10 Greatest Debut Years In WWE History

As anyone who has followed the product will know, debuting an NXT star on WWE can be a fraught affair, with many developmental stars quickly squandered on the main roster. It’s strange that they continue to get things so wrong, given they had the blueprint with Kevin Owens.

The Prizefighter emerged in May 2015 on Raw. Much of the crowd knew him; those who didn’t soon got the idea when he attacked John Cena and stomped on the US Title. Owens used his incredible promo skills to build himself into a believable opponent for Cena. He then took this one step further by beating him clean at Elimination Chamber.

This feud went two more rounds, and while Cena sadly won both, it elevated Owens immensely, and each clash was great. He was essentially a made man from here, notching a couple of Intercontinental title runs and putting on a great showing at his first WrestleMania within his first year.

Things have been up and down for Owens since then - though he recently did the Lord’s work headlining WrestleMania with Steve Austin - but this is still arguably the greatest NXT call-up in history, a proper, star-making performance from one of the business’ most reliable workers.