There are many ways that WWE has debuted new wrestlers. Some have started off small and grown into superstars, others debut hype videos, and then there are those who have made surprise appearances in one form or another -- among countless others. Aside from special cases, debuting wrestlers tend to win their first matches.
While some debuting wrestlers get easy wins against jobbers, there are some new characters who end up scoring huge wins over known talent. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the most impressive WWE debut wins of all time.
10 Finn Balor
Finn Balor maybe wasn’t all that well known to WWE fans when he made his debut as Hideo Itami’s surprise tag team partner on NXT in 2014, but he quickly developed a buzz thanks to dope matches and an awesome gimmick. He finally made his WWE main roster debut in 2016, and in spectacular fashion, beating several main roster stars including Roman Reigns in a tournament to crown the first Universal Champion on Raw, leading to a huge final match against Seth Rollins at SummerSlam.
9 Santino Marella
Santino Marella has one of the most curious debuts in WWE history. On an episode of Raw taped in Italy, Santino was a crowd plant chosen to challenge Umaga for the Intercontinental Championship in a No DQ match. The supposed civilian scored a surprise win over the monster heel, and suddenly he was on WWE’s roster, where he would hold the title for over two months in his first reign.
8 Goldberg
A homegrown phenomenon in WCW, Goldberg was one of the big stars of the now-defunct promotion to not show up in WWE after the company’s purchase in 2001. Instead, he embarked on other pursuits until officially signing with the company in 2003.
And his debut match was certainly a doozy, defeating The Rock in the main event of Backlash. It may have been downhill from there -- he stuck around for about a year and was booed out of WrestleMania XX -- but it was a strong start.
7 Paige
At WrestleMania XXX, AJ Lee was the longest reigning Divas Champion when she ended up facing the entire Divas Division in the “Vickie Guerrero Invitational,” miraculously coming out on top. The following night on Raw, she ended up challenging a debuting Paige, who was NXT Women’s Champion at the time. After a brief match, Paige scored a surprise win with her Paige Turner finisher, becoming Divas Champion and establishing herself on the main roster.
6 Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar pretty much showed up fully formed when he emerged on WWE’s main roster in 2002 -- as a dominant monster backed by Paul Heyman as a manager. He even wrecked a bunch of unimportant guys in his first appearance. But his first actual match happened at Backlash, where he took on Jeff Hardy and beat him in like five minutes by TKO. A brutal way to have your debut match. Two months later, Lesnar was King of the Ring.
5 The Shield
The Shield first showed up onscreen as a unit at Survivor Series 2012, interfering in the main event title match on behalf of CM Punk. But they wouldn’t actually wrestle a match until the following month when they took on Team Hell No and Ryback in a TLC match at the pay-per-view of the same name. It was a pretty awesome match full of the requisite crazy spots, but the important part is that The Shield got a strong win over some of the most popular babyfaces in the company.
4 Shinsuke Nakamura
When Shinsuke Nakamura was slated to debut on NXT TakeOver: Dallas in 2016, there was a lot of hype for the multi-time IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Champion -- not to mention the coolest wrestler on the planet -- to bring “Strong Style” to WWE.
His first WWE match ever was against Sami Zayn, and the result proved to be both men’s best WWE match to date, full of hard-hitting moves, intense drama, and a ridiculously hot crowd. There are few WWE stars who debuted to such acclaim.
3 CM Punk
Already an indie star thanks to his work with Ring of Honor, CM Punk was discovered in the WWE developmental system by Paul Heyman, who flagged him as a future star in the ECW revival. Punk made his debut on the eighth episode of the new ECW’s weekly show in the most auspicious way possible: in the Hammerstein Ballroom, in front of a rabid crowd of die-hard wrestling fans who had heard of him. To really understand the hugeness of this win, his debut match was against Justin Credible, a star from the original ECW -- and they still cheered CM Punk.
2 Ronda Rousey
For several years before she officially signed with the company in 2018, there was a lot of talk about whether or not Ronda Rousey would join up with WWE, or if she’d even be any good at wrestling. But Rousey finally made her debut at WrestleMania 34 alongside Kurt Angle in a tag team match against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, and the result eliminated all doubt. While there’s a whole lot to criticize about Rousey -- both as a wrestling character and in real life -- her ‘Mania bout proved that she was a pretty capable wrestler, scoring a submission win over McMahon.
1 Tazz
It’s tough to imagine a better debut than that of ECW star Tazz. He not only got the opening match of the incredibly strong Royal Rumble 2000, but he ended defeating Kurt Angle, choking him out, and winning via referee decision -- in the extremely WWE venue of Madison Square Garden, no less. Fans there knew Tazz well -- the reaction he got was so huge that many claim that it doomed his WWE career, as it was a reaction that had nothing to do with WWE.