Would Vince have "buried" main event WCW guys after the acquisition?

[Ubermensch]

A recent Youtube interview I saw with Sting said one of the main reasons he did not want to jump ship over to the WWE after the acquisition was his assumptions; that he later perceived as true, about Vince burying former WCW talent. Sting mentioned the initial push Booker T got when he came over as heavyweight champion of WCW, he then cited how The Rock's return essentially dismantled Booker and pushed him down to the midcard ("Who in the blue hell are you?"). What I remember with Booker T after he lost to The Rock, were silly angles with him and Goldust, and then his useless stint in the NWO. DDP was buried as well.

With such a large acquisition of WCW and then later ECW talent, you can't placate everyone. In the end it may be the right decision to bury WCW talent. If I were a WWE wrestler who made it through the Monday Night Wars, I wouldn't want to take a backseat to wrestlers that essentially lost. However, guys like Sting who had been main event draws since late 80s certainly would not want to take a backseat either.

Sting's perception, and I largely agree, was that what the WWE got from WCW were not what most would consider "WCW." By that I mean, the superstars that headlined shows during the Monday Night Wars. What Vince did get were a great deal of mid card wrestlers from WCW.

Obviously, Flair and Hogan having already served as Champions in the WWF would be safeguarded.

The main wrestlers in question here are the ones that went to the WWA after the WWE acquired the WCW.

Sting-Would be difficult to say. I think the WWE may have tried to cop out with the superstar and rehash his crow gimmic, having him being courted by the WWE and WCW/ECW Alliance.

Jarrett- Not worth mentioning, never would have been acquired by the WWE. If he was would have certainly been buried.

Lex Luger-Also difficult, however I fee Luger would drift into midcard, and upper mid card status. His career wasn't made in the WWE, and his brief stint in the WWE was fairly unsuccessful. Although I enjoyed the narcissist gimmic, the American Hero was a failed attempt to make Luger into Hogan. With Luger lacking the mic skills the WWE enjoyed, I don't see him at the forefront of the company had he went with them.

Scott Steiner-Would have taken a backseat. His debut in the WWE was lackluster later on, and he failed to convince as a face. Steiner could have been a major asset during the Attitude era to the WWE, but I don't think the WWE at this point was willing to unleash him in his promos.

Nash and Hall-With so much going on during the WCW/ECW Alliance angle, a rehash of the NWO would have been a failure. It certainly was later on. What would have been interesting is a Hall, Nash, Syxx, and HHH stable with HBK as a manager until he was up to wrestling. Without that panning out, I feel like Vince would have buried these guys as well. Nash and Hall were mocked with Fake Diesel and Fake Razor Ramon after their departure, and I think there was bad blood over their departure and use of their WWE history to edge up the NWO storyline.

Macho Man-To this day I still think Vince has a vendetta against Savage. Savage would have been buried as well. Remember the Nacho Man parody?

 

[ProWrestlingFan]

Yes. There's no way Vince would have let them outshine his main eventors. They would probably be used to put over other WWE talents.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Looking at the Main Events talents from WCW that ended up in WWE the only ones I was disappointment in how they were handled were Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, and to a lesser extend Goldberg. I say I was disappointed because WCW did manage to make them stars and the would have been a welcome addition to WWE's main event picture (or at least upper mid card). At least for Booker T his later years finally got him the respect he deserved and even inducted in the HOF.

Steiner, Nash, and Hall were shells of their former selves and kept getting into issues that made them reliable.

Hogan and Flair had good runs in the WWE.

Though to be fair the main complaint most fans had in WCW anyways was that their failure to push the young guys into stars. And when it comes to those former WCW talents WWE did right there. So instead of putting top WCW stars in the WWE main event picture what we had were talented WCW midcarders like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, The Big Show, and Rey Mysterio become main event stars. Even Fit Finay had his best professional run in the WWE as the man "who likes to fight" a very successful gimmick and one the high points in Smackdown back in 2006 to 2008.

So yeah while the WCW's legacy in the WWE was not found in the Steiners, Bagwells, Lugers, DDP's, and NWO. You see them elsewhere from Flair's WWE run, JR doing commentary, the mid carders that left or were fired from WCW and made a mark in the WWE guys like I mentioned (Mysterio, Jericho etc.) and even guys like Foley, Austin, Undertaker, and heck even Batista (who tried out in WCW early on).

