The Ultimate Debut?

[EZMoney20]

One of the biggest problems in the WWE today has been character development. Fans within the IWC (myself included) have been annoyed by what seems to be the "same old shtick". As a result, their storylines have suffered, mostly from the lack of quality and depth. However, I will give the WWE credit in one area. They seem to be putting in the time to create strong debuts for superstars. The Shield comes to mind, immediately. Many of us also think of The Wyatt Family and their sensational vignettes leading up to their debut. Although many fans are not high on Rusev, they allowed him to debut at The Royal Rumble, and he made a strong showing. From there, they allowed Lana to cut promos for over a month before Rusev made his singles debut. Fandango may have been a flop, and most of us could see from the beginning that his gimmick would only get him so far, but the WWE had us intrigued for awhile and stuck with him before ultimately souring. Ryback was extremely over, and I still believe to this day that his downward spiral was a result of the WWE backing themselves into a corner. Rather than continuing the slow burn, they decided to ride the wave of momentum and pit him against CM Punk. The obvious problem was that all signs pointed to The Rock vs. CM Punk for the WWE Championship at The Royal Rumble. There was no way they could stray from that matchup, not only because CM Punk was more of a household name than Ryback but also because The Rock (the face) needed to get his revenge on CM Punk (the heel). As a result, Ryback suffered. Now obviously, there have been flops in recent memory, as well, but the fact remains: The WWE has done a pretty damn good job with many superstar debuts over the past few years.

So where am I going with this? I'm glad you asked. Yesterday, I was scrolling through the top headlines on this site when I came across this: http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/519789-wwe-nxt-takeover-wrestlemania-special. Now the article, itself, wasn't interesting. I don't watch NXT or any of the developmental programming. In fact, even though I have been a lifelong fan of the WWE, I only watch Raw (usually DVRed), occasionally Smackdown! (always DVRed), and the Pay-Per-Views. Anything outside of those three, I have absolutely no interest in. And to be honest, I've lost major interest in those three programs anyway. But what caught my attention about the article was the actual headline: "Report: WWE NXT Takeover Possibly Headed to WrestleMania 31, Details". I had misinterpreted the headline to mean that the WWE was kicking around the idea of having members of the NXT roster debut at Wrestlemania (as in, show up live during the actual event and "takeover" a segment). After reading the article; however, I got disappointed and lost interest quickly.

But it got me thinking, would you like to see a superstar or group of superstars debut at Wrestlemania in a surprising fashion? We've certainly had similar situations. The Shield debuted out of nowhere during the main event of Survivor Series in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship between CM Punk, John Cena, and Ryback. The Nexus shocked us all by taking over a Monday Night Raw. Fandango had his first official match at Wrestlemania against Chris Jericho. We all remember Kane's debut. And the list goes on and on. However, I do not recall a superstar or group of superstars making their debut(s) at Wrestlemania with no warning. It would certainly be fresh, but would you be interested in seeing it?

Now, this type of debut would be have to be saved for a superstar or group of superstars who the WWE feels can be a major player(s) for the company moving forward. I would not consider doing this for a superstar(s) with a mid-card ceiling or limited gimmick. I also believe the debut would be most effective if it were done similar to The Shield and Nexus, just on a larger stage (Wrestlemania).

If done correctly, I feel this could give the WWE a huge wave of momentum. From there, like always, their future would depend heavily on their booking, but the reason I think this could be a success is because of the Wrestlemania aspect. As we all know, Wrestlemania is on the grandest stage of them all. Diehards are not going to DVR Wrestlemania. They are going to watch it live so the surprise element could be spectacular if the WWE is able to keep it a secret. But I actually think there is something much bigger to gain: The Casual Fan. For the most part, casual fans occasionally watch Monday Night Raw, and I doubt they watch Smackdown! at all. When they do watch Raw, I'm guessing they do one of two things: (1) DVR it and skim through it later, (2) Tune in for a 5 minute chunk, turn the channel, and check back in every 30-40 minutes for another few minutes. Regardless, they are not watching the entire show, and unlike the hardcore fans, probably don't realize or care when the most important segments are going to take place. Most likely, they'll flip it on during a commercial break of whatever their watching and see if Raw keeps their attention. Considering the WWE seems to be concerned with only three segments: the first ten minutes, last ten minutes, and a ten minute segment somewhere around halftime of Monday Night Football, there is a good chance that the casual fan will tune in when nothing interesting is going on and immediately change the channel again. At least with Wrestlemania, they will be locked in for the entire show so there will be no chance of them missing the debut. And for the first time, the casual fan will be in the same position as the diehard fan. Both will know very little about the superstar debuting and can watch their rise together.

