5 WWE Megastars who were rejected by WCW

#2 Batista

Batista very early on in his career

Batista was a bodybuilder before he tried his hand at pro wrestling at the WCW Power Plant. However, with Batista coming to pro wrestling quite late on, he was told that he would never make it in pro wrestling.

Batista spoke about his rejection by WCW on his Talk Is Jericho appearance:

I went and had this awful tryout with WCW and they ran me out the door and told me to never come back. I went down to the Power Plant…they were having open tryouts; you know, you just show up and pay $300, which at that time was a lot of money for me.

Batista went on to sign with WWE in 2000 and was sent to OVW to train right away. He went on to make his televised debut in 2002, going on to win 6 world titles as well as 2 Royal Rumbles.

#1 The Undertaker

The Undertaker during his WWE debut

The Undertaker already had a couple of unsuccessful gimmicks in his career when he was wrestling as Mean Mark Callous in WCW. Despite showing promise, he just couldn’t connect with the fans. Taker decided to leave WCW, when he was told by booker Ole Anderson during contract negotiations, that no one would ever pay any money to watch him.

WCW’s loss was WWE’s gain. He signed with WWE and made his on-screen debut as The Undertaker at Survivor Series 1990. Nearly 30 years later, The Undertaker remains one of the most iconic WWE Superstars of all time.