10 WCW Stars Who Did WWE Gimmicks First

5. Goldberg

People can say what they like about match quality, but big Bill Goldberg was a phenomenon when he landed on the scene and started running over fools in 1997. Eric Bischoff, seeing dollar signs in the muscular beast, had Goldberg go undefeated for over an entire year, and that success created support for those vicariously living through Bill's dominance.

Ryback? Not so much. It wasn't actually the man formerly known as Skip Sheffield's fault that the character didn't catch fire either. Ryback tried his best and had better matches/feuds than some would give him credit for - the problem was that fans saw through what WWE were doing. They were striving to replicate Goldberg's squash match machine character.

Loud "Goldberg" chants marred Ryback's matches, and they visibly annoyed the 'Big Guy' too. This might not be a popular opinion, but he made the best of an idea that had a ceiling. Being 2012's repeat of something WCW had done 15 years earlier was hardly inspired.