10 Huge WCW Contracts Eric Bischoff Wasted Money On

Eric Bischoff offered Scott 'Razor Ramon' Hall and Kevin 'Diesel' Nash huge contracts to jump to WCW in 1996 - with significant raises and fewer working dates in response to WWE's proposals - and it helped precipitate a spending spree never before seen in the industry. In Bischoff's defense, when your organization is as profitable as WCW was in 1997 and even 1998, it's easy to justify reinvesting those funds. Of course, wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Sting would make millions per year - and when drawing an all-time WCW record buyrate as they did at Starrcade '97, those salaries still made sense.

RELATED: 8 Worst Contracts In WWE History

When WCW's business turned sour in 1999, however, many of the checks Bischoff was writing just a year prior started to look quite wasteful. For every reasonable contract 'Easy E' signed, it seems, there was another which was the equivalent of Bischoff simply walking out live on Nitro, taking a blowtorch to a pile of dollar bills and laughing maniacally.

10 Scott Hall - $800k+ Per Year - 1999 & 2000

Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were worth their weight in gold to WCW upon their debuts in Spring 1996. The buzz they created with their arrival and invasion helped propel the business to never-before-seen heights. Eric Bischoff looked like a genius, and despite the duo's 'Favored Nations' clauses, in which they would always be second only to Hogan in salary throughout their respective contracts' durations, the deals still looked like surefire moneymakers in the bigger picture.

When the nWo angle - and WCW in general - began to fizzle in 1999, these contracts suddenly looked a lot more bloated than they did a year prior. One such was Hall's, as by this point, the 'Bad Guy's alcoholism - exacerbated by the company's indefensible decision to use it in an angle - had rendered him unreliable. The yearly $800,000+ he was earning might have been spent better on two or three sober mid-carders.

9 Stevie Ray - $600k+ - 1999

Stevie Ray's ankle injury in late 1997 led to his brother and Harlem Heat partner Booker T seizing the opportunity to begin making his mark in singles competition, even winning the WCW Television Championship. When Stevie came back and joined the nWo in 1998, it looked like the two were going their separate ways for good.

Unfortunately, "suckas gots to know" that Stevie, despite his entertaining promos, was highly overpaid in 1999 for his roles - first as nWo 'B-Team' leader in a comedic side-story and second as Booker's partner once again. The Heat reunion made no sense as Booker's status had long since surpassed mid-card tag angles. Despite how the angle seemingly was meant to lift Stevie to his brother's level, it was just dragging Booker down.

8 The Warrior - $500,000 (Two Months, Three Matches) - 1998

In Fall 1998, there was good reason to think there was still some mileage to be found from the Hulk Hogan-Ultimate Warrior feud. The two's match just eight years prior at Wrestlemania 6 was well-received and, considering both men's in-ring limitations, pretty darn good. Goldberg was firmly entrenched as WCW World Champion, and keeping Hogan busy outside the title picture was probably good for everybody at the time.

RELATED: Hulk Hogan Vs. The Ultimate Warrior: 10 Things Most Fans Don’t Realize About Their Rivalry

There were multiple reasons why the Warrior's contract ended up being a waste, however: Warrior was out of ring shape and injured himself almost immediately; WCW creative decided to give him magical powers which were never part of his successful WWE run; Hogan only ever wanted to get his loss back from their first matchup... Regardless, we believe that based on Warrior's abysmal performances, particularly in the hilariously bad Halloween Havoc rematch with Hogan, perhaps it should have been him paying WCW 500 grand.

7 Master P - $293,000 (One Month) - 1999

WCW's signing of Master P and his No Limit Soldiers is a perfect example of out-of-touch wrestling bookers completely misunderstanding broader pop-culture trends - to hysterical results. To be fair, Percy Miller and his record label's roster were selling millions of rap records in the late 1990s, with their appeal reaching into some unexpected places, such as suburban homes of white teenagers.

However, WCW made a tremendous miscalculation when pitting 'P' and his babyface 'Soldiers' against heels Curt Hennig and the West Texas Rednecks. Instead, WCW's southern fanbase was receptive to Curt and the boys' unintentionally fantastic 'Rap Is Crap' single, and it didn't take long for both parties to see the writing on the wall and cut their respective losses.

6 Ed Leslie - $150-200k (Ascending) - 1996 Through 1999

Compared to some other WCW personnel, Ed 'Brutus Beefcake' Leslie wasn't making that much money. Although a six-figure annual salary is nothing to sneeze at, his wrestling career wasn't making the former Zodiac/Booty Man wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.

