It's almost impossible to believe now, but the WCW was once on the verge of putting the WWE out of business and not vice-versa. The Ted Turner-backed promotion struck a chord with mainstream audiences with the nWo and its brand of realism, that is until it became a parody of itself with over-the-top angles and all-around creative disasters. Conversely, the WWE finally figured out the recipe for success and became a much bigger entity than WCW could ever dream of thanks to the Stone Cold Steve Austin-Vince McMahon feud as well as nearly every aspect of the Attitude Era. Fans wanted more edge and that's what they got with the WWE in the late 1990s. The WCW, meanwhile, struggled to stay afloat before it was purchased by McMahon in 2001.

What followed was most of WCW's premier talent heading to WWE in the next couple years. While most stars with guaranteed contracts took longer to sign, everyone from Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page eventually wrestled for the WWE. Heck, even Sting showed up prior to WrestleMania 31. With that in mind, you're probably curious what some of those - and a horde of other - WCW superstars are doing today. We've got answers!

25 Raven

Most people associate Scott Levy with his dark, mysterious, and poetic Raven character that was one of the most over superstars in ECW, but he actually previously worked in the WWE as the absurd Johnny Polo, who served as the manager to The Quebecers and co-host of Radio WWF. He also held associate producer duties on Monday Night Raw at the time, before leaving the company in 1994. It was a good choice as he went on to become a two-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion, one-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion, and TNA NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Despite being 53 years old, Raven continues to wrestle sporadically on the independent scene. He actually teamed with former Quebecer Pierre Carl Ouellet at a 2017 show in Quebec and, just a week ago, teamed with Tommy Dream to defeat Disco Inferno and Eli Drake at a show in Nevada. He had an ongoing loyalties lawsuit with WWE that was recently dropped, allowing the WWE Network to begin airing episodes of WCW Thunder in March. He's also a podcast host discussing wrestling and lots of other topics.

24 Stevie Ray

As a singles star, Stevie Ray didn't amount to much as it was evident his younger, more athletic brother carried the Harlem Heat tag team, but he is a one-time WCW World Television Champion. He worked with Booker T from 1993 to 1997, before joining the nWo the next year after a short-lived singles run. In total, the Harlem Heat were 10-time World Tag Team Champions.

He wrestled briefly with World Wresting All-Stars after WCW was purchased by McMahon, but soon after moved back to Texas, where he launched Stevie Ray's Super Cars and Stevie Ray's Trucks, the latter of which he still operates to this day. He didn't step into the ring for 13 years when he re-united with Booker T at his Reality of Wrestling Final Heat show in 2015. He has since wrestled at three more ROW shows, with the last one coming in 2017. Like Raven, you can also find him hosting a podcast.

23 Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. was never a huge star, but he's one of the few Superstars to have equal amounts of success in the WCW and WWE. He worked with WCW from 1996 until 2001, when it was bought by McMahon, and was a two-time Cruiserweight Champion and one-time World Tag Team Champion. He was one of the first Superstars to come to the WWE and found immediate success with his uncle Eddie Guerrero; the two were paired as Los Guererros and became two-time Tag Team Champions in addition to being named Tag Team of the Year by Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 2002.

Chavo last worked for WWE in 2011 and has since worked for TNA and Lucha Underground, with which he currently serves in a producer capacity. He also played El Mayordomo and worked as a fight coordinator on Netflix's GLOW.

22 Hugh Morrus

"The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus (get it?) made his WCW debut in 1995 as a member of The Dungeon of Doom and mostly served as an undercard wrestler, but somehow managed to last six years in the company, eventually becoming Hugh G. Rection and essentially symbolizing all that was wrong with the WCW at the time. Despite hardly getting over in WCW, he joined the WWE as part of the Invasion angle, but again mostly wrestled on Velocity and Heat instead of Raw and SmackDown.

