12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2021

8. Karrion Kross’ Debut Flop

Karrion Kross
WWE.com

Few wrestlers have come onto the main roster with as much built-up hype and then failed so spectacularly as Karrion Kross did.

Kross came to Raw as the reigning NXT Champion, with an elaborate and awe-inspiring entrance, complete with a scorching hot valet. However, when he showed up on Raw, the entrance was gone, as was Scarlett. Oh sure, the entrance music was the same, but without the fanfare, it was just music. Kross just appeared, wearing the NXT title and looking rather… bland.

And then he lost his debut match to Jeff Hardy in less than 3 minutes.

Yep, that really is all you need to say about Karrion’s debut to get huge negative marks. But it went worse. He went 50/50 with Hardy and Keith Lee before finally getting a more proper mini-run of squashes, but the damage was already done. A couple desperate repackaging attempts failed to resurrect him, and Kross was released in November.

From champ to chump in less than five months. That’s insane.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.