10 times WWE Superstars came through the audience
How do debuts go about in the main roster? Sometimes a superstar has promos airing announcing his arrival, and sometimes they arrive without any fanfare or promos surrounding them. But then there are those rare occassions when the moment a star’s entrance theme hits the titantron and you see his name or face on it, there is frantic energy all around.
The last case has produced some of the finest debuts in WWE History.
But surprisingly, there have also been times when a WWE superstar or diva has made a debut through the crowd. They may cheer with you and they may jeer with you, but they are not you – the audience. In other words, they are planted fans.
Here are the 10 times WWE Superstars came through the audience:
10. Santino Marella
In the year 2007, Umaga reigned supreme as the Intercontinental Champion. He was merciless, atrocious and he was backed up by the symbol of no mercy and atrocity- Vince McMahon. So one night, McMahon thought of giving someone from the WWE Universe a chance to fight Umaga for the IC Title. McMahon of course expected Umaga to decimate this said fan to intimidate the audience.
Raw was held in Milan, Italy. A fan was chosen by McMahon and his name was Santino Marella. He crossed the barricade, the fans around him looked a bit concerned, he looked surprising happy to be given the opportunity. The audience was overwhelmed and was singing for this guy. He was one of them. Despite getting some offence in, Santino was attacked later on by Umaga and his manager. The match was turned into a No Holds Barred contest. Lashley, thankfully, made the most of this stipulation and interfered to give Marella the win. The miracle from Milan.
The rest is history.
9. Emma
The recent example of this sort of debut is Emma. For weeks, she would carry these placards with ‘Emma- taining’ and the likes. With Emma, the different thing was that she appeared on many other nights in many other crowds and soon one day, Santino took a page out of his own book and invited Emma for a dance off against Summer Rae. She won the dance off and that marked her debut. What followed after that were comic relief segments- a complete opposite to what Emma could have potentially become as a serious contender to the championship.
The gimmick was never given the opportunity to succeed on the main roster.
Emma, meanwhile, is thriving as a heel on NXT.
8. Steve Blackman
Oh, kayfabe, how much we miss you in all your entirety. In 1997, Vader was attacked by three of his storyline enemies in the ring after his match against The British Bulldog. The next thing we know, the camera gives us a wide shot of an unknown guy in the ring.The audience seem as surprised as all four wrestlers in the ring. But this fan surprised everyone after he took out all three of them with kicks that showed glimpses of some mixed martial arts. Jim Neidhart caught hold of the guy and tried to attack him but Vader, being the babyface, removed Neidhart and shielded the fan from any other attack. Security soon came out and assisted the fan back.
It was later that we got to know that Steve Blackman was making his second debut in the WWE and soon he’ll become one of the hardcore icons of the Attitude Era. The black pants and the kendo stick has left a lasting image of a silent assassin.