The most baffling - and wasteful - feature of Leslie's contract was how in the years 1996 through 1999, his paychecks increased year-over-year. Apparently, playing Hulk Hogan's 'Disciple' on-screen required more effort, and thus greater compensation, than previous gimmicks? Of course, we're assuming this figure

doesn't include personal services performed by the 'Beefer' for Hulk, like carrying his marijuana.

5 Konnan - Approx. $500k Per Year - 1998 through 2000

When Konnan first joined WCW in 1995 as a babyface luchador, he was coming off a stint as one of Mexico's top television stars - in wrestling and telenovelas. Eventually, he'd turn heel a year later with the Dungeon of Doom, keeping the street-wise character when he joined the nWo.

'K-Dogg's pre-match routine was over with fans, but as the nWo fell out of favor and with a constant deluge of Konnan's rap videos playing between segments on WCW programming, his shtick quickly turned annoying. After the nWo, Konnan spent time in the mid-card with both the No Limit Soldiers and the Filthy Animals, but age and injuries began to catch up to him. Despite being suspended for three months in early 2000 and suffering a triceps injury later that year, Konnan still collected $500k from WCW for relatively little work.

4 Dennis Rodman - $500k In 1998 And Over $1 Million(!) in 1999

Dennis Rodman was one of those huge WCW contracts that seemed worth it at first, attracting tons of mainstream press as 'Rodzilla' was a member of perhaps the greatest NBA team ever at the time, the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. When Rodman skipped practice during the 1998 NBA Finals to appear on an episode of Monday Nitro, it might have been a major headache for Bulls coach Phil Jackson, but Eric Bischoff had to have been grinning ear-to-ear at all the publicity.

RELATED: Dennis Rodman's Wrestling Career, Explained

However, Rodman's alcoholism was already rearing its ugly head, but despite a drunken performance at Bash at the Beach where he mostly stood on the ring apron resting his head on the ropes, WCW brought him back the following year for a feud with Randy Savage at twice(!) the salary. 1999 was a drastically different year for the company than 1998, however, and with the Bulls' dynasty over - and WCW's eventual fate looking worse with each passing week - the news networks didn't care.

3 Tank Abbott - $600k+ - 2000

Tank Abbott was a legitimate shootfighter who made his name in the early, less-structured days of UFC. Abbott displayed a weird charisma in his first fights, mocking felled opponents and providing quotable responses to interviewers' questions.

When WCW brought him in, the idea was to place him against Goldberg, but it never came to fruition due to 'Da Man's injuries. Instead, Abbott was instantly lost in the shuffle and made half a million dollars in 2000 for moments such as pulling a knife on opponent Big Al - a complete nobody - at SuperBrawl 2000 and attempting to dance with, and ultimately join, comedy mid-card act 3 Count. Fun Fact: Abbott's run was such a failure that even the mere suggestion of booking him to win the WCW World Championship at the Souled Out PPV got Vince Russo sent home by company brass.

2 KISS - $500,000 (One Song) - 1999

Saying that Gene Simmons and KISS are merchandising geniuses almost doesn't do the level of success that the band has had during their long and storied career justice. With their outlandish costumes, colorful face paint and elaborate stage shows, the marriage of one of the world's most theatric rock bands and professional wrestling seemed like a natural match on paper.

However, wrestling companies often struggle to understand that their fans tune in to watch wrestling, not concerts. KISS' deal with Eric Bischoff, which included a one-time performance on the August 23, 1999 Nitro, also planned for the debut (and contractually-obligated push) of new wrestler 'the KISS Demon' and a New Year's Eve WCW/KISS combo PPV. However, when the segment predictably bombed - doing a 2.25 rating when WWE was consistently registering 4s and 5s on the Nielsen scale - the PPV idea was scrapped and the Demon quickly became a very expensive jobber.

1 Bret Hart - $2.5 Million Per Year - 1998 & 1999

Bret Hart was probably wrestling's hottest star when he signed with WCW. Hot off the heels of the 'Montreal Screwjob,' the 'Hitman' was leaving a 20-year, $12 million deal with WWE, which he'd turned down a 3-year, $9 million offer from Eric Bischoff to sign in 1996. By 1998, however, things had drastically changed. Despite Vince McMahon leaving Bret with essentially no choice, Bischoff still presented Hart with a very respectful deal, making him the second-highest-paid wrestler in the company (next to Hulk Hogan, of course).

It wasn't just that Bret's contract was so massive, though - although it probably could have been half that and the 'Hitman' still would have signed, just to stick it to Vince. No, it was the fact that WCW's well-documented tragic misuse of the still very capable five-time former WWE Champion that makes his perhaps the worst huge WCW contract of all.