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The WWE Hall of Fame was established way back in 1993, originally as a way to pay tribute to the passing of much loved WWE legend, Andre the Giant, who had died two months earlier. It was a wonderful idea in theory as the company sought to celebrate the three-decade history of the promotion by celebrating the legends of it's past.
As the years have ticked by, grapplers who did not wrestle or rarely competed in WWE have been enshrined, such as Gorgeous George, Nick Bockwinkel, Mad Dog Vachon and Verne Gagne, as WWE looks to promote it's very own pro-wrestling Hall of Fame, now not limited to its former employees. However, one organization that has yet to be fully appreciated, perhaps for good reason within the WWE Hall of Fame is WCW.
Originating as Jim Crockett Promotions that competed with WWE in the 1980s as the only legitimate national competition, JCP was forced to sell after they faced bankruptcy and sold up to Ted Turner. Turner rechristened the promotion he had purchased into World Championship Wrestling and in November 1988 WCW was born. However, it wasn't until 1994 that WCW truly gained traction as a big league company with it's signing of Hulk Hogan.
The acquisition of Hogan brought mainstream attention to WCW and eager to capitalize on this traction, Turner questioned WCW Executive President, Eric Bischoff on how WCW could compete with WWE. Bischoff meekly suggested prime time television and was shocked when Turner immediately cleared two hours of his schedule for WCW to debut it's own Monday Night programme directly opposite WWE's flagship broadcast, Raw.
It was WCW Nitro repeatedly trouncing Raw in the ratings which has likely led the former number one wrestling promotion in the States to not getting it's due in WWE's revised history books. However, between 1996-98 especially, WCW was a very hot commodity and many of its stars during this period deserve recognition for their achievements.
Some have already been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame such as Sting and Goldberg, but there are others that remain conspicuous by their absence. This slideshow looks at five former stars from WCW who are overdue recognition in the WWE Hall of Fame.
#5 Sid Vicious
The only former WWF/E Champions of the twentieth century not yet inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame are Ivan Koloff, The Undertaker (still active), The Rock (too busy), The Bigshow (semi-active) and Sid Vicious. Sid's is the most baffling of them all, considering he has barely wrestled since his catastrophic injury in the WCW World title match at WCW Sin in January 2001.
Whilst leaping from the second rope, Sid landed awkwardly on the canvas and snapped his leg. Sid has made sporadic appearances in WWE in the years since but never as an inductee to the Hall of Fame. Sid's WCW resume is an impressive one. He made his debut for the company way back in mid-1989. His squash match victories over jobbers were the stuff of legend as he utilized devastating power moves to decimate his opponents.
He joined the legendary stable, The Four Horseman the following year before he joined WWE for a short stint in 1991-92 which nevertheless included a WrestleMania main event. Sid made a truncated return to WCW in 1993, where he memorably feuded with Sting before he was fired in October of that year after a brutally bloody backstage fight with Arn Anderson.
Sid's most successful WCW tenure began in 1999. After engaging in a hard-hitting feud with Goldberg, Sid won the WCW World title in January 2000 and regained the strap later that month before he was stripped of the belt when WCW vacated all of their Championships in April 2000, when the new booking team of Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff rebooted the company.
Sid was sidelined by injury soon after but returned in late 2000 and main evented Starrcade, challenging Scott Steiner for the WCW World title, before his gruesome, almost career ending injury at Sin. Will Sid be inducted in 2020? He should be.
#4 Scott Steiner
Scott Steiner is synonymous with WCW due to his long tenures and great success within the company. His initial run began in 1989 as one half of the tag team, The Steiner Brothers, with his real-life brother, Rick. Together they won three WCW World Tag Team Championships before the tandem jumped to WWE.
Their tenure in WWE was nowhere near as successful and feeling as if they were not being utilised correctly, the squad jumped back to WCW in 1994. Together, the Steiners racked up another four Tag Team title wins until Scott turned on his brother at Superbrawl VIII in February 1998 and joined the nWo.
Steiner quickly earned success in singles ranks, winning the United States title on two occasions before he finally won the WCW World title in 2000. Strong and athletic, Steiner was a stunning performer in his prime and one of WCW's greatest homegrown success stories. So, why isn't he a member of the WWE Hall of Fame?
In Steiner's case, it isn't difficult to figure out why he is not part of the hallowed Hall. He is very, very critical of WWE and Triple H in particular. His long-running personal feuds with WWE royalty such as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair further complicate matters. This bad blood probably doesn't prohibit him from ever entering the Hall of Fame, but induction is probably not imminent either.
