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Pre-Show Stalwart
Full Q: "Who were the potential troublemakers post-WCW buyout and to determine who would be the ones to carry too much risk far more than the other potential troublemakers?"
Two things worked against the success of the angle in terms of WWE's ability to get legit stars to add credibility to The Invasion angle. The guaranteed contracts were one problem. Why should a Kevin Nash or Bill Goldberg jump to sign when they could collect on their Time Warner deals, waiting till their was more interest in them individually, giving them the upper advantage for contractual negotiations for a return. Second. a certain number of WCW's top stars were viewed as major risks, guys the WWF wasn't crazy about adding to their roster due to their behind the scenes issues.
-1) Diamond Dallas Page: Only main event-caliber star that WWF immediately obtained after being purchased from his Time Warner deal.
-2) Booker T: Career tag team wrestler with a brief fling in the upper midcard in 1998. His rise to the main event was viewed by fans as WCW being devoid of main event talent that Booker got to have his fill by default. In a good company, that would've never happened.
-3) "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner: Extreme bad reputation for disrespecting the talent and being an overall jerkass who lost his wrestling ability to steroids, being a divisive locker room/backstage cancer, left WWF on bad terms before in 1994 when Vince tried to get Scott to go singles without Rick only for Scott to refuse then have a shouting match with Vince, engaged in violent behavior with Diamond Dallas Page, cut an unauthorized shoot promo on Ric Flair, sexually harassed Kimberly and comes off as a ruthless, cold-blooded bar brawler with little to no morals, and safe to say, Scott was (and probably still is, to this day or maybe forever) an inhumane rapid-fire insult machine. Maybe he was the clown that wasn't as funny as Hall.
-4) Scott Hall: Drug and alcohol issues dogging him for the majority of his WCW tenure, lost his family in 1998 when he got divorced which worsened his alcoholism, previously worked backstage with The Kliq, allegedly threatening to show up to shows intoxicated unless he gets his way even though Hall doesn't even care enough to play politics like his Kliq contemporaries (ie: Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash) and is more of a troublemaker in the fun way, provided you don't force Hall to co-exist specifically with the Dudley Boyz and Michael P.S. Hayes, and Hall was never about the championships as much as he was about the valuable paychecks, but assuming Hall's alcoholism was under control, he probably would've had the most upside as an all-around performer, in charisma, on the mic and in the ring, and thus Hall would still have been a better wrestler than Savage and Steiner since Hall's style was safer and maybe sloppy but not a total stiff in the ring like Hogan, Nash, Savage, Steiner, Goldberg and Luger.
-5) Bret "The Hitman" Hart: Assuming Bret had never ended up with a career-ending concussion at the hands of Goldberg, he would still be a risk because Bret left the WWF on terrible terms in 1997 after being forced out of the WWF with the Montreal Screwjob in which he was told to lose to Shawn Michaels on his way out to WCW, made a claim to have spent 14 years in a row working with the WWF with zero time off, working through injuries and wrestling a safe style hence his ironman reputation for being a model citizen and tireless worker, was outspoken with the Attitude Era's themes of smut, sex and racism by expressing his disdain for the Attitude on talk shows, and even though the WWF Attitude Era was long over, there's no guarantee that Ruthless Aggression would've been any different despite the slight downgrade in sex, blood and nudity and outright censorship of racism, was considered by some to be a pain in the ass backstage during his final year with the WWF, and leveraged WCW to get Vince to keep him with a 20-year contract for far less money than when WCW tried to offer Bret more money, but the best of Bret would be that although he was only a decent promo guy when given something half-decent to talk about, Bret was at his best when he goes out there to wrestle good matches and to make his opponents look like stars, even then, some dispute it and say Bret only makes himself look good and makes his opponents look inferior, and worst of all, Bret (if healthy) would've been even more injury prone than he already had been in his WCW tenure, and had once been the WWF's top draw at a time when Vince McMahon was fighting the Federal Government for the Steroids Scandal which was the reason why Bret was the stopgap top guy until Austin emerged.
