10 WCW Wrestlers You Don't Remember

One of British wrestling's most famous products, the enormous Giant Haystacks was a mainstay of the World of Sport programme that drew millions of viewers to ITV once upon a time.

He, along with equally massive partner-cum-enemy Big Daddy, were household names in the United Kingdom, but Haystacks also made it to other, more distant shores.

He worked for Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, did a tour for All Japan and even, right at the very end of his career, showed up in WCW. Renamed Loch Ness, Haystacks was brought in as a member of the Dungeon of Doom for a month in early 1996 and wrestled a handful of matches, including his last ever against The Giant at that year's disastrous Uncensored pay-per-view.

After that he retired and, sadly, passed away just a couple of years later at age 52.

Reminiscing about the short and bizarre run of Loch Ness got me reminiscing about some of the other forgotten wrestlers of WCW. And so now you must suffer, too.

10. Firebreaker Chip

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Early 90's WCW was a real mishmash of good and bad.

Some of the wrestling was truly exceptional, but a lot of the gimmicks were duds and showed why the company was in such a rotten slump before Eric Bischoff took the reigns in the middle of the decade.

One of the many crap tag teams from that time were the WCW Patriots, which comprised of Todd Champion (Gulf War veteran) and Firebreaker Chip (fireman).

Chip was portrayed by Curtis Thompson, a compact ball of muscle who had been working for a few years on the independent scene and in Puerto Rico. As part of the gimmick, he wore a fireman's helmet and looked every bit the low-rent Chippendale with his greased-up physique and suspenders.

Special Forces had a couple of feuds with the the likes of the Fabulous Freebirds and Young Pistols, but didn't achieve much success. Their biggest match was probably their (unsuccessful) Tag Team Title match with The Enforcers at Halloween Havoc '91.

One of the most notable aspects of Thompson's WCW run was not anything that happened in the ring, but his backstage fight with Diamond Dallas Page at a house show.

He left WCW in 1993 and went on to wrestle for Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

9. Reno

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A former amateur wrestler and professional kickboxer, Richard Cornell was one of the many hopefuls who got their pro-wrestling training at the infamous WCW Power Plant in the late 90's.

It made sense, then, for him to join up with a bunch of his fellow Power Plant graduates in the Natural Born Thrillers stable.

The man with the queue ponytail took a bit of a backseat to hot prospects like Sean O'Haire and Mark Jindrak, but he did find success in the company's hardcore division, holding the title for a month between October and November 2000.

While Reno had a unique look and received a little bit of a push, he just didn't yet have the tools to pull it all off. Outside of his Roll the Dice finisher, his wrestling style was basic and unpolished. It also didn't help his cause that WCW was a creative wasteland around this time and that people were tuning out in droves.

WWE felt like the he had some potential and bought his contract out when they acquired WCW, but he never made it past developmental, was released and left the business soon after.

8. Lash LeRoux

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Lash LeRoux! With such excellent use of alliteration, who could you forget him?

LeRoux was another product of the Power Plant, paying his dues in the training facility before being called to the main roster and paying more dues as a designated jobber.

He was soon promoted to the cruiserweight division, but that was a crowded field and he didn't exactly stand out amongst the Kidmans and Mysterios of the world.

His most prominent role was as a member of the Misfits in Action group, which saw him re-christened as Corporal Cajun. Once again, though, this was latter-day WCW and the company was a mess, so it was hard for anyone to really care about what was going on.

As a member of MIA he won the WCW Tag Team Titles with Chavo 'Lieutenant Loco' Guerrero. For less than a day, of course, because WCW.

LeRoux was signed to a WWE developmental deal following the sale of WCW, but it didn't work out. He then bounced around from here to there before retiring in 2006.

A talented performer who was unfortunately in the wrong place (WCW) at the wrong time, LeRoux now works as a cartoonist and pastor.

Cartoonist and pastor, erm what's the difference, am I right?

Satire. That is satire.

7. 'Hardwork' Bobby Walker

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'Hardwork' Bobby Walker was around in WCW for the best part of a decade and, in that time, managed to do almost nothing memorable.

Some nasty injuries didn't help, but the truth is that WCW didn't position Walker - who had worked for Japan's FMW, did some enhancement matches for WWE and trained at the Power Plant - as anything more than a jobber-to-the-stars.

His best year was probably 1996, as he wrestled his most amount of yearly matches (25) and got televised victories over the likes of Billy Kidman, Mr. JL and Brad Armstrong.

WCW even gave him Teddy Long to act as his mouthpiece, but he didn't exactly receive a big push on the back of it.

Walker was charismatic and athletic but never given a storyline or anything substantial to work with. In the end, he was just one of many on a bloated WCW roster at the time.

Post-WCW, however, he caused lots of headaches for them (and later WWE, who inherited some of WCW's legal mess) when he - along with others including Sony Onoo - filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the company.

Walker (and the others) received a payout when the lawsuit was settled, and he now works as a portrait illustrator in Atlanta.

6. Joe Gomez

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I know what you're thinking; 'how could I forgot someone with such a ridiculously good head of hair?'.

Gomez started with WCW in 1990, wrestling as Allen Iron Eagle and losing to just about everybody, before leaving the company and resurfacing later in the decade.

In 1996, Gomez came back and got something like a mini push teaming with other generic, uncharismatic performers like Mark Starr and Jim Powers in a brief feud with the Dungeon of Doom.

