12 Wrestlers Who Only Had 1 WCW Match

One of the great things about WCW was the sheer eclecticism of its roster. Ageing legends and young cruiserweights. Strong-style brawlers and goofy characters. They all coexisted wonderfully and everyone and their mother (such as Judy Bagwell) seemed to pass through WCW at one point or another.  Some wrestlers, however, only happened to wrestle one solitary match in a WCW ring.

These are 10 wrestlers who only had one match in World Championship Wrestling.

12. Duane Gill

Duane Gill was a consistent presence on WWE television during the 1990s as one of the regular enhancement talents used to put over the established stars on shows like Wrestling Challenge, Superstars, and Raw. Then in 1999, he got the push of his life as Gillberg, the luckless jobber version of WCW’s Goldberg.

In the middle of a wrestling war with the Turner-backed organisation, WWE just couldn’t resist taking a shot at one of WCW’s great money-drawing creations. Perhaps Gill himself was more than happy to send up the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion, as he may have been feeling a bit stung after wrestling one match for WCW and never getting a callback.

At an October 25, 1995, taping of WCW Saturday Night, Gill took on new Dungeon of Doom member Hugh Morrus (in what was only Bill DeMott’s second WCW match). A routine squash, it ended when Morrus got himself disqualified by throwing Gill over the top rope and then continued the beating, finishing with the moonsault. Gill did his job as well as he always did, making Morrus look like a monster, but his services weren’t required afterwards.

11. Atlantis

So many luchadors came through WCW’s doors during the Monday Night War era that, to be honest, it was hard to keep up. Some were so-so, while others were must-see. A few of them even went on to become certifiable legends of the industry. During one week of tapings in late June of 1996, WCW brought in a trio of luchadors to take a look at; Vampiro, Emilio Charles Jr., and Atlantis.

Vampiro was signed to a contract, but the other two weren’t, even though many at the time believed them both to be far more talented. Atlantis – who would establish himself as one of the most popular luchadors of all time – worked against Len Denton (better known for his time under a mask as The Grappler) in a match taped for the syndicated show WCW Worldwide.

It was a short, basic affair that saw Atlantis pick up a win with a backslide.

10. Nick Bockwinkel

WCW’s 1993 Slamboree pay-per-view was billed as A Legends Reunion. An excuse to celebrate professional wrestling’s glorious past, the company brought in many of the industry’s greats to either make appearances or mix it up in the ring.

One of the most intriguing outings WCW put together was a singles contest between former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Dory Funk Jr. (managed by Gene Kiniski) and four-time AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel (managed by Vern Gagne). Dory Jr. was 51 at the time, while Bockwinkel was 58. Despite their advancing age, both men were in fantastic shape and put on a real old-school, technical exhibition that went to a 15-minute time-limit draw.

It was a nice, nostalgic example of the way pro wrasslin’ used to be and a good one-shot WCW showing for Bockwinkel, in what turned out to be his last-ever match (after six years in semi-retirement). Funk, meanwhile, worked one more date for WCW – a non-televised June 6, 1997, house show in New York that doubled as a tribute to former wrestler and restaurateur Ilio DiPaolo.

Bockwinkel would go on to become the WCW on-screen commissioner from 1994 to 1995.

9. Don Muraco

One of the featured matches on the Slamboree 1993 undercard was a six-man tag pitting Blackjack Mulligan, Wahoo McDaniel and Jim Brunzell against Dick Murdoch, Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco.

The sextet may have moved at a leisurely pace, but you can’t fault the star power. And Jim Brunzell was in the match, too. This turned out to be the only WCW match for Brunzell and Muraco, who got to square off with his old nemesis Snuka in one of the match’s highlights (before it descended into a big brawl and ended in a DQ).

In recent years, Muraco has said that he never had much desire to go to WCW after leaving WWE in 1989, because he considered the locker room something of a snake pit (while also readily admitting that he had lost a step). Just the one-and-done for the Don, who worked a lot more with the upstart ECW during that era.

8. Super Dragon

2000s independent standout Super Dragon mainly wrestled in the Southern California area, gaining a strong cult following for, in the main, his exploits for the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla promotion (which he helped co-found and book). He flirted with higher-profile places, including Ring of Honor and All-Japan, but he never quite broke out before injuries forced him to semi-retire while still in his twenties.

A year after his debut and just a handful of matches into his career, the masked man was given a tryout with World Championship Wrestling when they rolled through Oakland for a Thunder taping on July 16, 1998. Right as WCW were at their hottest, Super Dragon got a chance to impress by teaming with Blitzkrieg against American Wild Child and Dragon Yakuza in a pre-show dark match.

Allotted just two minutes and thirty-five seconds, the four men made everything count, with Super Dragon and Blitzkrieg getting the crowd on their feet with some spectacular dives to the outside. Only Blitzkrieg – who greatly impressed a watching Ultimo Dragon – was signed, while American Wild Child (AKA Ron Rivera) got one more booking (for the company’s aborted Festival de Lucha pilot) six months later.

7. Duke Droese

After WWE threw Duke ‘The Dumpster’ Droese into the trash in 1996, he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. He resurfaced in Germany the next year, touring for Otto Wanz and the Catch Wrestling Association, where he tangled with the likes of Fit Finlay in rounds-based matches.

Droese had designs on getting back into the scene in America, however, and secured tryout matches for both WWE and WCW in early 1998. His WCW one came first, and he defeated a fella by the name of Mick Tierney in a dark match prior to the February 2, 1998, edition of Nitro.