-6) "Macho Man" Randy Savage: Assuming that Savage never suffered a career-altering Torn ACL knee injury that he incurred in 1998 after years of working his trademark high-flying, fast-paced style for so many years plus his foray into the Major League Baseball before he even got into pro wrestling, Savage probably would've been a major risk in the similar manner as Bret. Savage left the WWF in 1994, also on terrible terms. Although Savage's issue was more likely that he didn't want to be seated as a full-time commentator for the WWF's New Generation era, and had things worked out in his favor, maybe Savage would've been much more valuable to the New Generation. But then again, maybe the Steroid Scandal meant that Savage would've had to either wear a full-on body suit a la Warrior 1992 or wear a shirt for almost all of his matches in 1993 and 1994. Plus, Savage wanted to prove that he could still put on great matches, and boy he did, making Diamond Dallas Page into a big-time star in his last great feud in 1997. Vince's issue with Savage would more than likely have been Savage taking the Slim Jim sponsorship away from Vince and the WWF, and Nash was supposed to be the WWF's next spokesperson for Slim Jim, but Slim Jim was more of Savage's mainstream emblem, and with Savage's knee injuries it meant a change in style for him, going from a flashy, fast-paced high flyer into just another stiff musclebound brawler.
-7) "The Total Package" Lex Luger: Had been subject to rumors of bad backstage behavior (similar issue as Steiner, and although Steiner is the worst offender in regards to being an attitude problem, Luger mostly comes off as harmless even if he did occasionally sulk and pout for he and Buff refusing to put over Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire in 2000), disinterested and lazy performances (similar issue as Nash even though Luger could do a bit more in the ring than Nash), was believed to have been ashamed of wrestling the moment he switched careers from NFL player (ie: Green Bay Packers player) to pro wrestling, was credited with being the first pro wrestler to have taught many of his peers and contemporaries how to wisely save their cash for retirement and yet Luger doesn't get any credit for being the first guy to be the true innovator of guaranteed big money contracts before Hall and Nash even came along and get all the credit for big money contracts. Luger also left the WWF on bad terms in 1995 for going back on his handshake agreement with Vince to return to WCW, had a growing drug issue that got worse when he married Miss Elizabeth in 1999 and contributed to her death in 2003 and arrests for substance abuse issues.
-8) "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig: Hennig wasn't as valuable as Hall as far as talent, upside, injuries and personal issues since Hall at that point was still valuable, Hennig used to have a pristine reputation in the 1980s WWF and into 1990-91 for being someone who kept his nose clean as far as backstage troubles go besides the one moment with Jacques Rougeau vs The British Bulldog, although to be fair, Bulldog, Dynamite Kid and Rougeau were notorious Grade-A jerks, years before his broken tailbone back injury meant that Hennig saw his formerly pristine rep take a massive black eye just for trying to deal with his back injury via alcohol and cocaine, and had to be the first to use the Lloyd's of London insurance policy and became tagged as an often-injured midcarder whose next notable instance of being missing in action via substance abuse had to be turning up drunk to a show one week before WCW Starrcade '97 indicating that Hennig did sometimes let his substance abuse affect his performance. Hennig was a member of the Hennig wrestling family with Larry "The Axe" Hennig as his father, and Joe "Curtis Axel" Hennig.
-9) Hulk Hogan: Hogan became The Man of wrestling when he helped turn pro wrestling from a strict Regional/Territorial setting into the mainstream of pop culture with the help of Vince McMahon and the WWF Machine in the mid-1980s, the cornerstone of the WWF's Golden Era from 1984-1991/92 and also the WCW's NWO era from 1996-1999, considered the longest-lasting moneymaker than Steve Austin and The Rock as far as longevity and staying power go, but also had a penchant for notorious backstage politics since the advent of Internet in the 1990s, testified against Vince in Vince's court case for the Steroid Scandal which severed the Hogan/Vince working relationship for the worse, was rumored to have been refusing to do jobs unless he got his way to the point that even if Hogan willingly did job it was to someone who would implode bad to warrant Hogan getting his win back, demanded to have Creative Control clauses included in almost all of his contracts and was granted most of them, and just had a defamation lawsuit against Vince Russo two years ago. Otherwise, Hogan's positives most definitely outweighed his backstage negatives to the point that the WWF was ambiguous about being interested in bringing Hogan back, and thus Hogan is the idealistic guy to personify for the 1980s pop culture.