 

[Eyebrows]

I don't think that Vince could have buried Macho Man, Sting or Hogan if he'd tried. Those guys were on another level.

While the Invasion angle was one big ego-stroke for Vince I think it was more about burying WCW as a company rather than purposely burying individual stars. The guys who returned after the Invasion angle, Flair, Goldberg, Mysterio, Hogan, even mid-carders like Finlay and Juventud Guerrera, who got a push in the Cruiserweight division, fared better than the guys who joined straight away. Booker got his push eventually too and he and DDP are treated as legends in the WWE when they appear these days.

I certainly can't see the Invasion angle playing out any differently in terms of WWF guys going over WCW guys regardless of who WWF signed. The treatment of guys like Booker T and DDP, who were so hot on their debuts in the WWF but ultimately fizzled out due to Vince's need to bury the WCW entity points to that. I don't think you can use the pushes of Jericho, Big Show and the Radicalz as an argument against that...those guys chose to jump ship and I can imagine Vince wanting to push them as an FU to WCW now that it was their talent jumping to the 'F and not vice-versa.

But even if he'd wanted to I think Vince knew that guys like Sting, Hogan and Goldberg wouldn't be able to be buried. I imagine he'd have pushed those guys from the get-go. Hogan gets a lot of fanfare when he returns to the WWE, the rest of the NWO got a lot of hype on their return, as did Steiner, and Goldberg was given a good run despite the criticism that his booking gets. He was never going to be booked like a monster and have an undefeated streak in the WWE.

I'm imagining that Triple H going over the WCW guys in 2003 will be brought up but, while I don't like Trips that much, I think the only guy who really should have gone over him in 2003 from WCW, outside of Goldberg, who did beat HHH, was Booker T. It was clear Steiner wasn't firing on all cylinders after that abysmal Royal Rumble match and Nash was past his best then too.

 

[UFOcalling]

I agree; Vince would have "buried" a lot of top WCW talent, had they arrived in WWF/E right after WCW was sold. You nailed it already, what Vince got was WCW's B-team (the midcarders). The only real "main eventers" they got were DDP & Booker T at the beginning, from what I remember...and the only reason those two were main eventers in WCW's dying days was because WCW didn't have anyone else to use. They still had Flair, Sting, Sid, Steiner, Goldberg & Nash at that time (there are probably more I'm forgetting, but that's off the top of my head), but Russo wanted "new stars"...so they tried putting DDP, Booker T & Jeff Jarret at the helm (again, there might be more that are slipping my mind). At least to me (and probably Vince too), DDP, Booker & Jarret were midcard guys who were just getting a "shot" during WCW's swan song. Had WCW kept going, those guys may have eventually been pushed back down to the midcard so the other main eventers they had could have a little breathing room (the list I made earlier, with Goldberg/Nash/etc).

Sure, Booker T vs. Scott Steiner was WCW's last title match, but those two always seemed like glorified midcarders to me (guys that would have competed for the WWE's WHC, rather than the WWE Title in the "modern" WWE). Vince McMahon must have viewed all of those guys (even Nash, apparently) in a similar fashion, sans Hogan & Goldberg. Had Sting came over around the same time as Hogan & Goldberg, I'd like to think that Vince would have treated him as a "big dog"...but Sting seems content in his decision to not know the answer. Was Sting right to do so? That's not for me to say, but Sting doesn't seem like he's missed too many big pay days since his WCW days. Plus he gets to keep his moniker of "the most famous wrestler to never work for Vince McMahon".

Concerning your list of wrestlers, here are my thoughts:

Sting - Sting was the one I kept waiting for to show up in the WWF. He was probably my favorite wrestler in the late 90s, and I just wanted to see him on TV again. I would have loved to see Sting fight the top WWF guys at that time (Rocky, Stone Cold, HHH, Undertaker, etc), but I don't know how Vince would have booked it. I'd like to think that Sting would have came out on top in at least one of those feuds, but that might just be wishful thinking. Most likely the biggest win that Sting would have got would have been over someone like Kane, or maybe Jericho. Obviously a Sting/Undertaker feud would have been epic, but Vince probably would have booked Taker to go over. I wouldn't see Vince booking WCW's most "supernatural" character to go over WWF's most supernatural character, but like I already said - I could see Vince allowing Sting to pin Kane in a big match (possibly at Wrestlemania). I'm sure Sting would have done "The Crow" thing in the WWF as well: stalking his opponents in the rafters, crows appearing at ringside, maybe even propelling from the ceiling again (then again, after Owen Hart's death that may have been beyond the pale). I'd like to think Sting's popularity would have been too big to deny (like Hogan's, or Goldberg's), but I don't own a crystal ball.

