15 MORE Wrestlers WWE Debuted In The Worst Way Possible
11. Batista
Dave Bautista is a legend both in WWE and in Hollywood. With a glittering in-ring career as a former WWE Champion and member of Evolution, he has also gone on to have one of the biggest movie careers of anyone who made the jump from pro wrestling to the silver screen. As this piece is being written, he has only ever played one deacon, though.
It's one of wrestling's great mysteries as to what WWE creative saw in Batista that made them think he'd be the perfect sidekick for D-Von Dudley's first post-Dudley Boyz gimmick, Reverend D-Von. Deacon Batista is a gimmick straight out of the mid-90s. A man who wore a chain around his neck with a metal collection box attached, this mountain of muscle had to play this character for a few months, debuting on the May 9th, 2002 episode of SmackDown.
After assisting D-Von for around two months, including a feud with Randy Orton, the Deacon saw the light and turned on Reverend D-Von before being switched from SmackDown to Raw, starting his true rise as Batista and joining Evolution shortly after.