5 WCW stars that deserve induction into the WWE Hall of Fame
The WWE Hall of Fame was established way back in 1993, originally as a way to pay tribute to the passing of much loved WWE legend, Andre the Giant, who had died two months earlier. It was a wonderful idea in theory as the company sought to celebrate the three-decade history of the promotion by celebrating the legends of it's past.
As the years have ticked by, grapplers who did not wrestle or rarely competed in WWE have been enshrined, such as Gorgeous George, Nick Bockwinkel, Mad Dog Vachon and Verne Gagne, as WWE looks to promote it's very own pro-wrestling Hall of Fame, now not limited to its former employees. However, one organization that has yet to be fully appreciated, perhaps for good reason within the WWE Hall of Fame is WCW.
Originating as Jim Crockett Promotions that competed with WWE in the 1980s as the only legitimate national competition, JCP was forced to sell after they faced bankruptcy and sold up to Ted Turner. Turner rechristened the promotion he had purchased into World Championship Wrestling and in November 1988 WCW was born. However, it wasn't until 1994 that WCW truly gained traction as a big league company with it's signing of Hulk Hogan.
The acquisition of Hogan brought mainstream attention to WCW and eager to capitalize on this traction, Turner questioned WCW Executive President, Eric Bischoff on how WCW could compete with WWE. Bischoff meekly suggested prime time television and was shocked when Turner immediately cleared two hours of his schedule for WCW to debut it's own Monday Night programme directly opposite WWE's flagship broadcast, Raw.
It was WCW Nitro repeatedly trouncing Raw in the ratings which has likely led the former number one wrestling promotion in the States to not getting it's due in WWE's revised history books. However, between 1996-98 especially, WCW was a very hot commodity and many of its stars during this period deserve recognition for their achievements.
Some have already been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame such as Sting and Goldberg, but there are others that remain conspicuous by their absence. This slideshow looks at five former stars from WCW who are overdue recognition in the WWE Hall of Fame.
#5 Sid Vicious
The only former WWF/E Champions of the twentieth century not yet inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame are Ivan Koloff, The Undertaker (still active), The Rock (too busy), The Bigshow (semi-active) and Sid Vicious. Sid's is the most baffling of them all, considering he has barely wrestled since his catastrophic injury in the WCW World title match at WCW Sin in January 2001.
Whilst leaping from the second rope, Sid landed awkwardly on the canvas and snapped his leg. Sid has made sporadic appearances in WWE in the years since but never as an inductee to the Hall of Fame. Sid's WCW resume is an impressive one. He made his debut for the company way back in mid-1989. His squash match victories over jobbers were the stuff of legend as he utilized devastating power moves to decimate his opponents.
He joined the legendary stable, The Four Horseman the following year before he joined WWE for a short stint in 1991-92 which nevertheless included a WrestleMania main event. Sid made a truncated return to WCW in 1993, where he memorably feuded with Sting before he was fired in October of that year after a brutally bloody backstage fight with Arn Anderson.
Sid's most successful WCW tenure began in 1999. After engaging in a hard-hitting feud with Goldberg, Sid won the WCW World title in January 2000 and regained the strap later that month before he was stripped of the belt when WCW vacated all of their Championships in April 2000, when the new booking team of Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff rebooted the company.
Sid was sidelined by injury soon after but returned in late 2000 and main evented Starrcade, challenging Scott Steiner for the WCW World title, before his gruesome, almost career ending injury at Sin. Will Sid be inducted in 2020? He should be.