10 Times Backstage Politics Ruined WCW

In seriously typical 'Dubya-C-Dubya' fashion, the promotion forked over cold, hard cash to shoot various flashy vignettes for a new character set to be played by Dustin Rhodes in late-1999. These movie-style trailers saw Dustin caked in white makeup and looking for all the world like some sort of mish-mash between Pinhead from Hellraiser, Uncle Fester and The Undertaker.

He was Seven, and he appeared at the window of a young boy in the dead of night. These retrospectively regrettable hype pieces didn't sit well with the standards and practices division within Turner, so they called on Vince Russo to cancel his plans for Rhodes and come up with something else.

Or, y'know, a ticked off Russo could have Dustin/Seven float to the ring wearing the full garb then have the artist formerly known as Goldust verbally ridicule the "stupid" outfit he'd been handed since returning to WCW from the WWF. That ridiculous promo happened on the 8 November '99 Nitro, and it was a reminder of just how deep in the weeds WCW was willing to get in order to drum up some/any attention for themselves.

It remains one of the lowest ebbs of Dustin's entire career, which is really saying something after watching him read 'Green Eggs & Ham' with Luna Vachon as TAFKA Goldust at In Your House: D-Generation X in December 1997.

Corporate suits shut the Seven gimmick down before it properly got started. A mercy killing, perhaps, but it's still a head scratcher that Russo had Rhodes float to the ring then run his mouth in a shoot-style promo. WCW in a nutshell, eh?