Wrestlers Who You Likely Didn't Know or Forgot Held A Title In A Promotion (World Championship Wrestling)

Wrestlers Who You Likely Didn't Know or Forgot Held A Title In A Promotion (World Championship Wrestling)

September 7, 2021

By Ryan Porzl

Awhile back I began a series where I looked at wrestlers who people knew about but likely didn't know held a title or forgot they held a title in a promotion. The first in this series, I looked at New Japan Pro Wrestling. Now, the series returns with me looking at WCW. Once the #2 and briefly #1 wrestling company in the world, WCW was able to briefly overcome the WWF which no one else has done since Vince's nationwide expansion began in 1984. Now, I'll look back at stars and legends who you may have forgotten held a title there. I should point out before I begin that I'm only covering WCW from the time NWA became WCW to when the WWF bought them so January 1991 to March 2001. I won't cover the NWA/Jim Crockett reigns or WWF owned WCW.

The Great Muta and Vampiro

Title Held: WCW World Tag Team Championship

I think most remember Muta's previous title run for NWA/WCW enjoying a reign as NWA World Television Champion but probably forgot about this short reign. In 2000, WCW was in absolute rock bottom in every way possible from poor shows to poor ratings to poor attendances to poor buyrates and a horrible reputation as the punchline of wrestling. During this time, Vampiro, who previously made a name for himself in Mexico, had started to climb the ladder in WCW even enjoying a rivalry with Sting and began to put together his own stable The Dark Carnival. Meanwhile, Muta took time away from New Japan and decided to spend time in WCW where he aligned with Vampiro in the Dark Carnival. While the two were together, they were able to squeeze in a brief reign as tag team champions. On August 13, 2000 at WCW's New Blood Rising pay-per-view, Muta and Vampiro would face WCW World Tag Team Champions Kronik (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) for the titles and thanks to interference from The Harris Brothers, they would walk out with the gold. However, what would somewhat be a theme in this article, they wouldn't hold the belts for long as they dropped them just 24 hours later on the August 14, 2000 Nitro to Rey Mysterio and Juventud Guerrera.

Psychosis

Title Held: WCW Cruiserweight Championship (2x)

During WCW's peak years, they became known for many things but one of the more popular ideas to come from WCW was the cruiserweight division which featured smaller but faster, high flying, acrobatic wrestling that more times than not either stole the show or was considered the best on the card. The most notable people to occupy the cruiserweight division were the luchadors that were either Mexican wrestlers or wrestlers of Mexican descent. Among the names was Psicosis or Psychosis as he was known in WCW. Psychosis was one of the more exciting wrestlers to watch during this period and while he didn't enjoy the same success as guys like Rey Mysterio or Juventud Guerrera did, he did enjoy some success here and there including tasting the cruiserweight championship for two brief runs. The first occurred on April 19, 1999 on Monday Nitro when Psychosis defeated champion Rey Mysterio as well as Billy Kidman and Blitzkrieg in a fatal four way to win the championship. Unfortunately for Psychosis, he would only hold the title for a week as he lost the title back to Mysterio in a rematch on the April 26th Nitro. Psychosis' second reign would come in a weird situation as he was awarded the championship by WCW when then champion Lenny Lane was stripped of the title and taking off TV due to his gay gimmick coming into conflicts with the LGBT group GLAAD while WCW claimed he won the title at a house show (in reality a phantom match which means it never happened). Psychosis' second reign would prove even shorter as he lost the title the same day he was awarded it as he dropped it to Disco Inferno on the October 4, 1999 Nitro.

