Griffin Kaye
It is one thing for a wrestler to make a strong debut but it is a true indicator of the WWE’s faith in you when your first match is one where you pick up a championship. Here are ten such wrestlers who won titles in their WWE debut match. As we shall see, however, those who did win a belt in their initial bout did not necessarily follow it with shining success…
Christian (Light Heavyweight Championship)
Christian made his on-screen debut at Breakdown: In Your House, costing his former protégé Edge his match against Owen Hart. Within a month, he himself was a champion.
Aligned with Gangrel in The Brood, at Judgement Day: In Your House, the newly-debuted Canadian would challenge for the Light Heavyweight championship in his very first match for the WWE.
At the Pay-Per-View, Christain faced Taka Michinoku, the first holder of the revived Light Heavyweight belt since winning a tournament for it in December 1997 at D-Generation X: In Your House. The whole division was undoubtedly inspired by the success of WCW’s acclaimed Cruiserweight division, even if the WWE themselves were a few stars short of a sufficient talent pool.
In an odd heel versus heel match, Christian was successful in his quest for the belt, countering the Michinoku Driver into a pinning manoeuvre and getting the win.
After the bell, commentator Jim Ross observed: “I‘ve got to consider that a big upset, ladies and gentlemen, because there’s no track record, there’s no history here with Christian, but in his first outing, he has become a WWF Light Heavyweight champion.”
Essa Rios (Light Heavyweight Championship)
After a month with the title belt, Christian dropped the strap to long-time journeyman Duane Gill in a shock result.
A member of the J.O.B Squad, Gill would soon be transformed into Gillberg, a thinly veiled rib at WCW’s biggest star.
If you want to know the credibility given to his time as champion, he chalked up losses to Luna Vachon, Shane McMahon, and Tiger Ali Singh whilst he lasted just six seconds in the 1999 Royal Rumble. Remarkably though, he held the belt for nearly 14 months. Although this was due to basically never defending the championship, it still means that in the history books, Gillberg has the longest-ever reign as Light Heavyweight champion; not Taka Michinoku, not Dean Malenko, not X-Pac—but Gillberg.
In a match aired on February 13th 2000, Gillberg would lose his title to Essa Rios in under a minute. Rios, who had previously wrestled for the WWF in the Light Heavyweight division under the Aguila mantle, was making his televised debut under this new gimmick.
The broader focus however was not on Rios but his valet, a debuting Lita.
Jerry Lynn (Light Heavyweight Championship)
By now, you’ve likely noticed the trend that many Light Heavyweight titleholders are those who have just debuted, which perhaps speaks volumes about the depth of the title division; needless to say, the company did not have much of a high opinion of the belt.
On April 29th 2001, less than a month after Extreme Championship Wrestling became defunct, former world champion Jerry Lynn made his WWE debut. The occasion was the Sunday Night Heat prior to Backlash, in which he challenged Light Heavyweight champion Crash Holly.
In a fast-paced and entertaining encounter, “The New F’N Show” managed to pick up the belt, pinning the younger Holly Cousin with a small package and a handful of tights.
It would be a strong start for the man described by Dave Meltzer as “one of the most underrated workers of the last quarter century,” but the implication of that very label would come true as Lynn would quickly slip out of the limelight.
In a rather disheartening manner, Lynn’s title win was perhaps the highlight of his career rather than a launch pad to stardom as he would soon find himself floundering in a WWE where Jerry Lynn was anything but the priority.
Gail Kim (Women’s Championship)
Considering how inert WWE were in regards to their women’s division by 2003, it might be surprising just how much female star power they wielded. Indeed, take the case of the seven-woman 2003 Raw battle royal where the match consisted of Women’s champion Jazz, Trish Stratus, Victoria, Ivory, Jacqueline, Lita, and Molly Holly. One other addition to the match was a new superstar for whom the WWE had aired several vignettes.
Dressed in all-black and donning a pair of sunglasses akin to Neo from The Matrix, Gail Kim would make her WWE debut here and survive through to the final two whilst bigger stars than herself were eliminated.
She was able to eke out a win after counting a powerbomb attempt from Victoria into a hurricanrana counter over the ropes.
Kim’s first run with the company is more forgettable than her later stint from 2008-2011. She would feud with major stars like Molly Holly and Trish Stratus but would fail to capture the acclaim she would when making TNA the must-go epicentre of women’s wrestling during her subsequent run in Jeff Jarrett’s promotion.
Carlito (United States Championship)
At 2004’s No Mercy PPV, John Cena won his second United States title belt, having never lost it the first time around, instead being stripped of the championship by SmackDown general manager Kurt Angle. However, the leader of the ‘Cenation’ would drop the belt within the week.
On the next week’s SmackDown, filmed in Cena’s home state of Massachusetts, he would be challenged for the belt by the newly-debuted Carlito.
Under the moniker of Carlito Caribbean Cool, the son of Carlos Colon would debut with a brash, cocky character with Razor Ramon undertones who spat in the face of those who were not cool.
In his debut, Carlito berated Cena in a promo—insulting his hometown in doing so—before planting him with a DDT and spitting an apple in his face.
Later that night, provoked into a title match, Carlito would face Cena in a rather one-sided encounter which saw the champion wipe the ring with the newcomer. With title retention seeming inevitable, Carlito seized his opportunity and, when the referee was distracted, knocked Cena unconscious with his chain. He would then pin “The Doctor of Thuganomics” to get the three count and win the US title.
