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WrestleMania is supposed to be the pinnacle of sports entertainment, the zenith of professional wrestling, and the most important show for all of WWE’s superstars. Everyone wants to be a part of WrestleMania and have a positive impact on the show.
But not everyone gets to do this. For every wrestler that manages to have a successful WrestleMania debut, there are just as many that fail to make a positive impact when they first appear on the WrestleMania card.
These are the wrestlers whose attempts to make a name for themselves on the grandest stage of them all blew up in their faces. Instead of debuting at WrestleMania on a positive note, things went poorly for them. And in some cases, their WrestleMania debuts were so bad that they couldn’t shake off the impact those debuts had on their careers.
10. Goldust
Goldust has long been one of WWE’s more controversial characters. The androgynous, creepy-looking Goldust seemed to have a crazed obsession with Hollywood and appeared to be more interesting in creeping out his opponents than being a skilled grappler.
This ‘character-driven’ booking reached its peak at WrestleMania XII when Goldust wrestled/fought “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in a bizarre ‘match’ called a Hollywood Backlot Brawl. It featured unrealistic strikes, a car chase, and a lot of gimmicky nonsense that didn’t really set the world on fire.
That match ended up being a sample of things to come for Goldust, as his WWE career would be filled with unusual booking and ridiculous and over-the-top gimmicks.
9. The Great Khali
The Great Khali was presented as a truly unstoppable force when he entered WWE for the first time. He basically squashed the Undertaker and became a fixture of the main event scene of whichever show he was on.
However, despite being booked so strongly, his wrestling skills didn’t improve, which led to some very disappointing matches throughout his initial years in WWE.
One such a match was his first WrestleMania match, and that was against Kane. Although Kane was still a popular wrestler at the time, he wasn’t especially skilled in the ring and was best served working with a more established ring general.
So when Kane and Khali met in the ring in the latter’s WrestleMania debut, it was downright awful. Neither man did very much in the ring, although the match did feature a memorable spot that paid homage to Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant from WrestleMania III.
Unfortunately, that was the best part of that match, leaving Khali with a win, but not without further detractors disliking him due to his poor wrestling skills.
8. Booker T
Despite most of the WCW/ECW Alliance wrestlers being presented as heels/bad guys, Booker T was a solid fan favourite that got cheered on a regular basis. Many people wanted to see him succeed after being such a central figure in the Alliance, especially after his feud with The Rock.
Yet instead of being featured prominently at WrestleMania X8, Booker T was lost in the shuffle in a feud with Edge over a fictitious Japanese shampoo commercial. The premise of this match was as ridiculous as it was insulting to the wrestlers involved. Edge was very much a rising star and Booker T was competing in world-title-level matches less than one year prior.
Booker T wouldn’t score a victory at WrestleMania until two years afterwards, and that was in a throwaway tag team match that featured three other teams. This was a disappointing way of using a wrestler that many fans absolutely adored while he was on WWE programming.
7. Sting
For over a decade, Sting was considered the biggest name in wrestling to have never wrestled for WWE or at WrestleMania. Then, in 2014, Sting made a shocking debut in WWE and soon entered a feud with Triple H.
However, as you might expect, a match between a 56-year-old Sting and a 45-year-old Triple H wasn’t going to be a spectacle in grappling art. To make up for the fact that this match was going to be slow and ‘methodical’, it became an overbooked mess with run-ins and interference that made it more like a typical RAW segment only on a larger stage.
It was made even worse by the fact that Sting lost in his first WWE match, which brought only further credence to many of WWE’s detractors’ arguments that WWE’s tends to destroy anything that they didn’t themselves create.
6. Ultimó Dragón
When Ultimo Dragon signed with WWE, it was to accomplish two dreams: to wrestle in Madison Square Garden and to be on the card of a WrestleMania. On one hand, Ultimo Dragon did get to do both of these things. On the other hand, it wasn’t the kind of debut he probably had in mind.
Ultimo Dragon was one of ten wrestlers shoehorned into a multi-man elimination match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. The match started with two men (one of them being Ultimo) and one by one another wrestler would enter the match after one of the men already in the ring was eliminated.
Dragon’s WrestleMania debut saw him start the match and score a quick pinfall in less than two minutes. However, his contribution to WrestleMania history is more remembered for his entrance botch, as he tripped as he made his way down to the ring.
Keep in mind that Dragon was still a relative newcomer to WWE at the time, and so he had to make an impression on the fans watching WrestleMania. The fact that now most people remember him for this botch as opposed to his actual wrestling tells you how little fanfare there was regarding Ultimo Dragon in WWE.
5. Triple H
Triple H is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished wrestlers in WWE history. He has won a significant number of championships and accolades in WWE and has main-evented several major shows throughout the years.
His WrestleMania record also speaks for itself, as he has main-evented WWE’s flagship show six times since 2000. He has also been in high-profile matches for twenty years, thus further cementing his spot as a critical player in WWE.
