10 Wrestler Debuts That Blew Us Away

7. AJ Styles - Royal Rumble (24 January 2016)

Just a couple years before AJ Styles showed up in WWE, most fans believed he’d never enjoy a run in the company. While people around the world saw how crazy talented he was, Styles wasn’t the type of guy Vince McMahon looked for in a star. He’s not tall, he’s not a dynamic talker and, well... he’s Southern. And Vince doesn’t have a history of pushing a lot of Southern wrestlers in good faith. That all changed in early 2016.

Word broke out that Styles had signed with the company, but no one seemed to know when he would show up. Then at the Royal Rumble, he shocked the crowd and entered the match as the third participant. A massive pop greeted him. It was almost a collective sigh of relief from the fans, as Styles was given a big moment right out of the gate by getting to go face-to-face with Vince's pet project Roman Reigns.

What made this moment so fulfilling was that Styles got to skip NXT completely, he got to keep his name, and Michael Cole and the announce team treated The Phenomenal One as a major star and the biggest free agent on the planet.

Styles put on an impressive display and lasted nearly 29 minutes before getting dumped out of the Rumble. While he came up far short of winning the match, he proved he belonged in WWE and likely left his new employer wondering why he hadn’t hired him years earlier.

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As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at." Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week. Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com