Jarrett - Like you already said, Jarret isn't worth mentioning. JJ held Vince up for a lot of money (allegedly) to drop the IC belt to Chyna, before he jumped ship to WCW. Russo was Jarret's biggest supporter in the business (again, allegedly)...since there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of Russo's reinstatement, there was no reason for Jeff to even pursue a WWF return. Had Jarret gone back, he wouldn't have ever made it past the European/Hardcore division. I don't think he would have ever even won the IC Title again (or the new WWF version of the US Title, for that matter). Jarret made the right call, creating TNA. I'm happy that he did, too - I really enjoy watching iMPACT on Thursdays.

Lex Luger - Luger was already being forgotten about in WCW's dying days (at least the way I remember it). After the nWo Wolfpac/Elite split up, Luger kind of floundered...at least Lex didn't do anything memorable after that, the only thing I remember was that stupid "funeral" for Lex Luger (and then he became simply "The Total Package"). I seriously doubt that Lex was even on Vince's radar in 2001, but maybe I'm wrong. I'd have to assume that Lex would've wanted too much money for Vince to even consider hiring him again. I'd put Lex in the same boat as Jarret, but for different reasons.

Scott Steiner - I don't remember Steiner's WWF run (post 2001) at ALL. The only thing I can even remember was when Stacy Keibler gave him a lap dance on the Raw stage (maybe it was Smackdown). I guess I really can't comment on Steiner's WWF run (or I shouldn't), given that I don't remember anything about it...but since I don't remember it, maybe that's reason enough to say that Steiner was "buried" by Vince & Co.

Nash and Hall - Nash & Hall were only there because the nWo was such a merchandise phenomenon. Vince needed the original three guys to pull the angle off "correctly"; I don't think he had any long term plans for Nash or Hall as singles wrestlers once the WWF's version of the nWo was done selling their merch. I heard an interview with Nash, where he talked about his return to the WWE during "the summer of punk". Nash said they had him come to the Rumble as Diesel, but then later they called him "Kevin Nash" and had him come to the ring with nWo music. He said that Vince wouldn't allow him to sell "Nash World Order" shirts, and his reasoning was that he would make too much money. Nash seemed pretty bitter about the whole thing, and said that instead of Vince saying "fuck him" - he said "no, let's book him...and then we'll fuck him". Obviously Nash doesn't know these things to be true, but he seemed pretty confident in his beliefs about his last WWE run. Scott Hall had his demons, and they held him down (even when he was with WCW). Those demons must have still had a pretty strong grip on him during the WWF nWo days, and Vince could probably see that. Vince wouldn't have given "The Bad Guy" the ball, unless he was in better shape (emotionally & physically). Scott Hall couldn't even do the Razor's edge anymore...every time I saw him do it in the late 90s/early 00s, his opponent had to be up in the corner before Scott could get him in the "crucifix" position (Hall wasn't able to lift his opponents into that position on his own anymore).

Macho Man - There are all those Stephanie McMahon rumors, but I think that Vince didn't like Savage because of the way he left the WWF for WCW. I think that Randy's departure hurt Vince more than Hogan, Nash, Hall, etc because he took the Slim Jim deal with him (that had to have been a big cash cow at the time). Obviously I don't know the personal relationship Vince & Savage had, but I feel like the two of them were friends (more so than Vince was with "the average" wrestler). I've heard that Randy's departure cut the deepest as far as Vince was concerned, but who knows the real story? It seems like something more was probably going on, since Vince has forgiven other wrestlers in the past...especially big names that could make him money. Randy was a special breed though, in Vince's eyes. I wish we could know the full story, but unfortunately we'll probably never know.

