World Championship Wrestling was the undisputed ruler of the wrestling industry for much of the early 90's, overtaking the WWF and stealing Vince McMahon's biggest stars such as Hulk Hogan. A flow of talent was going on between the two wrestling companies, the top WWF stars were jumping ship to WCW, forcing WCW's unwanted filler talent out of a job, many of whom then got snapped up on the cheap by WWF. Little did WCW or indeed WWF realise what was actually occurring was the New York brand clearing out their old deadwood while the southern brand acted as the unwitting youth feeder to the WWF. Eric Bischoff was unknowingly developing and sending in the next generation of stars to Vince McMahon, Bischoff thought they were expendable talent, he thought established 80's stars would still be hot in the 90's. He was wrong. McMahon cried tears over losing his stars, but ultimately, he gained the heirs to the throne. This list will detail the most shocking stars WCW let go, men now perceived as WWE through and through, the people who went on to become industry megastars. To be fair to Eric Bischoff and WCW, hindsight is an easy thing, in retrospect of course we can say that his company was foolish to release men who went on to do big business. Eric would counter by pointing out that at the time there was no way of knowing it, he would argue that he made the most informed decisions he could. No one could have imagined just how succesful some of those WCW releases would become in the WWF. You'd have to agree with Eric that some of them appeared no hopers. That's why Vince McMahon is a promotional genius, turning water into wine. This list might surprise you with some of the big names WCW let go, men you will now know better as mega WWE stars. Just think, if WCW had just held on to these guys, they would have had one of the greatest rosters of all time and may never have gone bust!
