10 Wrestlers Who Peaked In Their First Match

Sometimes, even making a good first impression isn’t enough.

That’s the saying, right? “You only get one chance to make a good first impression”. Well, these pro wrestlers did, but that initial bow in front of fresh eyes ended up being the apex of their entire runs in WWE, AEW and WCW. No, that doesn’t sound very fair at all – it happened though.

There are some heavy hitters here too. The likes of Ronda Rousey, Keith Lee and even cherished legend Bret Hart are all included. Perhaps oddly, one of them worked a blistering bout on WWE’s biggest stage, one blitzed their way through a short squash, and the other had a dream match that wound up being a false dawn for his proposed career renaissance.

Good luck getting those in the right order!

Let’s make one thing crystal clear before starting though. These wrestlers didn’t suddenly suck after experiencing the highs of these matches. No, they’d simply peaked as characters or important figures in a certain company. Maybe that’s not too surprising when it comes to the talent merry-go-round that is modern-day AEW, or the car crash that was WCW.

Dig in.

‘FandangoMania’ was a thing for the shortest of windows.

The dancing gimmick’s Raw after WrestleMania 29 experience was…bizarre. Fans in attendance belted out his catchy theme tune, and the song even charted in the UK for a period. What’s more, ‘Dango had beaten none other than Chris Jericho on WWE’s grandest stage.

He’d never top that. The only way was south for Vince McMahon’s new ballroom dancer, chiefly because the boss and his creative sorts didn’t really have any follow-up plan in mind. Nah, they just had Jericho put Fandango over, then realised that the hokey gimmick (like most OTT characters) had a definite shelf life.

The dude swivelling his hips didn’t become a bad worker overnight though. Fandango continued showing potential in-ring, but ‘Mania 29 was very-much the peak of his entire WWE run. At least he’d earn critical praise for his work alongside Tyler Breeze – those “Fashion Files” skits were a giggle.