10 Awesome Wrestling Debuts That Quickly Faded Away

10. Paige

Few WWE women’s wrestlers have had a career trajectory quite like Paige’s. Still considered one of the most talented women in the division, Paige is about to enter her eighth month away from WWE television, and there’s no word on when her injury/suspension-induced purgatory will end. Regardless, nothing can take away from the initial impact of her debut, even if it wasn’t to last.

Paige’s arrival was completely unexpected. In April 2014, one night after WrestleMania, WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee was in the ring celebrating her successful title defence the night before. The reigning NXT Women’s Champion’s music hit, and Paige came out to initially congratulate AJ, who didn’t take the interruption kindly. AJ became enraged, slapped her across the face, and challenged her to an impromptu Divas Title match… big mistake.

On her first night on the main roster, the 21-year-old Paige quickly defeated AJ to become the youngest Divas Champion in history. She’d gone from relative nobody to the most important woman in the company in a matter of minutes, and the entire division was turned on its head.

The impact of Paige’s debut soon wore off, however. Weak Champion Syndrome suddenly kicked-in, and Paige was losing non-title matches left, right, and centre. Her first title defence ended in a no contest when Kane attacked her challenger, Brie Bella, and Paige scraped through another defence against Naomi. Her character development was non-existent, and Paige was made to look weak and powerless throughout her run before eventually dropping the strap back to AJ at the end of June.