10 Wrestlers Whose Rookie Years Exceeded Expectations

When Tatanka debuted with the company on the 1st February, 1992 taping of WWF Superstars, it’s not that anyone was necessarily expecting him to do badly, per sé, it’s just that he put together such an extraordinary run that I imagine very few could claim to have predicted this one coming.

After defeating his near-namesake Pat Tanaka in his very first outing, Tatanka remained unpinned and unsubmitted on television for a staggering 20 months. There was the odd draw and a no contest in the midst of all that, plus a couple of failures in Battle Royals, but in one-on-one action no one seemed capable of defeating Tatanka via conventional means.

Looking at the first year in that 20-month period, he clocked up 42 wins on TV by my count—and even though most of them were against lower-card fodder, he did manage to overcome Shawn Michaels on a couple of occasions.

That kind of streak is impressive enough in itself, but given that Tatanka was joining the fray with fairly limited wrestling experience, this one surely deserves to go down as a rookie run that exceeded expectations.