Ranking All 24 WWE Debuts & Returns In 2023

3. Chelsea Green

CM Punk Trish Stratus
WWE.com

When Chelsea Green returned to WWE at the Royal Rumble – and was promptly eliminated – it produced an eyeroll moment. Did WWE really bring Green back to be little more than a jobber who can’t get it done in the ring?

In a manner of speaking, yes. And it’s actually worked really well. Green’s “Karen” character felt very forced and fake initially, but she’s refined it throughout the year and played off Adam Pearce, her various tag partners, and her opponents extremely well, portraying an entitled, delusional champion who repeatedly talks herself into trouble and is forced to either have her partner bail her out or take her medicine.

Chelsea gets high marks because of the camera time she steals every week and the fact that she’s one of only two wrestlers on this list to win a title during their return or debut this year. Regardless of what one thinks of the Women’s Tag Team Championship, that still merits some consideration.

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.