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.

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#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.

#4 Lance Storm

Lance Storm, the talented Canadian was one of the few success stories in the latter days of WCW's existence.

Debuting in the company on June 19 2000, he quickly won the United States, Cruiserweight, and Hardcore Championships, becoming the first (and only) man to hold three titles simultaneously in the company.

From there, he engaged in a memorable World Championship feud with WCW Champion, Booker T.

Storm signed with then WWF the following year, following the buyout of WCW, but failed to gain traction in front of the WWF audience.

He won the Intercontinental Championship, and was portrayed as a serious threat in the ring, but the company gave him almost no mic time, and the personality he had demonstrated in WCW was nowhere to be seen.

Perplexingly, WWE decided to promote the fact that it had done a mediocre job of utilising Storm to his full potential in 2003, when he was featured in a rivalry with Raw General Manager Stone Cold Steve Austin who repeatedly dubbed him "boring" and would take a nap on the stage while Storm's matches were in progress.

Storm never recovered from that humiliation, and finally resigned from the company in mid 2005 to open his own wrestling school.

#3 Mike Awesome

Former ECW World Champion, Mike Awesome didn't exactly set the world on fire during his WCW run from 2000-01, however the talented big man was a featured act and a big part of the defunct company's television shows in varying roles.

Awesome was a wrestler who had the size and skill to be somebody in WWF/E, but somehow he fell by the wayside.

He had an electric start, debuting as part of the WCW "invasion" of the WWF following the buyout, and he became the first WCW talent to win a WWF Championship when he took advantage of the 24/7 Hardcore Championship rule, and defeated Rhyno to win the gold.

His reign ended a little over a fortnight later when he lost the strap to Jeff Hardy. Awesome then disappeared from WWF shows, and was sidelined by injury in November 2001, and then was cut by the company the following year.

Despite his incredible talent, he was never utilised correctly by WWF/E, and in turn never got over with the audience.

Awesome did earn another career highlight in WWE, with a one night only return at the ECW reunion pay per view, One Night Stand in June 2005. In one of the best matches of the decade, he brutally exchanged inventive chair shots with his favourite opponent - Masato Tanaka, to win a stunning match.

Unfortunately, Awesome took his own life on February 17 2007.

#2 Buff Bagwell

Buff Bagwell is a curious case indeed. One of the top upper mid-card acts in WCW, and a focal member of the group's premier act, the nWo, and with the looks and personality that usually ensure a wrestler achieves success in Vince McMahon's company, his tenure in the then WWF lasted all of eight days.

Bagwell debuted for the WWF on July 1 2001 in a house show, and appeared on television for the first time on the July 2 2001 edition of Raw, wherein he faced WCW Champion Booker T in the main event, in a bout billed as a "WCW match".

The match was a disaster, as a partisan WWF crowd who for years had been conditioned to believe the enemy WCW was an inferior product, abandoned the match in droves. Thousands of fans poured out of the arena on camera as the match was in progress.

Adding to the negativity surrounding Bagwell was perplexingly his mother. Despite being 31 years of age at the time, Bagwell's mother Judy continually bombarded the WWF office with phone calls complaining about her son's travel arrangements, and excusing him from non-televised shows due to unspecified injuries.

Feeling Bagwell was not worth the hassle, particularly after his disastrous bout with Booker T, he was cut and never returned to the company again.

#1 Diamond Dallas Page

The WWE Hall of Famer did not achieve his stardom in WWE. The glory days of Diamond Dallas Page's stellar career exclusively came in WCW.

DDP is a fascinating story. He did not begin training to become an in-ring competitor until the age of 35, when many superstars begin to glance at retirement plans.

However, it wasn't until five years later that he really got over with the audience in the best feud of 1997 with Randy Savage.

Establishing him as a player, that feud launched him to super-stardom, and he was a focal part of WCW's mainstream expansion, as he was involved in storylines with major celebrities such as basketball mega stars Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman, as well as Tonight Show host Jay Leno and movie star David Arquette.

DDP won three WCW World Championships in WCW, and such was his passion for the industry he willingly gave up his huge money AOL Time Warner contract to sign with the WWF when WCW was bought out.

DDP arrived in the WWF to much fanfare in mid 2001, as the first member of the fallen WCW to surface on WWF television.

However, DDP was doomed from the start after he was inexplicably given the role of stalker of The Undertaker's then wife Sara.

Completely at odds with his character, DDP was further damaged by the fact Undertaker, the very embodiment of WWF company man, gave his colleague nothing in the ring, and continually hammered him in matches until DDP's main-event aura was erased in record time.

He became an opening match guy, with a comedy self help gimmick. During the last few months of his career, DDP regained a modicum of self respect as European Champion, as he contested exciting matches with several opponents, most notably Christian, before a neck injury ended his career in April 2002.

His WWF tenure had lasted less than 10 months, but it very nearly eroded the legacy of his earlier career.

DDP's story has a happy ending, as WWE decided to induct him into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017, and celebrated his pre WWE career.