-10) "Big Sexy" Kevin Nash: Nash got his first big break when he joined the WWF in 1993 as Michaels' bodyguard named Diesel, and became the WWF's top draw for much of 1995 when most people blamed him for being the WWF's lowest drawing champion until Michaels bombed on his own the following year, left the WWF for WCW because he and Hall couldn't stand working with Bret. Nash gets a bad reputation because of being a member of The Kliq and learned from Triple H about how to position himself as a top executive and top booker beyond petty politics. Upside is that Nash was never known to let his drinking affect his performance which he credits with being close to 300 pounds to avoid passing out drunk like Hall, HBK and Waltman often did, so Nash spent more time in the gym with HHH. Unlike Hogan, fans scoff at Nash in regards to being the top draw and blame him for being the direct cause of WCW's demise. Even if the smarks were right about Nash being at fault for WCW's demise, it still didn't change the fact that Nash's positives far outweighed his negatives like Hogan. Nash is the realistic personification of the cutting edge 1990s pop culture and antithesis to Hogan's 1980s pop culture.
-11) "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair: Despite his issues with marital problems, drinking problems and wild money spending lifestyle, Flair was regarded as a stand-up guy backstage who was willing to job to people when he was asked to, follows the script, puts over younger talent. Flair's only weaknesses were being an aging performer who has to be a quasi wrestler/manager and being an undercover two-faced backstage yes-man who has to say the cliche right things about wherever company he was working for, and trashing other wrestling companies. Flair was regarded as the biggest star of the 1980s National Wrestling Alliance in opposition to the 1980s World Wrestling Federation spearheaded by Hogan. Flair also had issues with Jim Herd and Eric Bischoff in the past, though both of his WCW firings portrayed Flair in a sympathetic light, especially 1991 and 1998.
-12) Sting: Regarded as the biggest star of the 1990s World Championship Wrestling, biggest moment of his wrestling career had to be Starrcade 1997 vs Hogan which ruined a 12+ month buildup for Hogan's shenanigans although Sting had too much ring rust on account of his issues with painkillers, became a Born Again Christian in 1998, never had any controversial track record of playing the petty politics, and was the guy who WWF was interested in signing, but Sting refused. Sting also didn't like the WWF's Attitude Era programming, though his reasoning was valid because he just became a Born Again Christian years earlier, and though Ruthless Aggression wasn't as vulgar as Attitude, Sting thought it was the same stuff. He also was worried about how his Sting character looked after seeing The Rock demolish Booker T in all facets of wrestling. But more importantly, Sting didn't want the travel and the workload of being on the road 300+ days a year. If he did, Sting would've relapsed on his substance abuse issues, and it almost put him so close to being divorced from his wife like what almost happened in 1997, so Sting made sure to wait until WWE went back to PG programming.
-13) Bill Goldberg: Quickly became one of WCW's fastest emerging superstars in the late 1990s in the NWO era, Goldberg's truest best moment was his WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt victory over Hogan in the Georgia Dome on June 1998. Even then, Goldberg's meteoric rise to success earned him his trademark win streak before netting his first loss against Nash at Starrcade 1998. Sure, Goldberg might be an untrained wrestler taught by incompetent WCW Power Plant trainers, but Vince likely saw his quick meteoric rise to superstardom as the sole reason why Goldberg's positives outweigh any trouble he may have had backstage.
-14) Marcus "Buff" Bagwell: Was notorious for being a mama's boy in the wrestling industry, developed a negative attitude dating back to his early days in the early 1990s WCW when he was still a jobber stuck on tag teams until he got his first big break as Buff Bagwell in 1996, and even then, Bagwell's attitude grew worse as Buff, in the process of going from being able to perform his Buff Blockbuster suplex move to crisp perfection into a state where Bagwell can't even properly execute his own suplex move. Had a broken neck in 1998 that would've positioned him to be a face, but most of his talent had to be as a heel since Bagwell's whole charisma and appeal were 100% natural born heel like Steiner. Bagwell's weaknesses were that he was nothing special on his own as far as talent goes, and it is more than likely that Bagwell needed the likes of at least either Sting (early 1990s), Scott Steiner (late 1990s nWo era) and/or Lex Luger (early 2000s) to be placed in the right role as the designated sidekick for any of those three guys and also made to look passable in the right situations.
