10 current WWE Superstars and what happened on their WWE debut (Part 3)

With so many WWE Superstars making their main-roster debuts since WrestleMania 34, it got us thinking about how some of the established members of the current roster performed on their first appearance inside a WWE ring.

Braun Strowman, for example, has become one of the company’s top Superstars in a short space of time, but do you remember his first opponent? And do you know who Jinder Mahal faced in his very first WWE match?

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In this article, the third in a three-part series, we select 10 current WWE Superstars who debuted between 2005 and 2015 and check out how they fared when they were thrown into the WWE spotlight for the first time.

#10 Zack Ryder (2005)

Zack Ryder won the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 32

Zack Ryder has appeared sporadically on WWE television for the last 11 years but his association with the company actually goes back to 2005, when he competed as Brett Matthews in a squash match against Matt Morgan.

Morgan, making his first in-ring appearance in over a year, was paranoid that Ryder was laughing at his speech impediment and took his frustration out on the rookie with a series of power moves.

Ryder barely got any offence in and was defeated after just 78 seconds when Morgan drove him into the mat for the 1-2-3 after a twisted vertical suplex.

#9 Dolph Ziggler (2005)

Dolph Ziggler underwent a dramatic transformation shortly after his debut

While Dolph Ziggler’s early WWE career is best remembered for his time in The Spirit Squad, his first introduction to television came when he was revealed as a caddy for the golf-loving Kerwin White (better known as Chavo Guerrero).

Ziggler, then going by his real name Nick Nemeth, teamed with White on his debut to defeat Shelton Benjamin and Matt Striker on Sunday Night Heat in October 2005.

#8 Kofi Kingston (2008)

Kofi Kingston is one of the most decorated champions of his generation, but the fun-loving New Day member that we see now on WWE television is very different from the character he originally portrayed when he debuted.

Introduced as WWE’s first Jamaican Superstar, Kofi defeated the unknown David Owen in convincing fashion on an episode of ECW in January 2008, picking up the victory after hitting his opponent with two moves that he still uses to this day: the Boom Drop and the Trouble In Paradise.

#7 Nikki Bella (2008)

WWE fans saw Brie Bella on television for the first time when she debuted on SmackDown in August 2008 and immediately began feuding with Victoria and Natalya.

Ten weeks into the rivalry, it looked like ‘Brie’ had defeated Victoria (w/Natalya) in a singles match but it turned out that she actually had a twin sister, Nikki, who had been helping her win matches.

The next week, Nikki made her in-ring debut when she teamed up with her twin to defeat their two rivals in a tag match.

#6 Sheamus (2009)

Sheamus won the WWE Championship within six months of his debut

Sheamus burst onto the WWE scene in 2009 as a member of the ECW roster, spending four months with the brand before moving to Raw and quickly winning the WWE Championship.

The Irishman’s rapid rise to the top of the company began in June of that year when he defeated Oliver John in a squash match on ECW, sealing the victory with an Irish Curse after using the Brogue Kick – his go-to finisher nowadays – as a signature.

#5 Bray Wyatt (2010)

Bray Wyatt is VERY different to Husky Harris!

The Bray Wyatt character debuted on the main roster at SummerSlam 2013, defeating Kane in a ‘Ring of Fire’ match, but the man behind the persona first appeared on WWE television three years earlier.

In July 2010, the man formerly known as Husky Harris had a totally different look as he made his first televised appearance in a quick defeat against Mark Henry on an episode of Superstars.

Within three months, the NXT Season 2 star fought Randy Orton and John Cena on Raw and became a part of The Nexus.

#4 Jinder Mahal (2011)

Nobody would have touted Jinder Mahal as a future WWE champion after his debut

After accompanying The Great Khali to the ring for over a month, Jinder Mahal made his WWE in-ring debut when he defeated Yoshi Tatsu in a relatively short match on SmackDown in June 2011.

The man we know now as “The Modern Day Maharajah” used a Full Nelson Slam – not too dissimilar to the Khallas he uses now – to pick up the victory, while Great Khali added insult to injury by locking in the Vise Grip on Tatsu after the match.

#3 Fandango (2011)

Fandango defeated Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 29

There’s a term in WWE when a Superstar doesn’t want to lose to somebody who, at least from a storyline perspective, is clearly inferior to them: it’s called being ‘Fandangoed’.

Unfortunately, the Fashion Police member hasn’t quite lived up to the massive expectations that WWE obviously had for him when he shocked the world by defeating the legendary Chris Jericho in his in-ring debut as the Fandango character at WrestleMania 29.

That match, however, wasn’t Fandango’s first televised match in WWE. Discounting NXT Season 4, which he won, his debut actually came in August 2011 when, competing as Johnny Curtis, he was destroyed by Mark Henry on an episode of SmackDown.

#2 The Shield (2012)

One month on from The Shield’s memorable debut at Survivor Series 2012, where they cost Ryback the WWE Championship by triple-powerbombing him through the announce table, they competed in their first televised match as a trio at the TLC pay-per-view.

In a rare non-title TLC match, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose showed exactly why they were the future of WWE by defeating Ryback, Daniel Bryan and Kane in a six-man battle that was worthy of headlining the show.

While this was the first time fans had seen Rollins and Reigns compete on WWE television, Ambrose had already appeared in short matches against Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, The Big Show and Val Venis in 2006 and 2007.

#1 Braun Strowman (2015)

Braun Strowman won the Greatest Royal Rumble

Braun Strowman has made a huge impact in a short amount of time as a WWE Superstar, and it all began when he interfered during a match between Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper and Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose on Raw in August 2015.

The “Black Sheep” of the Wyatt Family immediately set his sights on the two Shield members, slamming Reigns to the mat with a Yokosuka Cutter before choking out Ambrose.

The following week, he appeared in his first televised match, defeating “The Lunatic Fringe” via disqualification following interference from Reigns.