Riott Squad, Hideo Itami and the Best, Worst Ways to Introduce New WWE Talent

The Riott Squad barrelled on to WWE SmackDown unannounced, laying out the entirety of the women's division.

Hideo Itami's arrival will be no surprise, as WWE has been playing up his impending debut through vignettes.

WWE has a number of ways in which it can begin a Superstar's career on the main roster.

The wrestler can leap out of the shadows a la Ruby Riott and her crew. The new star can be the subject of videos hyping their debut. Or else they can use a Battle Royal or mystery partner angle as their entry point.

As we have seen with the arrivals of names like Asuka and Bayley, each of these methods has its strengths and limitations.

The surprise attack debut creates intrigue, but it may be harder to connect with lesser-known characters. The route WWE is taking with Itami is the surest in its arsenal, even if it's one we've seen time and time again. 

Surprise Attack

This approach is a mixed bag.

Without warning, the new star storms on to the stage and lays out someone. It's simple, it's to the point and it's an easy way to create a highlight moment and give fans something to talk about.

The biggest plus is that it delivers in terms of shock factor. It can also paint the newcomer as a threat in an instant.

This is how WWE welcomed Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan.

But as we saw with The Riott Squad's arrival, this strategy has its pitfalls. For one, WWE runs the risk of an underwhelming reaction if the audience doesn't know the debuting stars from their previous work. Casual fans who won't watch NXT will have no connection to these characters.

With The Riott Squad, the trio had charged into SmackDown from NXT just one day after Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose debuted on Raw as part of Absolution. That undercut Riott's crew in terms of standing out.

The surprise attack worked wonderfully for The Shield when the group shook up Survivor Series in 2012. There wasn't quite the same buzz for Big E's own arrival later that year. While The Shield's Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose had a built-in fanbase from their indy days, Big E was more of an unknown commodity.

And that's the biggest risk with this kind of debut. Fans turning to each other during a big moment to say "Who is that anyway?" can't be the kind of reaction WWE wants.

Vignettes

Itami is being welcomed to the main roster via the tried-and-true method of vignettes.

This classic approach using video clips both introduces and hypes the newcomer. Highlights of their ring work play on the screen. Music pumps as they pose for the camera. It's a music video where the wrestler is the central star.

Then after weeks of teases, fans finally see the real thing.

WWE has done this type of debut for a long time. Razor Ramon and Goldust got this kind of treatment. More recently, this is how Asuka made her move from NXT.

This is often the smartest route, as it allows the audience to get excited for the next big thing, whether they knew who they were before or not. Fans get to see the best stuff from the new wrestler. The vignettes also offer a chance to create a mystique around the star as WWE did with Edge in the late '90s.

And considering the WWE production team is among its best assets, the company should go down this path more often.

Mystery Revealed

A rare style of debut is to tease a wrestler's arrival as part of a mystery partner storyline. Someone informs the audience that a fresh face is coming to town but won't reveal it until the right moment.

That's how Undertaker debuted back in 1990 when he was announced as the final member of The Million Dollar Team. Bayley debuted at Battleground 2016 in similar fashion when Sasha Banks named her as her mystery partner.

Curtis Axel's re-debut unfolded somewhat like that when Paul Heyman introduced him as his newest client in 2013.

The benefit of going this route is that the Superstar feels like a big deal. They have someone there to hype them up, to paint them as a valuable commodity.

The debuting wrestler also has an instant connection to someone more established, as Axel had with Heyman.

It's an underused method, so it's more powerful thanks to its freshness. And WWE can get creative in how it tells this tale.

The biggest flaw is that the internet is liable to spoil the surprise. Wrestling outlets often find out these developments before they happen and word travels quickly.

Battle Royal Entrant

The debut style that requires the least amount of prep work and creativity is to simply plug a new wrestler into a Battle Royal.

Those bouts need bodies. The rules for entry are loose. A surprise entrant from NXT or elsewhere is right at home in that environment.

Rusev and Bo Dallas first arrived at the Royal Rumble. Killian Dain, Baron Corbin and Tian Bing all made their first main roster appearance at the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania. 

The danger with that debut tactic is that it's easy to get lost on the crowded stage that is these Battle Royals. Dallas was able to make his mark because he eliminated Wade Barrett in the Rumble. But Dain and Bing become forgettable cogs in a massive machine.

This method worked wonders for AJ Styles, however.

The Phenomenal One was the third entrant in the 2016 Royal Rumble, shocking the wrestling world in the process. He was a high-profile star outside of WWE, allowing him to generate a big reaction. That's not going to be the case for many others.

Challenge Answered

It's fitting that John Cena's United States Open Challenge led to the debuts of both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, because he first made it to SmackDown in a similar way.

Kurt Angle called out the locker room back in 2002, and Cena stepped up to him. 

Years later, Cena offered title shots to anyone with the guts to face him on Raw each week. Zayn answered the call. Owens looked as if he would, too, but he attacked the champ instead.

Much like the surprise attack route, this method delivers the unexpected. It creates a big moment for the up-and-comer. 

But going further than simply attacking someone, a full match allows the audience to see more of the new arrival, to get to know them through their ring work. And they can get a running start by their opponent putting them over. In the cases of Carlito and Paige, they got to start their careers off as champions.

This can be a smart way to kick things off for a Superstar, but starting out on the top of the mountain robs one of telling the story of climbing it.