10 WCW Wrestlers Who Were Ridiculously Overpaid

3. M.I. Smooth - Everything I Said About Big Vito Only More So And Less Nice

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15ux6o_the-giant-vs-ice-train-wcw-heavyweight-title_sport In 1993, someone in WCW had a fairly unique idea to introduce a newcomer named Ice Train. They would do a single-camera shoot of his last independent match and air it on TV, showing how he was a hero to his local community and how beloved he was that there would be such a nice turnout for his farewell before heading to WCW. As much as it was a cool idea, he didn't really go anywhere and disappeared in early 1994 after coming out on the losing end of a feud with former friend Ron Simmons. He returned in 1996 after touring with Otto Wanz's CWA in Hannover, Germany in 1995. He returned in 1996 to team with Scott Norton as Fire and Ice. After a fun feud with the Steiner Brothers, Norton turned on him just like Simmons did, and the Train was derailed again, quickly relegated to B-shows before disappearing again around late 1997. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5sOKyu9tPE He was re-signed on May 26, 1999 and sat at home collecting a paycheck for close to nine months, getting a win over Bobby Walker on Worldwide in February 2000 before disappearing AGAIN. Why did this guy vanish so often, anyway? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVd3VGwYjcw He finally showed back up as a regular that June, reinvented as Ernest Miller's limo driver M.I. Smooth, usually just standing there looking scary and only wrestling occasionally. Sites like WrestlingData.com have no matches of his recorded after the death of WCW. Ice Train Wcw Pay Cost: $150,000 guaranteed for the first year escalating to $200,000 in year two and then $250,000 in year three. For ICE TRAIN. He was not a star in the least, sat at home for the year, made no impact...he was just a guy. For comparison, Crowbar made $75,000 per year with no escalations.
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Formerly the site manager of Cageside Seats and the WWE Team Leader at Bleacher Report, David Bixenspan has been writing professionally about WWE, UFC, and other pop culture since 2009. He's currently WhatCulture's U.S. Editor and also serves as the lead writer of Figure Four Weekly and a monthly contributor to Fighting Spirit Magazine.