WWE Classics - 10 Count - Debuts Recap & Thoughts - February 3, 2011

February is Defrost With The Divas month on WWE Classics On Demand. Here is a preview of what is on and what will be airing later this month. I gladly pay my $7.99 a month for this stuff.

Currently airing:
10 Count: Greatest Debuts - Part 2
Best Of The WWF Volume 13 (Coliseum Video)
Hulk Hogan Unreleased Collection Parts 1 & 2 (WWE DVD Release)
WWE Night Of Champions 2010
WWF SummerSlam 1994
Old School MSG - 11/24/87
Hall Of Fame Profile: Wendi Richter plus several matches from her career in the Legends section.
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling - 6/2/82
NWA Wrestling - 9/26/87
ECW - 7/29/97
Monday Night Wars - Raw and Nitro from 5/25/98
Prime Time Wrestling - 1/16/89
Shorties - Divas matches hosted by LayCool. Matches including Trish Stratus vs. Lita, Michelle McCool vs. Natalya, Maryse vs. Mickie James, Stacy Keibler vs. Victoria, and a steel cage match between Lita and Victoria.

Airing later this month:
WWE's Cell PPV from October
Old School - Philly - 3/12/88
WWE Unforgiven 2006
Old School - MSG - 2/18/85
NWA - 10/3/87
World Class Championship Wrestling - 11/26/83
ECW - 8/5/97
Monday Night Wars: The Beginning - Raw and Nitros from 9/9/96 and 9/23/96
Prime Time Wrestling 1/30/89
Mid-Atlantic - 6/9/82
Also will be more Richter matches along with diva matches in the shorties section. The rest of the Hulk Hogan DVD will also air.

