The New Blood faction in WCW featured a storyline unlike any other in wrestling history. Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo being tasked to work together in real life saw the company completely reset. WCW vacated every title to start the first show with most of the wrestlers in the ring. Russo and Bischoff revealed they were leading the New Blood to save WCW from the legends.
Most of the established main eventers were part of the Millionaire’s Club as the new stars hoped to put them out of their pasture. The storyline flopped due to poor writing after just a couple of months. Wrestlers from the big group had mixed results with the long-term impact of their careers. Find out which talents thrived or flopped after their time in the New Blood.
10 Success: Booker T
The addition of Booker T to the New Blood in the early stages saw him as one of the few faces. Booker had a connection with the audience that led to him becoming a rare member of the faction with a chance at success.
WCW truly wanted to build new stars around this time and Booker won his first WCW Championship in the summer. Booker had a legendary career as a main eventer for the rest of his WCW run before finding more success in WWE.
9 Flop: Shane Douglas
Vince Russo was behind the signing of Shane Douglas in 1999 and pushed him harder in 2000 with the inception of the New Blood. Douglas attacked his real-life rival Ric Flair to start their first singles feud after Douglas ripped Flair apart for years in ECW.
The hope was that WCW fans would want to see the worked shoot angle of Douglas making it personal. Most WCW fans had no idea about the backstage heat and didn’t care about the lackluster matches. Douglas flopped in WCW and never had another chance in a mainstream promotion.
8 Success: Mark Jindrak
WCW viewed something special in Mark Jindrak when seeing him train at the Power Plant and placed him in the Natural Born Thrillers faction. Jindrak only spent a few months in WCW before moving to WWE when Vince McMahon purchased his competition.
The WWE run was a flop for Jindrak, but he made a success for himself in Mexico. CMLL has booked Jindrak as one of their bigger stars and he even appeared in Mexican soap operas. The ability to make a name in a top five worldwide wrestling promotion is a success story for the former New Blood member.
7 Flop: Sean O'Haire
The New Blood faction allowed the younger stars of the Natural Born Thrillers to have a presence before the angle ended. Sean O'Haire stood out as one of the names WCW believed they could eventually mold into a main eventer to build around.
The end of WCW saw O’Haire getting a spot on WWE’s roster. WWE had huge plans for O’Haire, pairing him with Roddy Piper, but fans never took to him. O’Haire flopped in WWE and never had much success elsewhere.
6 Success: Torrie Wilson
WCW placed some of the valets on the roster in the New Blood angle with the wrestlers they represented. Torrie Wilson was the manager and love interest of Billy Kidman during his noteworthy push against Hulk Hogan.
The character work of Torrie always struggled on the heel side as she was a self-admitted face character at her peak. Regardless, Wilson found her footing in WWE to have a tremendous run after moving there. WWE even inducted Torrie into the Hall of Fame for her accomplishments.
5 Flop: Ernest Miller
The personality of Ernest Miller saw him becoming a favorite of Vince Russo, and Eric Bischoff already loved him due to his karate background. Miller joined the New Blood and started to get more television time.
The end of the group saw him still in a noteworthy role by eventually becoming the Commissioner. Unfortunately, fans never took Miller seriously as a top name and his WCW run ended in disappointment. WWE gave Miller a chance before eventually giving up on him in under a year.
4 Success: Lance Storm
Lance Storm made the big move of leaving ECW to join WCW for a bigger contract offer. The timing saw Storm as a short-term member of the New Blood faction before the angle ended for him to branch out on his own.
Storm had superb technical wrestling skills, but the knock against him was his lack of charisma. WCW booked around it by giving Storm a great heel gimmick leading Team Canada. Storm was a rare bright spot for WCW and had a solid run in WWE before starting his own school. The wrestling has benefited immensely from Storm sharing his gifts.
3 Flop: Billy Kidman
Billy Kidman received his biggest push in WCW during the New Blood storyline. Hulk Hogan needed a feud with one of the younger stars and Kidman was slotted into the role. However, his heel turn came out of nowhere after thriving as a face for over a year.
Kidman felt out of place in the role even with a few victories over Hogan thanks to outside interference. Hogan burying Kidman in radio interviews for real started the feud, but fans just didn’t view him as an equal to the biggest star in the company. Kidman never had a noteworthy push work out after that despite having great matches consistently.
2 Success: Scott Steiner
WCW had already turned Scott Steiner heel for a singles run before the New Blood faction started. However, the company never went all the way with pushing him beyond the tag team or mid-card picture.
Steiner started to become a bigger player and even scored a huge victory over Goldberg in the cleanest fashion to come from a WCW match. The momentum carried Steiner to the WCW Championship as one of the company’s final last superstars.
1 Flop: David Flair
WCW tried to push David Flair on multiple occasions with the expectations of his success coming as the son of Ric Flair. David entered a personal feud with his father when Vince Russo aligned with him in the New Blood.
Russo convinced David to disown his family and speak out against Ric to set up the matches. David just didn’t have the appeal to convince fans that he was an important player. The lack of success saw his WCW career without many noteworthy moments and his WWE developmental run flopped.