After having stated the background information in a proper context as their prologue pre-WWF bio heading into the WWF's new era post-WCW buyout, the end results were that Hennig got fired for shoot fighting Brock Lesnar in the infamous 2002 Plane Ride from Hell, Hall chose to leave the WWF because he was awarded sole custody of his two kids over his ex-wife, Bagwell got canned for having a fight with Shane Helms and for supposedly calling his mother to phone Jim Ross to mark Bagwell sick, Luger stayed unsigned because of his poor showing in TNA, Bret had a stroke, Savage was out of the public eye and didn't want to return to the WWF, Goldberg remained a success until he voluntarily retired from wrestling, Nash remained a key player until injuries started to pile up to the point that Nash cannot continue working full-time anymore, DDP had to retire prematurely due to chronic back problems, Sting didn't want the workload and the travel, Steiner didn't change his attitude and once again left the WWE on bad terms, Booker T lasted for several years and went on to have two major post-Invasion runs by fighting Triple H at WrestleMania 19 (2003) and his run as King Booker thus remains on good terms with WWE, Hogan remained a successful key player even if he only stayed full time for less than a year but had maximum impact with his short term stints against Randy Orton, HBK, & Vince McMahon; and Flair also remained a key player for most of the 2000s though he was alternating between wrestling and managing and age got the better of him by WrestleMania 24 (2008) when he lost a career-ending match against Shawn Michaels.
Essentially, WWE was making a lot of money already with a star laden roster so they weren't in need of the troublemakers from the WCW roster. They had no control over the others who saw more value in delaying their debuts, waiting for better deals while collecting their Time Warner contracts.
With all that said, rate how much of each of the potential massive backstage troublemakers would have been divisive based on a scale from:
0: Harmless
1: Seldom
2: Minor
3: Ambigious
4: Problematic
5: Alarming
to
6: Extremely Cancerous
___
Along with their overall work performance based on their returns to the WWF or (in the case of Luger, Savage, Bret and Sting) past history of behind the scenes issues, to make the best/worst of the wrestler's overall work performance/potential problem ratio of the following overall work performance levels:
6: Spectacular
5: Solid
4: Ordinary
3: Boring
2: Disappointment
1: Atrocious
Two things worked against the success of the angle in terms of WWE's ability to get legit stars to add credibility to The Invasion angle. The guaranteed contracts were one problem. Why should a Kevin Nash or Bill Goldberg jump to sign when they could collect on their Time Warner deals, waiting till their was more interest in them individually, giving them the upper advantage for contractual negotiations for a return. Second. a certain number of WCW's top stars were viewed as major risks, guys the WWF wasn't crazy about adding to their roster due to their behind the scenes issues.
-1) Diamond Dallas Page: Only main event-caliber star that WWF immediately obtained after being purchased from his Time Warner deal.
-2) Booker T: Career tag team wrestler with a brief fling in the upper midcard in 1998. His rise to the main event was viewed by fans as WCW being devoid of main event talent that Booker got to have his fill by default. In a good company, that would've never happened.
-3) "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner: Extreme bad reputation for disrespecting the talent and being an overall jerkass who lost his wrestling ability to steroids, being a divisive locker room/backstage cancer, left WWF on bad terms before in 1994 when Vince tried to get Scott to go singles without Rick only for Scott to refuse then have a shouting match with Vince, engaged in violent behavior with Diamond Dallas Page, cut an unauthorized shoot promo on Ric Flair, sexually harassed Kimberly and comes off as a ruthless, cold-blooded bar brawler with little to no morals, and safe to say, Scott was (and probably still is, to this day or maybe forever) an inhumane rapid-fire insult machine. Maybe he was the clown that wasn't as funny as Hall.
-4) Scott Hall: Drug and alcohol issues dogging him for the majority of his WCW tenure, lost his family in 1998 when he got divorced which worsened his alcoholism, previously worked backstage with The Kliq, allegedly threatening to show up to shows intoxicated unless he gets his way even though Hall doesn't even care enough to play politics like his Kliq contemporaries (ie: Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash) and is more of a troublemaker in the fun way, provided you don't force Hall to co-exist specifically with the Dudley Boyz and Michael P.S. Hayes, and Hall was never about the championships as much as he was about the valuable paychecks, but assuming Hall's alcoholism was under control, he probably would've had the most upside as an all-around performer, in charisma, on the mic and in the ring, and thus Hall would still have been a better wrestler than Savage and Steiner since Hall's style was safer and maybe sloppy but not a total stiff in the ring like Hogan, Nash, Savage, Steiner, Goldberg and Luger.
