8 Wrestlers Who Didn't "Earn" Their World Title Shots
6. 53 Guys - World War III 1995
World War III was was WCW's attempt to capture the magical chaos of the Royal Rumble, but despite featuring more wrestlers and taking place inside two extra rings, it never lived up to the goal. The inaugural show saw the 60-man three-ring battle royal held to determine the winner of the vacant WCW world championship. Going into the event Hulk Hogan and The Giant were considered the strong favorites, but it was actually Randy "Macho Man" Savage who walked out with the gold thanks to a bit of good old-fashioned wrestling shenanigans. The crazy thing is, out of those sixty guys, only seven of them had a reasonable claim as world title challengers. Besides the three men already mentioned, you had Sting, Lex Luger, Ric Flair and maybe Arn Anderson as legitimate contenders. The rest of the field was populated by elite competitors such as Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, Mark Starr, Fidel Sierra, Pez Whatley, James Earl Wright and Bobby Walker. WCW could have easily trimmed the fat and made for a much better match, but they preferred the spectacle of the affair. In a kayfabe world where wrestling is real, we could have spent Thanksgiving of 1995 with Big Train Bart as WCW champion.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
