Exposing The Myth: Vince McMahon Buried WCW Talent
1. Instant Main Eventers
Not just have many former WCW wrestlers gone on to reach the pinnacle of WWE and become a World Champion, but some ex-WCW names have been instantly plugged into main event rivalries.
Take the example of Scott Steiner. This is someone who, despite by that point being a shell of his former shelf, was instantly inserted into the World Title picture upon returning to WWE in 2002. WCW stink? Not even a whiff of that stench for Scotty upon his return to Vince McMahon's organisation.
Goldberg is yet another example of a former WCW name who was placed straight into the title hunt once he signed with WWE in 2003. An icon of Ted Turner's rasslin' company, many had trepidation in mind when it came to how McMahon would use Da Man, yet WWE did everything they could to make Goldberg a focal point of their product - having Bill gets big wins over The Rock, Chris Jericho, Triple H, and Brock Lesnar during that one-year run.
Other examples range from Ric Flair to Big Show to Sting, as the perfect rationale as to how Vince McMahon did his best to make former WCW names major players in his company. Flair won the 1992 Royal Rumble and had two stints as the WWF Champion, Big Show debuted as part of the white-hot Austin vs. McMahon rivalry, while Sting was given a huge WrestleMania spotlight against Triple H and then challenged for Seth Rollins' World Heavyweight Championship.