Thought of the Day: The Second Best Rookie Class
Or newcomers class.We talk about the 2002 rookie class as the best ever in WWE and with good reason. You had:
John Cena
Randy Orton
Brock Lesnar
Batista
Rey Mysterio
If there has ever been a better group of talent coming into the company in one year, I’ve never heard of it.
However, there’s another group that beats anyone out for second place that doesn’t get as much attention. From February 14, 1999 to January 31, 2000, the following debuted:
Chris Benoit
Eddie Guerrero
Big Show
Chris Jericho
Kurt Angle
That’s not a bad group for second, and the fact that four of them left WCW to come over makes them even more valuable. Not as valuable as 2002’s group of course, but it’s not too shabby.
The forgotten about member of the 2002 class was Shelton Benjamin
I guess the main diff was the 2002 group were truely newcomers (except rey) whereas most mainstream fans were already aware the 99 lot for a number of years and had already been exposed to tv (except angle)
Imagine swapping rey and angle!
And to add some more “prestige” to both lists, both groups have won a world championship, and both groups have main evented WrestleMania.