10 Wrestlers Who Nearly Defected During The Monday Night Wars

9. & 8. Shane Douglas And Konnan

Shane Douglas Konnan Okay, it might seem like cheating a little, but since The Franchise and Konnan€™s near-departure stemmed from the same incident, it€™s worth lumping them together. In early 2000, WCW lost a significant part of its talent pool when Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn jumped together to WWF. The foursome fled WCW after Kevin Sullivan was put in charge of booking, which was the last straw for them. They would debut in WWF as the Radicalz and go on to varying degrees of success, with Benoit and Guerrero famously closing WrestleMania XX holding both world championships. But that four that left WCW the day after the Souled Out PPV weren€™t the only ones who tried to leave. According to €œThe Death of WCW€ by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez:
One week later, in what came as a shock to many, Busch actually lived up to his word and sent Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero, Saturn, Douglas, and Konnan unconditional releases. Konnan and Douglas did not sign due to the fact that both had bad blood with the WWF from years back (when Konnan was the original Max Moon and Douglas was a supposed dean), and they were therefore unlikely to get jobs there.
Granted, Douglas and Konnan might not have gotten WWF contracts. But then again, Vince would have loved to really rub it in with a half-dozen WCW stars showing up on Raw together, even if it meant sucking it up. At worst, he could have brought them on for a few months during the Radicalz€™s initial run. If there€™s one thing Vince loves more than holding a grudge, it€™s making money. And the sheer numbers of six WCW wrestlers jumping at once could have been tempting enough. Of course, that was about the last gasp in the Monday Night Wars, as WCW would be out of business 14 months later, and Douglas and Konnan would fade out of the limelight a little more.
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.