Had Randy been able to go back, I doubt he'd been booked as a strong wrestler. Randy was only an announcer in the mid nineties, because Vince wanted to go with "the new generation" (Diesel, Razor, HBK, Bret, etc). I imagine Piper & Savage left for WCW around the same time for similar reasons (they wanted to be wrestlers, not "commissioners" or announcers). Hot Rod was welcomed back to the WWF/E eventually, so if Savage hadn't have been so taboo I imagine he would have been used in a similar vein to Piper's role(s) at the WWF/E in the 2000s. Savage may have wrestled here & there, but not even close to as much as Hogan's last nostalgia run. It's too bad, too - because Savage still had some gas in the tank.

 

[Da Solo]

Sting would have been done so wrong if he immediately went to WWE, as in he would have been the worst burial Vince could manage to believably pull off (which is a lot, because what they did to Booker T was downright ridiculous, and it took them years to do right by him). He had the same problem Booker had: he was way too successful without having ever been in WWE beforehand. And that immediately would have put him below WWF's main eventers and upper midcarders, because WWE always beats WCW. He would have been in the upper midcard with fill in ME runs and tag team diversions, just like Booker initially.

Jarrett would have been completely screwed. He probably wouldn't even have been hired anyway. And he brought that on himself.

Luger would have been a jobber to the stars, enhancement talent to the fullest with wins here and there to act like he isn't really as expendable to them as he seems. Think Khali with proficiency in the English language.

Steiner had the benefit of spacing out his WWE debut from the time of the Invasion and WCW collapse, which is why he got the WHC title picture in the first place. Of course he never won it and dropped immediately down the card, but to be fair, he wasn't really world title material in the WWE anyway. If Booker wasn't gonna do it, Steiner damn sure wasn't. If he came with his brother as the Steiners, he would have fared much better though. Tag teams aren't really the forefront, so they could get their shine without hogging the big picture.

Nash and Hall would have been fine because they were in WWE before, and even though the NWO did all that they did, that would only be more influence in their jump to ME scene if they made the immediate switch. Hell, they probably would have made NWO lead the invasion.

Macho Man was never going to make it back, period.

 

[jimmysmithtraining]

I think it would been interesting to see Vince acquire WCW in today's TV landscape. With the digital networks like the WWE and UFC popping up, Vince would of had the ability to showcase more talent. If you remember when he bought WCW, he only had like 4-5 hours of TV per week. He could of showcased the mid card WCW talent on their digital network or just Youtube matches.

 

[Ubermensch]

Eyebrows, you're right I should have phrased that as Tried to bury.

Guys like Sting, Flair, Hogan, Macho, Savage, and honestly the Ultimate Warrior, were nearly too big to bury by any promoter. Once you get so over, sometimes in more than one promotion, sometimes not, the fans will likely become belligerent toward any efforts to down these kind of guys. Furthermore, when you have wrestled as long as they have at the level they have, you have a safety net financially that lets you demand things more so on your terms.

 

[joduke41]

I don't think Vince would have buried Sting. That would have not been profitable. All the others though,he would have had them job. Maybe Hall and Nash would ha gotten a push.

 

[Kamala316]

Simply put: Yes. If you were not a WWE Original, you were put farther down on Vince's totem pole in order to make his talent look superior. You could say the same (to a lesser degree) about ECW talent. I laughed at Vince's commentary on the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD when he discussed the Tazz-HHH match in Philly (Champion vs. Champion), and how he felt having HHH go over in the match was going to help the ECW brand, or something along those lines.

 

[Airehk]

Vince was on a power trip. Even after acquiring all of the WCW assets, he killed, buried and spit on the grave of WCW until there was no reason to keep it on their programming. Suddenly after there was nothing left to do, Goldberg who played hard to get, WWE treated him like royalty. Sure Triple H, his nose and his ego got in the way a bit, but still.. Creative was still working for Goldberg.
I feel if Sting came in to the WWE immediately, he would have got some respect, but ultimately would have succumbed to a loss to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania.

 

[MCMG]

I don't think so. Maybe to an extent but if there was money to be made from a superstar that Vince would have used him. Sting and Goldberrg are the obvious names.

Sting didn't join the WWF supposedly because he was afraid of being buried. If he did join that would not have been the case because he had talent and was popular. There is no doubt in my mind that Sting would have been feuding with Taker, Rock, Austin, Jericho, Angle rather than teaming with Goldust like Booker T. There is no way that Booker T can be put on a par with Sting in money-making terms.

