Best use of WCW talent by WWE

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Sure DDP flopped and Goldberg's first run wasn't great but who actually got used in a good way by the WWE in the post-WCW era?

Rey Mysterio springs to mind. Outside of the Nash feud, he never interacted much with Main Eventers in WCW but in WWE he had a few World Title reigns and was treated as a big deal along the same lines of Batista, Undertaker, John Cena, CM Punk, Randy Orton, Triple H and Kurt Angle. Even The Rock was willing to work with him over Goldberg.

Finley is a good example too. He never got above midcard in WCW and competed for the Hardcore Title more than he did any other belt and yet in WWE in his late-40s he found new life as an upper Midcard/borderline Main Event Heel and being presented as a threat to the likes of Batista and The Undertaker. The only regret is I wish he had gotten a World Heavyweight Championship reign but if you told anyone at the beginning of 2006 that Fit Finley would be in a Main Event match on PPV later in the year they would ave given you a look

[tafkaga]

Finlay is a really interesting case because he didn't seem like a talent who would be pushed on a national stage, and yet he ended up having a really respectable run in WCW and then left an even bigger impression in WWE.

[XIII]

THAT HHH feud/match notwithstanding Booker T was always presented as a star and had a bunch of memorable moments along the way.

[Sephiroth]

I’d argue Lance Storm had a solid run. I’m a fan of his work but a midcard fixture was where he belonged..

[Ben Wyatt]

Apr 18, 2024 11:54:37 GMT -5 XIII said:

THAT HHH feud/match notwithstanding Booker T was always presented as a star and had a bunch of memorable moments along the way.

Yeah, Booker won pretty much everything there was to win in the company and was for the most part, always presented as a credible threat

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

Eddie Guerrero once he got his demons under control.

[government mule]

Below Booker T and Rey on the card;

Chuck Palumbo of all people got over with Billy Gunn and was promenantly featured for a while (tag champs too).

Shane Helms made the most of The Hurricane character. CW champ, Tag champs with Kane, segments with The Rock, wasn't going to get much better for him.

Jamie Noble had a nice little spot in the CW division for a while. Lance Storm was perfectly suited in the mid card and I found the serious gimmick amusing. Finlay as mentioned too.

Stacey Keibler and Torrie Wilson were used frequently.

Thinks that's about it though. You could make a case for Eddie, Regal, Jericho and Benoit being used well but not sure if just talking about those who came after the buyout.

[crowley1986]

Jericho, Benoit before obviously that night in June 2007, Booker other than his odd Mania record, Storm i think could have been more with the "no offbeat shenangans" but he had an ok run,

[Psicofreak667]

It didn't last, but I still say Mike Awesome powerbombing Rhyno on the ladder was a (the last?) great moment of the Monday Night Wars.

[tafkaga]

Finding out how far Mike Sanders' above averageness could carry him in WWE is one of sports entertainment's most compelling what-ifs.

[Billie Gein]

Planet Stasiak

[yokohamacpfc]

Regal, WCW knew he was a good mat wrestler and used him in that role but WWE were the ones who saw his character and comic potential. I'm guessing his friendship with HHH didn't hurt with regards to WWE being far more forgiving when Regal fell off the wagon.

[James Fabiano]

Apr 18, 2024 13:56:23 GMT -5 government mule said:

Below Booker T and Rey on the card;

Chuck Palumbo of all people got over with Billy Gunn and was promenantly featured for a while (tag champs too).

Shane Helms made the most of The Hurricane character. CW champ, Tag champs with Kane, segments with The Rock, wasn't going to get much better for him.

Jamie Noble had a nice little spot in the CW division for a while. Lance Storm was perfectly suited in the mid card and I found the serious gimmick amusing. Finlay as mentioned too.

Stacey Keibler and Torrie Wilson were used frequently.

Thinks that's about it though. You could make a case for Eddie, Regal, Jericho and Benoit being used well but not sure if just talking about those who came after the buyout.

Hot women, and people who got the ol' WWE makeover. That's usually how it works.

(Rey is an exception, unless you consider remasking him and taking the "Jr." away as forcing him into WWE Style)

Let's see...

How about the Brain Busters? OK the team name was a WWF idea, but it was the same Tully and Arn otherwise. The guy who headed the network SNME was on became such a fan of theirs that he wanted them on every episode. Wonder if that's what led them to beat Demolition eventually too?

My knocks would be that since they were considered a tag team, that meant their singles accomplishments and credibility would be ignored, and didn't Tully basically get squashed by Warrior on the go-home USA special to Survivor Series? Sad if you remembered his NWA TV title reign and such.

