10 Times WWE Threw Money Down The Drain

Just as it was a shock when WWE purchased WCW, it was a shock the following year when Eric Bischoff debuted on WWE television. Given the former WCW President's talent as a TV character and reputation in the wrestling business, his signing could have been the impetus for a hugely successful series of storylines. Instead, it was an occasion when money was immediately burned.

True or not, Bischoff's claim to fame in wrestling is that he's the one guy who's ever made Vince McMahon sweat. With his unlimited bank book, he was able to snatch so many wrestling stars that WWE became the firm #2 promotion in the world for a couple of years. Before McMahon managed to reverse that trend with his feud with Steve Austin, Raw was in very real danger of being cancelled, meaning that WWE was in very real danger of shutting down.

Given all that, Bischoff would have been the perfect man to lead a reconstituted WCW force against McMahon and WWE, leading to an invasion storyline done right. Instead, Bischoff was introduced by McMahon as the general manager of the Raw brand, and the two heartily embraced.

Why the colossal error? Well, apart from McMahon's complete lack of interest in resuscitating the WCW brand, it seemed he was too enamored with the idea of having Bischoff play his employee on TV (Bischoff being his employee in real life wasn't enough) to do anything else.