I suppose when you've failed to eradicate the mighty Hulk Hogan from the face of existence, the next logical step is to go after Gomez, Powers and Starr.

While the New World Order was running rampant, the crew of jabronis also got into a dispute with the Horsemen and Gomez even wrestled (and lost to) Steve 'Mongo' McMichael at the Bash at the Beach pay-per-view.

WCW soon lost interest in Gomez and he was moved down the card, forming a loser tag team with The Renegade.

He went out on a high, beating The Gambler on an April 1999 episode of WCW Saturday Night.

5. Swoll

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A former NFL player and a trainee of Brad Rheingans (who had a hand in coaching Brock Lesnar prior to him starting in WWE developmental territory OVW), Randy Thornton's career began with brief stints in the AWA and New Japan in the early 90's.

He finally received his big break in 1999, when he got a gig with WCW thanks to his friendship with real-life friend Master P, who was then with the company as the leader of the No Limit Soldiers.

Thornton joined the Soldiers as the group's muscle, hence the apt name of Swoll.

The NLS primarily feuded with the West Texas Rednecks in a country music versus rap rivalry, but Swoll himself only wrestled in a handful of tag matches, including at that year's Bash at Beach pay-per-view.

Swoll was a brawler who lacked finesse and was noted for his palm thrust finisher, but he wasn't around the long-term. After the feud with the West Texas Rednecks ended, Thornton left WCW and retired from the business.

A born-again Christian, he has since worked as a motivational speaker and recently overcame some serious health issues.

4. Yoshi Kwan

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Another case of a talented wrestler being saddled with a terrible (and in this case highly offensive) gimmick.

A Kentucky-born Florida resident and student of the Malenkos, Chris Champion had a decent run in the 80's and early 90's, working for groups like Championship Wrestling from Florida, Mid-Atlantic and the USWA, before finding his way to Ted Turner's organisation in '93.

Not as Chris Champion, but as Yoshi Kwan, a stereotypical 'sneaky' Asian heel - was it China or Hong Kong? WCW never did decide - managed by Harley Race in his attempt to rid WCW of Cactus Jack.

With his garish mullet and over-the-top fake eyebrows, Kwan turned heads with his appearance but he didn't stick around long enough or have good enough matches to make too much of an impression.

After losing to Cactus Jack at Fall Brawl, he was put on the sidelines with a knee injury and never did return.

He passed away in 2019, at the age of 57.

3. Kendall Windham

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It can be hard to some members of famous wrestling families to live up to the legacy and carry on the name.

Son of Hall of Famer Blackjack Mulligan and brother to Hall of Famer Barry Windham, Kendall Windham had the size and the surname but, sadly, lacked the charisma or ring nous to get halfway as far as they did.

A veteran who had worked for All Japan, as well as various American territories in the 80's, Kendall was used by WCW as little more than a glorified jobber, losing to (in 1998 alone) the likes of Jim Duggan, Jim Neidhart, Finlay and even the lowly Kenny Kaos, among many others.

His career received a boost the following year when he partnered up with brother Barry, Curt Hennig and Bobby Duncum Jr. in the West Texas Rednecks, and he briefly held the Tag Team Titles with big Baz.

He left WCW late in the year and bounced around from here to there before calling it a day in 2002.

Though some would say he didn't fulfil potential, Kendall's own father admitted in an interview that he wasn't gifted with the 'it factor' in the way that Barry was and actually overachieved, considering his physical abilities and personality.

2. Braun The Leprechaun

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Seeing that name written down makes me sad that we never got to see Strowman morph into a seven-foot Hornswoggle.

It also makes me sad because it means I have to think and talk about Braun The Leprechaun, an ungodly WCW creation portrayed by DeWayne Bruce.

Bruce had worked for WCW since the late 80's as an undercard talent, most notably as Sergeant Buddy Lee Parker in the naff tag team State Patrol.

He was repackaged as the woeful Braun the Leprechaun in the summer of 1996, managed by Jimmy Hart as a member of the Dungeon of Doom. Seeing him run around and scream while pretending to be the folkloric Irish creature, while the ultra-cool nWo kicked ass and took names at the same time really showed the strange dichotomy of WCW at the time.

The company clearly realised it wasn't working and canned it before too long.

Bruce then wrestled sporadically while working as the head trainer at the Power Plant. As seen during his appearance on Louis Theroux's weird weekends, Sarge (as he was known) clearly had a massive small man complex.

Which leads me to think the whole leprechaun thing may have been a rib.

1. Emory Hale

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You can see what WCW had in Emory Hale the second you lay eyes on him.

The guy was massive and, during an era where those with larger-than-life physiques got opportunities despite lacking in other areas, Hale got an opportunity on the big stage.

The man was a monster but, strangely - or perhaps not-so-strangely, since this is WCW - the company didn't book him as such. Instead, his first handful of televised matches were quick squash losses to Van Hammer, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Booker T, Hugh Morrus and Mike Enos.

He disappeared and re-emerged a year later as the masked 'The Machine', but again lost, this time to Diamond Dallas Page. Worse than that, Hale (who was managed by Jimmy Hart) looked completely out of his depth and mistimed a crotch spot move so badly that it probably sealed his fate with higher-ups.

WCW persisted for a little longer, giving him (as Hail) a few squash match victories over nobodies on the barely-watched Saturday Night and Worldwide shows.

He left WCW later that year and, sadly, passed away from kidney failure in 2006 at the age of just 36.