10 Awesome Wrestling Debuts That Quickly Faded Away

Nigel McGuinness finally made his WWE debut as part of the UK Title Tournament’s commentary team last week, but the company almost snapped him up in 2009. McGuinness was known was one of the independent scene’s brightest stars at the time, and his endless stream of matches with Daniel Bryan rank among Ring of Honor’s finest. WWE soon took note and tried to bring him in, but it was announced several weeks later that McGuinness had failed a pre-screening physical test, and he headed to TNA instead.

McGuinness became Desmond Wolfe, and he was immediately pushed to the top. Wolfe made his debut by ambushing Kurt Angle, the company’s biggest star, on an October 2009 episode of Impact, and followed-up in spectacular fashion. He defeated Angle in a street fight the following week, and after laying Kurt out again several weeks later, it looked like Wolfe was heading for stardom.

Unfortunately, things fell apart shortly after. Angle went on to defeat Wolfe on two consecutive PPVs, and his push was effectively over. The matches themselves were excellent, but Wolfe’s superstar aura had been destroyed, and the damage could never be undone. Wolfe was never treated as anything more than a listless midcarder for the remainder of his TNA spell, and was eventually forced to retire in 2011.