WCW's insanley massive roster

[Jimmy]

My compliation of names from the period of 1997-2000 hanging around on Thunder/Worldwide/WCW Saturday Night/Pro/Main Event. Feel free to add any you think I should include or identify your favorites!


Memorable names, but served no real purpose:
Scott Norton
Van Hammer
The Disciple
Rick Fuller
Horace Hogan
Kendall Windham
Fake Sting
Barbarian
Public Enemy

Being paid good money to midcard:
British Bulldog
Jim Neidhart


Guys who it's hard to believe were still around, yet alone employed:
Greg Valentine
Barry Horowitz
Marty Jannetty
Bobby Eaton
Fidel Sierra
Jim Powers
John Nord (The Bezerker)
Barry Darsow
Mike Enos
Manny Fernandez
Wayne Bloom
Renegade
Chris Adams
Erik Watts
Steve Armstrong
Mike Rotundo
Joey Maggs

The luchadores used to fill up time with no upward mobility:
Silver King
Damien
Lizmark Jr
El Dandy (But who am I to doubt him?)
Ciclope
Super Calo
Villanos 1 through 62


Winners on Worldwide/WCWSN, losers everywhere else:
Johnny Swinger
Scott Putski
Jerry Flynn
Chip Minton
Bobby Blaze
Hardwork Bobby Walker
Hardbody Harrison
Roadblack
Horshu
Emory Hale

Guys even lower of the food chain:
THE GAMBLER
Doc Dean
Mike Tolbert
Mark Starr
Al Green
Len Denton
Adrian Byrd
Barry Houston
Johnny Boone

The jobberific tag teams:
High Voltage
Disorderly Conduct
The Pit Crew
Southern Posse

TOKYO MAGNUM

[Fundertaker]

But Magu is awesome.

As are Scott Norton and Rick Fuller. El Dandy is a jam up guy, though, and a heck of a wrestler by Bret Hart himself.

[quantum]

With the amount of top talent WCW had at this time. I don;t think it is any wonder Bret Hart was stuck in mid card. In WWF (with there talent and roster in 1993-1997). He was a 'big fish in a small pond'. With all the talent leaving for WCW. Or up and coming and not yet ready for a world title run in WWF. He went to WCW many fans say he should have been 'main eventing'; however WCW was stacked to the rafters with top talent (home grown and ex WWF) who were established in story lines and the company at that point they had their spot on the roster and on the card (s). Bret Hart compared to most of these stars was not as big (or as over with WCW fans). They booked him correctly in my view. If they had allowed him to come in and be a strong legit contender to the WCW title straight away. It wou.d have made the WWF guys look Strong and WCW look a lot weaker. He was exactly where he shoul;d have been on the card and didn;t have tom many memorable matches or feuds because of all the other top talent who were more established ion WCW than he was at that time. Why should WCW make a 'ex WWF Champion' look strong coming in?. They shoul;d have booked him better at Starrcade 1997. However with the amount of talent WCW had established at that time that was really about it. The same thing could be said for a few others who went to WWF just after hat time. Including The Radicalz and Chris Jericho 9at that time). Not that they were not over or established. Just not as over or established as the other stars on top of the card the that time;. They were mid card wrestlers where they shou;ld have been at that time.

[Deleted]

Oct 22, 2009 14:23:50 GMT -5 quantum said:

With the amount of top talent WCW had at this time. I don;t think it is any wonder Bret Hart was stuck in mid card. In WWF (with there talent and roster in 1993-1997). He was a 'big fish in a small pond'. With all the talent leaving for WCW. Or up and coming and not yet ready for a world title run in WWF. He went to WCW many fans say he should have been 'main eventing'; however WCW was stacked to the rafters with top talent (home grown and ex WWF) who were established in story lines and the company at that point they had their spot on the roster and on the card (s). Bret Hart compared to most of these stars was not as big (or as over with WCW fans). They booked him correctly in my view. If they had allowed him to come in and be a strong legit contender to the WCW title straight away. It wou.d have made the WWF guys look Strong and WCW look a lot weaker. He was exactly where he shoul;d have been on the card and didn;t have tom many memorable matches or feuds because of all the other top talent who were more established ion WCW than he was at that time. Why should WCW make a 'ex WWF Champion' look strong coming in?. They shoul;d have booked him better at Starrcade 1997. However with the amount of talent WCW had established at that time that was really about it. The same thing could be said for a few others who went to WWF just after hat time. Including The Radicalz and Chris Jericho 9at that time). Not that they were not over or established. Just not as over or established as the other stars on top of the card the that time;. They were mid card wrestlers where they shou;ld have been at that time.

