10 WWE Legends You Forgot Had Short Stints In WCW

While the nWo might have coined the phrase, in reality it’s when you’re in the WWE, you’re in the WWE for life. Obviously not in terms of being employed as evidenced by the last two years, but certainly in personal brand recognition. When these superstars go to the merchandise tables at conventions, the words “WWE Superstar” are almost always attached to their names. But they actually did have stints in WCW.

Some of these stars are so associated with WWE throughout their careers thats it’s almost impossible to picture them wrestling elsewhere. But at one point or another, most superstars have worked everywhere, including competition like WCW.

10 Molly Holly

Molly Holly not only worked in WCW, but she actually got her start there! After being trained by Dean Malenko, the future Hall Of Famer found herself as part of Team Madness; Miss Madness.

The women’s division in WCW was non-existent and Randy Savage himself reportedly was the one who recommended her to Bruce Prichard. That was all Brother Love needed to get the Holly cousin’s foot in the door.

9 Luna Vachon

As a second generation star, Hall Of Famer Luna Vachon deserved a lot more recognition than she gets for her work. Unfortunately, she was also about a decade or so ahead of her time.

But after her brief stint in WWE as Bam Bam Bigelow’s main squeeze, she left the company, seemingly following Alundra Blayze to WCW to reinvigorate their rivalry that never really got started in WWE. Unfortunately, it never really got started in WCW either.

8 Rikishi

The Bloodline has been running roughshod over SmackDown for more than a year. But Paul Heyman has been serving as Special Counsel for decades now. In WCW, he managed a team known as The Samoan SWAT Team, which consisted of both Samu and Fatu. The future Headshrinkers had actually come to WCW by way of the World Class and Puerto Rico territories.

They even participated in a WarGames match, teaming with The Fabulous Freebirds against The Road Warriors, Midnight Express, and Dr. Death.

7 Marty Jannetty

In the WWE, Marty Jannetty received more chances than practically anyone ever. But his personal problems constantly kept getting in the way of just how talented he was. In between chances, The Rocker found himself in WCW, hoping to succeed there when he found it a little difficult in WWE.

He was used predominantly as a higher tiered enhancement talent with losses to any and all members of the midcard. So it's safe to say he never broke through the glass ceiling in either promotion.

6 The Iron Sheik

Thanks to his outrageous social media persona, The Iron Sheik has managed to stay relevant. But his career is mostly remembered for being the evil foreign menace of WWE that Hulkamania was born out of. But “Sheiky-baby” made it to WCW for a short time as well.

He revived the Persian Club's challenge for Sting to take part of before they met up The Music City Showdown. Sheik is pretty much synonymous with WWE, so his run in WCW is often forgotten about.

5 Rob Van Dam

While his in-ring style hasn’t changed much over the years, Rob Van Dam has made a few tweaks since his time coming up in the business. When he was in WCW, he wrestled in just plain tights and was even barefoot too. In his highest profile WCW appearance, Robbie V would try to take down fellow Michigander and future WWE star as well, Vinnie Vegas, aka Kevin Nash.

RVD was far from the finished product that fans witnessed in ECW and WWE.

4 Owen Hart

It was short, but somewhere in another universe, there’s a WCW history that involves perhaps a WarGames match between The Hart Foundation and The Four Horsemen. This is because all five members of the Foundation were part of WCW at one point or another.

Owen Hart was there in 1991 for a brief five matches. he tried to make a name for himself in WCW, and even teamed with Ricky Morton for one of them. But when Owen wasn’t willing to move to Atlanta, he re-signed with the WWE and his career slowly began to take flight.

3 Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart

After the events of Montreal, The WWE offered outs to every member of The Hart Foundation, except for Owen. Both Jim Neidhart and The British Bulldog took them up on the offer. He followed Bret to WCW, where the powers that be decided that putting The Foundation back together wasn’t going to happen.

Instead Neidhart would team with Davey Boy against several different teams - most notably against The Dancing Fools at Fall Brawl when Bulldog unfortunately suffered a terrible back injury thanks to a trap door in the ring.

2 The British Bulldog

Aside from his post-Screwjob stint in WCW, The British Bulldog also made an appearance in WCW in 1993 where he formed a tag team with the Stinger against the likes of Sycho Sid and Vader.

Davey Boy can be heard laughing hysterically during the unfortunate debut of The Shockmaster. Aside from facing Bret in Wembley, he had some his highest profile battles during this run against Vader, main eventing Slamboree 1993.

1 Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Jake The Snake Vs Sting Halloween Havoc Cropped

Shortly after falling to The Undertaker, Jake "The Snake" Roberts showed up in WCW. He targeted Sting, immediately challenging him to a match at Halloween Havoc. The match was a Coal Miner’s Glove match thanks to the results of the wheel.

But the run turned sour before it even started when Roberts’ pay was cut as he was gearing up for a run in the compoany. At least fans got the wrestle-tastic “Jake The Snake” song off of the delirious Slam Jam record.