5 WCW stars who didn't get over 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/F.
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.
Nearly all of WCW's major stars found their way to the WWF/E following WCW’s demise. This slideshow looks at five men who did not get over in front of a new audience.
#5 Scott Steiner
"Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner had actually worked for WWE in the early 1990s, with his brother Rick, and had a semi-successful run albeit nowhere near as notable as the pair's tenure in WCW.
By 2002, Steiner had been a singles player for several years, and was WCW World Champion at the time of the then WWF buyout of the company.
Steiner's WCW contract was paid by AOL Time Warner and not WCW, so his signing was not procured when the takeover occurred. Unwilling to pay him out of his deal, and with Steiner unwilling to give up his seven figure deal to sign on with the WWF, "Big Poppa Pump" stayed at home.
His final WCW appearance came on the final edition of Monday Nitro, when he dropped the WCW Championship to Booker T who had signed on with WWF.
Steiner finally resurfaced on the national stage when WWE made a great fuss over his signing in late 2002, where the General Managers of Raw and SmackDown, Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon fought over his signing.
Immediately promoted as a player, Steiner was inserted into a World title feud with Triple H. However, their two clashes at Royal Rumble and No Way Out in 2003 were unmitigated failures.
They were two of the worst matches of the year, as a barely mobile Steiner plodded around the ring, showing none of the personality and dynamism that made him so popular in WCW.
Despite being the babyface, Steiner was roundly booed by the WWE audience, and had disappointed WWE management so much that he didn't even appear on the WrestleMania card a month later.
It was all over for Steiner, and the rest of his tenure was as an opening match act in an interminable feud with Test, until he was cut. He rebuilt his career on Impact Wrestling.