20 Biggest Myths WWE Tells About Its History

The Myth: WCW was foolish to release Steve Austin, Mick Foley and HHH.

The Truth: It is so, so hard to predict who's going to be a megastar. It's kind of like that Pokémon trope where you never know how powerful someone’s final form will be.

Just remember, though; WCW didn't cut Stone Cold, Mankind, and Triple H from their roster, they cut Stunning Steve, Cactus Jack and Jean-Paul Lévesque.

Of the three, Cactus was closest to his maximum potential when he was sent packing. He'd already had main event feuds with Vader and Sting, but WCW’s product was trending toward safety. Weapons and blood were less welcome on Turner networks and, without sock puppetry to fall back on, Foley had little to offer.

Austin would have been huge and definite world title material in the old NWA, but he became a victim of WCW’s next mission statement: mimic late 80’s WWE. Hogan was coming, and with him would come his cronies and their working style.

Austin wasn't going to have the kinds of matches he'd had with Ricky Steamboat with, like, Jerry Sags. Plus, WCW was no longer a place where wrestling a 20-minute epic could move you up the card. When he got hurt, I'm sure it seemed like an obvious move to cut him.

And Triple H was jerking curtains feuding with Alex Wright and attempting a truly terrible French accent. Releasing him would be like releasing Damien Sandow, except a version of Damien Sandow that couldn't get his goofy gimmicks over.