10 Most Disastrous Wrestling Debuts Ever
3. The Yeti
The Yeti (sorry, Yeh-Tay) remains one of the most talked-about screw-ups in WCW history. 1995 saw the company hit a creative nadir with a seemingly endless stream of bad characters and questionable booking decisions, but the Yeti might be the worst of all.
Introduced as the Dungeon of Doom’s “insurance policy” for The Giant’s upcoming WCW World Heavyweight Championship match with Hulk Hogan, The Yeti first appeared frozen inside a giant block of ice. He soon burst out of the ice to reveal a heavily-bandaged mummy-like appearance, and, as promised, interfered in the Halloween Havoc main event.
With Hogan already locked into the kindest, friendliest bearhug you’ve ever seen by The Giant, The Yeti took the other side and proceeded to, ahem, dry hump The Hulkster.
The Yeti’s initial appearance was so disastrous that WCW completely changed his look the next time he appeared. Gone were the dirty bandages and boot lifts, replaced by a masked ninja costume that wasn’t quite as preposterous, but every bit as laughable. The character was completely abandoned three weeks later, but The Yeti’s memory lives on.
From Tony Schiavone’s mispronunciation to The Yeti’s deeply-unsettling attempt at a “bearhug”, this debut goes down as one of the most memorable events in WCW history for all the wrong reasons.