#3 Lex Luger
Many WWE fans may best remember Lex Luger for his Lex Express tour, which took him to the main event of SummerSlam 1993 wherein he defeated WWE Champion, Yokozuna but failed to win the title, with his victory coming via Countout.
Luger was soon rejected as a main event talent by WWE fans which was surprising because prior to his WWE tenure he had reigned as WCW United States and WCW World Champion and had contested sterling contests with the likes of Ric Flair, Brian Pillman and Sting.
Subsequent to his WWE run, he returned to WCW for a further six years where he would reign as WCW World Champion again and would memorably feud with the nWo alongside his buddy, Sting and would engage in famous battles with the likes of Macho Man Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan.
Luger's greatest successes came in WCW where he fought at the top of the card on and off for over a decade and was one of the company's biggest ever stars. He is conspicuous by his absence in the WWE Hall of Fame, despite currently working for the company as an advisor to their Wellness Policy. His induction is surely imminent and will likely take place within the next three years.
#2 Vader
It is a great shame that Leon “Vader” White died before he had the opportunity to stand in front of his peers on the Hall of Fame stage. He openly campaigned for induction, which conversely may have counted against him in the petty world of WWE politics.
Vader was one of the highest paid stars in wrestling in the early-nineties when he reigned as WCW World Champion (a title he would hold on three occasions). Vader contested sterling matches with the likes of Sting, Ric Flair, Cactus Jack and Hulk Hogan during his WCW run which began in 1990 and lasted through to October 1995 when he was fired after a legitimate backstage brawl with ageing veteran, Paul Orndorff.
He was subsequently snapped up by WWE and made an electrifying debut in the 1996 Royal Rumble match and the following night on Monday Night Raw. However, Vader was nursing a shoulder injury and immediately took time off for surgery and recuperation. However, in desperate need of stars, Vince McMahon rushed Vader back to television before he had fully recovered and when Vader queried the decision he became persona non grata in WWE.
For many long-time WWE fans, their lasting impressions of Vader are of that disappointing 1996-98 WWF run, wherein WWE vindictively booked him in less than favourable situations and he ended his tenure in the company, losing to the likes of Blackjack Bradshaw and Mark Henry, a full decade before either were singles stars.
However, Vader's WCW run remains the stuff of legend and his hard hitting, realistic bouts with a wide array of opponents as well as his terrific resume of Championships makes him one of the most deserving WCW alumni that warrant inclusion into the WWE Hall of Fame. However, with his untimely passing in 2018, one would think he would be a leading contender for induction in either 2020 or 2021.
#1 Eric Bischoff
Eric Bischoff will be forever known as the man who at one time put Vince McMahon in the shadows and sat atop the wrestling world and came very close to putting the WWF/E machine out of business in the mid-1990s. Bischoff joined WCW as a low-level announcer in the early 1990s and rose to power as Executive Vice President in 1994 after a revolving door of Head Bookers such as Bill Watts, Dusty Rhodes, Jim Herd and others had failed to make WCW a profitable entity and serious competition for McMahon.
Bischoff though was different from those old timers. He looked to Japan for inspiration and happened upon a storyline with which he would base the revolutionary New World Order (nWo) upon, as well as Light-Heavyweight stars such as Jushin Liger and Chris Jericho who he brought to the company. Through these stunning athletes, he developed the Cruiserweight division which brought high flying action that American audiences had never seen before.
In combination with aggressively pursuing former and current WWF talent such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to main event the shows, Bischoff’s WCW became a financial juggernaut and hot-bed of creativity not seen in the sterile family friendly WWE programming of the mid-1990s. Although Bischoff lost his grip on the promotion in 1999, amid Network restrictions, unco-operative talent and a myriad of other issues, his legacy remains one of the most influential figures in wrestling history, one which beat WWE in the Monday night rating war for 18 months straight.
Conversely, the reasons for Bischoff's great success is likely the reason why his induction hasn’t yet happened. WWE would have to admit that Bischoff was good at his job during that famed 1996-1998 period and wasn’t only defeating WWE in the ratings due to Ted Turner’s money, as WWE likes to purport. Don’t doubt it though. Bischoff is currently on good terms with WWE and he will be inducted one day. There a few figures in wrestling history and no one else in WCW history who are more deserving of enshrinement in WWE's hallowed halls.
Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below!
