Most Impressive Rise To The Top

[Mitch Henessey]

We've all heard the famous stories about how legends in the world of pro wrestling rose to the top, but what I want to know is, who's impressive rise to the top has been your favorite? My pick is simple.......... Stone Cold Steve Austin. Stone Cold Steve Austin's rise to the top was something to admire. Here was a guy who was fired from WCW, and spent some time in ECW cutting promos like this(Steve A Mania doesn't start until about 1:11):

[YOUTUBE]3TiWAHoX7b8&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]​

Now here you could definitely see signs of superstardom in Steve Austin, but when he reached the WWF, things took off for him. He spent some time under The Million Dollar Man's wing, and he was able to wear the Million Dollar Championship. Austin was on the rise, and then he cut this memorable promo:

[YOUTUBE]8R-d17t0Nk0[/YOUTUBE]​

Austin 3:16 took off, and Austin was on his way to the top. At Wrestlemania 13, Austin passed out from the pain he had to endure while caught in Bret Hart's sharpshooter. Austin lost a lot of blood, but his popularity would continue to grow. Fast forward to Wrestlemania 14, Stone Cold wins his first WWF championship by defeating Shawn Michaels in the main event. His intense feud with Vince McMahon was one of the highlights of the Attitude era, and his rivalry with The Rock was epic on so many levels. Oh, and Steve Austin also won three Royal Rumbles, and that's one record that might never be broken.

So who's impressive rise to the top has been your favorite? When I say rise to the top, I'm talking about big names such as Hogan, Rock, or Flair. Also, your pick for most impressive rise to the top can be any wrestler from any era.

 

[youngbullzeye]

I gotta go with one of my favorites and that has to be Eddie Guerrero.I mean this guy was WCW and ECW and never won the big one in any of those promotions i guess you could say he kinda got the same tratment that Austin got with the backstage politics. He was an upper mid card guy and he was over as a face and a heel.He then leaves WcW and goes to WWE has a very good run as a midcard guy gets released but he fights his demons and gets back to WWE he and he finally wins the big one its sad that he life came to an end.

 

[SpoodBeest]

In the quickest amount of time on the scale of impressiveness you have to hand this to Sheamus for being the one superstar that had a rocket strapped to his ass when it came to a huge a push. He was a low card performer on ECW having feuds with the likes of Goldust and Shelton Benjamin. Then he randomly got moved to the RAW roster where he squashed Jamie Noble and other jobbers for a few weeks. Then he wins a break-through battle royal and earns a shot for the WWE title in a tables match. Not only did he get a huge opportunity but he capitalized on it and ended up put John Cena through a table to win the WWE title. Sheamus was only on the television roster for five or six months tops, so that is a pretty impressive feat right there.

Ever since that first title reign this guy has been on fire. After he lost the title he feuded with Triple H in the early part of the fall and in kayfabe dominated The Game to the point where Trips got seriously injured and has been off television ever since. He ended up getting a shot at the WWE title at the Fatal 4 Way pay-per-view and ended up winning (albeit getting help from the Nexus) but he still won a second WWE title. Meaning he had become a two time WWE champion in only being on television for eleven months, again that is damn impressive. Sheamus continues to impress and improve as the weeks go on and WWE have also shown us that they have major faith in him.

 

[Ferbian]

The most impressive rise to the top is really a hard thing. There's been a lot of impressive rises to the top, be it through hard dedicated work, or one hell of a push.

Brock Lesnar is probably one of the few that comes first to mind. The guy was practically debuted into a position where he would simply rip apart the Smackdown roster, decimating his way through it for a few months before winning King of The Ring and ultimately the WWE Undisputed championship.

But on the other hand, there's those slow, almost perfect builds all the way to the top. The one guy I really like in that manner would be Randy Orton, slowly build as a superstar within Evolution, becoming one hell of an Intercontinental champion, as well as all of a sudden winning the World Heavyweight Championship against Chris Benoit, it took a while compared to Brock, but it was a perfect build.

Randy's build to the top, which kinda went downwards a little bit after Evolution, but soon enough rose to the top again, it was just perfect. Not too quick, not too long, and perfect people to associate himself with on the way there.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

I'm going to go with Dave Batista. The man debuted as an enforcer (of sorts) for the Reverend D-Von character. He just stood there looking mean and nasty. In fact, just watch his debut appearance:

[YOUTUBE]boqSq7oYzd8[/YOUTUBE]

That's what Batista did; for 6 months! He walked around beating people up for the Reverend character but soon Big Dave hit a break as he moved to Monday Night Raw. Thanks to a friendship with Triple H, Batista managed to find his way into the 21st century update of the Four Horseman; Evolution.

