Ranking 22 WWE Debuts And Returns In 2021

6. Austin Theory

Vince McMahon Austin Theory
WWE

It’s kinda funny to place Austin Theory and Queen Zelina adjacent since Theory was part of Vega’s stable briefly in 2020.

But Theory was punted back to NXT for the rest of 2020 and much of 2021, only resurfacing after the WWE draft on Raw. Theory’s character has been one of the refreshing, bright spots for Raw, as he’s emerged as a young, brash rookie who targets veterans and then takes selfies with his victims. It’s such a simple gimmick, but it’s worked really well.

Then you throw in that Vince McMahon has clearly taken an interest in him and started appearing in backstage segments with Austin, which can only bode well for him – regardless of how confusing or lackluster some of these skits have been. If Vince likes you, then that’s a good thing in WWE.

While he hasn’t racked up any titles yet, you have to give Theory high marks on appearances and potential alone. Here’s to an even better 2022 for him.

In this post: 
Brock Lesnar
 
Posted On: 
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.