The history of WCW Champions featured major names holding the title at different points to create a strong legacy of superstars. Ric Flair, Sting and Goldberg are some of the names that continued to make the title important. Not every champion had title reigns that created special memories with the audience. Quite a few stars looked good on paper, but they failed to deliver.
We will look at the history of the performers that couldn’t live up to the hype as a world of champion. The disappointing title reigns prove that even talented or hyped talents could miss the mark. Stories range from them underperforming to getting bad booking. Find out what caused issues that led to the disappointment. These are ten failed WCW Champions that should have worked on paper.
10 Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan often had the strongest success with world title reigns in WCW and WWE, but there were a few poor ones. The worst one in WCW took place as a face character at the start of his new chapter. Hogan wanted to help lead WCW into competition with WWE, but this move didn't work.
The babyface run of Hogan started to grow stale since fans were used to it for a decade during his WWE run. WCW would start to make drastic changes and Hogan luckily agreed to turn heel. The title reign flop helped Hogan realize he needed to shift his character.
9 Lex Luger
WCW went all in on Lex Luger when Ric Flair left the company in the early 90s. Luger defeated Barry Windham to win the vacated WCW Championship to move forward as a top tier superstar. The title reign lasted about 7 months with Luger failing to get over that next level.
Sting ended the run of Luger which played a role in Lex also leaving the company for a new start in WWE. Luger would return to WCW and win the title in 1997 for a better short-term run before losing it back to Hulk Hogan.
8 Randy Savage
WCW badly needed to rebrand in 1999 when the company fell way behind WWE in the pecking order. Randy Savage returned from a short break with a new look and character. Gorgeous George, Madusa and Molly Holly accompanied him to the ring as part of Team Madness.
Savage won the WCW Championship by defeating Kevin Nash, but fans didn’t seem to care about the new version of his character. WCW would have Savage lose the title a week later to Hulk Hogan, bringing back the latter's beloved Hulkamnia character after the New World Order ended.
7 Sid Vicious
The signing of Sid Vicious saw the former WWE Champion making the move to WCW to feud with Goldberg. Sid had a lot of credibility for his two WWE Championship reigns in the mid-90s, but he ended up on the free agent market for a few months.
The eventual WCW Championship wins of Sid saw him failing to stand out and add momentum to the show. WCW fell apart with the audience starting to give WWE a massive lead in the ratings war. Sid’s time as a world champion just ended in disappointment after the big signings.
6 Jeff Jarrett
Vince Russo had a good idea in theory when looking to push new stars into the main event picture when running WCW’s creative. Booker T was the best example of a wrestler thriving, but Jeff Jarrett showed that fans wouldn’t instantly buy the changes.
Russo convinced Jarrett to jump ship with him from WWE to WCW with the promise of a huge push. Jarrett had a couple of WCW Championship reigns, but fans never bought into him at the same level of names like Hulk Hogan, Sting or Diamond Dallas Page.
5 Bret Hart
The WCW run of Bret Hart never worked out the way he nor WCW expected it to. Hart received lackluster booking that placed him directly below the names like Hulk Hogan, Sting and Goldberg during his first year in the company gaining momentum.
WCW finally wanted to push Bret when the ratings were falling apart, and they needed to change things up. Neither of Hart’s two WCW Championship reigns created the legacy he did with the WWE Championship. Bret just wasn’t meant to work for WCW, as seen in how poorly it went.
4 Diamond Dallas Page
Fans of Diamond Dallas Page badly wanted to see him win the WCW Championship as a face. Rivalries with Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan and Goldberg made DDP a legitimate main eventer with the organic rise of his fans providing support.
The ridiculous WCW booking saw them turn Page heel right before his first world title win. Fans still cheered the moment in 1999, but DDP lost the character that we loved the most. WCW robbed the fan base of getting the pay off of truly celebrating Page’s biggest moment.
3 Kevin Nash
The WCW run of Kevin Nash helped his star power rise even after the world championship reign in WWE. Nash made a huge career shift when making his impact in WCW as part of the New World Order. Fans naturally started to like Nash for his charisma and endearing personality.
Nash became one of the hottest faces and shockingly ended the undefeated steak of Goldberg to win his first WCW Championship. The run didn’t work out as fans were upset at Goldberg losing. WCW having Nash lose the title back to Hulk Hogan before they reunited just made it a horrible decision.
2 The Giant
WCW hired The Giant as a favor to Hulk Hogan after he discovered the big man outside of the wrestling world. The Giant was introduced as the son of the late Andre the Giant trying to extract revenge on the man that defeated his father.
Fans didn’t care about the storyline despite the huge moment of The Giant winning the WCW Championship that early in his career. The Giant never felt like a credible champion with bigger names like Ric Flair, Randy Savage and Hogan associated with the title.
1 Sting
The biggest instance of a WCW Championship failingwhen it should have worked came in 1997. Sting was the hottest act in WCW when finally challenging Hulk Hogan for the WCW Championship after over a year of storytelling building to the moment.
The horrible booking saw a controversial finish that took away from the finish that fans wanted for so long. Sting lost all momentum and would drop the WCW Championship much faster than expected to Randy Savage. The title run flopped enough to take away from the great storyline of winning the gold.