One Man Gang

Title Held: WCW United States Championship

Probably the biggest "WTF?" title reign on this list or one of them. Originally a star during the 1980s and early 1990s, One Man Gang has been one of wrestling's best super heavyweights especially for his time. His career saw him enjoy success in a variety of promotions including World Class, Mid-South/UWF, and the WWF. During his run, he captured the UWF Heavyweight Championship and had some big moments in the WWF including winning the first Royal Rumble match ever at a house show in October 1987, was runner-up in the first televised Rumble in 1988, retired "Superstar" Billy Graham, had a rivalry with The Megapowers, and got several WWF Championship shots. After leaving the WWF and brief run in WCW, Gang would leave the business in 1991 and take a four year retirement. By 1995, Gang would resurface in WCW and after coming up short in the World War 3 battle royal for the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship, he would finally win a championship shortly after under bizarre circumstances. At Starrcade 1995, on December 27, 1995, Gang would take on Kensuke Sasaki for the WCW United States Championship in a post-show dark match. The match would have a bizarre situation as Gang would originally beat Sasaki for the title only for the match to restart and Sasaki would seemingly retain the title. However, when the match aired on television, the restart portion didn't air and only Gang's pin on Sasaki would with WCW officially acknowledging him as the new United States Champion. After winning the title, Gang would hold it for a month and would actually make a couple of successful title defenses retaining against Disco Inferno and The Super Giant Ninja (Ron Reese) before eventually dropping the title to Konnan on a Main Event TV Taping on January 29, 1996 (shown February 4th). After the losing the title, Gang would get a few rematches against K-Dawg including at the SuperBrawl VI PPV in February but wasn't able to regain it and eventually left again shortly after.

Hiroshi Hase

Title Held: WCW International World Heavyweight Championship

Hiroshi Hase is one of those guys with a fascinating life. Originally, Hase became a respected wrestling legend during the late 1980s to mid 1990s mostly for New Japan Pro Wrestling excelling in the Junior Heavyweight Division as a two time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion before enjoying success in the tag team division forming popular teams with Kensuke Sasaki and Keiji "The Great Muta" Mutoh winning two IWGP Tag Team Championship with each partner. Outside of his wrestling career, Hase has also enjoyed success in Japanese politics since the mid 90s. During Hase's run, New Japan had a inter-promotional deal with WCW which brought talent to one company and the other. Hase would benefit from this as he would not only get a WCW belt but become a world champion in the process. In March 1994, then WCW International World Heavyweight Champion "Ravishing" Rick Rude toured for New Japan's Hyper Battle tour. On March 16, 1994, Hase challenged Rude for the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship and would be victorious capturing his one and only world title. Unfortunately for Hase, his reign wouldn't last long as is usually the case with these title changes (see Giant Baba winning the NWA World Title) as Hase would rematch and lose the title back to Rude eight days later on March 24th towards the end of the tour.

PCO (Carl Ouellet)

Title Held: WCW Hardcore Championship

PCO is a true journeyman in wrestling having competed for almost every major promotion in the past 30 years. He's mostly known best for two phases of his career with the first being the really early part of his career and specifically his first WWF run from 1993-1995 first as Pierre of the Quebecers tag team where he held the WWF Tag Team Championship three times and his current run where, in recent years, has enjoyed a career revival in Ring of Honor, NWA, and MLW including winning the former's World Title as the "French-Canadian Frankenstein" PCO. In between those two runs, PCO has been everywhere including a second run in the WWF, a run in WCW, and cup of coffee runs in ECW and TNA (now Impact). During this time, PCO would attempt a second run in WCW which would be brief. On August 14, 2000, PCO (under his real name Carl Ouellet) would make his return to WCW as he and WCW wrestler Elix Skipper joined forces with Lance Storm. As a reward, Storm (who held three titles at the time) awarded PCO the WCW Hardcore Championship while Skipper was awarded the WCW Cruiserweight Championship and Storm continued holding the WCW United States Championship. Unfortunately, PCO would hold the title for less than an hour as he was then set to defend it against inaugural champion Norman Smiley and went on to lose the title having one of the shortest reigns in WCW history. Not much came after that as PCO made one more appearance before having to leave due to visa issues (the events he appeared in were held in Canada), which probably explains his brief title reign.

