Big E is one of the stranger WWE debuts on this list, as he simultaneously played two different characters between NXT and WWE. In late 2012, Big E Langston debuted as AJ Lees friend and quickly became Dolph Zigglers bodyguard in his feud against John Cena. At the same time, he was fighting against Seth Rollins for the NXT Championship as a face. Big E held the NXT title for several months, defeating villains along the way, all the while hanging around heel Ziggler. As Dolphs bodyguard, Big E was the silent, menacing force on the outside, and he looked like a powerhouse who was going to dominate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPgTNIsfOb0 Big E went nearly four months without having a match (his first bout came at WrestleMania XXIX), which is quite unusual. Once he started competing, however, results were mixed and he would have an uneven start to his career. He had an uneventful run as Intercontinental Champion and really fell off the radar. At 29, Big E still has a lot of potential and could develop into a solid performer, but his debut ended up being a miss in many ways.
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.