-5) Bret "The Hitman" Hart: Assuming Bret had never ended up with a career-ending concussion at the hands of Goldberg, he would still be a risk because Bret left the WWF on terrible terms in 1997 after being forced out of the WWF with the Montreal Screwjob in which he was told to lose to Shawn Michaels on his way out to WCW, made a claim to have spent 14 years in a row working with the WWF with zero time off, working through injuries and wrestling a safe style hence his ironman reputation for being a model citizen and tireless worker, was outspoken with the Attitude Era's themes of smut, sex and racism by expressing his disdain for the Attitude on talk shows, and even though the WWF Attitude Era was long over, there's no guarantee that Ruthless Aggression would've been any different despite the slight downgrade in sex, blood and nudity and outright censorship of racism, was considered by some to be a pain in the ass backstage during his final year with the WWF, and leveraged WCW to get Vince to keep him with a 20-year contract for far less money than when WCW tried to offer Bret more money, but the best of Bret would be that although he was only a decent promo guy when given something half-decent to talk about, Bret was at his best when he goes out there to wrestle good matches and to make his opponents look like stars, even then, some dispute it and say Bret only makes himself look good and makes his opponents look inferior, and worst of all, Bret (if healthy) would've been even more injury prone than he already had been in his WCW tenure, and had once been the WWF's top draw at a time when Vince McMahon was fighting the Federal Government for the Steroids Scandal which was the reason why Bret was the stopgap top guy until Austin emerged.
-6) "Macho Man" Randy Savage: Assuming that Savage never suffered a career-altering Torn ACL knee injury that he incurred in 1998 after years of working his trademark high-flying, fast-paced style for so many years plus his foray into the Major League Baseball before he even got into pro wrestling, Savage probably would've been a major risk in the similar manner as Bret. Savage left the WWF in 1994, also on terrible terms. Although Savage's issue was more likely that he didn't want to be seated as a full-time commentator for the WWF's New Generation era, and had things worked out in his favor, maybe Savage would've been much more valuable to the New Generation. But then again, maybe the Steroid Scandal meant that Savage would've had to either wear a full-on body suit a la Warrior 1992 or wear a shirt for almost all of his matches in 1993 and 1994. Plus, Savage wanted to prove that he could still put on great matches, and boy he did, making Diamond Dallas Page into a big-time star in his last great feud in 1997. Vince's issue with Savage would more than likely have been Savage taking the Slim Jim sponsorship away from Vince and the WWF, and Nash was supposed to be the WWF's next spokesperson for Slim Jim, but Slim Jim was more of Savage's mainstream emblem, and with Savage's knee injuries it meant a change in style for him, going from a flashy, fast-paced high flyer into just another stiff musclebound brawler.
-7) "The Total Package" Lex Luger: Had been subject to rumors of bad backstage behavior (similar issue as Steiner, and although Steiner is the worst offender in regards to being an attitude problem, Luger mostly comes off as harmless even if he did occasionally sulk and pout for he and Buff refusing to put over Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire in 2000), disinterested and lazy performances (similar issue as Nash even though Luger could do a bit more in the ring than Nash), was believed to have been ashamed of wrestling the moment he switched careers from NFL player (ie: Green Bay Packers player) to pro wrestling, was credited with being the first pro wrestler to have taught many of his peers and contemporaries how to wisely save their cash for retirement and yet Luger doesn't get any credit for being the first guy to be the true innovator of guaranteed big money contracts before Hall and Nash even came along and get all the credit for big money contracts. Luger also left the WWF on bad terms in 1995 for going back on his handshake agreement with Vince to return to WCW, had a growing drug issue that got worse when he married Miss Elizabeth in 1999 and contributed to her death in 2003 and arrests for substance abuse issues.
