The WCW Conspiracy Iceberg EXPLAINED!

The art of pro wrestling is doing next to nothing. It is a devastating game that leaves even the safest of workers in tatters when it’s through with them; Hulk Hogan, a man famed for selling endlessly, shaking his head from side to side, and then hitting the big leg, was a physical wreck upon retirement. Randy Orton, notorious for slow-motion chin-lock festivals, almost retired in the early 2020s as a result of a debilitating back issue. While this argument is often weaponised in order to criticise AEW because that’s where the clicks are, there is a sobering truth to it. There’s also a funny extreme to the argument; if the best worker is the one who does very little, then by that logic, Lanny Poffo was the best wrestler of all-time. 

That is because Poffo earned a six-figure salary for four years, working a maximum of two dark matches between 1995 and 1999. Signed to WCW as a favour to his brother Randy Savage, Eric Bischoff reckons that Savage voluntarily took less money to get the deal done, effectively donating the difference to his sibling - but it’s still very funny. Poffo earned nearly half a million dollars just by playing with his balls, which, since he had to get that hog out of the way, might actually have been harder work than Kevin Nash managed. But you know who else appeared in WCW between 1995 and 1999?

Wildcat Willie, the official mascot of WCW. He was a weird n’ goofy guy, a relic one year into a widely despised run, and yet he persisted for ages. He was a painfully pre-nWo act. Some speculate that this must have been Poffo - after all, why not get their money’s worth? The answer to that question is “because that would be far too simple”.

Poffo did not play Wildcat Willie; the mascot was played by Gary Hedrick. The timeline makes sense - but WCW so often did not.