10 Wrestlers That Became Stars In One Second

Australian Cinephile

The rise of Batista, the fall of Hulkamania, and a Very Nice Very Evil surprise.

Transcript

00:00I want to know what you can do in a single second, become a star.

00:04Now when I say this, I don't mean it all happened in literally 1,000 milliseconds,

00:08but within this time frame, some magic did reach out and tell you

00:11that you better start paying attention to someone on the screen

00:14because good things are happening.

00:15And yes, as ever, you will tell me,

00:17how dare you sign when that person is not a star,

00:19but come on now, let's go get a real problem.

00:22But I am sign from WhatCulture, please do hit that subscribe button.

00:25And this is 10 wrestlers that became a star in one second.

00:30Number 10, Steve Austin.

00:31And no, it's not the moment you're thinking of.

00:33We are going back a good year before that when Steve Austin had left WCW and headed to ECW.

00:38It was September 1995 and the future Stone Cold was kind of left with nothing to do

00:43until Paul Heyman called him.

00:45Knowing Austin was injured, he was happy for the man to come in

00:47and just go off about how annoyed he was at World Championship Wrestling

00:50and say whatever he wanted.

00:52Unsurprisingly, Steve signed up for this in a heartbeat.

00:54He did go after everyone.

00:56Dusty Rhodes, Eric Bischoff, and even Hulk Hogan.

00:59It was the Hulkster that got the biggest reaction

01:01and when Austin was there dressed up in the red and yellow

01:03doing the most ridiculous parody of the man you can imagine,

01:06fans went nuts.

01:08If nothing else, it showed a whole new side to him

01:09and from that point on, he had a legion of supporters

01:12that knew with the right push, he would go on to great things.

01:15And what do you know, they were right.

01:17Number 9, Kofi Kingston.

01:19It's such a shame this went the way it did because it rocked.

01:22Back in 2009 on Raw, Kofi Kingston was finally getting his due

01:25and was thrust into a feud with Randy Orton.

01:28They were also having a fight in Madison Square Garden

01:30which added the needed fairy dust proceedings.

01:32And when Kofi flew off a barricade, smashing Orton through a table,

01:35the reaction was wonderful.

01:37We were definitely onto something, or we should have been.

01:39Because as we have been made very aware today,

01:42after screwing up one spot in a later match,

01:44Orton got mad in the ring and called him stupid over and over again.

01:48This led to the powers that be deciding Kingston wasn't ready for this

01:51and the program was stopped very abruptly

01:53and it would be another decade before we got back to it.

01:56Within four weeks, the whole thing had been undone

01:58and if you need a reason as to why this was such a disappointment,

02:01just go and watch it now.

02:03WWE needed new stars and the fans were ready for one

02:05and yet one mistake, throw it off course.

02:08This was silly, especially when one move was enough

02:11to make Kingston the man.

02:13Number 8, Batista.

02:14We go back to Raw in November 2004 for this one

02:17where WWE was scrambling.

02:19We had pushed Randy Orton way too early

02:20into the world title picture

02:22and when that got rejected,

02:23some new stories had to be thrown front and center.

02:26The answer was to move away from this

02:27and as we were doing so,

02:29Triple H found himself teaming with Edge and Gene Snitsky

02:31after Randy had gained general manager powers

02:34in order to make Hunter's life hell.

02:36It got worse when the game found out

02:37that his supposed teammates were actually just trying

02:39to get closer to his world title

02:40and when he told Batista to deal with these fools,

02:43he stormed out of the room.

02:44And do you want to know what Batista did after this happened?

02:47He sat down, grabbed the big gold belt

02:49and lovingly stared at it.

02:51Instantly, this sent sparks through fans' minds

02:53about the possibilities

02:54and we all decided,

02:56yeah, that would be pretty cool.

02:57And what happened at WrestleMania 21?

03:00Exactly.

03:01Number 7, Wardlow.

03:02You have to return to 2020 with this one

03:05even though that doesn't sound right,

03:06but this is how long AEW has been teasing a breakup.

03:10It happened as MJF tried and failed

03:11to get the world title from Jon Moxley

03:13after he used two paradigm shifts,

03:15a move that had been banned before the bell had rung.

03:18The key was that during this,

03:19Wardlow had also screwed up

03:20when he tried to get the dynamite diamond ring to his boss

03:23and days later, Maxwell made his feelings known.

03:26He was mad.

03:27Freeman basically screamed in his hired help's face

03:29and just as it seemed like Wardlow

03:31was going to eat him alive,

03:32he backed down.

03:34He didn't want to lose his job.

03:35This kickstarted the sympathy

03:36that was needed to keep Wardlow a bad guy

03:38but also kind of make him a good guy.

03:40And ever since,

03:41we've just wanted to see him smack MJF in the face.

03:44It took till 2022 till we got that

03:47and the first seed was planted here.

03:49That is some long-term storytelling.

03:51Number 6, Wheeler Yuta.

03:52This has been anything but rush,

03:54but it may be one tiny moment that put it over the top.

03:57When Wheeler Yuta debuted the Best Friends in June 2021,

04:00I don't think anybody had him pegged for this.

04:02Zoom forward to April 2022 and away we went.

04:05As Wheels was trying to prove he was worthy

04:07of the Black Ball Combat Club,

04:08he engaged in a war with Jon Moxley where he bled.

04:11A lot.

04:12This didn't seem to make a difference to him though

04:14because towards the end he took his sneaker

04:16which was covered in the red stuff

04:18and kicked Mox right in the skull.

04:20You could even say he was booting his flubbing head in.