WWE Classics On Demand had a theme for the month of January that focused mainly on debuts and firsts. The shorties were PPV debuts while the Hall of Fame stuff featured first championship wins and such. This was the tie in for the most recent episode of 10 Count. Matt Stryker hosted the show as WWE looked at the best debuts. The list is up and down for me but it did bring back a lot of great memories to watch. So, here is how they had the top ten ranked and I'll give my thoughts and memories on it.
10. The Undertaker's debut at the 1990 Survivor Series. This was a huge debut obviously and who knew that night just what we were witnessing? The Undertaker debuted as the surprise partner on Ted Dibiase's Million Dollar Team and was accompanied by Brother Love. Undertaker had a face off with Bret Hart in the match which was fitting considering how their careers would link together for many years to come. Undertaker's debut would end in a double countout following a brawl with Dusty Rhodes up the aisle.
9. Steve Austin's debut on ECW TV. This absolutely deserves to be on the list. Austin had been fired from WCW via fax and was obviously furious over it. So, Paul Heyman and Austin connected and Heyman basically said if you want to rant about it, come on the show and I'll give you that window of opportunity. Austin did it and did it so memorably. It was great TV! All of the ECW stuff led the charge to what would later become the Stone Cold Steve Austin character. His promo skills definitely went to another level in ECW.
8. John Cena's debut in 2002 on Smackdown. Nothing really spectacular about Cena's debut. He accepted a challenge from Kurt Angle and the two had a match. Right around that time was the debut of Orton as well. Interesting to watch the start of Cena's WWE run.
7. A tie between Kane's debut at In Your House Bad Blood in the cell match between Shawn and Undertaker. The other in the tie was Big Show's debut in the Austin/McMahon cage match at St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Both were very cool moments. Like Undertaker, who knew just how big the Kane character was going to be? Big Show's debut was really well done with how the cage was set up. You may remember that Show sent Austin into the cage and the side of the cage flew open sending Austin to the floor to win the match. Very cool moment. Liked both of these debuts.
6. Tazz's debut at the 2000 Royal Rumble. Loved this! Still one of my favorite crowd pops of all time. Kurt Angle was doing his undefeated streak at this point and Tazz was the surprise opponent. Now Tazz making his debut was a terribly kept secret. They had been running these promo deals for several weeks leading up to this with random logos appearing during shows. I still remember the Raw that I attended in St. Louis that month and that logo popped up during an entrance. We and many in the building were yelling "Tazz" as it showed up. So, Tazz makes his entrance at MSG at the Rumble in front of a hot New York crowd that was very pro-ECW and gave him a huge welcome. One of the loudest pops I've ever heard from MSG. Tazz ended Angle's undefeated streak and the MSG crowd loved it.
5. Rocky Maivia's debut at the 1996 Survivor Series. Another MSG moment. Pretty fitting that Rock's debut was in that building. He was featured in a Survivor Series elimination match and got a good push just in that first match. Of course, we know how this all turned out. The fans turned on the Rocky Maivia character quickly and WWF was forced to turn him heel. Then, we started loving the heel character. Well, I did immediately. I was not a fan of the Rocky character. Yeah, that Rock guy turned out having a pretty good career. :)
4. The Nexus debuts on Raw in 2010. Yeah, I have a problem with this being in there but I guess they wanted something current in the mix. Way too early to have something like this that high on the list. Now, the debut was cool. They destroyed Cena, the announcers, officials, and the whole ringside area. It was something so unexpected that night. It was great TV. Of course, they blew the major heat that they had after the next couple of weeks but that is WWE for you.
3. Eric Bischoff's debut on WWE Raw in 2002. Hard to argue this one. Whoever thought you'd see Bischoff on WWE programming? Bigger than that though, whoever thought you'd see Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff hugging live on Raw??!! I'll never forget that moment. Funny how the segment doesn't have the same feel to it as it did live. The music to Bischoff's entrance is always changed to his "I'm Back" WWE theme. However, that night he came out to AC/DC's "Back In Black". Music rights do not let that be played anymore in the replay moment. So, the two guys that were at each other's throats for so many years were suddenly on TV hugging. Unreal.
2. Scott Hall's debut on WCW Monday Nitro in 1996. I absolutely like where this is at on the list. This moment changed everything. It led to one of the hottest angles that I've ever witnessed. Yeah, he know how bad it eventually got but it was HOT when it first started. I had just gotten internet access a few months before Hall's debut so I knew about Hall and Nash being WCW bound. However, the internet wasn't big yet and was a small minority. If you followed the newsletters, you knew the news too. If you were just a casual fan, all you knew was that a WWF guy had just walked out on to a live WCW show saying that they were taking over. Nash would follow him on to Nitro not long after. The first several months of the nWo was great TV cause you never knew what was going to happen. They would arrive through the crowd stirring trouble and the show would just stop. Nothing like this had ever been done and it was just fascinating to watch. This night on Nitro started it all.
1. Chris Jericho's WWF debut on Raw in 1999. Completely agree with this being number one. What a debut this was! Jericho had left WCW a few months earlier and he ended up being used as the Millenium Man. WWF had been running a countdown clock for a while and the countdown ended on Raw in Chicago during a Rock segment. What resulted was one of my favorite segments ever. The lights go out, the music hits, and the pyro goes off. You can hear some of the crowd chanting Jericho as the lights started flashing on and off before the reveal. I was expecting Jericho too at the time but was just waiting for the confirmation. Jericho's name appears on the screen and the crowd ERUPTS when his name appears. The lights come on and there is Jericho with his arms out pose. Jericho cuts an awesome promo and the Rock does his own awesome promo right back at Jericho. Great, great segment.

There was a definite honorable comedy mention as they showed the entire Flair For The Gold segment from the Clash which featured the debut of The Shockmaster. Oh my. I still laugh at Sid Vicious trying to save the segment by showing fear and trying to intimidate this guy.....who had just fallen through the wall. LOL.

Anyway, it was a fun show. Fun look back at these moments. Some of these segments I have seen lately and others I haven't watched in a while. They seem just like yesterday when they happened but yet they seem like a lifetime ago.

That is it for this week. Hope you enjoy the retro List. Just something different that I thought might be fun. Take care and God bless!!