Goldberg quite a bit after the WWF completed the purchase but he was used fairly well. Feuded with The Rock, Triple H and Brock Lesnar. It doesn't get much better than that. It would have been the same if he came for the initial invasion and we could have see a feud between him and Austin which could have been pretty awesome.

Goldberg and Sting were money. Hall, Nash, Hogan, Flair and even Bischoff got decent roles. Booker T eventually got his chance and, remember, within the first few months he was working a program with Steve Austin.

 

[Blade222]

You may be forgetting Randy Savage did return before he passed away, albeit for the unveiling of his action figure. It's also been said that he was to be at RAW 1000 had he not died.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

Some of the big names mentioned... like Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, Flair, Sting, Hogan, Steiner... they were too expensive to bury. They were smart enough to sit out their contracts, and make their money by doing nothing. And all of them (aside from Sting), eventually negotiated a separate deal with Vince, likely paying them a fortune. At that point, Vince isn't going to bury them, because he's paying for it. He's going to use them, push them well, and get a good payoff out of it, because he needs to get his money's worth out of his performers.

I don't think Vince had any trouble burying the guys who came over initially, because it wasn't his money (well, it was, but it wasn't much). He bought the name, the video library, and whatever small non-guaranteed contracts existed. These guys were literally worthless to Vince... so he had nothing to lose financially in burying them... and everything to gain (from an optics perspective, WWF > WCW, etc). It's unfortunate that Booker T was one of these guys. But things worked out in the end for Booker. He's a WWE legend and HOF'er now.

 

[avi01]

I disagree about Sting's take in the Rock vs. Booker feud. The "who in the blue hell are you" thing is just the Rock being the Rock. He did that with a lot of guys. The mere fact that you have the Rock, Austin and Angle in their primes, along the Undertaker and an emerging Jericho, it is only logical that Booker T is down the pecking order.

Now for Steiner, he was crap in his feud vs. HHH. I am not saying HHH helped in that, but that's about it. He did not show anything worthy while in the biggest feud in the company at that time. He did not conquer anything. End of story. Maybe afterwards he could have still been used more properly but I doubt he belonged to the main event.

As for Luger , again due to the existing names at the time, he just did not belong to the top crop. Same for Jarret.

I think Nash got a lot of chances in the WWE post 2001. He got injured a lot and never won the World title but I don't see what purpose it would have served to give him the title, at least long term.
Scott Hall blew his own chance, don't forget he actually wrestled Stone Cold at Wrestlemania. He buried himself. Not saying WWE had big plans for him, but he did not do himself any favors. NWO's revival was already a stretch (still workable) and things were done by the time Hogan turned face.

Hogan and Flair had great post WCW careers, no need to elaborate on that.

I don't know about Macho Man. He is great and there seem to be some bad blood between him and Vince. But around 2001, given the talent pool, I am not sure we would have seen him main eventing. For what's it is worth, I thought Mr Perfect was terribly used following his return.

As for Sting, Vince is all business. He would have tried to capitalized on him, make the most money out of him. Whether he would have succeeded , I don't know. Vince is overrated as a creative mind anyway. I doubt Sting would have been able to capture old glory to its full extent. Once he got all the juice out, I can't say for sure Sting would not have been buried though. Surely, he would been used to put over new talents. Now, had he signed later on (past 2006), I think we would have got a big money Sting vs. Taker feud that would not have hurt his leagcy imo.

As for Goldberg, for a 1 year contract with limited appearances, I thought he got a fair share of the spotlight and to say he was buried is quite off the mark imo. You cannot expect WWE to build him as the absolute guy for years to come when his contract runs out after a year.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

I disagree about Sting's take in the Rock vs. Booker feud. The "who in the blue hell are you" thing is just the Rock being the Rock. He did that with a lot of guys. The mere fact that you have the Rock, Austin and Angle in their primes, along the Undertaker and an emerging Jericho, it is only logical that Booker T is down the pecking order.

Now for Steiner, he was crap in his feud vs. HHH. I am not saying HHH helped in that, but that's about it. He did not show anything worthy while in the biggest feud in the company at that time. He did not conquer anything. End of story. Maybe afterwards he could have still been used more properly but I doubt he belonged to the main event.

