Ranking All 24 WWE Debuts & Returns In 2023

4. Zoey Stark

CM Punk Trish Stratus
WWE.com

Another NXT callup who felt like they were bound to get lost in the shuffle, Zoey Stark’s fortunes changed dramatically when she hooked up with Trish Stratus as a disciple of the Hall-of-Famer.

That sounds odd when you consider that Trish’s run was so abysmal, but that was because it was a downgrade for her. For Zoey, the ongoing angle with Becky Lynch meant exposure, purpose and focus to a run that to that point was at best meandering (Stark was tormenting Nikki Cross in backstage segments prior to this run).

Stark got to compete against Lynch multiple times, beating her once, and she completed a needed face turn by putting Stratus down at the end of her run with the company at Payback.

Since becoming a fan favorite, Zoey has held her own and become a fixture on Raw. Her talent alone should make her a main roster mainstay for years, and a title win is most likely in the cards for her.

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.