After a stint on the independent circuit, he joined the WWE in 2011 as a head trainer on Tough Enough and for FCW/NXT. However, he resigned from WWE in March 2015 following accusations of misconduct from numerous ex-trainees. He denied any wrongdoing, but a photo of Luke Gallows giving a naked stinkface to Zack Ryder emerged. DeMott said this of the incident just a week ago: "They made a deal, they didn't want to train. They made a deal. What's the deal? 'I'll give somebody a squisher bare-a**ed with a jelly doughnut in their mouth.' I look around at 40 people and I went, 'Deal!' Guy gets naked, other guy sits in the corner with a jelly doughnut in his mouth, he runs across the ring, hits the Rikishi a** bump, squishes it all over the face. Funniest thing I've ever seen in my life." Along with appearances at wrestling conventions, he's also doing his part with various charities.

21 Scott Norton

A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Scott Norton debuted with New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1990 and was sought out by WCW three years later. Despite his limited in-ring ability, Norton spent parts of five years with the company and was perhaps best known as either a member of nWo (who wasn't?) or the Fire and Ice tag team with Ice Train, which engaged in a feud with The Steiner Brothers.

In 2014, the WWE caught up with him as part of their Where Are They Now series and he said he was writing an autobiography, but that has yet to see the light of day. He is, however, still competing in the ring; the 56 year old wrestled a half dozen times in 2017, including in the Dark Rumble at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11, which also included Billy Gunn, Jushin Thunder Liger, and Cheeseburger.

20 Diamond Dallas Page

If you have ever listened to a wrestling podcast - or any podcast for that matter - you probably don't need us to tell you what Diamond Dallas Page is up to these days. That's because you've heard either Stone Cold Steve Austin or Chris Jericho or any others in the wrestling industry talk about the success of his DDP Yoga program and workouts, which he has since turned into a complete successful fitness platform.

In addition to his pursuits in yoga, the three-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and 61 year old has appeared in films such as Vengeance and The Bet, which were released in 2014 and 2016 respectively. He also re-married in 2015 after being single for 11 years following his divorce to Kimberly Page.

19 The Barbarian

The name Sione Havea Vailahi might not ring a bell for you, but the Tongan wrestler worked as The Barbarian in WWE in the late 1980s and bounced back and forth between the company and the WCW in the 1990s. He never won a championship in either company over a 10-year period, which might be why he isn't someone you're going to remember at first glance; in fact, he even has a Worst Tag Team and Worst Worked Match of the Year from Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The 59 year old continues to work sporadically on the independent scene, teaming with his ex-partners Meng and The Warlord. Beyond that, he has seven children and manages a construction business in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's also part of the traumatic brain injury class action lawsuit filed against WWE in 2016.

18 Charles Robinson

It's almost strange to say, but few WCW alumni have transitioned as easy to the WWE as referee Charles Robinson. The 53 year old North Carolina native began working with the company in 1997 and, two years later, played a major part in an angle as the heel referee of the Four Horsemen. He even fought at Slamboree 1999 as "Little Naitch" in a match against Macho Man Randy Savage's girlfriend Gorgeous George. He was injured by Savage a week later in a tag team match.

Robinson refereed WCW's final match ever in March 2001 and subsequently joined WWE, where he was a member of The Alliance, yet still called things fair and even in the ring. He has continued to work for the company ever since, even showing up backstage on the March 20 edition of SmackDown Live to congratulate Daniel Bryan on being cleared for contact.

17 Stacy Keibler

It's incredible to believe that Stacy Keiber is still only 38 years old. That's the age of most WWE competitors in their prime today, but Keiber has been away from the industry, for the most part, since 2006, when she was still 27 years old. She walked away relatively early, but not without career prospects, if only based on her beauty and long legs that have been deemed as "Weapons of Mass Seduction."

She has lived a mostly private life outside of wrestling, but the former Nitro Girl was once a contestant on Dancing with the Stars and dated Hollywood hunk George Clooney for two years. She is now married to Future Ads CEO Jared Pobre and the mother of one daughter, Ava Grace Pobre. In 2016, she and her husband got tied up with Cam Newton after the NFL star allegedly "wrecked" an $11 million mansion owned by Jared's rental company.