-8) "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig: Hennig wasn't as valuable as Hall as far as talent, upside, injuries and personal issues since Hall at that point was still valuable, Hennig used to have a pristine reputation in the 1980s WWF and into 1990-91 for being someone who kept his nose clean as far as backstage troubles go besides the one moment with Jacques Rougeau vs The British Bulldog, although to be fair, Bulldog, Dynamite Kid and Rougeau were notorious Grade-A jerks, years before his broken tailbone back injury meant that Hennig saw his formerly pristine rep take a massive black eye just for trying to deal with his back injury via alcohol and cocaine, and had to be the first to use the Lloyd's of London insurance policy and became tagged as an often-injured midcarder whose next notable instance of being missing in action via substance abuse had to be turning up drunk to a show one week before WCW Starrcade '97 indicating that Hennig did sometimes let his substance abuse affect his performance. Hennig was a member of the Hennig wrestling family with Larry "The Axe" Hennig as his father, and Joe "Curtis Axel" Hennig.
-9) Hulk Hogan: Hogan became The Man of wrestling when he helped turn pro wrestling from a strict Regional/Territorial setting into the mainstream of pop culture with the help of Vince McMahon and the WWF Machine in the mid-1980s, the cornerstone of the WWF's Golden Era from 1984-1991/92 and also the WCW's NWO era from 1996-1999, considered the longest-lasting moneymaker than Steve Austin and The Rock as far as longevity and staying power go, but also had a penchant for notorious backstage politics since the advent of Internet in the 1990s, testified against Vince in Vince's court case for the Steroid Scandal which severed the Hogan/Vince working relationship for the worse, was rumored to have been refusing to do jobs unless he got his way to the point that even if Hogan willingly did job it was to someone who would implode bad to warrant Hogan getting his win back, demanded to have Creative Control clauses included in almost all of his contracts and was granted most of them, and just had a defamation lawsuit against Vince Russo two years ago. Otherwise, Hogan's positives most definitely outweighed his backstage negatives to the point that the WWF was ambiguous about being interested in bringing Hogan back, and thus Hogan is the idealistic guy to personify for the 1980s pop culture.
-10) "Big Sexy" Kevin Nash: Nash got his first big break when he joined the WWF in 1993 as Michaels' bodyguard named Diesel, and became the WWF's top draw for much of 1995 when most people blamed him for being the WWF's lowest drawing champion until Michaels bombed on his own the following year, left the WWF for WCW because he and Hall couldn't stand working with Bret. Nash gets a bad reputation because of being a member of The Kliq and learned from Triple H about how to position himself as a top executive and top booker beyond petty politics. Upside is that Nash was never known to let his drinking affect his performance which he credits with being close to 300 pounds to avoid passing out drunk like Hall, HBK and Waltman often did, so Nash spent more time in the gym with HHH. Unlike Hogan, fans scoff at Nash in regards to being the top draw and blame him for being the direct cause of WCW's demise. Even if the smarks were right about Nash being at fault for WCW's demise, it still didn't change the fact that Nash's positives far outweighed his negatives like Hogan. Nash is the realistic personification of the cutting edge 1990s pop culture and antithesis to Hogan's 1980s pop culture.
-11) "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair: Despite his issues with marital problems, drinking problems and wild money spending lifestyle, Flair was regarded as a stand-up guy backstage who was willing to job to people when he was asked to, follows the script, puts over younger talent. Flair's only weaknesses were being an aging performer who has to be a quasi wrestler/manager and being an undercover two-faced backstage yes-man who has to say the cliche right things about wherever company he was working for, and trashing other wrestling companies. Flair was regarded as the biggest star of the 1980s National Wrestling Alliance in opposition to the 1980s World Wrestling Federation spearheaded by Hogan. Flair also had issues with Jim Herd and Eric Bischoff in the past, though both of his WCW firings portrayed Flair in a sympathetic light, especially 1991 and 1998.
