*" Mr. Perfect " Curt Hennig ( 1958 – 2003 )-Former professional wrestling champion with American Wrestling Association ( AWA ), National Wrestling Alliance ( NWA ), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ( TNA ), World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), and World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ).

*" Ravishing " Rick Rude ( 1958 – 1999 )-Former professional wrestling champion, who competed with NWA, WCW, and WWE.

* Tom Zenk-Former professional wrestling champion, who competed with NWA, WCW, and WWE

He is best known for his work with the National Wrestling Alliance ( NWA ), World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), and the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ).

Among other accolades in professional wrestling, Luger is a three-time world champion, having held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice and the WWA World Heavyweight Championship once ; a record-tying five-time NWA / WCW United States Heavyweight Champion who owns the records for consecutive days and total days as champion ; and the 1994 WWF Royal Rumble winner ( with Bret Hart ).

In 1987, Luger went to work for Jim Crockett's World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), which was under the National Wrestling Alliance ( NWA ) banner, with the nickname " The Total Package " and began using " The Human Torture Rack ", an Argentine backbreaker, as his finisher.

With time, WCW became the main NWA territory with the JCP versions of the Tag-Team, United States, and Television Champions being recognized on a national scale.

WCW was still a member of the NWA, but with time felt that the NWA needed it more than it needed the backing of the NWA, especially since both WCW and the WWF toured the entire country instead of staying within a confined territory.

He teamed with another former NWA member, the Continental Wrestling Association ( CWA ), and the AWA to try to compete with WCW and the WWF, but the arrangement soon fell apart due to inter-promotional politics.

In January 1991, WCW officially began to recognize a WCW World champion, with Ric Flair, who had just defeated Sting to regain the NWA World championship, as the first title holder.

Ric Flair was simultaneously recognized as the World champion of both the NWA and WCW until he left WCW over a dispute with WCW president Jim Herd ( with the actual title belt in his possession ) to join the WWF.

Upon leaving, Flair was stripped of the WCW World title causing the separation of the WCW and NWA titles, but continued to be recognized as the NWA World champion until his arrival in the WWF a few months later when he was officially stripped of the NWA World title as well.

WCW television ratings were also heavily competing with ABC's Monday Night Football.

In an effort to promote them and other young talent as the new superstars of the ring, the WWF began to play on the age restrictions which former WWF wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage ( who by now were working for WCW ) now faced.

Eric Bischoff's public humiliation of the WWF, criticizing them for signing WCW's sacked wrestlers and bragging that WWF wrestlers were signing for WCW due to higher pay, intensified the Monday Night Wars only for Nitro as the WWF struggled to regain its popularity.

Many wrestlers such as Chris Jericho and The Radicalz ( Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko ) were drafted from WCW, all publicly claiming on both companies ' TV broadcasts that they were extremely unhappy at the storylines and backstage chaos at WCW, and were further intrigued and happier with the structural running of the WWF.

European, Australian, Latin American, Spanish and Asian versions of TNT were launched in the 1990s but were exclusively dedicated to movies, mainly from the MGM and Warner Brothers archives ( The UK and Scandinavian TNT did show WCW Monday Nitro on Friday nights just four days after its US broadcast, and the Latin American version aired a children's block called " Magic Box ").

While Eric Bischoff has received much criticism for some of his mishandling while he acted as WCW Executive Producer ( and later, WCW President ), he combined an understanding of wrestling with a willingness to make changes that were needed in order to help WCW become more visible in the eyes of the media and advertisers.

Next, all but Goldberg, Nitro, and Madusa were retired after the WCW sponsorship was lost.

As 2000 came to a close, a number of potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in the company.

On the March 22 Spring Breakout episode of Nitro, Mysterio got his first shot at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against champion Ric Flair when the names of ( allegedly ) nearly everyone in the company were put into a hat and a lottery was held.

Several smaller promotions that were once cornerstones of the NWA ceased to exist as the WWF ( now World Wrestling Entertainment ) and WCW grew to national levels.

Despite his success and popularity, Guerrero had been one of many wrestlers who were frustrated at never being given a chance to be main event stars in WCW.