Valentine (left) with Terry Taylor

Greg Valentine

Title Held: WCW United States Tag Team Championship

Greg "The Hammer" Valentine is a man who is no stranger to WCW. It was in WCW's previous incarnation: Jim Crockett Promotions/NWA where Valentine established his legend winning multiple championships, forming a successful tag team with Ric Flair, and having several legendary rivalries with Roddy Piper and Wahoo McDaniel. After leaving JCP in 1984, Valentine, like so many, would jump to the WWF as it began it's expansion and achieved good success there. After eight years with the WWF and after he began sliding down the card, Valentine would leave and return to WCW in 1992. Returning in February 1992, Valentine would immediately form a tag team with Terry Taylor (then the Taylor Made Man) and on February 17th during a World Championship Wrestling TV Taping (shown February 29th), they would defeat Ron Simmons and Big Josh to win the WCW United States Tag Team Championship. Unlike many of the names on this list, Valentine and Taylor would actually have a decent reign as they held the titles for three months. During that time, they fended off challenges from The Fabulous Freebirds, Marcus Alexander Bagwell and Z-Man, and rematches against Simmons and Josh. After starting a rivalry with the Freebirds, Valentine and Taylor would eventually lose the titles to them on May 17th at Wrestlewar 1992. Unable to regain the titles, Valentine eventually slid into the midcard before leaving WCW in October.

Kensuke Sasaki

Title Held: WCW United States Championship

Though not well known to American fans, Sasaki has had one of the greatest Hall of Fame careers in history enjoying success in singles and tag team to teaming with Hawk in the Road Warriors type tag team The Hell Raisers to being the first to win the three major Japanese men's titles. I could go all day on Sasaki's success and highlights. Like former partner Hiroshi Hase, Sasaki would also benefit from WCW and New Japan's working relationship where he not only won a title but beat a legend to do it. During a WCW/New Japan show in Japan called WCW World in Japan on November 13, 1995, Sasaki would defeat Sting to win the WCW United States Championship. After winning the title, Sasaki would hold it for a month but only made sporadic appearances for WCW so his title defenses weren't common. Still, he would defeat Chris Benoit at World War 3 1995 and Joey Maggs on WCW TV before dropping the championship to One Man Gang in a post show dark match at Starrcade 1995 on December 27th.

Junkyard Dog

Title Held: WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship

JYD is one of wrestling's biggest stars during the early to mid 1980s peaking during his time in Mid-South Wrestling as not only as the promotion's top star but as one of the most popular wrestlers in the country. After a four year run in the WWF, JYD would begin having here and there runs in NWA/WCW between 1988-1993. In the middle of this run, JYD would earn a WCW title. On February 17, 1991 at a house show, JYD would team with Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich to defeat Buddy Landel, Dutch Mantell, and Dr. X to become the inaugural WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Champions. The trio would hold the titles for nearly four months but due to a weak six man tag division, the titles were defended sporadically though they did successfully defend them on February 24th at Wrestlewar against Big Cat (Mr. Hughes) and The State Patrol. After three and a half months, JYD, Morton, and Rich would lose the titles to The Fabulous Freebirds on June 3rd during a Main Event TV Taping.

Hokuto (left) with Sonny Onoo

Akira Hokuto

Title Held: WCW Women's Championship

Akira Hokuto is one of the all-time greats in women's wrestling as well as wrestling in general. A star during the 1980s and 1990s, Hokuto achieved her biggest success in All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling winning many championships and tournaments while also being a member of their Hall of Fame. She also achieved success in Japan's Gaea Japan and Mexico's CMLL winning titles in both. While competing in Japan and Mexico, WCW would decide to create a women's division and a women's championship in 1996. For the tournament, WCW would work with Gaea Japan and put together a tournament to crown a champion. Hokuto would participate and would defeat Meiko Satomura and then Kaoru before making it to the finals against Madusa with the match taking place at Starrcade 1996 on December 29, 1996. In the end, Hokuto would emerge victorious thus becoming the inaugural champion. Unlike the others on this list, Hokuto never lost the title and would enjoy a six month reign mostly defending against Madusa at Pay-Per-Views such as Spring Stampede 1997 and Great American Bash 1997 until the title was vacated in June 1997 when Hokuto went back to Japan.

