The history of WCW featured countless great wrestlers spending time in the company. Most of the relevant names in the industry of the 90s had at least a short run in WCW. Not all are easily remembered like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, or Sting when looking back at their WCW careers. Quite a few tremendous names had a cup of coffee in WCW with a run featuring little to no television time.
We will look at some of the interesting names the average fan either forgot or had no idea spent time in WCW. Many of them would go on to accomplish more success after leaving WCW given the minimal opportunities offered to most of the roster. WCW started to sign talents for the sake of it towards the end of the Monday Night Wars that fans didn’t even notice. These are ten wrestlers that you likely didn’t even realize worked for WCW.
10 Rob Van Dam
Rob Van Dam is the kind of performer WCW lacked towards the end of the Monday Night Wars. A young exciting wrestler that fans connected with is what the company needed at a time when they had none due to their booking woes. RVD actually spent time in WCW and flew under the radar.
Van Dam appeared in 1992 under the name of Robbie V. The gear was reminiscent of a karate outfit to play into his martial arts background. Nothing came from the WCW opportunity as RVD would make his name in ECW and become a bigger star in WWE.
9 Jerry Lynn
The rival of Rob Van Dam from ECW was another forgotten member of the WCW roster, for good reason. Jerry Lynn always performed well in the ring with an innovative in-ring style. WCW tried to utilize him in the cruiserweight division but under a mask.
Lynn performed under the name of Mr. JL paying tribute to his initials. The short-run featured a couple of matches on Nitro, but WCW gave up once it became apparent it would not go over. Unlike the masked luchadors, there was not an authentic reason for the Mr. JL mask, and that made the character come off as cheap and lazy.
8 Molly Holly
WCW never truly invested in a credible women’s division and rarely had any matches with female talent at all. The company did try to add more women to the storylines in 1999 when WWE found success with female characters. Molly Holly received her first big break in a surprising introduction.
Randy Savage returned after some time away from the company with three ladies at his side. His real-life girlfriend Gorgeous George would appear at ringside with Madusa and Molly under the name of Miss Madness. Holly often got involved in matches despite wearing a pageant dress. It was obvious why she took the first chance to jump to WWE when the opportunity was offered.
7 Lanny Poffo
Another person to get involved in WCW due to a connection with Randy Savage was his brother Lanny Poffo. Longtime wrestling fans will remember Lanny for his WWE run as The Genius. Randy used his star power to get Lanny a deal as well when he agreed to join WCW.
Lanny received good money on a five-year contract despite only wrestling once for the company on WCW Saturday Night. WCW signed him to appease Randy and secure his legendary name on the roster. Lanny benefited immensely by having one of the sweetest jobs in wrestling history.
6 Triple H
Triple H was one of the few names on this list that WCW did value. The potential of Triple H was obvious as WCW employed him under the names of Terra Ryzing and Jean Paul Levesque. His main character was becoming a member of the Blue Bloods with William Regal as his tag team partner.
The most memorable match for Triple H in WCW came in a great bout against Alex Wright. WCW wanted to eventually push him higher, but Triple H was set on joining WWE as his dream job when his contract expired. It worked out well as Triple H is slated to run WWE when Vince McMahon steps down.
5 Owen Hart
Most fans of the 90s and today each had no idea that Owen Hart was part of the WCW roster in 1991. Following his first WWE stint in the late 80s as the Blue Blazer, Owen took some time away from the company to look for opportunities with more upside.
WCW added him to the roster in 1991 with only five appearances on television. Four matches featured Owen defeating enhancement talents and the fifth was a bout teaming with Ricky Morton. The recent Crazy as A Fox book looking at the career of Brian Pillman shared details about plans for Pillman and Owen to team together but plans changed leading to Owen wanting to return to WWE.
4 AJ Styles
The final year of WCW featured them desperately trying to build new stars by giving talented yet unfamiliar names a chance. It was too late as WCW used their best years to continue pushing veterans and had few relevant youngsters.
AJ Styles was one of the new wrestlers to get a chance on the roster during the run of desperation. WCW introduced the Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship with a tournament of new and old smaller wrestlers. Styles teamed with Air Paris to show his potential, but WCW went out of business before he could get momentum.
3 Marty Jannetty
WCW started signing every relevant name on the free agent once they took control in the Monday Night Wars. There were many wrestlers that never appeared in Nitro matches or PPV feuds. The talented former Rockers tag team star Marty Jannetty was one of these performers.
Following the end of the Rockers, Shawn Michaels became a top superstar as Jannetty struggled to break out. Personal issues would doom Jannetty leading to multiple WWE releases. WCW signed Jannetty with no real use of him outside of the random multi-person cruiserweight matches or as an enhancement act.
2 Sabu
WCW tried to steal Sabu away from ECW in 1995 when his star power was first shining. To their credit, WCW did attempt to continue using him with the same character. Sabu often would introduce tables and chairs during his matches as he delivered his incredible high spots.
The one rivalry of Sabu was Mr. JL as he faced off with the masked Jerry Lynn on multiple episodes of Nitro and Halloween Havoc 1995. Sabu defeated Disco Inferno in his final match of the two-month stint. Both sides felt unhappy with the fit and Sabu left WCW to eventually return to ECW.
1 Edge
The legendary career of Edge featured WWE wanting to showcase him as a future star from his debut. WCW did not see the obvious potential there when Edge appeared for them on a couple of shows in 1996. Edge was young into his career with his first televised appearances on the secondary show WCW Pro.
Both matches featured Edge as an enhancement talent under the name of Damon Striker. Meng and Kevin Sullivan each easily defeated Edge in his two WCW matches. The company did not think he was ready for a contract offer and WWE took him off the free-agent market two years later.