The Same Debuting Sequence Over and Over

[Steve-O-Matt]

Y'know what really annoys me? New wrestlers debuting lately. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing new blood rise through the ranks. I secretly hope some of them get really successful so I can say I saw them debut, hey, who doesn't...

There is one thing that's really annoying me lately though, it's HOW they debut. It seems to be the same thing over and over again with no try at originality. The guy shows up, maybe introduced by someone, maybe not... And they're heel, everytime, heel. Already that's bad, considering there are like two heels for every one face. There's a lack of faces, especially in the main event scene. But anyway, let's go through the typically debut for 2012.

-Be heel
-Come out, beat up lowly face (Yoshi, Ted, Justin, Tyson...)
-Say something afterwards and insult crowd
-Leave
-Next week, rinse and repeat until you start having an undefeated streak

Yep, the WWE seems to love their undefeated streaks for their new guys. Personally I believe this is complete bull. There's this new guy who just joined, has no experience in the big leagues, you'd think he'd not do as well coming up against these world class wrestlers, but they do. I don't mind the odd undefeated streak, but when 3 or 4 people on the roster have one going, it's a bit ridiculous. And some of these guys ain't even THAT big, for someone like Ryback, it makes sense! He's f***ing huge. But someone like Antonio Cesaro, when there are plenty of guys his size... Not so much.

Also I think the last guy who debuted as a face (not counting returns) was Sin Cara. I might be wrong, but that's the only guy that comes to mind for me (if there's another please leave me a comment).

Here's where you guys come in...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Questions:

1) Do you agree with me and sense that the debuts are becoming vanilla and predictable? If not, why?

2) If you could pick a guy in NXT to debut next on Smackdown or Raw, who would you pick and how would you debut him?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also feel that when it comes to turning a guy face from heel it's incredibly forced now and not at all makes sense. The reason why I think this is, is because we need small face guys to be beat up to make room for these new big bad heels and you can tell it pisses these guys off. When the new big bad heel comes down the ramp to his own music and he's already standing in the ring with a pissed of look on his face when he knows the only reason he's there is to make this guy look so good...

 

[c13vyper]

Yes, it does get boring seeing people debut and instead of getting a chance to get over on the mic or show off skills in a decent match, they squash no names for ages
Brodus Clay
Ryback
Tensai
Sandow (well he is more successful then most of them considering hes gotten mic time, And yes i know Ryback is in the main event, but thats just a freak chance, He lucked out.)


If i recall John Cena, started as a face, a match with Kurt Angle, LOST, and all these years later is the biggest thing in WWE.

 

[TheMaskedNewton]

It's true. The debuts and a lot of things along with the debuts are becoming cookie cutter Nonsense. They do the same thing over and over and over again.

Damien Sandow had a few instances where he just refused to fight and backed out of his matches. That stood out.

Many a times, there are cases when 2-3 guys are doing this same thing at the same time!

 

[safeco1999]

They have guys who debut that lose.. and lose... and lose forever. They remain as jobbers.

There's a pressing need to develop main eventers quickly, so they feel they need to bring in guys and make them 'legit' right away, which is why you're seeing these big guys who have undefeated streaks.

They should just go back to debuting guys in tag teams with managers and such, or use stables more. Long running stables provide several outlets for feuds to continue and develop over the long term, and aso allows newer guys to debut without too much individual pressure.

 

[Nate DaMac]

A legitimate criticism? Well I'll be damned.

I totally agree, man. I think even they are starting to realize that they're basically repeating the same damn thing. I'm not sure how long Cesaro's streak was, but I know he lost to Gabriel on Raw, Ryback's streak is over, and Brodus and Tensai have been relegated to jobber world.

As mentioned above, Sandow was one person who caught my interest simply because he did something different. He showed a distinct personality right away, separating him from the heard in a hurry. I didn't mind Brodus' run, but that gimmick was only going to go so far. Tensai and Cesaro are both just dreadful characters. It doesn't matter how good they are in the ring, the whole "I'm from another country and am therefore evil" character is dead. Nobody cares anymore.

 

[uvx]

I think that Chris Jericho had the best debut ever.
He came out and insulted the face of the company and in his first match lost by dq by putting Road Dogg through a table.
He made an impact but didnt have some stupid undefeated streak.