Rick Martel

Title Held: WCW World Television Championship

Martel was one of the best talents in the business from the late 1970s to early 1990s working for various NWA territories but hitting his stride in the AWA holding their world title and the WWF holding three world tag team titles and for his run as the Model gimmick. By 1995, Martel went into semi-retirement only working sporadically for the next two years. After failed negotiations with the WWF on a return, he signed with WCW in late 1997, debuting in January 1998. From the get go, Martel fitted into the mid to upper midcard feuding with Booker T over the WCW World Television Championship. After coming up short at Souled Out 1998, Martel was granted a rematch on the February 16, 1998 Monday Nitro and would successfully win the championship. Unfortunately for the former Model, Martel would only hold the title for six days but the most unfortunate thing was he wasn't supposed to lose the title when he did. At SuperBrawl VIII on February 22nd, Martel was originally set to defend the TV Title against Booker T in a rematch and then against Saturn immediately after with the plan being that Martel would successfully defend against both. Unfortunately, the plan fell through when during the Booker match, Martel would tear a ligament in his knee along with other leg injuries which forced them to change the finish and Martel would lose the title back to Booker who then successfully defended against Saturn. Sadly, this was largely it for Martel in the ring as his comeback against Stevie Ray that July saw him suffer another injury and upon recovering would wrestle a retirement match in early 1999. 

Shinjiro Otani

Title Held: WCW Cruiserweight Championship

Shinjiro Otani largely is known for two phases in his career with the first being a big run in New Japan's junior heavyweight division as both the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and two runs as IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion as part of a popular team with Tatsuhito Takaiwa while the second was his run in Pro Wrestling ZERO1 where he's mostly been the company's heart and soul. Like Hase and Sasaki, Otani is another New Japan talent who benefited from the WCW/New Japan deal but unlike them, Otani was able to make history. On March 20, 1996, Otani took on Chris Benoit (as his Wild Pegasus character) during New Japan's Hyper Battle 1996 tour to determine the inaugural WCW Cruiserweight Champion with Otani emerging victorious. Otani would make no successful title defenses and lost the title on his first defense against Dean Malenko on May 2nd during a WCW Worldwide TV Taping (shown May 18th).

The Patriot (left) with Marcus Bagwell

The Patriot

Title Held: WCW World Tag Team Championship (2x)

The Patriot was not only one of the most colorful characters in wrestling but had quite the colorful and interesting career. Despite only wrestling for eight years, he traveled the world and competed in many top promotions of his time and during interesting periods from the dying days of the AWA to the birth of the GWF to the glory days of All Japan Pro Wrestling to WCW to the WWF during the dawn of the Attitude Era. Many will remember him best for his 1997 cup of coffee run in the WWF feuding with Bret Hart over the WWF Championship and whose theme song would eventually be the signature song for Kurt Angle. During his travels, Patriot made his way to WCW, competing there from 1994-1995 during which time he formed a successful tag team with Marcus Bagwell called "Stars n' Stripes". After moving up the ranks during the first few months, they began a rivalry with WCW World Tag Team Champions Pretty Wonderful (Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma) who they would trade the titles with. After coming up short at Fall Brawl 1994, Stars n' Stripes would defeat Pretty Wonderful on September 25, 1994 on WCW Main Event to win the championships for the first time. They would hold the titles for a month during which they fended off challenges from Pretty Wonderful as well as Harlem Heat and The Stud Stable (Arn Anderson and Bunkhouse Buck) before dropping the titles back to Pretty Wonderful at Halloween Havoc 1994 on October 23rd. The rivalry continued and Stars n' Stripes would regain the titles at Clash of the Champions 29 on November 16th in a title vs. mask match where Patriot put his mask on the line. They would hold the titles for three weeks before losing them to Harlem Heat on the December 8th WCW Saturday Night TV Taping (shown January 14, 1995).

