On the April 4, 2008 episode of "SmackDown", Kozlov made his official WWE debut as a villain, with the unique quirk of having no entrance music and no Titantron video – his "entrance" consisted of complete darkness except for a solitary spotlight following him to the ring. He defeated Matt Bentley in his first match, and over the following weeks, Kozlov would go on to easily win several matches, first against local talent and then established names including Colin Delaney, Funaki, Nunzio, Shannon Moore, Jimmy Wang Yang, Jamie Noble, and Domino. On the July 11 episode of "SmackDown", Kozlov debuted an entrance theme and Titantron video as he defeated Stevie Richards.