10 Greatest Debut Years In WWE History
5. Ronda Rousey
The Baddest Woman In The World was WWE-bound from the moment she ended her UFC career, but the booking was admirably patient. She made her debut at Royal Rumble 2018 to a rapturous pop. She was featured on TV and had a few altercations with Triple H and Stephanie, but had to wait until WrestleMania 34 to get her hands on them.
It was worth it: alongside Kurt Angle, Rousey stole the show in a tag match against The Authority, and from there, her path was set. She again demonstrated an innate grasp for the business in singles bouts with Nia Jax, and by the end of SummerSlam, she was a beloved face champion, having submitted Alexa Bliss.
Rousey rounded and shaped her character from there, dropping the smiley babyface persona and becoming a pure killer. She had great matches with the likes of Nikki Bella, Charlotte Flair, and (in probably Rousey's best bout to date) Sasha Banks, coming in at the one year mark.
She wouldn’t stick around for much longer in her first run, but as a year-long burst of momentum, it could hardly have been better. She just got it from day one, and brought something unique to the business.