The 10 Best Surprise Debuts In AEW History

One thing that is missing in today’s world of professional wrestling is the big surprises from the past. While there are still surprises here and there, the lack of true competition for WWE makes most of them lackluster.

The last huge surprise in WWE was when AJ Styles debuted at the Royal Rumble. That was big because fans had wanted to see Styles come to WWE for years and after proving himself in TNA and New Japan, it was time to prove himself in the big leagues.

That made AEW a big deal. While it has not been around as long as WWE, it quickly established itself with the biggest television deal for a wrestling company not named WWE since WCW went under. It also has an owner who has more money than Vince McMahon, bringing up memories of “Billionaire Ted.”

While McMahon loved to taunt that he was the “little guy” in that battle with Ted Turner and WCW, things have changed now and McMahon and his loyal fans see WWE as the be-all, end-all in professional wrestling, making even a multi-billionaire like Shahid Khan the underdog in the eyes of the WWE faithful.

However, what this also does is give AEW the money it needs to sign some big names and surprise the fans in a way that they haven’t seen since the Monday Night Wars saw WCW bring in former WWE stars like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and WWE bring in WCW mid-card scraps like Chris Jericho, Steve Austin, and other self- and fan-proclaimed underutilized wrestlers WCW let go by the wayside.

Now, AEW has the chance to help build up stars in the wrestling industry that WWE failed to do anything worthwhile with, putting themselves in the same position WWE was right before the start of the Attitude Era.

With that in mind, here is a look at the 10 best AEW surprise arrivals since their debut.

10. Santana & Ortiz

What many fans might not remember is that Santana & Ortiz were a surprise for AEW fans.

This happened at All Out 2019. The Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fenix) defended their AAA World Tag Team Championship against the Young Bucks. After the match ended, and Pentagon and Fenix won, Santana & Ortiz made their debut and attacked both teams.

The four-time Impact Wrestling tag team champions attacked the Rock N Roll Express and put them through the stage and then joined the Inner Circle.

9. Jake “The Snake” Roberts

Cody Rhodes was in the ring on the March 4, 2020 episode of AEW Dynamite after he lost to MJF at Revolution.

Cody was in the ring saying he wanted to fight MJF again and that is when a face from the past came out. It was WWE Hall of Fame legend Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Jake then eviscerated Cody in a promo, telling him to stop crying, and then announced that he had someone coming in who could deal with Cody.

That was Lance Archer, and thanks to AEW, Jake is back in wrestling where he belongs.

8. Miro

On September 9, 2020, Kip Sabian promised an enormous surprise for the best man of his wedding. That surprise was the former Rusev — Miro.

This debut kind of sucked, but it was still a huge deal since Rusev was a promising star in WWE, but one that floundered after his feud with John Cena ended his undefeated streak and he finished his run in a lousy angle with the Bobby Lashley-Lana love triangle.

The good news is that Miro got past that Sabian angle and is now destroying peop0le like he should have when he made his AEW debut.

7. Awesome Kong

The first Double or Nothing had a triple threat match between Dr. Britt Baker, Nyla Rose, and Kylie Rae. The fans didn’t care about Baker at that time, AEW built Rose as a monster villain, and Rae was coming off an entertaining indie run.

However, the women wanted a big surprise to match up with the upcoming Jon Moxley. That is when Brandi Rhodes came out.

While fans booed, thinking Brandi was inserting herself in the match, she instead said she had a surprise entrant and brought out Awesome Kong. It was the first time Kong was on a major wrestling show since her time in WWE before her pregnancy.

6. Andrade

Vickie Guerrero walked out on AEW Dynamite on June 4, 2021, and she introduced her newest charge. This was Andrade.

At only 31, he is someone with a big future ahead of him. Hopefully, AEW uses him like NXT did and then Andrade can wash the taste of his time on Raw out of his mouth.

5. Brodie Lee

It was a case of bad timing for Brodie Lee.

The Dark Order had teased a leader would show up, and fans tried to guess who The Exalted One could be. The two biggest names were Matt Hardy and Luke Harper, both of which left WWE recently.

Both Hardy and Harper debuted in AEW on the same episode of AEW Dynamite, with not a single fan in attendance. This was supposed to happen in Brodie Lee’s hometown, but AEW canceled the show because of the pandemic. Imagine a full house, seeing Brodie coming to the ring as the leader of the Dark Order.

Regardless, Brodie came out and destroyed people left and right. He won the TNT Championship but never worked in front of AEW fans before his tragic passing.

4. FTR

When The Revival was working for WWE, they took part in a witty banter with the Young Bucks on social media. The Revival was old-school, a tag team reminding fans of Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. The Young Bucks are the new generation, but owe much of their look to old-school babyface teams like The Fantastics and Rockers. Thinking of the two teams battling brought back memories of Tully and Arn working with Ricky and Robert.

Then, on May 27, 2020, that possibility grew closer when the newly dubbed FTR showed up on AEW Dynamite. They saved the Bucks from a Butcher and Blader beat down. It didn’t take long for the heel side to come out when they hired Tully Blanchard to be their manager, turned heel on the Rock N Roll Express, and then won the tag titles from Kenny Omega and Adam Page.

3. Jon Moxley

The event was the first Double or Nothing. The main event saw Kenny Omega battle Chris Jericho for the first AEW World Championship. Jericho and Omega fought a hard match and then, when Jericho won, the first AEW PPV ended with Jon Moxley making his AEW debut.

Jericho celebrated his win, and Moxley made his way through the crowd. He went into the ring and dropped Jericho with the Paradigm Shift. He then attacked Omega, and the two brawled into the crowd and up to the stage setup. Moxley then hit the Paradigm Shift on the giant poker chips and left Omega down and out. Mox was the next big thing and eventually became the second AEW World Champion.

This was huge, as Mox left WWE with a bad taste in his mouth because of his booking and finally got the chance to be himself when he arrived in AEW, becoming a bigger star than ever.

2. Sting

There are rumors that TNT was not happy that AEW kept Sting as a surprise, but honestly, it made his arrival in the company even better.

Sting had been out of wrestling since a neck injury forced his retirement from WWE. While in WWE for a short time, Sting lost his only WrestleMania match in a bout that WWE turned into a WCW (nWo) vs. WWE (DX) match, and then he almost ended his career in a title match With Seth Rollins.

Sting wasn’t able to end things his way. Now he can. On December 2, 2020, Cody and Darby Allin teamed up against Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks and when the match ended, snow began falling in Florida and Sting showed up. Since then, Sting has returned to the ring and looks like he will go out his way, while passing the torch to Allin.

1. Chris Jericho

This goes back to the very beginning of AEW. On January 8, 2019, AEW held its first press conference to reveal the company to the world. The names that fans already knew signed showed up, with Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks as the stars for the conference. As a reminder, Kenny Omega had not signed on yet, as he was finishing up his NJPW work and hadn’t come to a deal yet.

AEW introduced names like Adam Page, Dr. Britt Baker, Joey Janela, and So-Cal Uncensored. These were big names for the IWC, but AEW needed a big introduction to pull in mainstream fans. They brought out Pac, who was a WWE face, but not a major name.

Then Fozzy’s “Judas” began to play and Chris Jericho walked out to greet the fans. It was a monster moment and one that showed AEW would bring in actual stars. Yes, Jericho was in his late 40s, but he was a name all wrestling fans knew and proved AEW meant business.

What was your favorite AEW debut? Let us know in the comments below.