However, it wasn’t always this way. In fact, his WrestleMania debut was actually one of the worst matches in his career. Hunter Hearst Helmsley, as he was called at the time, was the only wrestler to receive significant punishment for his role in the Madison Square Garden incident. His proposed main-event push was stalled significantly, and he was booked to suffer considerable embarrassment on a regular basis.
This included a major loss to the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania XII. Hunter was chosen to be destroyed by a returning Ultimate Warrior and suffered a catastrophic loss in a match that went less than two minutes. Included in that squash match was a spot that saw Warrior kicking out of HHH’s feared Pedigree after a one-count, which devalued that move significantly.
So if you’ve ever wondered why the Pedigree has been booked as such a devastating move in WWE, it’s because Triple H has been trying to make everyone forget how badly he lost to Warrior in 1996.
4. Jerry Lawler
Jerry Lawler is widely regarded as one of the most influential people in wrestling history. He has played an integral part in helping wrestling grow in Memphis and has long been a key figure in WWE through his commentary. Despite also wrestling for the promotion here and there, Lawler didn’t actually make his WrestleMania debut until 2011,i.e, at WrestleMania 27, against Michael Cole.
By late 2010, Jerry Lawler had entered into a feud with Michael Cole after the latter cost him the WWE Championship in a match against the Miz. This feud gradually grew in intensity until it reached the point that Cole and Lawler would wrestle each other at WrestleMania.
This led to what is quite possibly the worst WrestleMania match in years if not decades. That match should’ve gone about a minute, with Lawler thrashing Cole to get revenge for all the abuse he had been put through. Instead, the match dragged on and on and featured an overbooked finish that saw Cole actually be declared the winner.
Even with WWE legend ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin as referee, this match was awful and did a great disservice to Jerry Lawler and his legacy.
3. Rey Mysterio
Rey Mysterio is considered one of the best cruiserweight wrestlers ever and arguably the best one to ever wrestle in WWE. His initial run on SmackDown in 2002 was met with widespread praise and approval, as Mysterio had spectacular matches with various wrestlers including Kurt Angle, Edge, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero.
So how does WWE reward Mysterio for all of his hard work and excellent wrestling on SmackDown? By putting him in a match with Matt Hardy.
Now, this isn’t necessarily a knock against Matt Hardy, but in 2003 he was very much booked at the lowest level of the SmackDown card. He wasn’t on Rey’s level as a wrestler at the time, and so Hardy and Mysterio only got five minutes on WrestleMania for their cruiserweight match.
Given the outstanding opening match Rey had with Kurt Angle at SummerSlam 2002 (which was arguably the greatest under-ten-minute match in WWE history), this WrestleMania match for Mysterio felt like a major downgrade and disservice to the masked marvel.
2. A.J. Styles
A.J. Styles is arguably the best wrestler alive today, and his debut at Royal Rumble 2016 was met with roaring approval. Unfortunately, because of backstage politics at play at the time, Styles’ WrestleMania debut was met with disappointment and confusion.
Styles was feuding with Chris Jericho at the time, and they were booked in a match together at WrestleMania 32. How, the most logical decision – and in fact, the only sensible decision – would’ve been for Styles to win in order to prove to fans that might not have heard of him that he was as good as everyone said he was.
However, for some strange reason, Jericho was the one to have won, and Styles lost in his WrestleMania debut, in a match that wasn’t even the best match on that card. The ironic thing was that despite losing, Styles was the one to challenge for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship afterwards, proving that the biggest show of the year didn’t even matter. It was an awful decision.
If the goal was for Styles to challenge Reigns, what was the point of Jericho winning, especially since he wasn’t challenging for the top prize in WWE? Styles needed to prove that he was a credible contender, yet he lost against Jericho, a man that – despite being firmly established as a legend in the wrestling business – was booked as a part-timer in WWE at the time.
Simply put, none of this made sense at all, which only made WrestleMania 32 that much worse in retrospect.
1. Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan had arguably the worst possible WrestleMania debut of any top-tier WWE Superstar of the past decade. Despite being wildly popular – even as a heel – Bryan lost his World Heavyweight Championship to then-challenger Sheamus, in an 18-second match.
The entire match – if you could even call it that – was composed of Bryan kissing then-on-screen-girlfriend AJ Lee, Bryan turning around, and getting hit in the face with a Brogue Kick, before getting pinned.
Naturally, this infuriated many fans, as they were convinced that WWE was ‘burying’ Daniel Bryan as a performer. They believed that this awful, one-sided squash was meant to not only destroy Bryan the character but also to destroy any credibility he had as a performer.
Since many casual fans only watch the PPVs – with the largest number of casual fans usually tuning in to watch WrestleMania more than any other PPV – it was crucial that Bryan began his WrestleMania career on the right foot. He clearly didn’t, given the nature of this match.
However, one positive that did come out of this was that it was the seeds of what would dictate the next two years of Bryan's rise to the top of the card. This was where the "Yes! Movement" began and Bryan would go on to become the #1 fan favourite, culminating with his world title win at the main event of WrestleMania 30.
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