8 Awesome WCW Ideas That Didn't Last
1. The Black Scorpion
Infamously, Hector Guerrero, in an oversized turkey costume, hatched out of an egg at Survivor Series '90, scotching the expectations of those who'd inexplicably expected Ric Flair's arrival. Ironically, this disappointment foreshadowed an actual Flair reveal a month later which delighted few - including the man himself.
In 1989, WCW appointed a new chief executive by the name of Jim Herd. Herd, as a former regional Pizza Hut manager, had few notions of what made the southern promotion tick, and instead wanted to transform it in the same cartoon image as rivals WWF. Only his vision was less Superman, and more the Beano. Frustrated with the new direction, traditionalist booker Ole Anderson started pitching all manner of ludicrous ideas, just to see what he could get away with. One of them stuck.
Starting August 1990, vignettes began airing depicting a hooded figure known as The Black Scorpion. The mystery man croaked that he was a former friend of WCW Champion Sting - and that he was coming to get him.
A little hokey, sure, but nothing like the preposterous drivel Herd had previously insisted upon, and more than enough to have fans intrigued. Could it be Sting's former Powerteam USA partner Dave Sheldon? The gimmick was appropriately eerie for a man known as 'The Angel of Death'. Even more exciting was the suggestion of The Ultimate Warrior, another former tag partner. He was WWE champ at the time - it would have been some coup.
Every conceit was used to conceal the identity of the Scorpion - mostly because Ole had no idea who it'd be. Anderson's voice was distorted for interviews, whilst Al Perez, Jeff Ellis and Sheldon himself cycled through the gimmick in-ring.
In the end, Anderson decided that, as Sting's ex Horsemen teammate, he was the ideal man for the role. That was until he suffered a broken arm in training, and lost interest in the angle entirely. Come Starrcade '90, the idea was hastily brought to its conclusion: if Black Scorpion failed to beat Sting for his championship, he'd be forced to unmask.
Fail he did, and out popped The Nature Boy, then in the midst of a major depush due to personal enmity between himself and Herd. Indeed, so furious was Herd with Anderson's final decision, that he sacked him as head booker.