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Which debut intrigued or underwhelmed you the most?


Liam O'Rourke

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I'm an old bastard so for me it was Undertaker.

 

At school, the wrestling fans would talk about who DiBiase would have as his mystery partner for Survivor Series. Brutus The Barber Beefcake was even mentioned for some reason. Then, on the night, this massive scary looking guy comes out and obliterates everyone. I was gobsmacked watching that match and thought he was invincible.

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Sean O' Haire...

 

 

I was utterly intrigued with this character and his concept. I've always liked the idea of a devil's advocate sort of character, as not only is it a spring board for his own fueds, but effectively could of been used to supply a logical plot device as to why certain character do something.

 

Imagine for example, that he was the one that whispered in Bradshaw's ear that made him turn into JBL and split up from Farooq. Or was the guy that whisper in Lesnar's ear that he should do something about Goldberg and eliminate him from the Royal Rumble. After all... "I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know."

 

Then he debut'ed, got saddled with Roddy Piper and fueded with Rakishi in a real time waster of a fued. Shame.

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For me (in the beginning) Chyna held a shedload of intrigue. Up to to that point, no female had really had been that kind of physical threat. Even someone like Luna was more mouth and image about what she was gonna do. Don't forget when she first showed up, she wasn't officially linked with HHH for at least the first couple of weeks so the fact you had this mute monster psycho was definitely a fresh idea.

 

You watch back her chucking Marlena about like a sack of shit at the first IYH of 97 and really was/is a scary/intriguing prospect.

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Can honestly say I wasn't bothered by Sean O'Haire's vignettes at all. I was more disappointed that they hadn't sacked him off yet, because I thought he (along with the other 'Thrillers' that came in from WCW) was really shit.

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I like how he had a black widow in his titantron. Sean O'Haire, Rikishi, Mr. America, Roddy Piper, Vince & Sable, Vince Vs. Steph... Smackdown was a really, really weird show for awhile. That was the one point in history more than any other that I imaigned Vince having the most hand in writing it himself personally (even though Heyman was still at the helm I'm guessing).

 

Raw started to pull away as the flagship again and Smackdown became the place Vince went nuts on a Thursday night. This was the period where he moved from plain old evil chairman into being 'mentally unwell old man' like some warped, poorly written Roman Polanski character.

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For me Seven falls into both categories. I thought the vignettes were really well done and I was generally excited to see how character panned out. I just wish WCW had of gone through with it rather than the Rhodes "shoot" we got on his debut and then becoming the American Nightmare, it all fell rather flat and underwhelming.

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I'm going to be really boring and add my name to the list for Nakamura.

 

Going into Nakamura's debut I was filled with a combination of excitement and anxiety. The guy was one of my favourite male wrestlers at the time with Balor and A.J. who had already transitioned to "the Universe" and Okada who he was leaving in charge of Chaos. I was full of doubts about Shinsuke coming over ; unlike KENTA, I had no doubt that his natural charisma would shine through if he was allowed to be himself. That they were letting him come in with his established real name and not changing it as they had changed Devitt and KENTA should have assuaged my fears a little, but I was still full of doubts - how much would they force him to tone down his style? Would would his finish be, since they're so shit scared of concussions (and probably kids copying it like The Curb Stomp) that SURELY it wouldn't be the Boma Ye? Would his WWE theme live up to the bar set ludicrously high by Subconscious, one of my favourites ever? I had zero doubt that Shinsuke Nakamura could get over to WWE fans, but I didn't know how much of the "real" Shinsuke Nakamura was actually coming in.

 

From the moment the melody to his new theme started and the King Of Strong Style started pimping his way down, I started to relax. OK, in front of a crowd pre-conditioned to go mental for him, it probably was never going to go BADLY, but very quickly I realized he was just going to be himself. When the bell rang I was happier still. All his kicks, Champion Vibrations, the commentators describing "Kinshasa" his finish (which obviously just sounded like he was still using the Boma Ye) ...... they were letting him go out there and be himself. That the match itself with Sami Zayn was a triumph in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd was a bonus, but really, the biggest feeling that went through me was relief. I had been positively Eugene with excitement at the thought of Shinsuke Nakamura mixing it with the best guys in NXT and eventually the main roster, and they were going to actually give me Shinsuke Nakamura - un-fucked about with.

 

OK, I won't quite fawn over Rising Sun like a lot of people do. Maybe NOTHING would live up to Subconscious to me, maybe I've heard so many awesome Puro themes that even the best WWE tribute to a Puro theme (and it is great) wouldn't quite make me buzz, maybe it's because I thought at first the melody had just been borrowed slightly from Shingo Takagi's music in Dragon Gate.... I dunno. The first impression was just "it's pretty catchy..... it's not Subconscious."

 

But fuck it. Minor quibble. Authentic Nakamura in WWE, never thought I'd see the day, something to tell the grandkids.

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I'll never forget when Brodus Clay made his debut on Raw. I was on the UKFF chat and I think we were all busy discussing Batista's powerful warhammer and/or Todd Carty, such was the anticipation for Brodus. The moment his music hit and he jived his way out to the ramp, the entire chat gave him the sort of reaction you imagine Sable's prime 1998 fanny would get.

 

It's also one of my favourite squash matches ever too. Mainly because of the excellent "my bad" calls as he was twatting some nothing.

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The Goldberg one was ruined for me because they announced the fucker at WrestleMania the night before.

 

Why do that?! Its the RAW after Wrestlemania anyway.so will always havw intrigue. Imagine Rocky doing that promo and not having a clue Goldberg was going to come out. As it was becaue they announced Goldberg was coming during WrestleMania it was obvious what was going to happpen.

 

Could have been amazing

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