10 WWE Stars Who Failed As The Number One Guy

6. Anyone Not In The nWo In WCW

BeFunkyNWO Not strictly speaking a WWE entry, but lets include it. WWE own it all now anyway, right? And this is an argument for why WWE were in a position to own it now, instead of the other way around. Being a heel-led company is one thing, but the point is still to have the babyface win in the end. That's what wrestling is. It's good vs evil, where good triumphs over evil after all. When WCW booked the nWo angle, they started writing the perfect "face overcomes from underneath" story. They had an all-powerful heel super-group, taking control of the company. Act One had the new group storm in, looking completely cool, doing things nobody had seen before. Act Two saw them take full control, making it seem impossible that any hero could overcome their supreme power. Then, in Act Three€nothing really happened. That was sort of it. WCW had the opportunity to make several wrestlers their Top Guy by beating the nWo. The best example being Goldberg. His undefeated streak was the hottest thing in wrestling in 1998. He was perfectly placed to be the guy to take back the company from the nWo and lead WCW forward. And for a while, he was. The "Goldberg on the rise" story is an undoubted highlight of WCW's run, and when he finally pinned Hollywood Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on Nitro in Atlanta on July 6th, 1998 a change was felt throughout the company. They finally had their Number One Guy. Then, after 174 days as champion, he lost the title to Kevin Nash and the nWo were on top again. Just like that. As if it never happened. Goldberg's momentum was as broken as his streak, and his character was so built around not losing that he never really recovered. It made the entire push feel rather pointless, and the nWo became the embodiment of WCW, again. After Goldberg, the title was hot-shotted to a number of WCW stars including DDP and Sting, none of which becoming the leading face of WCW and none of which getting the credit for dismantling the nWo. Eventually, after some nonsense about a Wolfpac, an Elite and some sort of B-team, the nWo just sort of€ended, leaving the company without a leader.
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Michael Palmer is a contributor at whatculture.com and thelineofbestfit.com, and he probably likes WWE slightly more than most people would call "healthy".