Ranking All 15 WWE Debuts & Returns From 2025
Faces old and new turned up, freshening the roster and popping the crowd. Who shined brightest?
Once upon a time, WWE fans could set their watches for one night on the calendar that would serve as an effective season premiere, wrapping up old storylines, launching new ones and – most intriguingly – introducing new cast members to join the show.
For years, the Raw after WrestleMania became the big night when several NXT superstars would get the callup and debut, or prodigal superstars would miraculously find their way back to the Fed on that night. The surprises produced a crescendo of cheers as fans reacted to all the hope and promise that the newness brought to the product.
That tradition still exists – albeit in a smaller fashion – but WWE has recognized the impact that a new or returning superstar can have on the product throughout the year, bringing wrestler back or debuting them throughout the year to give a jolt to the program and generate a reaction from the live crowd.
In 2025, WWE used this technique across the entire calendar, from the first show of year into the winter holiday season. Some of the appearances were legit shocks, while others were long-overdue debuts. Superstars who left the company found themselves back, using a wrestling name long thought to be dead, as if they had never left.
Ranking these debuts and returns is always a tough task: some arrive too late in the year to truly be evaluated; some arrive with high expectations and underperform; some are pleasant surprises; and others make a splash and quickly become part of the scenery. One thing that won't make the cut: wrestlers returning from a few months on the shelf due to injury (Liv Morgan) or on vacation (Roman Reigns). Your absence should be measured in years to qualify as a true "return."
This list attempts to balance all of that while minimizing the use of “potential” as a crutch to bolster a wrestler’s resume’. Regardless, just because they didn’t have a banner debut year doesn’t mean that they’re destined to disappoint, and a low ranking shouldn’t necessarily reflect on the wrestler themselves, but the entirety of their presentation and packaging.
Let’s get to it…