20 Awesome WWE Royal Rumble Debuts And Returns

1. AJ Styles (2016)

edge royal rumble
WWE.com

If you’re going to make your mark in a debut, what better way than to show up out of the blue to face off against one of the most polarizing wrestlers on the WWE roster?

The hottest free agent in wrestling, AJ Styles, made his WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, coming out at #3 to confront Roman Reigns. The reaction from the crowd was deafening as they realized who it was and what that potentially meant.

All Styles would go on to do during the next three years was become one of the biggest stars in the company and a multi-time world champion. And his appearance that night really set the stage, as though fans realized the new face that runs the place had arrived.

Contributor
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.