I sort of get your thinking, but even Konnan had a better spot in WCW than Bret Hart.

Anyway, WCW did in fact have an insanely huge roster. And you didn't even include the stars and mid-carders!

[Youngie]

Oct 22, 2009 14:23:50 GMT -5 quantum said:

Why should WCW make a 'ex WWF Champion' look strong coming in?.

They made Hogan & Savage look like Gold when they joined WCW. Hart should of course been pushed to the top (being at the peak of his career unlike other ex-WWF stars in WCW) but you had Hogan & Creative Control.

WCW had a huge roster but I'm sure the WWF had the same size roster in the late 80's. Difference is that the WWF used their full roster.

[Angus Mcloud]

Shark Boy wrestled on WCW Saturday Night on a regular basis

[Youngie]

Jimmy as far as I can see ALL of those wrestler's were washed up in 1998 and the only purpose they served was to fill hours of WCW TV (Nitro, Saturday Night etc.) and be fed to the nWo.

[quantum]

Konan was major over with the fans as part of the NWO Wolfpac an was talented in the ring

Also Savage and Hogan (ex WWF stars) came to WCW when WCW was needing them to and helped to establish WCW as the top company in the States (if not the world) with the NWO. Hogan and Savage both had that cross over appeal and be able to pull in fans. WCW were the number one company and winning the war by the time Bret Hart came in. WCW did not need Hart at that time. they were still winning the war with the stars they had and stars they established. Having an ex WWF major superstar and ex WWF champion 9fresh ex champion Hogan and Savage had some time before there last title reign before coming to WCW). Hall and Nash were also ex WWF champions also 9Diesel ex WWF champion Hall ex Interconetial champion) they came in as part of the 'hostile takeover angle' which the fans lapped up and held WCW become number one company with the NWO and Hogan. Brining in a fresh ex WWF champion and booking him as very strong against established WCW stars 9and maybe booking him to win the belt soon after0m would have done more bad than good for WCW. WCW were the number one company at that point WWF number two. It was like taking a step up in the leagues at that point. Hogan and Savage were also much more over as wrestlers 9both to the fans and mainstream) than Hart. Before coming to WCW. Hart was booked correctly in WCW again due to size of roster and established stars. Brining Hart in and booking him strong would have made WCW look weak and they didn't need him at that point. I also think that is part of the reason Hart never choose to sign with WC before Montreal and choose to side with Vince instead.He knew there was to much talent in WCW for him to get as good a run as he would have liked. Same with Take. Taker would have ended up with a Taker rip off gimmick or 'Mean Mark Callous' type gimmick and stuck in mid card. Which again due to roster, established stars and storyli9ne at that time would have been correct booking. Hitman except for Starrcade was booked correctly in WCW.

[Youngie]

Oct 22, 2009 14:42:16 GMT -5 quantum said:

WCW did not need Hart at that time. they were still winning the war with the stars they had and stars they established.

I'd agree with this. Bischoff must of though what a coup he had with the Bret Hart signing and must have thought the WWF would've been killed off. WCW had no clue how to use him.

[quantum]

Oct 22, 2009 15:07:48 GMT -5 Youngie said:

Oct 22, 2009 14:42:16 GMT -5 quantum said:

I'd agree with this. Bischoff must of though what a coup he had with the Bret Hart signing and must have thought the WWF would've been killed off. WCW had no clue how to use him.

