10 Awful WCW Gimmicks That Immediately Died
Were they even trying?
Despite what the revisionists may say, WCW had some genuinely great ideas.
War Games, for one thing - even WWE has been forced to acknowledge, with the introduction of the long-lost match format to its pay-per-view calendar, that two rings means double the action.
How about the New World Order, without whom we probably wouldn't have got D-Generation X, Evolution or The Shield? That was simply a piece of marketing genius, even if it was at least partially inspired by a similar stable Eric Bischoff spotted during a trip to Japan.
For every great idea, though, they must have been about 10 or 15 stinkers. Concepts so bad that it should perhaps be considered something of a miracle that they actually managed to make it all the way to 2001 before going bankrupt.
The worst part is, often times, they didn't even have the strength of their own convictions. WCW became famed, in fact, for introducing bold new gimmicks one week and then dropping them entirely without any explanation a few Nitro episodes later.
Fortunately, a group of dedicated (and possibly sadomasochistic) fans online have committed them to memory.
10. Basketball Sensation Mark Jindrak
Mark Jindrak is remembered chiefly for the fact that he was once passed up as the third member of Evolution, his role eventually given to the emerging Randy Orton instead.
But that he was even in the running for a spot beside Triple H and Ric Flair shows he was once a highly regarded young talent who was tipped by many insiders for a bright future in the industry.
Gimmicks like this one, however, are perhaps why all that potential was left untapped. In his very early WCW days, Jindrak was packaged with a basketball gimmick, probably owing to his fleeting run as an actual basketball player whilst at college.
Unless their name is Brock Lesnar, wrestling hopefuls with one foot in another sport never really catch on, and besides which: what transferable skills can a basketball player really expect to take from the court into the squared circle? Not many - just ask Dennis Rodman.
Fortunately, the gimmick was only given a handful of airings on WCW's various B-shows before getting canned (or bounced, if you will).