Able to pin Cena in Massachusetts, the win was made all the more impressive by the fact Cena was a rising star at the time and one of the most popular performers in the promotion. The win would be a career highlight for Carlito, who would go on to become one of the most memorable acts of the Ruthless Aggression’s stacked mid-card.
MNM (WWE Tag Team Championship)
Talking of Carlito, it was on Carlito’s largely forgotten Carlito’s Cabana chat show segment that the team of MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina) made their debut, in which they targeted one-half of the WWE Tag Team champions Rey Mysterio.
On SmackDown! two weeks later, the duo would make their in-ring debut when the duo of Nitro and Mercury would face champions Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero in a title encounter.
At the time, the WWE’s tag roster was thinning so to rejuvenate the tag scene in the short term, MNM were formed. Framed as a legitimate tag team, Mercury, Nitro, and Melina were given the gimmick of a trio of sneering, egotistical Hollywood socialites.
When the second bell rang, MNM had captured the tag titles, having pinned Rey Mysterio with their Snapshot finisher, a fireman’s carry/elevated DDT combination, after Melina had distracted Guerrero.
The win was part of a larger angle in which an increasingly hostile and aggressive Guerrero would eventually turn on his tag partner.
Santino (Intercontinental Championship)
Santino Marella’s WWE debut should certainly earn points for being one of the most creative debuts.
During an episode of Raw filmed in Milan, Italy, in 2007, Vince McMahon offered up an open challenge against his hired heavy Umaga for the Intercontinental title.
In perhaps the most famous instance of a ‘plant’ in professional wrestling history, a certain Santino Marella was picked out of the crowd to face “The Samoan Bulldozer”. It was presumed that the hometown hero would be squashed fairly convincingly by the man two times his weight.
Yet, when “The Samoan Savage” headed to the top rope he would be interrupted by rival Bobby Lashley. After hitting a prone Umaga from his perch, he would deliver a chair shot to his skull, followed by a spear. Lashley then placed Santino on top of Umaga for the three count for a shock title switch.
Although a feel-good moment, it was more than a one-off as Santino would become a full-time member of the WWE roster for nearly a decade.
Ted DiBiase, Jr (Intercontinental Championship)
On the 15th anniversary of Raw in 2007, the still relatively new oddball alliance of Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly would pick up the WWE World Tag Team titles. Dusty Rhodes was on commentary at the time and celebrated with his son.
After 202 days, the duo would have their first PPV title defence when facing the debuting Ted Dibiase, Jr. and his mystery tag team partner.
The future leader of the DiBiase Posse announced before the bell rang that he had received a text from his partner. Running late, the “Million Dollar Man”’s son petitioned for the match to be delayed.
After this was refused, he started the match solo, or so it seemed.
In a twist, Cody then performed a DDT on his partner before DiBiase announced Cody was his tag partner. The DDT left Holly prone for a million dollar leg sweep, which was enough to put down the veteran bruiser.
As well as making DiBiase a champion in his debut match, the win made Cody Rhodes one of the very few individuals to technically win a belt off of himself when switching partners with the two stints recognised as separate reigns.
DiBiase is not the only person in the family to win a title upon debut, however, as his father too was awarded the North American Heavyweight championship upon signing. This was not in a wrestling match, however, hence why it is not included in this list.
Paige (Divas Championship)
Perhaps this is bending the rules somewhat as Paige’s title win was on only her main roster debut once she had been elevated from NXT.
By the Raw after WrestleMania XXX, AJ Lee had been Divas champion for nearly an entire calendar year. Being the cornerstone of the division during a time of apathy, Lee had defeated most of the female roster at ‘Mania when winning in a 14-woman invitational. This piece of bad booking was exemplified by the fact this was the only defence of the title belt at WrestleMania.
Having beaten the entire roster, there was little more Lee could do on her own, with WWE bringing up a British prospect from NXT to feud with AJ.
In an impromptu encounter, Paige would take on AJ. Able to survive her Black Widow finisher, Paige delivered the Paige Turner to the champion and was able to get the three count.
As depicted in the biopic Fighting With My Family, Paige was allegedly told by The Rock of the angle. She told The Sun newspaper in 2018:
“He pulled me in a room and told me I was debuting the next day and I was just like ‘What!’ And then he told me I was going to win the championship and I was just like ‘Oh my god, oh my god!’ I started crying and asked him why he was telling me this and he replied ‘It’s just cause we’re in this meeting I wanted to tell you but I also wanted to tell you something else. I wanted to see your face because I know you deserve this.”
Pretty Deadly (NXT Tag Team Championship)
Another contentious claimant to the title of wrestlers winning titles in their debut is Pretty Deadly. The flamboyant duo had previously captured the tag belts on NXT UK prior to capturing the NXT belts.
The England-based tag team would debut on the revamped NXT 2.0 brand in early 2022, revealing themselves as the group who had jumped The Creed Brothers, propelling themselves to the top of tag team ranking in the process.
At the time, the titles were vacant as a result of the suspension of Nash Carter, one-half of the NXT Tag Team champions.
On the April 12th 2022 edition of NXT 2.0, Pretty Deadly would compete in a five-way tag team gauntlet match. Whittled down to just The Creed Brothers and Pretty Deadly, the duo were able to pick up the belts after hitting their ‘Spilt Milk’ finisher, winning the straps in their debut match.
