home.

 

[Psyclone]

got a couple... watching bret hart go from tag team champion all the way to WWF(E) champion was a great one to watch.... Watching HBK do the same was also entertaining as all hell..

Of course the one that sticks out in my mind, and this of course kind of bends the rules as A) this wasn't a young wrestler (well I didn't see him when he was young) and B) he kind of was already at the top, but my first wrestling moment I can remember is watching Ric Flair enter the WWF(E) as the "real world's champion" and I vividly remember the 1992 royal rumble where he entered at number 3 and ended up winning (hell I still have it taped on a VHS) and thus winning the vacated WWF(E) championship... Doesn't really count but still probably my earliest wrestling memory..