Wrestling fans on the Internet love to make fun of TNA’s tendency to shockingly debut big-name talent, spawning the “We know who that is! What’s ____ Doing in the Impact Zone?!” meme, but that’s only because TNA relied on that device too much, and “____” often meant some unexciting ex-WWE talent. To be honest, a big debut is a big debut, and TNA has actually had its fair share of them.

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So with that in mind, let’s look at TNA’s 10 biggest debuts that either got the crowd hype or introduced a talent as a star.

10 Ethan Carter III

Derrick Bateman might be one of the few ex-WWE guys who actually excelled in TNA. Someone at WWE decided the wrestler version of Andy Samberg wasn’t worth keeping employed in a company that relies on goofy backstage skits, so TNA snapped him up and turned him into owner Dixie Carter’s entitled rich boy nephew, Ethan Carter III.

More than that, they gave Bateman a big debut match at one of the year’s biggest pay-per-views, Bound for Glory, in 2013. Sure, it was a jobber squash, but that was the joke.

9 Michael Elgin

Big Mike isn’t necessarily a huge deal, but he was well known in the indie scene thanks to his work with Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. He also made a big impression on fans during his stint with New Japan, going as far as winning the IWGP Intercontinental Championship before showing up in Impact Wrestling at the Rebellion pay-per-view.

In the aftermath of Brian Cage winning the Impact Title, Michael Elgin came out to confront his former tag team partner and ultimately attack him. A strong debut for someone with a lot of buzz around him.

8 Cody & Brandi Rhodes

Cody and Brandi Rhodes in TNA

In the years between his WWE run and the formation of All Elite Wrestling, Cody and Brandi Rhodes sort of went around and spent a little time in various promotions all over, including NJPW, Ring of Honor, and Impact Wrestling.

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They showed up at Bound for Glory 2016 to a big reaction and immediately got into a feud with Impact power couple Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis. From there, Cody ended up challenging Eddie Edwards for the Impact Championship in a losing effort.

7 Pentagon Jr.

pentagon tna champ

We haven’t necessarily verified this, but it is safe to say that everyone on Planet Earth agrees that Pentagon Jr. is awesome. Even Impact, who has in the past dropped the ball on promoting cool talent, seemed to understand this.

When Alberto El Patron got himself fired from TNA, Pentagon and his brother Fenix got put in the main event for the Impact Championship at 2018’s Redemption. In the end, Pentagon Jr. won the title in his debut match.

6 Matt Hardy

As will be surely made clear by the end of this list, TNA loved to introduce big stars into the company via the “mystery opponent” gimmick. This one happened at Genesis 2011, where Rob Van Dam was scheduled to fight a mystery opponent, but desperately wanted to fight Jeff Hardy instead.

When he confronted boss Eric Bischoff about it, Bisch told RVD he was going to get Hardy. Turns out he didn’t say which Hardy!

5 Christian Cage

Christian

Christian was criminally underappreciated in WWE, often settling for being “Edge’s friend.” But when he debuted in TNA under his old indie moniker of Christian Cage, he got a hero’s welcome at 2005’s Genesis pay-per-view, armed with a steel chair and the world’s most ridiculous jacket.

At first, Christian repped the heel Team Canada faction. But in classic WCW fashion, it was all a swerve! He’s actually a good guy, much to the delight of a raucous crowd.

4 Team 3D

Team 3D TNA

TNA Impact! originally aired on the Fox Sports Network, but moved to Spike TV after a year. So for the Spike premiere, TNA opted for a big debut of name talent, namely The Dudley Boyz, Bubba Ray, and Devon.

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Amid a factional brawl that included various goons like 3 Live Crew, Team Canada, and Planet Jarrett, the music suddenly hit and out came the renamed Team 3D – Brother Devon and Brother Ray – a great tag team associated with ECW and WWE’s Attitude Era. Spike Dudley wasn’t far behind either.

3 Jeff Hardy

He may have cleaned up his act later, but it is impossible to talk about Jeff Hardy in TNA without discussing Brother Nero’s biggest missteps, both of which involve wrestling while intoxicated (once with Sting at Victory Road, once with Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom V).

That said, Hardy’s debut as AJ Styles’ mystery opponent was still pretty huge. Even though Hardy's tenure in TNA was fraught with controversy, it is hard to deny that the live crowd went ballistic.

2 Sting

After beating Ric Flair in the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Sting disappeared from the American wrestling scene, only surfacing to take part in a European tour for the short-lived World Wrestling All-Stars.

Sting's return to the US happened in 2003 – after a two-year hiatus – at TNA’s one-year anniversary show, where Sting made his debut as Jeff Jarrett’s tag team partner against AJ Styles and Sixx-Pac (a.k.a. X-Pac and a dozen other names). What was originally a commitment to a handful of shows soon turned into an 11-year stint with TNA.

1 Kurt Angle

kurt angle tna debut

Even though Kurt Angle sucks, he’s one of the few ex-WWE stars who went to TNA and didn’t embarrass themselves or fizzle out. He stuck with the company for a staggering ten years, ended up in their Hall of Fame, and had some great matches with TNA mainstays like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe.

Speaking of Joe, he’s the focus of Kurt Angle’s debut, where Angle headbutts the man and the crowd goes nuts as they get into a huge pull-apart brawl. When they finally had their match, it was awesome.

Next: The 10 Oldest TNA World Heavyweight Champions In History