Shane Douglas Explains Why He Signed With WCW Over WWE in 1999, ECW Owing Him a Lot of Money

– During a recent episode of his Franchise University podcast, former WWE, WCW, and ECW Superstar Shane Douglas discussed why he opted to sign with WCW instead of WWE (then WWF) in 1999, when he was leaving ECW with a ton of momentum. According to Douglas, the decision came down to money, and WCW offering him a much bigger contract than WWE did at the time. (via WrestlingInc.com):

Shane Douglas on why he signed with WCW over WWE in 1999 after leaving ECW: “I took a ton of heat in a backward kind of way when I went to WCW instead of WWF after leaving [ECW] in 1999. At that time, everybody saw that character of The Franchise to be much more amenable to what WWF was doing at that time than, say, WCW. The truth be known is that [WCW] offered me 30 times what the WWF offered me … So for my family’s sake, that was why I went there. Had Vince [McMahon] matched that or topped it, I sure as hell would have ended up [back] in WWF.”

On leaving ECW with a ton of money owed to him by Paul Heyman: “And at that point, I wasn’t really in a position to say no to the bigger pot of money. After leaving ECW, unfortunately, Paul [Heyman] had really painted me into a corner with the money I was owed.”

Douglas stayed in WCW until the company’s closure in early 2001 when it was bought out by WWE. He would later do work in TNA Wrestling.