Outside of 'Starrcade' and going into Starrcade how would you have booked Hitman otherwise. Bischoff wanted Hart on the card. Also Hitman can;t effect or come in and take any other established WCW stars place at that point. Including feuds, story lines and matches which were going to happen or did happen. How else would you have booked him in WCW?

[AriadosMan]

Strange. I loved WCW's hugeness back in the day but they clearly had no idea how valuable Bret was. Beyond a couple of "Austin/WWE sucks" promos, he did little and was basically their equivalent of Booker T in TNA.

[lildude8218]

Manny Fernandez was there? I had no idea

[Youngie]

Oct 22, 2009 15:12:43 GMT -5 quantum said:

Outside of 'Starrcade' and going into Starrcade how would you have booked Hitman otherwise. Bischoff wanted Hart on the card. Also Hitman can;t effect or come in and take any other established WCW stars place at that point. Including feuds, story lines and matches which were going to happen or did happen. How else would you have booked him in WCW?

I'd have booked him as a former World Champ taking on the nWo. I don't understand why every ex-WWF guy had to join the nWo in WCW. Bret could have come in as a challenger to Hogan as Flair did in the WWF in 1991.

[PaperStreetBrigade]

Also there had to be more guys like Lanny Pofo who were signed but were never around and given a paycheck just so they wouldn't sign with the WWF.

[Jimmy]

I probably should have added 'Brian Adams' to the memorable but useless list. I honestly liked the guy, but he did nothing for the nWo and nothing special in Kronik that any other big guy could have done.

And lildude, your comment prompted me to look into it some more and apparently it was a different Manny Fernandez, not THE Manny Fernandez as I just assumed. My mistake.

[Ryushinku]

I definitely would've kept Bret as a face. But it even wouldn't have been as bad if they'd turned him heel and kept him there strong...it was all the flip-flopping with it that weakened his character and make him ultimately end up as a kind of cowardly heel, the worst thing he could be really.

The Gambler will, of course, always be worth his paycheque for giving Jericho a bit of a boost when he badly needed it

[kswolf]

Oct 22, 2009 15:14:49 GMT -5 lildude8218 said:

Manny Fernandez was there? I had no idea

It wasn't "The Raging Bull". It was just some jobber who had the same name.

Edit:

Whoops. I just saw that Jimmy had already answered the question. Oh well.

[Triple Kelly]

Oct 22, 2009 15:47:36 GMT -5 PaperStreetBrigade said:

Also there had to be more guys like Lanny Pofo who were signed but were never around and given a paycheck just so they wouldn't sign with the WWF.

And that was WCW's ultimate folly. Paying people they did absolutely nothing with so WWF and ECW wouldn't get them and "just in case we wake up one day and need them, they're there to use".

[strykerdarksilence]

I just need to argue one point in this thread. Konnan: Massively successful in Mexico, great promos and charisma. HORRIBLE in the ring.

"Squire" Dave Taylor was another one employed for the most part and never doing much despite the fact he could have easily slotted in with the Regals etc at the TV title level.

Edit: And Robbie Brookside.

Also RVD, Sabu and quite a few others passed through the company quickly.

[DavidArquette]

Oct 22, 2009 14:29:37 GMT -5 Youngie said:

Oct 22, 2009 14:23:50 GMT -5 quantum said:

Why should WCW make a 'ex WWF Champion' look strong coming in?.

They made Hogan & Savage look like Gold when they joined WCW. Hart should of course been pushed to the top (being at the peak of his career unlike other ex-WWF stars in WCW) but you had Hogan & Creative Control.

WCW had a huge roster but I'm sure the WWF had the same size roster in the late 80's. Difference is that the WWF used their full roster.

Back when Hogan and Savage joined, WCW weren't competing directly against WWF and they needed big stars to get more people watching them. Also Eric Bischoff was changing the direction of the company. It wouldn't have made sense to throw them on the midcard, even with guys like Sting, Flair, Vader already being established.

Then again, I don't think they ever planned on using Bret Hart. I think they just didn't want WWF using him.