Written by
Alex Hunt• Published 15th May 2024
WWE’s Noam Dar has reflected on the warm welcome he received on his main roster debut in Scotland and the hilarious moment that happened ahead of time.
A participant in the inaugural Cruiserweight Classic in 2016, Dar made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Zack Sabre Jr. Following on from the conclusion of the tournament, the cruiserweight division was regularly featured on Raw with a different look to the rest of the show as the ropes were swapped from red to purple for the matches.
Later that year, WWE travelled to Scotland and taped an episode of Raw inside the Hydro Arena in Glasgow. The Cruiserweight match that night saw Cedric Alexander and Rich Swann team up to take on The Brian Kendrick and a partner yet to be announced.
As soon as it was announced that the partner was making his Raw debut, the Scottish crowd already had a good idea of who it would be, which only got louder when Noam Dar was announced as Scotland’s own. Although Dar and Kendrick would lose the match, Dar stood tall over the champion when all was said and done, much to the delight of the fans in attendance.
“I Thought It Was Just A Rib”: Noam Dar On WWE Debut
Speaking exclusively with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes, Noam Dar looked back on that day and how it all came together:
“So I had moved to the US a month before that and there was specific talk of me not being needed or not debuting for that day or, you know, not in the plans so to speak. It wasn’t until a few days before the show that I got an email [that said] hey, we need you on this show, blah, blah, blah, blah.
In terms of on the day, it felt very strange because it felt like any independent show I had been doing at that point every weekend or most weekends, because I just came off the independents and most of the time I was in Scotland so the rituals of the day so to speak, waking up in the same bed, getting ready, watching the same TV getting on a train, that all felt the same as anything that I had done except now I was going to debut on Raw, which was very calming for me.”
Although pyro is a regular fixture on WWE TV in the modern day, the company went through a phase where they massively cut back on its use of it to save costs. With pyro extremely limited, Dar was one of the lucky few in 2016 to receive the honour for his entrance, something he was not expecting despite the fact that WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg had informed him about it ahead of time:
“One of the funny things that happened during the day if you remember they gave me pyro, which is the one and only time I’ve had pyro, but at the time WWE was hardly using it. When we were doing rehearsals I was standing on the stage just kind of thinking about what’s happening and Road Dogg was like, ‘Okay, now your music hits and after about 15 seconds stand here brother and then the pyro is gonna go off everybody’s gonna lose their minds!’
I was like yeah, sure, very funny, just thinking that he was ribbing me and just playing a little joke on me because he is a jokester and we had known each other for quite a long time at that point. I thought he was just hamming me up. So when I came out, that pyro, I didn’t expect it to happen.
I thought it was just a rib, and that definitely got me out of my socks a bit. But I was like, Oh, this is real, I am a real WWE wrestler now, I have pyro. So the whole day was just very surreal, then once it was done, like I said, to then have the same practices of okay, just finish the show in Scotland okay, now just go home and everything’s the same. But not really, because that changed everything for me.”
Also in the interview, Noam Dar explained why he thinks that Glasgow fans at Clash at the Castle will be able to give the passionate Lyon crowd a run for their money.
Noam Dar also discussed the massive risk he took and how it saved his WWE career.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit Inside The Ropes.