04:22As soon as he did this

04:23and stared down the camera lens like a loon,

04:25a lot of people decided they liked this man

04:27and ever since it's been an upward rise.

04:29Yuta has proven he is an excellent recruit

04:31and I suppose now is best friends with William Regal.

04:35There are certainly worse people to be buddies with.

04:36Number 5, Eddie Kingston

04:38Everyone that knew of Eddie Kingston

04:39knew that Eddie Kingston was awesome.

04:41All he had to do was put a mic in his hand

04:43and off he went

04:43but he'd never had a chance to do that on a huge stage.

04:46So when he did get that opportunity

04:48on the July 22nd, 2020 episode of AEW Dynamite,

04:51the world imploded.

04:53Stepping up to challenge Cody Rhodes

04:54as he continued to open the TNT title door,

04:57Eddie was able to win everyone over

04:58by spouting lines like

05:00You grew up around legends like Arne Anderson.

05:02Want to know what I grew up around?

05:04Alcoholics junkies.

05:05I had to survive.

05:07I mean, this was pure fire.

05:08He also mentioned how Tony Khan had paid him to show up

05:10and was also going to pay him to kick Cody's ass,

05:13which is just an awesome sentence.

05:14And ever since, all of this has just got better and better.

05:17Kingston couldn't be more beloved.

05:19What a damn hero.

05:21Number 4, Rhea Ripley

05:22Rhea Ripley had an awesome arrival in NXT back in 2019.

05:25You know it worked because she was mostly

05:27a relatively unknown NXT UK champion at the time.

05:30And then in weeks was a major player.

05:33Almost like she's pretty good at this stuff.

05:34This ties into the many issues that plague WWE right now.

05:37But as NXT champ Shayna Baszler stood in the ring

05:40acting like she was unbeatable,

05:41out came Ripley, snatched the mic away

05:43and reminded the Queen of Spades

05:45that no matter who else she has beaten,

05:47Rhea was not on that list.

05:48Shayna sold this grate, which was half the battle

05:50and even legged it in order to save face.

05:52It absolutely was wrestling done right.

05:54This was in August and by December

05:56we were doing the title match

05:57and wouldn't you know it,

05:58this was the only NXT that outdrew Dynamite

06:01when they went head to head.

06:03I think I know why.

06:04Number 3, Shinsuke Nakamura

06:06I was there for this and forget one second.

06:09Shinsuke Nakamura was a made man

06:10as soon as the first beat of his entrance music hit.

06:13Everybody thought they were about to see

06:15the greatest human ever created.

06:17The truth is he was already a star

06:18long before his WWE run,

06:20but go and watch TakeOver Dallas

06:21for the moment this was cemented in the West.

06:24The rabid Texas crowd are just about ready

06:25to crown Shinsuke as a future Hall of Famer

06:28and the match he had with Sami Zayn

06:29lived up to that and then some.

06:31This was also Zayn's NXT send-off

06:33and the start of Nakamura's run through the company

06:35and my word,

06:36what a terrific, well-put-together thing this was.

06:39We often talk about best-ever debuts

06:41and this isn't mentioned enough,

06:42it is fantastic.

06:44Number 2, James Ellsworth

06:46Wanna get scared about time?

06:48James Ellsworth nonsense with Braun Strowman

06:50happened back in 2016?

06:53My word.

06:54The real madness with this

06:55was that Ellsworth turned a squash match

06:57into a multiple-year run with WWE.

06:59When does that happen?

07:00His line that any man with two hands

07:02has a fighting chance

07:03was enough to pique people's interest

07:04and by the time we all got obsessed

07:06with his no-chin, forget about it,

07:08he was added to the roster.

07:09This really was somebody taking their opportunity

07:11and ensuring they made the most out of it

07:12and who else gets a job based on nine words?

07:16I'm sure that takes longer than one second to say,

07:18but no one knew who this was before we began.

07:20Afterwards, he was everybody's favorite new toy.

07:23Number 1, Dan Housen

07:24Club me, I love Dan Housen.

07:27He is just so weird in the way

07:28that only a wrestling promotion would allow

07:30and it also makes me happy

07:31we have two major Western companies.

07:33I don't think we get such debuts

07:35in a purely WWE world.

07:37In January 2022 on Dynamite, however,

07:39as Adam Cole was facing off against Orange Cassidy,

07:42the undisputed one decided to grab a chair

07:44from under the ring.

07:45Why not?

07:45When he pulled it out, though,

07:47who was holding on to the other end of it

07:49for absolutely no reason?

07:51Dan Housen.

07:52The fans popped instantly

07:53as Dan Housen tried to curse Adam

07:55before he just walked off

07:56and that killed me again

07:57because it was just so silly.

07:59This also meant it took all of a flash

08:01to not only turn him into a star

08:02but get everybody else interested

08:04because they were like,

08:05who is this guy

08:06and what on earth did he just do?

08:07It has certainly been a rollercoaster ever since

08:10as it always should have been.

08:11Long live Dan Housen.

08:13Know of any other wrestlers

08:14that became a star in just one second?

08:16Make sure you let us know

08:17in the comments below

08:17and don't forget to like the video,

08:19share the video,

08:19and subscribe.

08:20Then head over to whatculture.com

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08:23Come and follow us on social media,

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08:27Why aren't you watching them right now?

08:28My name is Simon from WhatCulture.

08:30Thank you for joining me as always.

08:31I am so happy to have you with me today.

08:33I'm doing a hula hoop in the nude.

08:35That is not true,

08:36but I'll talk to you again soon.

08:38I'm doing a hula hoop in the nude.

08:39By the way,

08:51thank you again.

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