10 Best WWE Rookie Years

9. Wade Barrett

The black-sheep of this list, Wade Barrett's maiden WWE year didn't culminate with a stint as world champion. His pursuit of the WWE title ended, instead, with a disqualification victory over Randy Orton at Bragging Rights in October 2010. Given that he only made his Monday Night Raw bow about four months earlier, it was a pretty impressive run.

The Englishman's rapid rise up the ranks was driven, primarily, by his close involvement in the Nexus angle, wherein he led a group of peeved-off developmental rookies in their revolt against the established WWE order. Things started to turn south for Barrett after the story had run its race, but his first year was almost a spectacular one.