-12) Sting: Regarded as the biggest star of the 1990s World Championship Wrestling, biggest moment of his wrestling career had to be Starrcade 1997 vs Hogan which ruined a 12+ month buildup for Hogan's shenanigans although Sting had too much ring rust on account of his issues with painkillers, became a Born Again Christian in 1998, never had any controversial track record of playing the petty politics, and was the guy who WWF was interested in signing, but Sting refused. Sting also didn't like the WWF's Attitude Era programming, though his reasoning was valid because he just became a Born Again Christian years earlier, and though Ruthless Aggression wasn't as vulgar as Attitude, Sting thought it was the same stuff. He also was worried about how his Sting character looked after seeing The Rock demolish Booker T in all facets of wrestling. But more importantly, Sting didn't want the travel and the workload of being on the road 300+ days a year. If he did, Sting would've relapsed on his substance abuse issues, and it almost put him so close to being divorced from his wife like what almost happened in 1997, so Sting made sure to wait until WWE went back to PG programming.
-13) Bill Goldberg: Quickly became one of WCW's fastest emerging superstars in the late 1990s in the NWO era, Goldberg's truest best moment was his WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt victory over Hogan in the Georgia Dome on June 1998. Even then, Goldberg's meteoric rise to success earned him his trademark win streak before netting his first loss against Nash at Starrcade 1998. Sure, Goldberg might be an untrained wrestler taught by incompetent WCW Power Plant trainers, but Vince likely saw his quick meteoric rise to superstardom as the sole reason why Goldberg's positives outweigh any trouble he may have had backstage.
-14) Marcus "Buff" Bagwell: Was notorious for being a mama's boy in the wrestling industry, developed a negative attitude dating back to his early days in the early 1990s WCW when he was still a jobber stuck on tag teams until he got his first big break as Buff Bagwell in 1996, and even then, Bagwell's attitude grew worse as Buff, in the process of going from being able to perform his Buff Blockbuster suplex move to crisp perfection into a state where Bagwell can't even properly execute his own suplex move. Had a broken neck in 1998 that would've positioned him to be a face, but most of his talent had to be as a heel since Bagwell's whole charisma and appeal were 100% natural born heel like Steiner. Bagwell's weaknesses were that he was nothing special on his own as far as talent goes, and it is more than likely that Bagwell needed the likes of at least either Sting (early 1990s), Scott Steiner (late 1990s nWo era) and/or Lex Luger (early 2000s) to be placed in the right role as the designated sidekick for any of those three guys and also made to look passable in the right situations.
After having stated the background information in a proper context as their prologue pre-WWF bio heading into the WWF's new era post-WCW buyout, the end results were that Hennig got fired for shoot fighting Brock Lesnar in the infamous 2002 Plane Ride from Hell, Hall chose to leave the WWF because he was awarded sole custody of his two kids over his ex-wife, Bagwell got canned for having a fight with Shane Helms and for supposedly calling his mother to phone Jim Ross to mark Bagwell sick, Luger stayed unsigned because of his poor showing in TNA, Bret had a stroke, Savage was out of the public eye and didn't want to return to the WWF, Goldberg remained a success until he voluntarily retired from wrestling, Nash remained a key player until injuries started to pile up to the point that Nash cannot continue working full-time anymore, DDP had to retire prematurely due to chronic back problems, Sting didn't want the workload and the travel, Steiner didn't change his attitude and once again left the WWE on bad terms, Booker T lasted for several years and went on to have two major post-Invasion runs by fighting Triple H at WrestleMania 19 (2003) and his run as King Booker thus remains on good terms with WWE, Hogan remained a successful key player even if he only stayed full time for less than a year but had maximum impact with his short term stints against Randy Orton, HBK, & Vince McMahon; and Flair also remained a key player for most of the 2000s though he was alternating between wrestling and managing and age got the better of him by WrestleMania 24 (2008) when he lost a career-ending match against Shawn Michaels.
Essentially, WWE was making a lot of money already with a star laden roster so they weren't in need of the troublemakers from the WCW roster. They had no control over the others who saw more value in delaying their debuts, waiting for better deals while collecting their Time Warner contracts.
With all that said, rate how much of each of the potential massive backstage troublemakers would have been divisive based on a scale from:
0: Harmless
1: Seldom
2: Minor
3: Ambigious
4: Problematic
5: Alarming
to
6: Extremely Cancerous
___
Along with their overall work performance based on their returns to the WWF or (in the case of Luger, Savage, Bret and Sting) past history of behind the scenes issues, to make the best/worst of the wrestler's overall work performance/potential problem ratio of the following overall work performance levels:
6: Spectacular
5: Solid
4: Ordinary
3: Boring
2: Disappointment
1: Atrocious