About a month later, he worked two dark matches for WWE, but the binman didn’t hear back from either Eric Bischoff or Vince McMahon. This is something none other than Steve Austin had warned him about when he suggested Droese pick one and one only, as if he did both Stone Cold guessed neither would show any interest.

6. Tito Santana

Considering he had name value from his many years as a WWE star, it is surprising that Tito Santana only showed up for one WCW match during the Monday Night Wars. El Matador left Vince McMahon’s employ in the summer of 1993 and wrestled for a few independent leagues – including ECW back when it was still Eastern Championship Wrestling.

Following a brief WWE return as a Spanish-language commentator, Santana returned to the indies and was doing the weekend warrior thing when WCW came calling. Tito was one of three legends brought in to wrestle Jeff Jarrett by WCW Commissioner Terry Funk on the January 10, 2000, episode of Nitro.

Double J first lost to George ‘The Animal’ Steele in a Bunkhouse match (with help from Arn Anderson), before Santana beat him in a ‘Dungeon’ bout (thanks to an assist from Paul Orndorff). To cap off The Chosen One’s misery, he then fell to Jimmy Snuka inside a cage – and received a concussion from the big Superfly Splash to boot. For what it’s worth, Santana got a good pop and, though he may have looked a little older, was still moving well during what turned out to be his last appearance for a major US promotion.

5. Taz

Before he became a big star as ECW’s super-shooter with a shaved head, Taz was The Tazmaniac, a somewhat cartoonish savage-like character and very much a product of that character-based era. The Tazmaniac was just a few years into his career, having worked on the indies and completed a tour for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, when he got tryouts with both WWE and WCW.

The Human Suplex Machine went down to Centre Stage in Atlanta, first, where he was booked against Joey Maggs at the February 8, 1993, Saturday Night tapings. A non-televised outing, The Tazmaniac picked up the victory.

According to a report in The Wrestling Observer, Taz didn’t look as good as he usually did at the time, though Dave Meltzer was quick to point out that he looked a whole lot better than Stu Hart trainee Big Sky, who also received a tryout at the same taping. No surprise that WCW offered Big Sky a deal, then, since he was six-foot-nine and The Tazmaniac was most definitely not.

4. Lanny Poffo

Well, Randy Savage’s younger brother Lanny Poffo wasn’t just brought in for a look. The man was actually under contract for five years. Paid for five years and he wrestled just one match. Lanny was signed to a deal in 1995 as a favour to The Macho Man, who had purchased the rights to the Gorgeous George name/gimmick and believed Lanny was the guy to pull it off.

Lanny, to his credit, dyed his hair and stayed in top shape to do so and was expecting a call at any time. He even showed up backstage unannounced on a couple of occasions to inquire if the bookers wanted him to actually earn his weekly paycheque.

But the phone only rang once and Poffo only has a single documented WCW match to his credit – a dark match victory over Johnny West at the October 20, 1997, Nitro taping and the crowd apparently hated it.

3. Kid Kash

Like many ex-ECW names in March of 2001, Kid Kash was looking for work. With ECW closing down in January, the talented high-flyer assessed his options and secured a deal with WCW after a successful tryout match with All-Japan wrestler George Hines.

The former ECW World Television Champion, wrestling simply as ‘Cash’ made his televised debut for the company on the March 21 edition of Thunder. He looked great in putting over Jason Jett – AKA fellow former ECW star EZ Money, a man he’d clashed with several times in Paul Heyman’s promotion – in a lively match.

It looked for a minute there that WCW may have found a new player to help build their cruiserweight division around. Five days later, WWE bought WCW. Kash has said that he, like much of the wrestling world, saw his future change by watching it all unfold on television that night. WWE had wanted to retain his services, but Kash – by that point in his mid-30s – didn’t fancy signing a developmental deal and relocating from Nashville to Cincinnati with no guarantees and opted to try his luck elsewhere instead.

2. Joe Malenko

Prior to finding domestic success with WCW in the mid-to-late 90s, Dean Malenko earned his reputation as one of the smoothest in-ring technicians in the game while bending bones overseas in Japan, where he was a star of New Japan’s cutting-edge junior heavyweight division.

Before that, however, he was known as the younger brother and tag team partner of Joe Malenko. The Malenko Brothers had been staples of New Japan’s rivals All Japan – where they had some cracking matches with, amongst others, the British Bulldogs – when they were booked for a one-off by WCW.

Squaring off against Nikita Koloff and Ricky Steamboat in the first round of a tournament to crown new tag team champions, Dean and Joe helped kick off the 19th Clash of the Champions special. It was obvious who was doing the job here, but at least the Malenkos – who were representing ‘Europe’, oddly enough – got to show off their mat skills in a perfectly decent 10-minute encounter. And while Joe didn’t wrestle another match for WCW, he was drafted in for an angle with Chris Jericho during Jericho’s 1998 feud with The Man of 1,000 holds.

1. Kane

The future “Kane” had but a few matches under his belt by the time a Saturday Night taping on March 2, 1993 rolled around and was essentially brought in to act as a warm body for Sting to beat in a routine squash match. Under the name of “Bruiser Mastino”, Kane was pretty green and not up to speed just yet.

He needed to gain experience elsewhere, which he went and did – including another tryout match for WWE that October. After his success as Kane, he definitely had a window of opportunity in which to make the jump to ‘Where the Big Boys Play’ but, as the man himself put it, he never seriously contemplated doing so, remaining with WWE for the rest of his Hall of Fame career.