As for Luger , again due to the existing names at the time, he just did not belong to the top crop. Same for Jarret.

I think Nash got a lot of chances in the WWE post 2001. He got injured a lot and never won the World title but I don't see what purpose it would have served to give him the title, at least long term.
Scott Hall blew his own chance, don't forget he actually wrestled Stone Cold at Wrestlemania. He buried himself. Not saying WWE had big plans for him, but he did not do himself any favors. NWO's revival was already a stretch (still workable) and things were done by the time Hogan turned face.

Hogan and Flair had great post WCW careers, no need to elaborate on that.

I don't know about Macho Man. He is great and there seem to be some bad blood between him and Vince. But around 2001, given the talent pool, I am not sure we would have seen him main eventing. For what's it is worth, I thought Mr Perfect was terribly used following his return.

As for Sting, Vince is all business. He would have tried to capitalized on him, make the most money out of him. Whether he would have succeeded , I don't know. Vince is overrated as a creative mind anyway. I doubt Sting would have been able to capture old glory to its full extent. Once he got all the juice out, I can't say for sure Sting would not have been buried though. Surely, he would been used to put over new talents. Now, had he signed later on (past 2006), I think we would have got a big money Sting vs. Taker feud that would not have hurt his leagcy imo.

As for Goldberg, for a 1 year contract with limited appearances, I thought he got a fair share of the spotlight and to say he was buried is quite off the mark imo. You cannot expect WWE to build him as the absolute guy for years to come when his contract runs out after a year.

Vince gave a lot of these guys SEVERAL chances, and probably paid them incredibly well. A lot of them simply couldn't deliver, like Scott Steiner. I bet after that Rumble match in 2003 Vince immediately regretted signing this guy. Same thing with Hall & Nash. The original nWo reunion in 2002 was interesting, but within months these guys simply couldn't deliver. Vince even shoots on Nash on LIVE TELEVISION telling him that he better deliver or he'll be on the unemployment line with Scott Hall. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happened with DDP as well. Though in fairness to Page, he was never going to win the feud with Undertaker.. the entire thing was built for him to get his ass kicked.

It's obvious that Vince was disappointed in what he got out of a lot of these guys. Besides Flair or Hogan, I bet in Vince's mind none of them were worth the money he paid them, validating in his mind that his guys were always better.

The only guy who did well, in my opinion, was Goldberg. Sure, he wasn't booked as unstoppable as he was in WCW, but he was hardly buried. People forget that he was undefeated for about his first four months in the WWE. And in less than one year he went over The Rock, Triple H, Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar... and had a World Championship reign that lasted three months. I think he only lost like 3 times all year. Pretty good run if you ask me.

 

[thebarber]

Vince would have changd Sting's gimmick for sure, would have sent him to OVW to learn the WWE way of wrestling in a WWE ring.
Vince pretty much buried all of the WCW main event level guys he aquired in the initial purchase.
STEINER had an initial fued with HHH in 2003, but was never going over and the matches were rubbish. Immediately after two ppvs in a row, Steiner didnt even make the cut for Wrestlemania 19.
BOOKER T: Came in strong as WCW Champion, Vince had to have their torch bearer look capable, but the second the Rock famously stated " Who in the blue hell are you", his credibility was crushed in one line..........then put over HHH at Mania 19 in a nothing fued where Booker T sold a pedigree ridiculously
KEVIN NASH: Injuries curtailed him having any sort of decent run in the company. He came in injured, then his first televsied match, he tore his quad live on Raw.
GOLDBERG: Came in 2 years after the takeover, looked strong agianst an exiting Rock, ordinary agaisnt Jericho who kicked his ass backstage, then a phoned in fued with guess who...Triple H. Goldberg had a title run built into his contract, he got his meaningless 3 months with the title. Was booked idiotically in comedy backstage vignettes which went against everything the character vwas that made him a success
DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE: Stalker gimmick bombed from the moment he took off his hood.

 

[Wald]

Whilst I think Sting was right to have concerns about how he would be treated if he went to the then WWF I honestly don't think he would have been. All reports on the McMahons' opinion of WCW talent, from 1991 to after they closed down, indicates that Sting was a guy who Vince had a lot of respect for and genuinely saw as a top level talent. I'm not so sure he rated guys like Booker or DDP that highly and so they had to work to win his respect.