Madusa

Title Held: WCW Cruiserweight Championship

Like her rival Akira Hokuto, Madusa is another legend both in women's wrestling and actual wrestling while being a pioneer for women's wrestling. Turning pro in the 1980s, Madusa enjoyed big success both as a wrestler and valet winning championships in promotions like All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling and AWA while also serving as a valet for The Dangerous Alliance in WCW. Her career arguably peaked during her WWF run from 1993-1995 as Alundra Blayze holding the WWF Women's Championship three times. After leaving WWF in 1995 for WCW while trashing the WWF Women's Championship, Madusa would work in WCW for the next 5 years during which she served as a trainer, a valet for "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and got several Women's Title shots but came up short. However, Madusa would finally get her chance to hold gold when WCW decided to cash in on a recent WWF decision. In October 1999, Chyna defeated Jeff Jarrett to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship making her the first female to hold a men's title in the WWF. Perhaps seeing potential in it, WCW decided to try this idea for their own. After her run with Savage's Team Madness, Madusa began an angle with then WCW Cruiserweight Champion Evan Karagias managing him until the two had a falling out. This eventually led to a match for the championship at Starrcade 1999 on December 19, 1999. In the end, Madusa would win the title thanks to interference from Nitro Girl Spice thus becoming the first female WCW Cruiserweight Champion (Daffney would be the second). Madusa would hold the title for a month during which time she successfully defended against fellow female wrestler Asya (WCW's answer to Chyna) before entering a comedy feud with WCW writer Ed Ferrera under his Oklahoma persona including defeating him in an evening gown match before dropping the championship to Oklahoma at Souled Out 2000 on January 16, 2000.

Chris Candido

Title Held: WCW Cruiserweight Championship

Chris Candido is another wrestler who was a true journeyman. Despite living a short life at 33, Candido wrestled for half his life and competed in many top wrestling promotions through the 1990s to 2000s including WWF, WCW, ECW, SMW, New Japan, TNA, and XPW making his mark in almost all those promotions and won a championship in almost every mentioned promotion. After having had the biggest moments of his career in WWF, ECW, and SMW, his career began to struggle due to personal problems by the end of the century. In 2000, Candido had just left ECW and signed with WCW right around the time Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo began to take over WCW and attempted to reboot it. Candido would benefit as a new talent brought in to help freshen WCW and became a regular in the company's cruiserweight division. On April 16, 2000, at Spring Stampede 2000, Candido would compete for the vacant cruiserweight championship in a six pack match also involving Crowbar, The Artist, Juventud Guerrera, Shannon Moore, and Lash LeRoux and would go on to win the title thanks to help from Tammy Lynn Sytch. Candido would hold the title for a month fending off challenges from The Artist and Crowbar before losing the title in a mixed tag match to Crowbar and Daffney while teaming with Tammy on the May 15, 2000 Monday Nitro. Candido would get a rematch as well as a Hardcore Title shot but wasn't able to win either title and eventually left in June.

Scorpio (right) with Marcus Bagwell

2 Cold Scorpio

Title Held: WCW World Tag Team Championship

Whenever you think of exciting high flyers in wrestling history, you have to think of 2 Cold Scorpio as one. A star in wrestling during the 1990s and 2000s, Scorpio originally dazzled fans in CMLL in Mexico and New Japan early in his career before spending time in the big three first in WCW then having the biggest run of his career in ECW then a disappointing run in WWF before returning to Japan for All Japan and then for Pro Wrestling NOAH where he also enjoyed success. Having worked the big three, Scorpio would first make his mark in WCW working there from 1992-1994. After enjoying decent success as a midcarder and even challenging Barry Windham for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, it would be his team with Marcus Bagwell that would lead Scorpio to a title. At a WCW Saturday Night TV Taping on October 4, 1993 (shown October 23rd), Scorpio would team with Bagwell to take on WCW World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys and would emerge victorious. Unfortunately, Scorpio and Bagwell wouldn't enjoy the titles for too long because a day after the title change aired on TV, WCW would run Halloween Havoc 1993 on October 24th where Scorpio and Bagwell lost the titles back in a rematch. Afterwards, Scorpio and Bagwell would get several rematches going into 1994 but were never able to regain the titles.