[YOUTUBE]bjDSlHfThpE[/YOUTUBE]

A lot of people forget but Evolution didn’t exactly get off to the best of starts. After being around for about two months, the group took a hiatus of sorts as both Randy Orton & Batista went down with injuries. Batista's was worse than Orton's and he would be out of action for roughly 8 months. But sure enough Batista returned and he made an impact upon that return.

[YOUTUBE]S1LCMWTpGZM[/YOUTUBE]

Batista claimed the $100,000 bounty on Goldberg's head. He would further go on to establish himself in Evolution by helping Randy Orton (his stable mate) to 'end the career' of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Shortly afterwards, Batista briefly feuded with Shawn Michaels before going on to capture the World Tag Team Championships (with Ric Flair) twice. Batista would also make his first WrestleMania appearance by joining forces with team mates Randy Orton & Ric Flair to take on the Rock N' Sock Connection.

[YOUTUBE]CV0SyNGcAD4[/YOUTUBE]

It was a victory for Evolution as they took down Foley & The Rock. For the next 8 months, Batista solidified himself as a midcarder, facing guys like Chris Jericho, Edge & William Regal, all of whom were in the midcard that year. Suddenly though, as the WWE dropped the ball on a long term feud for Randy Orton & Triple H, Batista was thrust into the limelight as the man the WWE had pegged as the next star. This was confirmed after Batista won to 2005 Royal Rumble match.

[YOUTUBE]ehPCn9yloCA[/YOUTUBE]

Batista then spent the better part of a month avoiding attacks & insults from what he thought was John 'Bradshaw' Layfield, only to later discover that it was in fact his leader, Triple H, who had arranged the attacks. Batista then knew exactly what to do as he turned on Triple H & Flair and guaranteed he would fact 'The Game' at WrestleMania 21.

[YOUTUBE]bXrZ0QaIf7M[/YOUTUBE]

From that point on, Batista was a star. With the fans support behind him, Batista took down the tyrannical Triple H, and claimed his first ever World Heavyweight Championship, in the main event of WrestleMania.

[YOUTUBE]iYHwIF-wiuk[/YOUTUBE]

 

[harrythem]

I'd have to pick Kurt Angle. From his on-screen debut at Survivor Series 99 through to being a main event player by Summerslam 2000 and having the best feud of the year against Triple H. He won all the singles titles and, considering the level of talent he was up against at the time, I can't believe how quickly he went from nothing to awesome

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I would also have to go for Angle. The fact that he was already an olympic champion and didnt come in as a main event talent, but worked his way up the card, holding the lesser championships then winning KOTR and becoming World Champion- and doing all this in a very short period of time.

This showed that Kurt Angle was the real deal, and not some jacked up musclehead who was shoved down our throats immediately after his debut.

 

[Megatron]

Goldberg has to be one that's mentioned. I know that the number is disputed, but he had over 100+ (alleged) wins, capping it off by beating the biggest name in pro wrestling history, during a time when Hogan was still apart of the biggest angle in the company. Goldberg got hot and got hot quick, and once he won that match at the Georgia Dome to become the WCW World Heavyweight Champion the reaction was amazing. He didn't get to the top as quick as someone like, say, Lesnar, but he was dominant for his entire buildup. Lesnar was as well, don't get me wrong, but Goldberg beat Hulk Hogan even with the interference cleanly.

 

[Big Sexy]

When I think "rise to the top" I think someone who really had to work their way to becoming a world champion. Guys like Lesnar and Goldberg were dominant from the beginning. Guys like Orton and Batista never really faced much adversity. My pick would be Mick Foley.

Foley got his first major gig in WCW during the early 90's. He had some great feuds/matches with Sting and Vader but after a while he fell down the card a little and it was clear he was never going to become a main event guy in WCW.

He moved on to ECW and had a very successful run for the couple years he was there. He was noticed by the WWF and signed there in 1996. He started almost immediately feuding with the Undertaker and even got the better of him on more then one occasion. Even with that high profile feud and a WWF title match against HBK, Foley didn't fit the mold of a world champion and it seemed he may never get his shot.

He finally got his shot early on in 1999 defeating the Rock for the WWF title on an episode of RAW. It was one of the better moments in RAW history and was a great way for a guy like Foley, who had given up his body on so many occasions, to be recognized for everything he had done.

Foley definitely had one of the better, more memorable rises to the top.