16 Steve McMichael

Several football players have made the transition from college or the NFL to professional wrestling, but none had a pedigree quite like Steve McMichael, a defensive tackle who won a Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears in 1986 and led the team in sacks two seasons later. He made his first foray into wrestling in 1995, when he appeared ringside with Lawrence Taylor for his WrestleMania XI match against Bam Bam Bigelow and joined WCW the following year along with his wife, Debra McMichael.

While he wasn't the most talented in-ring worker, he did win the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship by defeating Jeff Jarrett at Clash of the Champions in 1997. He has since co-hosted a Bears pre-game show on ESPN 100, served six years as head coach of the Chicago Slaughter of the Indoor Football League, and ran - and lost - for mayor of Romeoville, Illinois.

15 Tony Schiavone

Even wrestling fans who strongly preferred WWE would have to admit they miss hearing Tony Schiavone call matches. The 60 year old former WCW announcer was one of the best and ultimately the voice for a generation of 90s-era WCW fans. He was great alongside Bobby Heenan - or whomever he worked with for that matter - and, including Jim Crockett Promotions, lasted 18 years with the company. He didn't catch on with WWE and one reason could be his reputation with the likes of Heenan and Mean Gene Okerlund, who once claimed Schiavone was "the consummate politician."

He recently returned to wrestling after a 14-year hiatus as a color commentator for Major League Wrestling, which appears poised to crown Matt Riddle as its World Champion. He also hosts a podcast on MLW that is expected to produce its last episode on March 26 and is a baseball and college football broadcaster in Georgia.

14 Sting

One of the true WCW guys during the 1990s that never strayed from the nest, Sting was one of the company's most valuable wrestlers and, not surprisingly, earned four Most Popular Wrestler of the Year awards from Pro Wrestling Illustrated during the decade. The six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion was one of the few holdouts who never joined WWE following its purchase of WCW and instead opted to compete for TNA, where he became a four-time World Heavyweight Champion.

He finally made his WWE debut at Survivor Series in 2014 and the following August he emerged from a Seth Rollins statue to attack The Architect in a moment that earned the Slammy Award for Surprise Return of the Year. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016 and is presumably enjoying retirement, although he has shared his desire to one day wrestle The Undertaker, but that appears extremely unlikely at this point. He keeps active in the wrestling scene making several convention appearances.

13 Lex Luger

Before returning to WCW in 1995, Lex Luger was set to be the top babyface in the WWE, but his American Hero angle simply didn't work the same way in which it did for Hulk Hogan, who had recently bolted for WCW. As such, Luger never truly got over with fans in WWE and reached out to his friend Sting, who petitioned for Eric Bischoff to hire Luger, despite some initial reluctance. Bischoff was never really a fan of Luger either, but nonetheless he made his WCW debut on the premiere episode of Nitro at the Mall of America.

Despite Bischoff not being a fan of Luger, he won the World Heavyweight Championship against Hulk Hogan on a 1997 episode of Nitro, but lost it in a rematch five days later. Since leaving wrestling, he suffered a spinal infraction that left him unable to walk for an extended period of time and he has since helped WWE craft its Wellness Policy. He's another face you can find at wrestling conventions.

12 Arn Anderson

An original member of the Four Horsemen, Arn Anderson started working with Jim Crockett Promotions in 1984 and remained with the company until his retirement in 1997 when he had to step away due to neck and upper back injuries. He did, however, return briefly in 2000 as part of the Old Age Outlaws stable, which was obviously a parody of the WWE's New Age Outlaws tag team. After WCW was bought by WWE, Anderson began working as a road agent in the WWE, while also being used in storylines involving Ric Flair, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Undertaker. In August 2017, he was revealed as the man who destroyed Breezango's toy horse on a Fashion Files segment.

Anderson also appeared in the ring during WWE Starrcade in November 2017 and hit his signature spinebuster on Dolph Ziggler in a moment The Showstopper referred to as one of the most memorable of his career.

11 Meng

Tonga 'Uli'uli Fifita has wrestled under numerous character names throughout his extensive pro wrestling career, including his real name, Prince Tonga, King Haku, and Meng, the latter of which he used in WCW as Haku, which he previously used in WWE, was trademarked by the Vince McMahon-led company. He's a one-time WCW Hardcore Champion and, although he didn't amount to much in either company, he is regarded as one of the toughest wrestlers of all-time; the likes of Arn Anderson, Vader, Rikishi, and Ric Flair have even said so.

