Who are the best or worst free agent signings in wrestling history?

[Matt7584]

When you look at the history of wrestling their are guys who are brought up by the system like they are in professional sports and their are free agent signings that teams/ companies hope will improve their product. Hulk hogan, most of the NWO, Bret hart, piper, and warrior were all brought in by WCW. While some worked out well others flopped. Undertaker, stone cold Steve Austin, diesel, mick foley, vader, Goldberg, HHH, and Ric flair were guys the wwe brought in to the company.

In my opinion the best free agent signing by either company was stone cold Steve Austin. Revolutionized wrestling and the wwe. I'm no mark for the man, but you need to pay him his dues. He went from mid carder in WCW to one of greats in wwe history.

The worst signing in my opinion is my favorite wrestler of all time Bret the hitman hart. WCW dropped the ball with him big time. He went from top guy in wwe to a mid carder in WCW. There weren't any high profile matches we all talk about today from his WCW days. He had the most promise and yet Failed big time.

So who do you guys believe are the best and worst signings in wrestling history?

 

[HBsam31]

Good thread. For the best I have to make mentioned of The Undertaker. In his short time with WCW he was in the tag division and that's about it. When Vince signed him over to WWF who would have thought he would have went on to have the career that The Undertaker had?

As far as the worst goes I am going to throw out WCW signing Mike Awesome away from ECW. He was a talented guy in ECW imo. He was their world champion, and was a big athletic guy while in ECW. WCW signed him and basically ruined him, turning him into a guy that banged fat chicks. Just one that comes to mind when I think of signing that went bad.

 

[THE Great GAMMA]

I would have to go with Nathan Jones as the worst. i know it wasn't the WWE's fault but he had everything, The look the size and he just couldn't cut it.

Best would have to be Steve Austin or Kurt Angle or (Honourable mention: Undertaker) for the WWE and Austin Aries or Samoa Joe for TNA.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Taker was great, he had the physical skills in WCW but his whole personna was completely made over in WWE, he had to come cheap too since he was barely on the radar in WCW.

Austin for WWE worked out well, WCW bringing back Flair and recruiting Hogan & Savage worked extremely well, in fact it laid the groundwork for what I think was the most effective signin of the 90s, Hall & Nash which lead to the revival of pro wrestling in the US and created one of the most popular angles of all time, The NwO Invasion.

Going back to the 80s Vince certainly mined gold signing Hogan from the AWA (biggest signing all time when you look at how it turned out) & Roddy Piper from the NWA. The NWA did very well picking up Lex Luger from Fla and Sting from the UWF, not too mention Barry Whyndam from WWE.

I do think the Hart signing in WCW was a failure but not because of Hart. I do feel he was limited as a performer, not so much in the ring but on the mic, but he was still a big name. They never found anything consistent for him to do (seemed to switch from heel to face and NwO to WCW constantly) and although he had some nice moments with Sting & Luger he never ran against Nash, ran only briefly vs Flair, and never ran against Hogan.

 

[jason497]

The Bret Hart vs. Chris Benoit match dedicated to Owen Hart is probably the only memorable Bret Hart moment in WCW.

Vader got buried and humiliated in WWF which was a shame.

I'd like to add, Shawn Michaels was a pretty nice free agent acquisition from the AWA but I think it's obvious Hogan/Austin are easily the 2 best FA acquisitions of all time.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

If you are looking for an example of a guy who was signed by the rival company and ended up giving the best value for money or contributing the most success to his new employer then the answer has to be Stone Cold or Hogan.

Hogan and the nWo were the catalyst for WCW to overtake WWE in the Monday Night Wars, and briefly made WCW the number 1 wrestling promotion in the world, and Hogan signing with Turner was a very big deal. However, he isn't my number 1 pick because Hogan was already a huge name, had been for years and he cost ALOT. His contract was incredible.

Stone Cold Steve Austin has to be my number 1 pick. He achieved moderate success in WCW, created a buzz about himself in ECW where he was given a chance to talk and ended up signing for WWE as "The Ringmaster"- and surely can't have been on a massive contract. However, with his own ability Austin was able to climb the card after changing his ring name, and ended up as THE TOP GUY in WWE, bringing the company to heights it had never reached before with his rivalry with Vince McMahon, his legendary Austin 3:16 promo, brawling with Mike Tyson...the list goes on.

Austin came in as a low profile signing and became one of the biggest icons in the history of the business, becoming a cultural phenomenon the kind of which the wrestling world had never seen before apart from Hogan (and now The Rock). Stone Cold changed the business, and that's the bottom line.

 

[rge2010]

I think you do Brets Harts WCW tenure an injustice. Lets look at the facts...

- Left WWE on bad terms
- Brother died just after he joined
- Forced to retire due to injury

Bret never reached the heights he did at WWE because as Vince said 'WCW wont know what to do with a Bret Hart' but to call this the worst of all time is ridiclous. Lex Luger, Ric Flair in their only/first WWE stints were poor. Goldbergs stint in WWE was far worse than Brets in WCW.

Bret had some great matches in WCW against Benoit and Sting. He also had a pretty memorable fued with Goldberg.

 

[Bdub]

You're correct about Bret Hart being a flop in WCW.

The worst signing WWE made was Scott Steiner. Horrible.

