10 Times WWE Sabotaged WCW Wrestlers

WCW.

Twenty years ago, those three letters were the source of much angst, hostility, frustration, anger, and even fear for many of the executives and former executives of WWE. World Championship Wrestling had taken over the world of professional wrestling as its leading promotion, and such was the extent of its success that there was even talk of Vince McMahon downsizing his own struggling outfit back into a small, north-eastern territory in late 1997.

Fast forward to the present day and the feelings associated with WCW have changed tremendously.

No longer do those three letters elicit any worry or concern, rather, they are treated as comedy and are often thrown around as a token and measure of WWE's success and relative monopoly of the world of pro-wrestling. Despite sharing some similarities to WCW during it's downfall, WWE today often mocks the history of WCW and seemingly belittles anyone still closely associated with the former Ted Turner-owned organization.

Over the past few decades, WWE has gone out of its way to make former WCW talents face an uphill battle in their transition to WWE. Some acts have had it worse than others, but WWE has often employed the use of borderline sabotage in many cases, with the goal being to continuously mock WCW even years after its downfall.

Here's just 10 times WWE tried to belittle its rival - even after they went out of business.

With WWE's long history of questionable booking practices revolving around former WCW stars, a great place to start is with 'The American Dream' Dusty Rhodes.

Prior to Dusty even working for WWE, Vince McMahon took a shot at the WCW booker by naming the lowly bodyguard of 'Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBiase - one of the company's whipping boys - Virgil (a reference to Dusty's real name, Virgil Runnels).

When Dusty eventually joined WWE in 1989, McMahon decided to dress Dusty in bright yellow polka dots, make Dusty dance, and use Dusty's "common man" persona a bit too literally. WWE fans were first introduced to Dusty through vignettes of Rhodes working as a trash collector, a plumber, and a pizza delivery man. Shortly after his debut, Rhodes was paired with the homely Sapphire in another move that did Dusty's career few favors.

To his credit, Dusty got the gimmick over and his charisma shined through to the fans despite the goofiness that his new character portrayed. It was quite the change from the American Dream character that won the NWA World Championship, but Dusty made it work.

Still, despite making chicken salad from chicken you-know-what, Dusty never made it past the upper mid-card in WWE.