The Magnificent Seven: The 7 WCW Alumni Success Stories

A few months back, I wrote a column about alumni success stories comint out of WWE’s Attitude Era, citing the successes of men like Chris Jericho, Triple H, and of course The Rock in the wrestling business and in many cases beyond. While not everyone agreed with my list, the concept seemed to get some traction, so I thought I’d revisit this week with a focus on WCW.

One of the more nuanced and arbitrary choices for this countdown: I decide to focus on guys who either worked with WCW before WWE, worked for WCW longer, or were otherwise more readily identifiable as a WCW guy than a WWE one. So, for example, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Bret Hart had noteworthy WCW careers, but it’s hard not to call them WWE guys first and foremost. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were more borderline, but I’d call them at least evenly split between the companies. Some more arbitrary calls: despite getting their start in terms of national exposure with WCW, I excluded Mick Foley, The Big Show, Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio, all of whom disproportionately padded their resumes in WWE over their limited successes under the WCW banner. Celebrities like Karl Malone and Jay Leno weren’t under consideration. For a final fuzzy case, I opted not to include Eric Bischoff—who otherwise might have cracked the list—for, despite working a small handful of matches, not really be a wrestler proper.

Like the last time I did a column along these lines, I was looking at success broadly, including continued success in the wrestling world after the talent left WCW (or after WWE bought out WCW—in most cases, the same thing), but also success in other life pursuits. As always, my personal opinion weighs heavily in how the rankings broke down.

#7. Scott Steiner

Big Poppa Pump lost the WCW Championship on the very last episode of Nitro as WCW closed its doors. It was a poetic finish for a guy who had in so many ways grown up with the company. Yes, he had a stint with the WWF, teaming with his brother in the early 1990s. The Steiner Brothers team was more synonymous with the WCW brand, though, as the guys were more consistently featured there. After the New World Order angle got into full swing, Steiner broke out as a singles star. The character found his footing as a loud mouthed “genetic freak” and spent the last year or so of WCW’s run as a main event level guy.

To be fair, Steiner peaked in terms of notoriety and kayfabe success in the dying days of WCW. He edges his way onto this list, though, for not going gently into that good night, but rather raging onward. He’d get one more shot at the top of the wrestling world when WWE signed him to feud with Triple H. It was ostensibly a play to cash in on the last stalwart WCW fans, but went about as poorly as it could have. Steiner was badly miscast as a face and got badly blown up in his Royal Rumble world title match, before ultimately getting demoted to the mid-card to wind up his contract. Steiner would better redeem himself with his TNA work, cutting a promo that’s now iconic among hardcore fans in which he dropped some math on Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe, not to mention revisiting some of the athleticism that got him over as a younger star, reincorporating the Frankensteiner into his repertoire. He remains active—albeit with diminishing returns in the ring—to this day.

From a distance of seventeen years, Steiner is one of the most recognizable WCW alumni who remained relevant in wrestling for well over a decade after the last Nitro aired.

#6. Goldberg

Despite only having one reign as WCW Champion, and really only starring for the company for its final three and half years, Goldberg nonetheless stands out as one of the biggest, truest icons in WCW history. The guy got explosively over with his undefeated streak and in unseating Hollywood Hogan for the world title, to emerge as a legit crossover star whom even non-wrestling fans would recognize in his prime.

Goldberg wrestled in Japan post-WCW, and had a year long tenure with WWE, most of which saw him engaged in the main event scene.His time with WWE was generally considered a disappointment, but he had his kayfabe success and furthered of his notoriety with wrestling fans during that time. Beyond wrestling itself, Goldberg’s fame allowed him to venture into limited acting roles and into multiple color commentator spots in the MMA world.

Goldberg shored up his spot in this countdown with his return to WWE in 2016. Against the odds, well past the age when anyone would expect much fof anything from him in the ring, Goldberg returned to wrestling to work a match with Brock Lesnar which gave way to a Royal Rumble appearance, and challenging Kevin Owens for the Universal Championship. That Goldberg had the star power to still be a draw at that point spoke volumes about the size of his legend, and to his credit, he put an alarmingly great smash-mouth sprint with Lesnar to, in al llikelihood, wind up his career as a wrestler at WrestleMania 33.