"Don't ever think that anybody would mess with Haku," said Flair in an interview. "If he was a young guy and he got into MMA, my god - he'd have done everything! He was the toughest son of a b---h I've ever met in my whole life. No lie, take my word for it." The 59 year old resides in Florida with his wife of 40 years and has wrestled a handful of times in the past two years.

10 Alex Wright

Perhaps one of the most well-known German wrestlers of all-time, at least among North American audiences, Alex Wright had a relatively successful career in the WCW as an undercard and mid-card worker, despite being under-utilized at times. He won the Cruiserweight, Television, and Tag Team Championship (along with Disco Inferno) during his seven-year career with the company. He didn't join the WWE as he was under contract with AOL Time Warner and reportedly lost interest in the business due to the backstage politics in the WCW.

Today, the 42 year old is the founder and CEO of New Sport Entertainment GmbH, which oversees operations for the German-based New European Championship Wrestling. He also manages The Wright Stuff - Pro Wrestling School, which he founded in 2007.

9 Prince Iaukea

The Cruiserweight division was one of the most impressive aspects of the WCW. Even when the company became a parody of itself with the continuous revamping of the nWo, you could always rely on the Cruiserweights to steal the show. Michael Hayner, who wrestled as Prince Iaukea, wasn't necessarily one of the more talented Cruiserweights, but he did win the championship in 1999 after a heel turn that saw him compete as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea," which was later shortened to "The Artist." He ended his career with the company as a two-time Cruiserweight Champion and one-time Television Champion.

Not surprisingly, he received no interest from WWE, but continued to wrestle sporadically on the independent scene until 2015. He is now married and has a son who competes on the independent circuit as Nick Primo.

8 Norman Smiley

Norman Smiley wrestled for WCW from 1997 to 2001, during which time he was a two-time WCW Hardcore Champion. He is perhaps best remembered for his gimmick of wearing protective padding, a football helmet, and jerseys of local professional sports teams to the ring as well as his reluctance to compete in hardcore matches. Surprisingly, he was never packaged as an 80s-era porn star, likely because it would have been too easy.

He finally joined WWE in 2007 but in the capacity as a trainer for FCW. He served briefly as the lieutenant General Manager on FCW TV tapings and currently works as a trainer for NXT, where he is revered by several current NXT stars. In fact, he is one of the longest-tenured coach in WWE's developmental system.

7 Lenny Lane

Chris Jericho lookalike Lenny Lane worked with WCW from 1997 to 2001, but was primarily an undercard worker who was hardly on TV. He was part of a regrettable tag team with Lodi dubbed the West Hollywood Blondes, a play on the popular Hollywood Blones team but with an implied homosexual twist. The team was eventually taken off TV following protests from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, but not before Lane surprised everyone by capturing the Cruiserweight Championship from Rey Mysterio Jr. on an epsiode of Thunder with the help of Lodi.

He wrestled primarily on the independent scene after WCW was bought by WWE, but did compete in a pair of matches on WWE TV in 2004 and 2008 on episodes of Heat and ECW on Sci Fi respectively. His ECW on Sci Fi match was the last of his career. He has since opened a dojo in Golden Valley and is a certified instructor of Commando Krav Maga.

6 Juventud Guerrera

There were some wrestlers in WCW's Cruiserweight division who couldn't really keep up talent-wise with the rest of the division, but Juventud Guerrera was not one of those wrestlers. The three-time Cruiserweight Champion and one-time Tag Team Champion was one of the most entertaining in-ring performers in the WCW and his matches were of the can't-miss variety. While it took four years, it was great to see him compete in the WWE in 2005 as part of the Mexicools, however he was released within a year due to reported backstage issues and his continual use of dangerous moves that WWE had banned.

The 43 year old continues to compete on a regular basis, traveling all over the world to wrestle in different promotions. In 2018 alone, he has wrestled in Mexico, Australia, and the United States.