If there was ever a shining example of someone who WCW misused, only for them to go on to much bigger things in their post-WCW career, it would be Steve Austin. As "Stunning" Steve, he was a very good midcard worker that could have good matches and feud for the Television and United States Titles at any time, as well as being a solid part of the tag division. Unfortunately for him, Eric Bischoff and the rest of WCW management didn't see any real money to be made with him, and because they felt he was injury prone, they decided to let him go. There are many ways to release an employee. You could bring them into your office, tell them it's time to part ways, and then give them some kind of speech about how they'll be able to bounce back and get on their feet in no time. You could go to them and just be blunt about it, telling them they don't have a place in the future of your company anymore. What Bischoff decided to do was something a lot less upfront. Bischoff called Austin, while Austin was at home recovering from an arm injury, and he fired him over the phone, then sending a letter to Austin via FedEx, making it official. Austin was furious that he could be treated in such a way, and when Paul Heyman (Austin's former manager in WCW) called him and asked him to air his grievances on ECW programming, Austin jumped on the opportunity, and the rest is history. Austin did show up in ECW, and he showed more personality than many thought he had. He cut some scathing promos on Eric Bischoff, the people WCW was choosing to push, and the company, as a whole. The promos were funny, and they were something different. They put Austin square on the WWF radar, and they signed him shortly thereafter. When WCW doesn't see money in someone, and they go on to become the biggest money-making draw in the history of the business, surpassing every box office, television, and pay-per-view record there ever was... you could call that just a bit of an oversight on their part, especially when you add the fact that it was Austin's rise in popularity that helped to put WCW out of business six years after they released him. Whoops.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
