10 WWE superstars who had an obscure start to their careers

They say that the first impression is always the best impression. It might be right on most of the occasions but there are a lot of exceptions out there when it comes to professional wrestling.Not every superstar in the business was a star right from his debut and it required a lot of blood and sweat to climb each step of the ladder. The experience of the gruelling business did polish them into professionals but looking back might not have been a pleasant experience. A handful of legendary names in the WWE history didn’t have the best of starts to their careers. The obscure start to the career however didn’t stop them from reaching their potential and here is a rundown on those inspiring names.

#10 Mick Foley

Many might think that Mick Foley’s career started off in WCW, but it wasn’t the case. Foley had a lot of independent bookings before he made it to WCW and surprisingly, his debut for one of the big fishes came at WWE.

Back in 1983, Foley debuted on WWE TV tapings alongside his partner Les Thornton to face the British bulldogs. It was nothing more than a squash match for Mick but it was the real taste of WWE style for him.

He did have some more matches in the promotion before deciding to go back to the independent scene. Foley soon built up a reputation in the Indy’s and was then snatched up by WCW.

#9 Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan is a huge name when it comes to the independent circuit but before he became popular there, Bryan had a run as enhancement talent in the WWE. Enhancement talent is basically a fancy term used to define jobbers and that was it.

He had a handful of dark matches in the company but none was good enough to get him a stable job. He even wrestled John Cena during that stint before moving on to Japan.

It was the following Ring of Honor spell that shot Bryan to stardom and all of a sudden, he was in the radar of WWE as something more than a jobber.

#8 Dolph Ziggler

The Showoff is arguably one of the most over baby faces in the WWE right now but this wasn’t always the case for him. After signing with the WWE developmental circuit, Ziggler was given a run in the Main roster alongside Chavo Guerrero.

Ziggler was supposed to be the enforcer for Chavo who at the time was playing his Kerwin White character. He wrestled under the name Caddy White and made his debut against Shelton Benjamin and Matt Striker.

After the death of Eddie Guerrero, the Kerwin White character was dropped by Chavo making Ziggler go back to developmental until he was called back to be part of the Spirit Squad.

#7 Dean Ambrose

The lunatic fringe might go down in history for being part of the Shield but before all that, he had a run in the WWE as a jobber. Ambrose had a handful of tryouts with the company during the mid-2000s and though all of them ended up in a losing effort, it was a start nevertheless.

Most of Ambrose’s jobs came in the dark matches but there were occasional appearances in the episode of Heat as well. After all this, Ambrose was a druid during Undertaker’s entrance in the 2006 Royal Rumble.

Ambrose left WWE to venture the independent scene and turned himself into a wrestler which was impossible for Vince McMahon to reject the next time he came knocking.

#6 CM Punk

CM Punk did have a good run in the Independent scene before he made it into the WWE but the appearance we know as his first appearance was not his first appearance. Confused? Well, let’s make things a bit simple.

Before Punk made his debut in the company, he had a brief cameo in a 2003 episode of SmackDown alongside Mr. Kennedy. Both men were posed as fans of Brock Lesnar who was the champion back then.

It is a blink and miss role from Punk but at the end of the day, he made it to the top of the mountain and wrestled the same wrestler he once shook hands with just to get his face on television.

#5 Rock

Rock had a healthy backing of the booking team when he reached WWE. He was pushed as the first third generation superstar in the business and had the name Rocky Maivia. Everyone was behind him big time and Rock was expected to break out when he was made the lone survivor in his debut.

It might not look like a bad start after all, but Rock’s career went downhill after his debut.

He was failing to evoke any kind of reaction among the fans and everyone started to give up on him. Rock was wasted in the midcard without much of an angle until the Nation of Domination came in. The faction turned the tides in his favor and from there; Rock went on to become one of the mainstays in the Attitude Era.

#4 Paul Heyman

The man behind the one in twenty one and one had a poetic career. He decided that he wanted to work in the wrestling business at the age of 13 and did everything he could to reach that dream.

He started off as a photographer so that he could get near the wrestlers and learn the trade. A year later, he managed to get a back pass to Madison Square Garden for his first official task in the business. Age was 14 in case you didn’t count.

The notable debut for Heyman came at WCW where he managed Mean Mark Callous (will get to that soon), it wasn’t a big success but as his career moved forward, people started taking notice of this young man who was out to change the face of Wrestling.

#3 Kane

Ever heard of Isaac Yankem, DDS? Well, he was the dentist of Jerry Lawler in the early 90s and was eventually hired by Jerry to get rid of Bret Hart. WWE’s Yankem experience turned out to be an utter failure and WWE decided to give him a new direction by making him the new Diesel after Kevin Nash’s departure.

That idea bombed even more perfectly than the first flushing down all the hopes that WWE had about the wrestler.

Someone in the booking team meanwhile came up with the idea of bringing in a brother for Undertaker and Yankem got the pick. He debuted as Kane at the Badd Blood pay-per-view in 1997 and the rest of the story, we all know.

#2 Undertaker

Before Undertaker built up a legendary status in the wrestling business with his mysterious gimmick, he was the Mean Mark Callous in WCW. WCW treated him just like any other unwanted midcarder and gave him some random feuds here and there.

After a short run, he was also given a manager named Paul E Dangerously (yes Taker was a Paul Heyman guy) but even that was not able to revive his career.

Taker soon jumped ships to WWE after his horrible run in WCW. He was repacked in the eerie gimmick and it really took off from the debut.

#1 Triple H

Just like Undertaker, Triple H started off his career as a WCW reject. He was billed as Terror Rising in the WCW run which was later changed to Jean-Paul Lévesque, a French intellect gimmick.

Both gimmicks didn’t work any wonders for Hunter and he soon joined the WWE in hope of some change but that wasn’t easy. He became the Connecticut Blueblood which once again, yes you guessed it, bombed.

His association with the Kliq backstage soon saw Hunter rise up the ranks and though it took some backstage politics to revive his career, one must admit about Hunter deserving the success he achieved.