Now, of course, ALLLL of this is completely irrelevant if the booking is done poorly, and the WWE does not have a long-term plan in mind. But it's amazing how creative our minds can be and the things we can come up with by simply misinterpreting a headline. So the ultimate question: Would you like to see a superstar or group of superstars debut at Wrestlemania in a surprising fashion? And if so, how would you like him (them) to debut?

 

[Mudlup50]

Well if the Daniel Bryan rumors are true then we could have someone like Reigns win the Rumble. He cashes in early at EC and loses. Bummer right. Number one contendership falls to either Cena or Orton. The match is going swimmingly as it can, fans are expecting either Cena to become 16 time world champ or Orton to punt Lesnar's skull in.

Anyway Lesnar wins, barely. So so close of a match. Like dare I say have Lesnar fall unconscious on his opponents body and win like that. Then some new group runs into the ring. The crowd is in awe as this new faction takes down the beaten down beast. The fans are cheering for them but then the faction turns their attention to his opponent and beat him down too. It's just complete anarchy, let Triple H come out and demand they leave his ring. Hell have him call security to escort the guys out. Have paramedics come out and take the opponent out of the ring(kayfabe injury which would work well being as people want both of them off the screen). And right as they are on the ramp, Seth Rollins music hits. He runs down, and cashes in MitB. Wins the world title.

The next night on Raw Rollins admits that it was his faction. Have them come out. Then have Heyman come out and say he knew he shouldn't have trusted Rollins when he apologized. But good thing he didn't! Rollins and his new faction are all Heyman guys(I don't know how I feel about this, but it keeps Heyman on TV and will get Seth huge heat because he can actually handle himself). I'd love this idea! Wrestlemania would never be the same again.

Plus you'd set have a new feud of the Authority(if they're still together) versus Seth's new faction.

 

[FromGlasgow]

Any other place and time of the year apart from Wrestlemania, The Biggest show of the year should be built up for the whole year and showcase the best talent and best matches the WWE can offer, Not the time and place for a group of unknowns to hijack the event, A good time to debut a new faction would be in my opinion would be the night after Wrestlemania on RAW, Just as the Wrestlemania storylines end a fresh new one begins with the debut of the new faction on the next night sounds the perfect time to do it.

 

[Radical Canadian Goose]

Any other place and time of the year apart from Wrestlemania, The Biggest show of the year should be built up for the whole year and showcase the best talent and best matches the WWE can offer, Not the time and place for a group of unknowns to hijack the event, A good time to debut a new faction would be in my opinion would be the night after Wrestlemania on RAW, Just as the Wrestlemania storylines end a fresh new one begins with the debut of the new faction on the next night sounds the perfect time to do it.

I do understand where you are coming from and I absolutely agree. Let's put a slight twist on this though. During the main event a shot of the crowd is shown and in the front row sits Kevin Steen, Hideo Itami, Prince Devitt, Adrien Neville and Sami Zayn. Steen is holding a sign that says "tomorrow night NXT takes over Raw". The next night on Raw they decimate the entire roster and take the entire show hostage. Technically, albeit not in ring, they debuted at Mania although they started causing havoc on Raw.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

I don't have any problem with a debut occurring at WM (if you ever find someone deserving of that distinction), I think the bigger problem with it is that WM is generally so stacked, the debut would be largely over shadowed. Which means that unless the debut had a HUGE consequence on a vital part of the show (ex: the debuting wrestler costs Lesnar to the lose the title), it would just get lost in the shuffle, which is why usually the Raw following WM is so good, because it's the yearly reset button on WWE, where all story lines have been settled and it's a clean slate to debut someone new.

Also, I just want to say for the record that having NXT be a televised show, and having it's performers randomly appear on Raw, has in my opinion totally devalued the idea of a shocking debut. If I was WWE and I acquired a talent who had traveled the world and was seasoned enough to work immediately (like Neville, Zayn, Balor, Itami, Steen, etc.) I would never have put all of them in NXT, I would've had a shocking and memorable debut for at least one of them. There are few indie guys left that could make an immediate and recognizable splash like that now. But just for the sake of fantasy booking, if they could get AJ Styles or Samoa Joe, that's the kind of guy that I think could successfully pull of a WM debut, and immediately be hot shotted in to a major angle.

 

[jrush1978]

To me the thing that always rubbed me the wrong way about the Ryback push wasn't that he was pitted against PUnk, or that he didnt go over Punk, but how the endings were booked. I think it was correct to book Ryback in his first match against Punk. Cena was injured, it was the dead season, they needed a main event to get them to Cena returning and Ryback seemed popular enough at the time.