 

[Redemption-2012]

Well, I think first impressions are everything, thinking about the debut of a superstar. John Cena is a guy who's debut made an amazing first impressions and 10 years to the day, he is the face of the company.

 

[JJohns]

I remember that for months, we would see these Brodus Clay promos announcing that he was coming to Raw. Then we would see John Laurenitis (sp?) say that they were going to push it back. I didn't mind that. What I did mind was that when he debuted, it was as the Craptacular "Funkasaurus".

Then you get guys like Cesaro, they brought him in as Aksana's "friend". Everyone knew where this was going. It was predictable. As far as the notions that he's doing "I'm a foreigner, so I am evil" gimmick, that's completely wrong. He's doing "I'm a foreigner, so therefore I am better" gimmick. Again, this is something we see all the time.

As far as Tensai, they should have just re-debuted him as Albert, because that's what everyone remembers him as. It would be like if they brought back say The Godfather and renamed him Chuck Washington. Many fans know better.

The one guy, when he debuts as a wrestler, that will be better off will be Brad Maddox. He comes in with a built in storyline. He just "screwed" Ryback out of the WWE title, so he's going to have that Dangerous Danny Davis/Earl Hebner Heat for a while.

 

[theBec2101]

We are seeing the same thing over and over again but are there really that many options to choose from. I’m not saying the wrestler themselves couldn’t perform and pull it off better but certainly creative is at fault as well. Then you have what happens next. It seems like they lose focus or idea and the wrestler just hits a wall. I think if they would stick with one or two debuts or stable/tag teams things we play out a lot better.

 

[JoeUK]

I miss debuts like when Kane debuted back in 1997. Or in the same vein, The Undertaker in the late 80's.

Jaw dropping stuff, both of them and they both left the viewer/fan wondering who or what they were.

 

[TheMaskedNewton]

Debut like Chris Jericho...agreed he was already famous in WCW before he debuted to WWF but we can have a debutant interfering a promo being made by a veteran like John Cena and then after a short/non-existent feud, go to mid-card. We can have someone debut directly in a match against some big name and he shows good ring chops in that match and loses in a great effort. We can have someone debut as a partner/friend of an existing wrestler. You can have someone get hired as a hired muscle for a heel GM or something like that. We can have someone debut as a part of audience...some wrestler tries to push a fan and that fan retaliates - he becomes a debutant. There are many many possibilities of for a debut. We can even have the same type of debuts as now...hype videos, debut in a match..but lose/win sometimes...doesn't have to be against Yoshi Tatsu/Tyson Kid all the time.

 

[SunnyD]

I'd love to see someone like Dean Ambrose or Seth Rollins debut like Desmond Wolfe did in TNA. Study and learn every move of a top star and instantly go after him. He did that with Kurt Angle, and I think Dean could do that on Raw to maybe Sheamus, or Christian possibly.

 

[JandSman]

Not every debut can be huge, but they could do some debuts different like I think that if Mason Ryan didn't suck, his debut would be talked about more, as his debut was great, and got him noticed immediately.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

I've been thinking a lot about that too, and how much I think about it, I realize that this type of debut really hurts a guy. Damien Sandow and Ryback are probably the guys that could go on into something, but even Sandow, what are we going to say about him in the future? Oh he debuted just for the sake of it... They need stories to debut a guy, i'm tired of that old vignette hyping a debut, I would rather watch some story with a debut. If WWE makes Brad Maddox a wrestler I will say that his debut was very very cool.

At NXT I would love to debut Richie Steamboat on Raw, however I would let him grow a beard like he had in the past and debut him in a backstage segment with Vickie Guerrero or other General Manager of some sorts, but I would be right down with it. GM would say that he's happy by having a son of such legendary man like Ricky Steamboat and offer him a contract. Richie would be a guy in a suit, and heavily happy about his heritage and would brag about being a second generation star to anybody. I would make him win his first match, a way to prove that he is better than what his father was. His first big rivalry would have to be against a face Tyson Kidd. The history would be very good for the plot. Richie would interfere in one of Kidd's match and say that he hates people that lie like Kidd. Say that Kidd hangs around like he was one of the Hart Family members, when he isn't and just cost him a match and right down spit him in the face after hitting his finisher. It's a different way I guess... It would make him win some heat with something that personal from the beginning.