5 WCW Stars Who Became Popular In WWE
Word Championship Wrestling, better known as WCW had its roots in the early 1980s as a brand name for regional promotion Georgia Championship Wrestling, in order to sound more global.
Despite its regional status, a national cable deal meant the company had a large reach and following.
However, when Vince McMahon Jr began his national expansion and began billing his company as the World Wrestling Federation, and starting promoting beyond territorial lines, GCW promoted itself as WCW in order to sound more global and compete with the WWE, then WWF.
WCW began its most familiar existence in 1988 after it was purchased by media mogul, and head of Turner Broadcasting, Ted Turner.
With the likes of NWA mainstays such as Ric Flair, Terry Funk and Ricky Steamboat on top, the promotion went from strength to strength over the course of the next decade, becoming the number one wrestling promotion in the United States between 1996 and 1998, under the leadership of Eric Bischoff.
Over the course of the next 13 years, WCW had many ups and downs, but was responsible for launching the careers of legendary stars such as Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Goldberg, The Steiner Brothers, Booker T, and many more, whilst also giving career resurgences to the likes of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage.
When the company closed its doors in early 2001 following two years of colossal mismanagement, many of its stars found their way to their main competitor, the then WWF, who bought out the company for the paltry sum of US$5 million.
Overnight, a host of wrestling superstars were suddenly out of work. WWF procured some contracts as part of the takeover, whilst WCW's biggest stars were contracted to the parent company, Time Warner.
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Nearly all of WCW's major stars found their way to the WWF/E following WCW’s demise. This slideshow looks at five men whose popularity carried over to the new company as they made a success for themselves in their new surroundings.
#5 Sting
Sting was the major hold out on joining WWE after WCW closed it's doors in 2001. Finally surfacing in WWE in 2014, Sting made a beeline for Triple H as the "Vigilante" looked to end the tyranny of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon's rule over the company.
Debuting at the Survivor Series in 2014, Sting interfered in the stipulation match with "The Authority's" rule over WWE on the line. Sting took out "The Game" enabling Dolph Ziggler to secure the match-winning pin.
Sting faced Triple H in a featured bout at Wrestlemania 31 wherein he shockingly lost a hard-fought bout.
However, despite the disappointing loss, it did nothing to dampen the popularity of the "Stinger" and he returned to a thunderous ovation to challenge WWE Champion, Seth Rollins at Night of Champions 2015.
Unfortunately for Sting, he suffered a career-ending injury in the bout and his long-anticipated WWE run lasted less than a year.
Sting's career was celebrated by induction into the WWE Hall of Fame 2016.