A big signing for WWE would be getting Eddie and Benoit at the same time.

When WCW signed Hogan it was huge, but it didn't explode until they signed Nash and Hall. That moved changed the business so it's probably the best move ever.

 

[Lancer]

I think one of the best free-agent signings happened in 2000, when WWE signed the Radicalz (Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn). These four were the backbone of WCW, as far as putting on excellent matches and making the most out of their TV time, despite others being pushed in spite of/instead of them. At the time of their defection, Benoit was the WCW World Heavyweight Champion...it can't get much better than that. Their debut was handled very well, and their defection foreshadowed two things: an immediate improvement to the WWE's midcard, and the imminent death of WCW, which closed its doors a little more than a year later.

Possibly the worst free-agent signing, not in terms of talent but in the handling if the talent, was when WCW signed Bret Hart. They had a guy with a huge, proven fan base, riding an enormous wave of momentum following the Montreal Screwjob, and they stuck him in the nWo to be another one of Hollywood Hogan's lackeys. This effectively killed any momentum he had to begin with. Not to mention, they had him "referee" the Hogan/Sting Starrcade '98 debacle, and his character base was never the same after that.

 

[jlawls91]

I really wonder how Angle would have fared in ECW had he not been put off by the crucifixion and extreme nature of the company.

It was his first professional wrestling role and I'd love to see how he would have fitted in at the ECW arena. Looking at the Angle character that was created in WWE, it would have been great to see him on the mic in the old ECW.

Undertaker has to be the greatest for longevity and consistency. And also obviously Austin for impact when it mattered.

 

[shalliin]

it all depends on how you define free agetn, which is a term that never really applies and yet always applies to a wrestler. Since most are independent contractors then they are never really a freeagent as most people mean the term. Even when working for the major companies, they take work on the outside with lower companies in order to increaes their pay and name recognition.

It also depends on the nature of their sojurn into that realm of 'free agency'. If they were fired for a violation, that's one thing. If released because of a limited amount of available work, that's another, and as we're seeing in TNA if released to save money that's yet a third potential cause.

But going with the intent of the thread, here are my 3 best and worst(in no particular order)
BEST
a--Has to be Austin by ECW where he honed his future character, then when he went to WWE, and was given the chance to run, he became a money machine in every way needed.
b--Mark Callaway. What he did with a concept that should have been hated and feared and turned it into one of the most respected and beloved gimmicks of all time. his character lead to some of the greatest moments of the later 90's and has been the only worthwhile reason to continue watching the horror show that has replaced the once honored and esteemed Wrestlemanie PPV.
c--I hate to say it, but Nash/Hall by WCW. Even more then Hogan, since the NWO would never have worked with lesser people and Hogan's heel turn would have been wasted on weaker allies.

WORST
a---WCW ruined Bret Hart as a character and allowed a green limited talent to end his career. He should have sued them for the loss of revenue he went through when he agreed to talk to and then signed with them. He had a $20million contract with wwe at the time wcw approached him and he went to vince knowing wwe was hurting and this could help them out. that lead to the issues that in turn lead to the 'screw' job.
b---Most of WCW roster when wwe bought wcw. Now, dont' jump down my throat here. I just mean it seems like for the most part when wwe bought the company aside from a small group, they went out of their way to belittle and ruin a lot of pretty decent talent. Sure some stuck around for a bit, but never with the same level as they had been in wcw or were starting to show they could do before wcw was sold. Most of those former wcw guys who were pushed had left or were in the process of leaving wcw even before they were bought out. Booker T is I think the only one that was a true wcw guy at the end who had real success in wwe.
c---people might jump me for this as well, but Brock Lesnar-both times. Every knew even when he first came on the seen that he was only using WWE as a stepping stone and money pot before he would leave and move on to other things. 1st with the attempt for football, and then ufc. he only came back to wwe because he was no longer the main guy in ufc and in fact was no longer as feared or respected in mma. his health was also a factor and he was forced to retire since his body coudln't take it any more. With a more structured and scripted while still athletic and strenous ring work in the world of wwe, he could earn as much as he was in the octogan for less brutal impact on his body.

 

[BrianFNPillman]

Gunna' be a bit typical here...but Brian Pillman?

Here's a man that convinced Eric Bischoff to release him from his WCW contract to go cross promote an angle in ECW and gather fan support behind his growing "Loose Cannon" gimmick, only to go completely over the top and use it as leverage to finally get signed back to the WWE (and coincidentally the first person to receive a guaranteed contract.)

And we all know the rest of the story "BAH GAWD BAH GAWD PILLMANS GOTTA' GUN" and numerous worked shoots.

Also I'm a complete child-mark when it comes to his ECW debut, easily my favorite promo of all time.

The worst? Well, I'm not meaning to shit on TNA, but how about every ex-WWE/WCW/ECW wrestler they brought in to job to Jeff Jarrett during the "Planet Jarrett" era. I mean seriously, what's the point in paying someone a lot of money, bringing them in as a hot face, having them run through everyone in their path, only to job to Jarrett in a "defying the odds" moment that would make John Cena cringe. Jeff Hardy springs to mind in his first TNA run, that being said he was shoving coke up his nose like it was going out of fashion so that probably could be attributed to it.