During most of 1997, WCW couldn’t do anything wrong. The company told two incredible stories that year that helped them maintain their stranglehold on the top spot in professional wrestling. However, right at the end of the year, WCW made a misstep that would slow its positive momentum.
After a full year of construction, in starcade 1997, WCW backed down and booked a screwed-up ending between Hollywood Hogan and Sting. Heading into 1998, WCW was still making money hand over fist, but cracks would begin to form in their armor. Still, in 1998, WCW featured some of the biggest stars in all of professional wrestling. Unfortunately, not all of those stars had a positive effect.
10 Best: Booker T.
1998 was a bit of a paradox for WCW. It was the best bad year in the history of any wrestling promotion. There’s no denying that WCW’s creative direction began trending downward that year. There’s also no denying WCW’s reputation for never looking to the future. However, 1998 saw some new WCW stars force themselves into the spotlight.
One such star was Booker T. Booker had spent most of the ’90s as part of the Harlem Heat alongside his brother Stevie Ray. However, in 1998, Booker began his rise to the top of WCW. That year, Booker put in excellent matches with some big names, including Bret Hart. By the end of the year, Booker’s future in WCW would begin to look bright.
9 Worst: Buff Bagwell
In late 1996, The nWo began recruiting some minor artists to join the group. One such minor artist was Buff Bagwell. By 1998, Bagwell was a full-fledged member of what many were calling “The nWo B Squad.” That year, Bagwell would also suffer a devastating neck injury.
When he returned from injury, it looked like Bagwell would potentially be in line for a baby-faced push. Ultimately though, Bagwell would be reunited with his nWo comrades. Unfortunately, Bagwell and the rest of the nWo B team hurt the group more than the group helped in 1998.
8 The best: sting
In late 1996, Sting began the transition from his original surfer gimmick to a darker, more mysterious character. The Crow Sting would undoubtedly be WCW’s hottest star throughout 1997. However, at the end of the year, WCW failed to settle the dispute between Sting and Hollywood Hogan. That would chill Sting significantly heading into 1998.
In 1998, WCW made the questionable decision to have Sting join The nWo Wolfpac. While he was still one of WCW’s biggest stars, joining the group he had wrestled the entire year before didn’t help the character much. Despite that, Sting was still a huge focal point for the company in 1998 and still delivering great achievements.
7 Worst: Barry Windham
In the late ’80s, Barry Windham seemed poised to be a mainstay for WCW moving forward. Windham had a rare combination of size and speed that made him an incredible worker. Furthermore, the brush Windham received from being part of The Four Horsemen reinforced his status in the business.
Unfortunately, Windham’s career did not develop as many thought it would. By 1998, the former world champion was a far cry from his old self. Bringing him into a fight with an aging Ric Flair might have seemed like a good idea on paper, but it never quite worked out.
6 Best: Diamond Dallas Page
Back in 1996, Diamond Dallas Page was just another face in the WCW crowd. In 1997, all that changed when Page entered a career-making fight against “Macho Man” Randy Savage. After that feud concluded, many fans and pundits wondered where Page would go from there. The answer was “Up”.
1998 would mark Page’s true arrival as an elite megastar in WCW. That year, Page would team up not only with one of the biggest basketball stars of the day, Karl Malone, but also with the king of late-night television, Jay Leno. Both times, Hollywood Hogan and a partner would stand in the ring facing Page and his partner. There is nothing bigger than that.
5 Worst: Brian Adams
When The nWo started to become less choosy about who they invited to join the group, the stable took a big step down. One of the worst additions to the group came in 1998 when Brian Adams, the former Crush in WWE, came to WCW and joined the group.
Adams certainly always looked like the star of the main event. However, for some reason, she was never able to put it all together. In WCW, Adams hoped for a fresh start, but would eventually end up as another member of the nWo B squad. He would not become a major contributor to WCW until 2000 as part of KroniK.
4 Best: Kevin Nash
Over the years, Kevin Nash has been seen as a backstage politician, always looking to put himself in the best position. However, that is not entirely fair. Nash isn’t given enough credit for his willingness to play a supporting role to Hollywood Hogan in the early days of The nWo. In 1998, Nash stopped playing second fiddle to anyone.
That year, he would form The nWo Wolfpac and split from the original nWo. This would arguably make Nash the biggest star in the company for 1998. By the end of the year, Nash would be the WCW Champion. Although, he and WCW would immediately make a fatal mistake entering 1999.
3 Worst: Jay Leno
There’s no denying that celebrity involvement in professional wrestling moves the needle with the public. The massive success of the first wrestling it was proof of that. In the late ’90s, when WCW was red hot, there were celebrities lining up to work with them. This included star athletes like Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman and entertainment stars like Jay Leno.
While Malone and Rodman squashed his forays into the world of wrestling, the same can’t be said for Leno. A RoadWild1998, Leno teamed up with Diamond Dallas Page to face Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff. While the matchup garnered a lot of mainstream media attention, it was ugly as a bowling shoe inside the ring and ultimately hurt WCW’s credibility among die-hard wrestling fans.
two Best: Goldberg
For many wrestling fans, 1998 will always be the year the wheels started coming off WCW. While that is absolutely true, 1998 was also a great year for WCW in many ways. Sure, the creative took a step back, but the company was still wildly lucrative. In 1998, WCW also managed to bring a new megastar into the fold, Goldberg.
While Goldberg was severely limited as an in-ring performer, his charisma and intensity made him a star. Goldberg would spend 1998 reviewing the entire WCW roster. On the 8/7/1998 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Goldberg would defeat Hollywood Hogan to become the first undefeated man in professional wrestling history to win a World Championship. Limited performance or not, that’s an impressive achievement.
1 The worst: the warrior
Before Goldberg captivated the wrestling audience with his intense charisma in the late ’90s, The Ultimate Warrior was doing just that in WWE in the late ’80s and early ’90s. In 1998, Warrior made a surprising appearance in WCW to take on his long-time nemesis, Hollywood Hogan. While Warrior’s arrival in WCW was initially seen as a good thing, that would quickly change.
Warrior would soon become a headache in WCW. Worse yet, Warrior and Hogan would go on to have possibly the worst wrestling match in WCW history at Halloween Havoc 1998. Fortunately for fans, Warrior’s time in WCW was extremely brief. He would leave the promotion after the halloween havoc match with Hogan.