A company funded by a billionaire running a show that at it’s very peak was being watched by seven million people doesn’t kill itself. To let a giant like WCW sink, you have to display a very special kind of stupidity. People have spent much of the last 20 years recounting the myriad of stupid decisions that all helped put WCW under. Of the many many massive, recurring elements, perhaps the most appalling was a constant failure to understand the talent that they had, the potential stars that were right there in the palm of their hands.
Many of these are obvious. I don’t need to tell you that they missed the boat on Chris Jericho, Eddy Guerrero, Rey Misterio Jr., I don’t need to tell you that Cactus Jack, Steve Austin and Triple H went from being WCW midcarders to the top stars in the industry years later. You may even be aware that the Undertaker had a stint in WCW as Mean Mark Callous, where he was one of four men who shuffled in and out of the short-lived Skyscrapers tag team.
But even beyond those glaring mishandlings, still there are yet more cases of WCW squandering people that could/would later go on to become big stars. Names you know, but might not even realize ever worked for WCW.
While they largely caught these people before they had reached their full potential, it just goes to show how much they were lacking in the scouting department that they let these five wrestlers slip through the cracks. Without any further ado, let’s dive into this.
#5. Jerry Lynn
I had to start with the most known first to get it out of the way. But I just couldn’t do this list without talking about Jerry Lynn. Sure, it’s commonly accepted that the cruiserweight division as a whole was held down for most of it’s existence. But when they list off the many names of guys who could’ve been main event stars – and probably would be in today’s day and age – they often leave off poor Mr. JL up here. Perhaps they aren’t wholly aware of who was under that mask… maybe they mystified as to the meaning of those mysterious letters…
But seriously. Jerry Lynn is, for my money, the single most underrated professional wrestler of the 90s and that’s saying something. In his peak, Lynn was absolutely phenomenal, but it seemed like it was only in ECW that he could ever get a chance to really show it. There’s a reason this dude is a coach for AEW today. If you took late 90s Jerry Lynn and put him in 2019, he’d be main eventing Dynamite this week, no questions asked. Way, way ahead of his time.
In his twilight years he would be heralded as a pioneer of TNA’s X-Division, a staple of why that title was so cherished in it’s early days. Years earlier he could’ve done the same thing, pushing the Cruiserweight division into new heights. I mean come on, if the guy was good enough to become Rob Van Dam’s greatest nemesis, I’m pretty sure he can outclass the likes of Alex Wright and Lenny Lane.
#4. Rob Van Dam
Oh. Speak of the devil…
Yep, that’s RVD in a WCW ring up there. Yannow before I started researching for this list, I actually assumed that he was just brought in as an enhancement talent for a couple spot shows. I had no idea that he was actually under contract! That makes this so much worse! They signed RVD in 1993 and did jack all with him, a whopping 19 matches over the course of six months!
Sure, he was young and green, but it didn’t take long for them to look stupid on this one. The guy was an absolute sensation in ECW three years later, wowing audiences with his innovative athleticism and laidback charisma. There’s absolutely no reason this couldn’t have happened in WCW. There has to be an alternate universe out there where Rob Van Dam ended up being the inaugural Cruiserweight Champion and became the division’s standard bearer.
It wouldn’t stop there either. RVD’s the kind of talent that collects titles in record time. He could’ve held any title he wanted and the fans would’ve bought it. He could well have ended the only man in history to hold the Cruiserweight, Television, Tag Team, US and yes, the World Heavyweight titles. Hell, throw in the Hardcore title too if you’re feeling saucy.
If they only knew… we could still be talking about Mr. Monday Nitro to this very day.
#3. Christopher Daniels
The future Fallen Angel/Curry Man/Suicide/SCU founder is another man that was destined for big things in the business; just not with WCW. Frankly, they didn’t really give him a lot of chances to change their minds. He was on and off contract through 2000 and the beginning of 2001, yet only ever wrestled four matches for the company. Initially signed in March of 2000, he was seemingly released atleast twice, and has the dubious distinction of being among the last people to ever be cut from WCW. Because after all the last thing they needed in 2001 was a young up-and-coming star…
Daniels may have never become a headliner on the main stage in his tenure, but he’s proved an asset to every company he’s ever been a part of. He was a cornerstone of TNA into it’s peak years, and has gone to do much the same for ROH and now AEW. He’s excelled in both singles and tag wrestling, he’s made some of the most extraordinarily goofy gimmicks in the world work, he’s made young talent better just by proxy of working with him.
Obviously WCW was a sinking ship at the point they let Daniels go anyhow, but if they were ever going to turn things around, it’d be on the back of guys like him. If it’s any consolation, WWF also had Daniels under contract shortly before this, and they basically passed on him as well. It seems peaking late in his career was the man’s destiny…
#2. Edge
Yep, that doofus with the silly indy name would go on to be a million-time world champion and a billion-time tag champion in WWE. Edge was also the undisputed #1 heel in the company during some key years, and – with all due respect to Randy Orton – was in my opinion John Cena’s true greatest nemesis. And before he was a big time main eventer, he was an incredible midcard fixture for many, many years as well. He helped establish the TLC match as a staple, and for a brief period, he helped make tag team wrestling feel like a big damn deal in WWE again, a rare occurrence. That’s not even going into becoming the blueprint for capitalizing on the Money In The Bank concept.
The Rated R Superstar ended up being a fantastic signing for WWE in many different ways, is what I’m trying to say. So it’s a little hilarious that he only ended up on their radar after acting as an enhancement talent on a couple of WCW Pro episodes in 1996. Political landscape notwithstanding, it’d be easy to envision a guy like Edge becoming a major, major player in WCW. All that he’d go on to do for the WWE could well have been theirs if they were just paying close enough attention.
But admittedly, he probably would’ve needed a name change first…
#1. Batista
Okay, now this one is just embarrassing and honestly kind of pisses me off.
The WCW Power Plant was a much hyped training facility. But suffice to say, it wasn’t no New Japan Dojo nor was it a WWE Performance Center. Honestly when you consider the resources they could’ve sunk into such a vital project, the Power Plant is kind of a joke. When you look into the list of talent that exclusively received their training there, the only real standout star pupil is Goldberg. And while Goldberg is a huge name, a lot of his appeal honestly came from how unrefined and reckless he felt in the ring… in other words, his big strength was feeling untrained.
So it really piles onto the legacy of that place to know that when Batista of all people showed up looking to learn how to wrestle, they ran him off. Honestly. You’d be hard-pressed to serve up a more obvious star in the making than a young Batista. As you can see the above picture, it’s not like he was a gangly pencilneck geek before his days in WWE developmental. If anything, he was bigger and more musclebound at that stage of his life than ever.
I can accept that he probably wasn’t very mobile or refined at that size, but when you consider that this company counted Sid Vicious and Kevin Nash among it’s world champs, there’s honestly no excuse. Batista recalls having such a bad experience at the Power Plant that it nearly made him give up on becoming a wrestler at all. Just think about that. Not only did they personally miss on the guy, but they looked at a guy who, just five years later would go on to headline WrestleMania, and almost got him to quit the business before he ever started!
