10 Wrestlers Who VANISHED When WCW Died
Whatever happened to AJ Styles' partner, or the woman who was defeated by Judy Bagwell?
“I bought my competition!”
With those four words, Vince McMahon announced that he had acquired World Championship Wrestling and planned to put it on the shelf. Of course, we all know that this was a prelude to the Invasion, a story arc so mishandled that even Katie Vick is said to turn in her grave at the thought of it.
Of the 58 wrestlers on the roster during the last year of WCW, only 24 had their contracts transferred over to the World Wrestling Federation, most of those lesser-known performers and mid-card acts.
As for the rest? Some of the biggest names in the flagging promotion were content to sit at home on the same big money they were getting while performing until their contracts ran out and they mostly joined TNA or WWE. Others seemed to disappear into obscurity almost immediately, a fate that even those lucky 24 who invaded weren’t safe from.
Join us as we take a look at ten WCW regulars who seemed to fall off the face of the earth after the promotion closed its doors, never reappearing in a major wrestling role afterwards...
10. DeWayne Bruce
While DeWayne Bruce did wrestle for WCW under the name Sergeant Buddy Lee Parker, he's perhaps best known for (fighting crime in DeCity Gotham) his role as head trainer at the Power Plant, WCW's famous developmental school.
Perhaps because of his 5'6"stature in a world dominated by giants, Bruce is mostly remembered as a deeply insecure man who has been repeatedly accused of taking his Napoleon complex out on anyone who entered the Power Plant.
This includes Batista, who went for an open tryout and was drilled by Bruce until he threw up, and Louis Theroux, who dared ask questions Bruce wasn't prepared to answer during his Weird Weekends look into wrestling and was forced to work out like much fitter men, resulting in the documentarian being humiliated in front of the entire gym.
Following WCW’s acquisition, Bruce joined Jimmy Hart’s XWF and wrestled sporadically on the indies to drum up business for his own wrestling school - The Super Power Plant. In 2011, following his school folding, Bruce retired from wrestling altogether. He currently lives in Atlanta where he works as a building manager for a construction company.