10 Shocking WCW Plans That Almost Happened

5. Chris Jericho In The NWO

Team Canada WCW
WWE.com

The New World Order was undoubtedly the hottest act in professional wrestling for a good spell of time. But then, well then the act became diluted and diluted, until being in the nWo (or one of the various nWo groups) was just commonplace for the majority of WCW's roster.

For Chris Jericho, he could clearly see the lay of the land and actually shot down WCW's plans of having him become part of the nWo.

By all accounts over the years, few, if any, WCW talents campaigned to not be in the nWo. After all, that was the stable where all the cool kids of World Championship Wrestling hung out, as they goofed around with their pals and worked out ways to squash any upcoming stars.

In an interview with WrestlingINC last year, Le Champion proclaimed:

"I remember back in '98, one of the suggestions was for me to be in nWo and I was like, 'Absolutely not'. There's 15 guys in the nWo. They don't need me and I don't need them."

As has been detailed in other such interviews by him, Jericho was well aware that if he joined the nWo then he'd just be another generic face as part of an ever-expanding stable. Instead, the Canadian would go it alone, continuing to carve himself a reputation as one of WCW's most entertaining acts.

Realising that WCW never saw him as anything more than a midcard act, though, Jericho would depart for the then-WWF in 1999.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.