6. Swoll - Yes, I Realize That You Have No Idea Who This Is
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x81nq4_no-limit-soldiers-debuts-wcw-14-6-9_sport In 1999, WCW got in the habit of paying way too much for various bands and other musical acts to appear on Nitro. Megadeth (performing "Crush 'Em," which briefly became Bill Goldberg's entrance music), KISS (to introduce the KISS Demon wrestling character), and country singer Chad Brock (who had wrestled in the past, doing jobs at WCW TV tapings) all performed, as did rapper Master P. For some reason, WCW had bigger plans for Master P, who was paid $200,000 per appearance to....I'm not sure, exactly. In theory, he was endorsing the No Limit Soldiers stable, which was named after his label, No Limit Records. The No Limit Soldiers consisted of Rey Mysterio (Jr.), Konnan, Brad Armstrong as a gangsta rapper named "B.A." (really), WCW Power Plant alumnus Chase Tatum, northeast indie worker worker Teddy Reade as 4x4, and some guy named Randy Thornton as Swoll. I always figured Swoll was just Master P's actual bodyguard, and I guess he was, because otherwise I don't see how he ended up getting the type of money that you're about to learn he made if he had nobody going to bat for him. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7cy4y_no-limit-soldiers-feud-with-west-te_spor However, in Googling for Swoll photos and Swoll information for this article (having never done so before, because, well, why?), I discovered that he had some wrestling experience, working a small AWA show right as that promotion died before going to New Japan Pro Wrestling with a boxer gimmick to wrestle Shinya Hashimoto and Masashi Aoyagi. I suppose it's possible this is some other Randy Thornton, but none of it is online unless some kind soul uploads the Hashimoto match. But anyway: Swoll was just a guy. There was no reason to sign him to a big money deal, but being that WCW was WCW and did WCW things, they did.
Cost: He was signed to a deal that paid $350,000 for the first year in addition to a $50,000 signing bonus. He's shown as having been paid $30,890.41 in payroll, not listed on the WCW roster as of May 23, 2000, and only wrestled six matches in two months during the Summer of 1999 before disappearing, so it's likely he was cut not long after being taken off TV. Still, that's a hell of a lot of money for some random guy in six matches, all but one of which were at regular TV tapings. For comparison, others mentioned in the same new contracts and trainees memo from June 9, 1999 include Billy Kidman at the height of his stardom in the cruiserweight division for $300,000:
And A.J. Styles as a trainee for $20,800:
At least Swoll wrestled some matches for WCW...