#5. Sting

Think about Lex Luger. In addition to a period as a top guy for WWE, he was one of the definitive stars of WCW. He was a heel world champion before he was probably ready for it in the early 1990s. Then he came back years later to work a tweener role nicely, score a terrific feel good moment of a WCW Championship win over Hulk Hogan in the heat of the New World Order angle when it was still white hot, and ride out the end of WCW’s days as an upper card guy. But what has become of him since?

I know it’s not a perfect comparison to relate Sting to Luger. Sting was always the better worker, generally the more trusted guy by colleagues and management, and often treated as a nudge bigger star for WCW. Still, when you look at what became of guys of comparable standing to Sting, like Luger, and see the ways in which their lives largely fell apart post-WCW, and how little they accomplished even in wrestling circles in the aftermath, you have to give it up to Sting.

Sting found religion and cleaned up his life late in the WCW years. After WCW closed, he was that rare talent to remain relevant on the national wrestling scene continuously without going to WWE, as he became one of the key players for TNA for nearly a full decade, which included five world title wins and functioning as a key part of the promotion’s business plan to shore up their legitimacy in the eyes of cable companies and advertisers.

Moreover, Sting confirmed his own legitimacy as an all-time great when he finally did close his career under the WWE banner, working a WrestleMania program and match with Triple H, in addition to another brief stint challenging WWE Champion Seth Rollins, before he hung up his boots and accepted a Hall of Fame induction. Sting’s career would have been HOF headliner worthy had he never wrestled another match after main eventing the final Nitro. That Sting added another fifteen years to his story, much of it at a high level, confirmed his status as a very real legend.

#4. Ric Flair

As we broach the top half of this countdown, we reach the territory in which rankings become much more arguable and subjective in my book. Ric Flair was arguably the last great traveling NWA World Champion, and furthered his legend immensely under the WCW banner. In late 2001, though, he opened a whole new chapter of his career when he returned to WWE, where he’d had a brief main event run in the early 1990s. He came back first as an on air authority figure, but before long he was back in the ring, and would split time between wrestler and managerial duties from there. His most memorable work included serving as the cornerman and elderstatesman for the Evolution stable, and an emotionally powerful last angle with the company, in which he would have to retire the next time he lost a match. He went on a tear, beating a bevy of upper mid carders and Mr. McMahon, before closing things down with one last classic opposite Shawn Michaels. While retired in the eyes of WWE, he would return periodically in non-wrestling roles, and actually would step back in the ring for a tour Hulk Hogan put on in Australia, and for TNA.

Flair’s wrestling work alone would find him a place on this countdown, but there’s something more ineffable about Flair’s last seventeen years to earn him a higher spot. Sure, if he’d retired after WCW closed, he’d still be a legend and on the short list of all time wrestling greats—indeed, with the possible exception of WrestleMania 24, nothing he did in the last seventeen years in wrestling feels like much more than a footnote to his legacy. However, Flair’s sheer longevity, success in primarily talking roles, and ability to transcend eras all helped communicate to new generations of fans who never saw him in his prime that he was worthy of being called the greatest of all time. In seventeen extra years, Flair shored up his positioning alongside guys like Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin as a crossover star whom you need not ever had to have watched wrestling to still be able to recognize.

#3. Jeff Jarrett

In the dying days of WCW, Jeff Jarrett struck a deal that got him re-signed to the company for more money and main event positioning on the card. It’s highly debatable whether Jarrett really deserved either. While he was technically sound and reasonably charismatic, he didn’t exactly have main eventer written all over him, and it’s tough to say that he was, in and of himself, much of a draw. Still, it’s that main event status, paired with his earlier WCW run, that get Jarrett into consideration for this countdown, when he could otherwise be called equally, if not more so a WWE guy.

