Ranking Every AEW Surprise Debut From Worst To Best

8. Brian Cage

Jon Moxley
AEW

Admittedly, the whole "Who can stop the path of Cage?" line was a tad too on the nose, but having Brian Cage come out as the surprise final entrant in Double or Nothing 2020's Casino Ladder Match was a welcome sight.

It had actually already been announced that past January that the Machine had formally signed with All Elite Wrestling, but the 'when' of Cage's AEW bow was completely unknown. Skip ahead to 23 May, and the former IMPACT World Champion made his presence felt in a major way.

Not just did Cage turn up as a shock entrant in the Casino Ladder offering - pulling apart a ladder upon making his way to the ring - but he decimated plentiful fools on his way to winning that bout and earning a shot at Jon Moxley's AEW World Championship.

The hulking star would ultimately come up short in his quest to dethrone Mox, but his surprise debut and the weeks that followed set Brian Cage up as being a big deal in AEW - and the handling and presentation of him so far means he's one of those wrestlers who can easily be heated up for the AEW World Title picture as and when needed.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.