Sting already had it and could have been booked differently. I say could have because there is no guarantee that someone like Undertaker, Triple H or whoever wouldn't feel threatened by his arrival and try to bury him by badmouthing him to Vince. The WWF in 2001 was still a shark pit of guys looking to jump ahead of each other, a genuine main event star like Sting coming in and getting a top spot would have annoyed a lot of people close to Vince.

 

[deadman talking]

i dont really think vince would have screwed Sting. i think alot of the talent he eventually aquired were sub par at best, with a few exceptions being Booker , Goldberg, and the old wwf/e alumni i.e. Hogan,Flair etc. If Vince could make that cash from yov i think he will. of course he had some real bad blood with the likes of jeff jarret, Hall, Nash and even Lex Luger jvst to nand a few. im sure he had every intention of putting out those countless great dvds. i see no reason to bury some of the most over wrestlers to talk shit of them on the dvds that made vince alot of money. i can c why sting was worried a bit, but i dont believe they would have buried him. wovld love to see what might have been.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Most of the guys mentioned here really weren't stars. Booker T was a 2nd teir star, albeit a talented one, in WCW. His short tenure on top of the company when guys like Hogan, Nash, Sting, & Goldberg all had bailed on them really wasn't that impressive, nor was it enough to put him on par with those guys. That said, he had a long career post WCW, had the whole "King Booker" gimmick and wrestled HHH at WrestleMania. That was probably about what he was worth.

McMahon has always been a fan of Flair's and all accounts are that they parted on good terms in 1993 (unlike Luger and Jarret when they left WWE). Add to the fact that HBK & HHH practically modeled their entire personas on him (and have stated it many times) plus the gold mine in marketing his matches on DVD (which WCW did a terrible job of), it was easy to see why his WWE run was actually quite good. And no disrespect to Booker T but he was never as a big star nationally as Flair.

Hogan didn't leave WWE on the best of terms but he was a WW.E guy first, and probably the biggest star in wrestling history. Just having him back and Flair on the roster at the same time was a huge coup for WWE. His post WCW career was quite good and could have been better had he not chosen to be more of a part timer.

DDP in fairness suffered a major back injury early in his WWE run that ended his career. The fact WWE still uses him from time to time for different projects shows Vince wasn't interested in "burying" him

Steiner's bad rep backstage preceeded him to WWE and already put him at a disadvantage. His lackluster work when he got there didn't help, he was a shell of himself on the mic and in the ring. Granted, Hogan & Flair weren't what they used to be either but both brought way more intensity and charisma to their work, limited match skills aside, than Steiner. He was pushed hard when he first arrived, his poor work is what killed him.

Hall's drinking & drug problems ruined any chances he had of a successful run, and quite honestly, with WCW gone and no real competition for dollars, t wasn't like Vince needed to put up with Hall, though there have been stories over the years of WWE paying for his re hab more than once.

Nash initially had a good run but his continued injuries took their toll. Both sides decided to split, apparently witt no hard feelings (wasn't Nash in Vince's box at WM 24 to watch the Flair-HBK match ?).

Luger was in terrible shape at the end of WCW and hardly wrestling. I remember stories of WWE considering him in 2003 but after seeing how horrible he looked during his brief TNA stint there was no interest. Luger definitely did not leave WWE on good terms in 1995 but Vince has shown with guys like Hogan & Nash he can move on if you can make money. Luger was in no shape to make money, that's his fault, not a Vince "burying" job.

Jarret left on bad terms with Vince and wasn't a big enough star to consider burying the proverbial hatchet with.

Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero had long, successful careers, often at or near the top of the card, won high profile matches, wrestled against many of the companies biggest names, they did well, eclipsing their status in WCW at the time they left.

Goldberg had a nice run, beat HHH for the World Title, won most of his matches and feuds, did very well, he chose to leave because he didn't like the travel, etc, Vince wasn't burying him.

I feel Sting would have been treated well too, his connection to wrestling fans across both companies was significant, he was also younger than Flair & Hogan so the potential for more matches/feuds would have existed. Sting is the kind of guy, like Flair, that Vince would have admired because he was a company guy, the kind of guy who works his @#$ off even when he hates his gimmick or is booked to lose, he's the Undertaker in that regard, I really don't think he would have been humiliated.