Not sure if I can count Razor, Diesel, Taker, and such. They were different characters, and Nash I think was actually in WCW the longest out of the three. Not only that, but Mark Callous and Diamond Studd were pretty much footnotes in Calaway and Hall's careers.

LOD aside from the wardrobe change and name change were pretty much recognizable as Hawk and Animal, and had a solid WWF stay until the Rocco business. Their Attitude Era use brings this one way down though.

Dusty despite the polka dots rarely lost on TV in his first year or so, and was a featured upper midcarder. It was after SummerSlam '90, and AFTER he mostly dropped the flashy attire and was more or less his JCP form (hmmmmm....) that he became a JTTS, he even put VIRGIL over.

[tafkaga]

Apr 19, 2024 5:31:53 GMT -5 yokohamacpfc said:

Regal, WCW knew he was a good mat wrestler and used him in that role but WWE were the ones who saw his character and comic potential. I'm guessing his friendship with HHH didn't hurt with regards to WWE being far more forgiving when Regal fell off the wagon.

I feel like Regal largely has himself to blame for undermining his own potential in WCW.  Dude had a strong TV championship run early in his career there.  The Blue Bloods had some hilarious vignettes and should have been a bigger deal.  It seemed like they'd give him something and it would start out strong and then just fizzle.  They made him look ridiculously strong at Slamboree '96 where he lost to Sting after dominating him for about 90% of the match.  Plus, the guy was always over.  It just seemed like plans for him never worked out.

[J. Hova]

I'll say Ric Flair since no one has said him.

He came in 91, had a great 18 month run, winning the world title twice, and having one of the first memorable matches on Raw vs. Mr. Perfect.

A decade later, he came back, wrestled for 8 more years, got an incredible amount of mileage with his Evolution run, and had an incredible send off. He was always presented as that elder statesman during this run and teased occasionally on could he or couldn't he win the big one one last time.

While he was limited in the ring during his second run, they did a great job of putting him with people who could work around him.

[The Lach is very tired]

If you are including pre-buyout it has to be Jericho. He was never more than a lower mid card guy in WCW.

[thegame415]

I agree on Finlay. I remember when they started running vignettes, my friends and I were like "yeah, I bet Fit Finlay will get over great". By the end of the year he was a top heel on Smackdown.

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Apr 23, 2024 1:22:59 GMT -5 thegame415 said:

I agree on Finlay. I remember when they started running vignettes, my friends and I were like "yeah, I bet Fit Finlay will get over great". By the end of the year he was a top heel on Smackdown.

And he was doing it in his late-40s.

Fit had been a wrestler since 1974 and rose from being a promoter's son filling in to being a midcarder to eventual Main Eventer in the UK by 1990. Unfortunately wrestling went to wayside over there right after and he ended up in a purgatory between Germany and Japan and Ireland before WCW scooped him at the end of 1995. By the time he debuted in 1996, he was already 38 years old and while he had a pretty decent run there he was never presented as anything more than a midcarder. His match with Regal and eventual Hardcore Title feuds with Knobbs and Bam Bam was the peak of his American wrestling career until his 2006 WWE run.

By all rights, there was no way that he should have risen the way he did and if you told any fan at the end of 2005 that Fit Finlay would be feuding with Batista and John Cena a year later, I can't imagine a single person would believe it. He hadn't even worked a television match in 6 years before he debuted in WWE and was 47 years old.

By the end of 2006 he was Main Eventing against then two biggest stars of that era and even got a win against a World Champion Booker T along the way in a non-title match at 48, and that was 32 years into his career.

I could argue that while older fans may remember the Belfast Brusier more that more people remember Finlay for his 2006-2009 WWE run and understandably so. He was a star at a level that WCW could never even get him to. Its crazy to think but Finlay will likely be a Hall of Famer based not just on his in-ring work but what he did for development of new talent and even though he may never have held the World Title, he achieved a lot more than a lot of his contemporaries in the UK did and did it through hard work and dedication. Thats what allowed his 2006 return to happen. He never gave up even after he was forced into retirement.

Hope to see his son make it there soon. Not many people talk about that family but they are 3 generations in and started with the Fit's father's promotion.

Fun fact, Fit's father was still active in coaching and operating amateur wrestling as late as last year at the age of 87. Strong genetics in that family. I wish somebody would make a documentary on them because Fit's father, Dave Sr. was crucial in developing amateur olympic wrestling in Northern Ireland and received an MBE from the United Kingdom, which is a major honor; Fit became a star and help to create stars along the way and Dave Jr may be a future World Champion somewhere.

You hear about the Von Erichs, the Harts, and the Rhodes, but the Finlays deserve that sort of recognition.

[nickcave]

If you count AJ Styles as a WCW guy him lol