25 Crazy WCW Facts (That Get Progressively More Ridiculous)

14. Super Bad Booking

James Brown Ernest Miller
WWE.com

Midcard heels tend to talk nonsense. They don’t really exist for fans to hate them; that is the role of the main event-level heel. You’re meant to take enormous satisfaction from a real top bad guy getting their ass kicked - so much so that you’ll pay money for the show. 

The midcard heel is more of an obnoxious blowhard. It’s annoying when people talk drivel, but that’s about it. It’s quite fun to watch an idiot fantasist get their comeuppance, but nothing more. And that’s fine. Ideal, even. You get a small kick out of it, but you reserve true emotional investment for the stuff that matters. 

When Ernest ‘The Cat’ Miller kept insisting, ahead of SuperBrawl 2000, that he knew James Brown and would one day bring him out to the ring, nobody believed him. Miller never specified when this would happen. That was a tell. The deluded Miller was pretending to be close with James Brown so that he could masquerade as an important dude who mixed in celebrity circles, right? That was his heel schtick (which, by WCW 2000 standards, was actually very entertaining). 

Brown actually ended up in WCW, at SuperBrawl, which WCW never advertised. It was thus impossible for Brown to make any difference in the buy number. The celebrity functions to attract curious viewers through the concept of “publicity”. The public however was completely unaware. 

This did not cost the company a fortune - Brown was paid a one-off sum of $25,000, which was incredibly modest by WCW standards - but getting two very easy things wrong here remains truly impressive. 

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick (Creative Writing BA Hons) is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over a decade of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential UK institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!