However I think they should have had Punk win clean-ish after a reasonably long back & forth match. Then the announcers sell both guys to be strong. Punk went in against the beast and retained the title. Ryback after only a few months lost but took the longest reigning champ in 25 years to the brink.

 

[Navi]

Any other place and time of the year apart from Wrestlemania, The Biggest show of the year should be built up for the whole year and showcase the best talent and best matches the WWE can offer, Not the time and place for a group of unknowns to hijack the event, A good time to debut a new faction would be in my opinion would be the night after Wrestlemania on RAW, Just as the Wrestlemania storylines end a fresh new one begins with the debut of the new faction on the next night sounds the perfect time to do it.

This for all the reasons the OP stated. This is the one show a year that most casual fans watch. It's also the only PPV that if you don't have the network you will buy, or watch all the way through, just in case you can say "I was there when that happened."

It is not the show to start creating surprises and bringing up new people. Wrestlemania should be the place where existing feuds come to an end, a new champion is crowned.

This is also the show where most if not all wrestlers will have a part, and they have time issues apparently. Last year the Shield/Kane/New Age Outlaw match was shortened considerably because the HHH/Bryan match ran over. Let these guys who have worked the whole year to get one the stage there shine. Debut new people and stories later, and they can shine the following year.

 

[Mudlup50]

Debut new people and stories later, and they can shine the following year.

Not that I disagree exactly but Daniel Bryan was in the company for what 4-5 years before last year? And he had 2 matches and what like 49 minutes of screen time this year? Out of about 100 minutes worth of matches. So he was successfully on screen for half the show. Not disagreeing I'm just saying he dominated the show, why can't we have 5 minutes go to some new guy?

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

Whenever or however a WWE star debuts it has to make sense and be done perfectly. I shall note a few debuts off the top of my head to illustrate my point;

Yokozuna - his debut was a squash match. He then went on to have 15/20 televised Squash matches; and he got over as a monster in the Royal Rumble.

Diesel - his WWF in-ring debut was in the Rumble 1994. He ran through 7 competitors! Established as a monster.

Kane - WOW - what a debut. One of the best Debuts I have ever seen, probably the best; the build up, the established star The Undertaker, the ripping the cell door off the cage and attacking Taker; the music, the ring post fireworks.

Kurt Angle; his in ring debut against Shawn Stasiak/Meat. It was a time when WWF fans hated the typical babyfaces and had seen failures like the Patriot, Rocky Maivia, Ahmed Johnson, Marc Mero to name but a few. When Kurt Angle took the mic in the middle of the ring and berated the crowd for booing his match; I knew something special was coming. His celebration at the end was like he had just won the gold medal again. Brilliant.

The more I think about it; any wwe star debuting should be supported; (see Bray Wyatt for most recent example of how to debut a star and Ryback for how not to) and throwing them out there with no fanfare at WM is a HUGE risk and not worth it. You can start by getting a star to compete at WM and build them for the big match a couple of WM's down the road.

 

[thebarber]

I would suggest we will see the WWE debut of Sting at nxt years Wrestlemania, and that could fall flat on its face. A bloke well into his 50s who has been terrible for the past few years and wrestling in t-shirts all of a sudden debutting for a company he has never really shown true interest in working for.........I would just let Sting have his Mania moment, and worry about debutting possible new factions or talents the night after Raw, a show which is traditionally rematches anyway.

 

[Navi]

Not that I disagree exactly but Daniel Bryan was in the company for what 4-5 years before last year? And he had 2 matches and what like 49 minutes of screen time this year? Out of about 100 minutes worth of matches. So he was successfully on screen for half the show. Not disagreeing I'm just saying he dominated the show, why can't we have 5 minutes go to some new guy?

And you have just proved my point for me thank you. It was because he was onscreen for 40 minutes that other matches had to be cut short. Like I said the Shield match, which I had been waiting for since they had been building that one up on RAW, was over in a flash.

It's a fact that the New Age Outlaws had wanted to go against the Shield for a long time, and they had been interfering on RAW in other Shield matches, so I was waiting to see them get hammered. Rollins was only in the match for the last minute or so, and the whole match lasted less than 5 minutes I believe. A friend of mine was live blogging for another site, he got up to get a drink, came back and the match was over. It was disappointing considering the sort of build up they had.

So that's the reason why I don't think we should be doing things like debuts at Mania. Also when someone huge debuts you want to them be the focus of the show, not mixed in with a 20 year old streak, a new champion and a Battle Royale. They would get missed in all the hubbub.