Jarrett wasn’t about to be a WWE guy again when they Vince McMahon bought out WCW. Jarrett had left WWE on awful terms, and wasn’t a big enough star for McMahon to move mountains to bring him back. So, Jarrett was left with a choice to live out the rest of his career on the indies, or to move on from wrestling.

Jarrett chose option C, and achieved the unlikely, teaming up with his Memphis wrestling promoter father to launch their own new wrestling promotion, TNA. Many fans will balk at that company for all of its questionable booking and reboots and how many times it looked to be on the brink of going out of business. I get all of that and am by no means a TNA apologist. Just the same, it’s a wrestling company that has remained in business for sixteen years now, with a claim to being truly national throughout that tenure. That Jarrett founded it, was among its top in ring stars for more than half of its history, and was a often a key creative and business leader all further his legacy nicely. When you talk about wrestling’s most important business people since WCW went under, Jarrett has to be in the conversation, and if you consider only work outside WWE, he’s in truly rarefied air.

That WWE has welcomed Jarrett back into the fold for rehab, a Hall of Fame induction, and to work under Triple H is a fine bow to tie around his story, and an indication that if I were to revisit this countdown in another five-to-ten years, he may well climb even higher.

#2. Booker T

Booker T is that rare talent who reached the top of the mountain in WCW—including winning a world championship on the final Nitro—but without having yet reached his prime when WWE bought them out. So it was that Booker took the opportunity to shine under the WWE banner. He had to earn his way—even going so far as to suggest in later interviews that the locker room went out of its way to test WCW guys. After the InVasion, and after relatively short term tenures by WCW mainstays like Goldberg, Scott Steiner, and the New World Order, Booker was left standing. Two years after WCW closed, he was challenging for a world title at WrestleMania. Five years later, he peaked, reinventing his heel gimmick after he won the King of the Ring tournament for a character that nicely bridged the gap between comedic heel, and one with the experience and credentials of a serious threat.

Booker gets the nod for the number two spot primarily for not only remaining relevant to wrestling but, without question, bettering his legacy after WCW closed. You can add onto the six-year run with WWE referenced above a good three year stretch with TNA, followed by a return to WWE wrestling part time and getting to work as a color commentator and panelist. His work as a trainer, and his most recent efforts toward winning the mayorship of Houston all further his clout beyond the squared circle, and suggest that he might become even more notable in the years to come.

#1. Diamond Dallas Page

DDP was an unlikely success story during his WCW run itself, nearing forty when he got started wrestling in earnest, and in his mid-forties by the time he hit the main event level and won his first world championship. Page was still a hot, fresh enough star for WWE to have an interest in him, and had too few enough miles left in his tank to ride out his WCW contract and sit out the InVasion.

Unfortanely for Page, he was test case in WWE under-utilizing and miscasting guys from WCW. His one year with WWE saw him featured in the InVasion, but cast as a generic stalker heel that capitalized on none of Page’s unique personality that had gotten him over in WCW. He’d wind up marginally better in his motivational speaker gimmick that brought him to the European Championship and a WrestleMania victory. Page would leave when that year was up, and, in interviews afterward, explain that his main objective in signing with WWE was to work a ‘Mania, so he got what he came for, as limited as it may have been.

Page would go on to appear for TNA and various smaller promotions, but looked as though his story in the public eye was about over.

DDP gets the nod for this countdown, and gets pushed all the way to the top spot for the yoga empire he created in the years to follow. More than a well-run home-fitness program, Page ushered in a style of recovery and physical maintenance that has swept over the wrestling business, allowing talents like Chris Jericho and Goldust to extend and revitalize their careers. The program has caught on among celebrities and everyday people; it’s a true success story that reaches beyond the wrestling world. Moreover, more than a money-making scheme for Page, he’s positioned himself as something of a secular savior for wayward souls, including hosting Scott Hall and Jake Roberts in his Accountability Crib to help get their lives back together.

Against the odds, Page has arguably gotten more famous, financially successful, and personally at peace since his WCW days. Thus, he’s my pick for the top success story among WCW alumni.

Whom would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.