Nearly twenty years ago, World Championship Wrestling closed its doors. The company had so much rich history; it was created when Ted Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions, which itself was a member of the NWA. Now it's all under the WWE. From 1993-2001, WCW presented an alternative to WWE. They weren’t always pretty, but at least there was a choice for wrestling fans. It has taken nearly twenty years for there to be another solid choice: AEW. But that's a story for another time.
Like any wrestling promotion or a TV show for that matter, there were several storylines that got started over the years that either weren’t resolved or were poorly resolved. Say what you will about the insane amount of “On A Pole” matches, but at least they had endings to them. These storylines didn’t, and here are ten old WCW storylines to which we never quite got a satisfying ending.
10 Hogan Lays Down For Sting
In a case that was Vince Russo trying to make his infamous “Crash TV” writing style work WCW, the World Title Match at WCW’s premier PPV, Halloween Havoc in 1999 was a complete joke. Hulk Hogan came out whispered something in Sting’s ear and then laid down for him to just simply be pinned; all before the infamous "Bash At The Beach" work/shoot lay-down. While that might have been a compelling mystery, the next night on Nitro and every night afterward, we never got an explanation.
9 Who’s Driving The Hummer
WCW was a land where semi-decent to great angles began and they just didn’t know how to end them (re: nWo), or worse, there didn’t seem to be an end even considered. Submitted for your approval: “Who’s Driving The White Hummer?” What started a possibly intriguing storyline between Macho Man and Kevin Nash deteriorated and involved several suspects. We never got an answer until the 2000 relaunch that saw Bischoff driving the humvee, which made no sense—but at least it wasn’t ‘Swoggle.
8 Team Piper
Booking rule number one in wrestling is the same “Elevator Pitch” rule that exists in Hollywood. Nobody in WCW cared and we got treated to a three-team, nine-man elimination match. Team Piper started as him with three Journeymen; well, two journeymen and John Tenta aka The Earthquake. Someone, somewhere in WCW realized then got transitioned to three of the Four Horsemen with no explanation, rhyme or reason as to why.
7 The Giant Dies
Eric Bischoff likes to cite Halloween Havoc as WCW’s big show, but he should stop that. Something comically bad almost always happens at the event. Like that time that The Giant was killed (!) by Hulk Hogan, falling to his death above the Cobo Hall. No need to be alarmed though—it was actually only a flesh wound. He came out to the arena a few moments later, not a scratch on him. He also won the world title this night too.
6 Ric Flair’s Buried In The Desert
Ric Flair’s later WCW years were a game of “how can we make the greatest wrestler of all time a total joke?” How about burying him in the desert? That’s what the Filthy Animals did just that. Then he came back without any explanation as to where he was or how he survived. No wonder the guy had some confidence issues when he came to WWE.
5 Sting’s On Fire
One of the more watchable feuds of latter-day WCW—watchable is a loose term—was Sting and Vampiro. The brothers in ghost paint had a feud that lasted for months throughout 2000. It came to a crescendo when Sting was set on fire! He stayed off of TV for a few weeks to sell the injury. But, instead of returning in some sort of crazy getup to hide all of his terrible scars, he just showed up in a mask and when he took that off, not even a mark.
4 nWo 2000
You can blame Goldberg kicking Bret Hart’s head into the 93rd row for this angle not working. In early 2000, the nWo was—again!—reformed to take over. This time it was The Outsiders, Jeff Jarrett, and Bret Hart. This quartet actually had the potential to be huge, especially if they were going to play off the original invasion concept, and expectations were high for it. Would it have saved the company? No, but it could have been a memorable run. Sadly Bret’s concussion issues put the kibosh on this storyline.
3 Nasty Boys Vs. New World Order
In the early days of the nWo, there were some superstars that courted the group and tried to join. Underrated brawlers, the Nasty Boys tried and were beaten down for their efforts. This launched what should have been a hot feud between the Nasties and the Outsiders, but there was supposedly real live rounds thrown in the match and tensions got heated, the rumor is that Hall got annoyed. Knobs kept his job due to his friendship with Hogan, Sags wasn’t so lucky and neither was the storyline.
2 DDP’s Benefactor
In 1996, DDP lost a Loser Leaves Town Match to the Booty Man. Not only did he have to suffer the indignation of losing to #BTFBB, but there were a series of vignettes that aired showing Page living on the streets. While that could have gone somewhere, he returned only a few months later thanks to an unknown benefactor that may or may not have been then-wife Kimberly.
1 Baby Doll’s Blackmail
In an early example of WCW dropping the ball, nothing ever came Of Baby Doll blackmailing Dusty Rhodes. She and Larry Zbyszko were feuding with the Dream, and she claimed that she some dirt on big Dust’. But, to this day, no one knows what they were pictures of—the angle was dropped and abandoned before we could find out. Maybe they were pics of Dusty in polka dots?