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With so many WWE Superstars making their main-roster debuts since WrestleMania 34, it got us thinking about how some of the established members of the current roster performed on their first appearance inside a WWE ring.
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Triple H, for example, has racked up 14 world title reigns during his legendary career, but do you know who he debuted against? And do you remember Shane McMahon’s very first match back in 1998? How about Matt Hardy?
In this article, the first in a three-part series, we select 10 current WWE Superstars who debuted between 1990 and 1999 and check out how they fared when they were thrown into the WWE spotlight for the first time.
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#10 Goldust (1990)
Five years before he became the Goldust character, Dustin Rhodes’ first televised match for WWE came at Madison Square Garden in September 1990, when he defeated Paul Diamond in seven minutes with an elbow drop.
The match aired a month later during an episode of Prime Time Wrestling, while Dustin went on to compete in several matches for WWE towards the end of 1990, culminating in him teaming with his father, Dusty Rhodes, against Ted DiBiase and Virgil at the 1991 Royal Rumble.
#9 The Undertaker (1990)
While most Superstars begin their careers further down the card and work their way to the top over a period of months and years, The Undertaker was propelled to stardom in his very first WWE match.
At Survivor Series 1990, “The Deadman” was part of The Million Dollar Team (Ted DiBiase, Greg Valentine, and Honky Tonk Man) in a four-on-four traditional elimination match against The Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Koko B Ware, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart).
The surprise fourth member of The Million Dollar Team, ‘Taker eliminated Koko and Dusty, but he was counted out when he tried to prevent Dusty from attacking his manager, Brother Love, at ringside.
It was still a winning debut for the man who would go on to become a WrestleMania icon, with DiBiase getting the victory for the team after pinning Bret.
#8 Matt Hardy (1994)
Matt Hardy began to make his name in the wrestling business as one half of the Hardy Boyz in 1998, but his first match in WWE actually came way back in 1994 – just one year after Monday Night Raw started – in a match against veteran Nikolai Volkoff on Raw.
There was hardly any mention of Matt from the commentary team, with the match simply designed to tell the story that the villainous Volkoff had begrudgingly joined The Million Dollar Corporation because he had fallen on hard times.
Matt, a short-haired 19-year-old at the time, showed off some high-flying offence during the match before eventually submitting to Volkoff’s Boston crab.
#7 Jeff Hardy (1994)
On the same day that Matt Hardy debuted against Nikolai Volkoff on Raw, Jeff Hardy competed under the name Keith Davis for the first (and only) time in his career in a losing effort against Razor Ramon.
Jeff barely had any offence against Ramon, who was involved in an Intercontinental Championship feud with Diesel at the time, and the rookie was pinned after four minutes following a Razor’s Edge.
The match, which aired two weeks after Matt’s debut, is best remembered because Jeff was just 16 at the time. However, he lied about his age, claiming he was 18, and WWE allowed him to compete.
#6 Triple H (1995)
Triple H made his first televised WWE appearance under the name Hunter Hearst Helmsley against Buck Zumhoff on an April 1995 episode of Wrestling Challenge.
Introduced to the TV audience as a “pompous aristocrat”, the man we now know as “The Game” picked up a quick victory over Zumhoff – a serial loser on WWE programming between 1988 and 1996 – with a version of Diamond Dallas Page’s Diamond Cutter.
Commentator Jim Ross had the last word on the match, praising Helmsley as “an impressive young athlete” who fans would “see more of in the upcoming weeks”.
#5 Kane (1995)
Kane made his long-awaited debut by attacking The Undertaker at Badd Blood 1997 to help Shawn Michaels win the first Hell In A Cell match in WWE history.
However, the first televised WWE match that Glenn Jacobs – the man behind the Kane character – competed in actually came two years earlier at SummerSlam 1995, when he went by the name Isaac Yankem DDS against Bret Hart.
The match came about after Jerry Lawler had been forced to kiss Bret’s foot at King of the Ring 1995, so Lawler called upon Yankem – his personal dentist – to knock Bret’s teeth out at SummerSlam.
Sadly, Yankem was unsuccessful in his mission, and “The Excellence of Execution” picked up the victory via disqualification after Lawler interfered.
#4 Rhyno (1995)
Like many of the debutants on this list, Rhyno’s first match in WWE was less about him and more about his opponent, Henry O. Godwinn.
In November 1995, when Godwinn was feuding with relative newcomer Hunter Hearst Helmsley, he quickly defeated 20-year-old Terry Richards (now known as Rhyno) with his Slop Drop finisher.
Godwinn’s celebrations didn’t last long, though, as HHH hit him with a Pedigree at ringside and then proceeded to pour slop all over him.
#3 Shane McMahon (1998)
In December 1998, Vince McMahon missed an episode of Raw because he was “too busy training for the Royal Rumble”, so he decided to leave his son, Shane, in charge of the show.
Of course, the power got to a young Shane’s head and, against the wishes of Corporation associates Pat Patterson and Gerard Brisco, he agreed to a match with the deranged Mankind.
Mankind played mind games with his inexperienced opponent and handed him a chair, which Shane used to cause a disqualification, before D-Generation X and the rest of The Corporation got involved and fought all over the ringside area.
#2 The Big Show (1999)
The Big Show’s first WWE appearance came when he emerged from underneath the ring to try (and ultimately fail), to help Vince McMahon in his quest to defeat Steve Austin in a steel cage match at St Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1999.
Fifteen days later, Big Show (then known as Paul Wight) took part in his first televised match as a WWE Superstar, facing The Rock on Monday Night Raw with Mankind as special guest referee.
Just seconds into the match, Wight and The Rock joined forces to attack Mankind, meaning it ended in a no contest, and Mr. McMahon made his way into the ring to celebrate with his fellow Corporation members.
#1 Chris Jericho (1999)
Chris Jericho made one of the most memorable WWE debuts of all time when he interrupted The Rock on an August 1999 episode of Monday Night Raw – or, in the words of Y2J, “Raw Is Jericho”.
That confrontation didn’t lead to a match between the two, though, and Jericho’s first WWE match actually happened two weeks later on the debut episode of SmackDown.
The former WCW star went one-on-one with fan favourite Road Dogg, losing via disqualification after putting his opponent through a table following a double powerbomb.
