![]() ![]() DDP floundered in forced gimmicks that didn’t really fit his talents. Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Sting were largely nostalgia acts for their remaining time in WWE. Performers like Goldberg and Scott Steiner felt locked into poor man’s versions of what had made them successful in WCW. That’s all en route to making the biggest adjustment of his time with the company-winning the King of the Ring tournament, and becoming a royal villain.Ĭombining a silly accent, kingly mannerisms, and a slightly modified style in the ring, the King Booker run arguably represented the best work of the man’s entire wrestling career. From there, he returned to his heroic style and became one of WWE’s most popular Superstars. As such, he had time to make the adjustment to WWE for a couple of years including tag teams like his underrated oddball pairing with Goldust, and still be around his peak as an athlete when WWE was ready to trust him with a proper world title reign.ĭespite being a top babyface in the final days of WCW, Booker T worked most of the first leg of his WWE career as a heel. Moreover, he had eight years of experience in WCW under his belt, during which time he had progressed from a tag team wrestler, to a mid-card staple, to the main event mix. That was young enough to be in great shape with years left ahead for his in-ring career. Related: 10 Big WCW Stars WWE Ruined: What Went Wrong?īooker T, by contrast was 35 when he debuted for WWE in 2001. Surely age was a factor in names like Randy Savage, Sid, and Lex Luger either choosing not to return to WWE or not being invited back in by the company. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were in a similar age bracket, while Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan were older. DDP was far from the only older big name from WCW who debuted for or returned to WWE in the early 2000s. While Diamond Dallas Page was a WCW main event level talent who went straight to WWE for the Invasion, he was in his mid-forties when he worked his first WWE match. That included arriving at WrestleMania 19 as the babyface challenger to Triple H’s World Heavyweight Championship reign of terror. Losing to Edge at WrestleMania 18 felt like a bit of a capstone, after which he was ready to be rebuilt. Booker’s first year saw him put over The Rock, Steve Austin, and Kurt Angle. Moreover, he had the opportunity to earn his stripes. The fact that he came over right away positioned him as a big name out of the gate to even those WWE fans who hadn’t followed WCW at all. So it was that talents like Hulk Hogan who were in the twilight of the careers had a relatively easy choice to cash big paychecks and rest their bodies.īooker T was the reigning WCW Champion coming out of the final episode of WCW Nitro and only made sense to transition straight to WCW as a standard-bearer. ![]() One of the awkward dynamics at play when WWE bought out WCW was that most talents had the option of having Time Warner pay out their existing contracts, or signing a new deal with WWE, typically for less money. ![]()
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