Guerrero later returned to WCW, leading to the belief that maybe Guerrero's angry speeches against Bischoff were actually a work ( Guerrero later confirmed it to be a worked shoot ).

In spite of this betrayal, Flair signed a rematch at Uncensored 1999 which was billed as a First Blood Barbed Wire Steel Cage Match against Hogan where Flair's presidency and Hogan's WCW World Heavyweight Championship were on the line.

At the time, Hall and Nash were about to leave the WWF for rival WCW, and this was their last contractual obligation for the WWF.

In WWE media, however, it has been asserted that Nash and Hall were welcome in the WWF and were considered among its top superstars, but opted to leave the company for lucrative contracts in WCW.

Austin began using his trademark finishing maneuver, the Stone Cold Stunner ( a move that was used previously by Jimmy Garvin, while the two were in WCW ); with this new technique, he won the King of the Ring tournament.

The two programs would trade wins in the ensuing ratings competition until mid-1996, when WCW began a nearly two-year domination that was largely fueled by the introduction of the New World Order, a stable led by former WWF performers Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash.

McMahon later revealed that she had purchased Extreme Championship Wrestling and intended to bankrupt the WWF ( in reality, the ownership of ECW assets at this time was highly disputed ), along with her brother Shane, who had become the on-screen owner of World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), and the two rosters merged to form a " supergroup " known as The Alliance.

In World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ), he also had two stints as a booker — in 1989 – 1990 and 1994.

Flair then kicked Sting out of the Horsemen upon his challenge for the NWA Championship, resulting in a revived feud between the two which had to be delayed due to Sting injuring his knee, forcing WCW to slot Lex Luger as Flair's main challenger until Sting returned.

Flair disagreed with the proposals, and two weeks before The Great American Bash, Herd fired him and vacated the WCW Championship.

He and Randy Savage renewed hostilities when Savage arrived in WCW late in 1994, and their feud continued off and on for almost two years with each wrestler winning the WCW World Championship from each other at different times.

The Kliq was also the primary catalyst for two of the most controversial stables in wrestling history: the New World Order ( nWo ) in World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) and the WWF / E, and D-Generation X ( DX ) in the WWF / E.

" In late 1997 Spicolli returned to the spotlight by signing with WCW and was soon placed on screen as the lackey of Scott Hall with the two engaging in a feud with Larry Zbyszko.

The split was a result of the federation purchasing their two biggest competitors, World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) and Extreme Championship Wrestling ( ECW ), which resulted in the roster and championships doubling in size.

Throughout the year, the Hardy Boyz continued to win as a tag team, winning the WWF Tag Team Titles two more times, and the WCW Tag Team Championship during the Invasion.

At Starrcade, in a two-out-of-three-falls match, Austin defeated Dustin Rhodes in two straight falls to win the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship.

His List of WWE United States Champions | five reigns ( two in WCW and three in WWE ) are tied for the most in history.

After two weeks of Scott Hall appearing on WCW programming and taunting announcers, wrestlers, and the company, Nash finally debuted alongside his friend on June 10 1996, after Hall interrupting Eric Bishoff.

Hennig was described by WWE as a " flawless technician " who " brought the Intercontinental Title a new level of credibility during his two reigns and set a higher standard for technical wrestling in WWE "; WCW hailed him as " one of the best all-round competitors this business has ever produced.

Morrus competed in WCW's U. S. Championship division winning the United States Championship on two occasions until the World Wrestling Federation's buyout of WCW.

The show was also highlighted by the return of Lex Luger to WCW after having spent the previous two years wrestling for the WWF, where he had been one of the promotion's top stars.

Things got so heated between the two programs that D-X was sent to Atlanta, Georgia to film a segment near Turner's headquarters for a " war " storyline that was done when both shows were in nearby areas on the same night ( Raw in Hampton, Virginia and Nitro in nearby Norfolk ), sending D-X to the Norfolk Scope arena which Nitro was broadcasting from and interacting with WCW fans.

" To make matters worse for WCW, a convoluted storyline was played out over the course of the evening that eventually resulted in Hulk Hogan returning, winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and the two warring nWo factions reuniting as one.

In 2000, Russo received two phone calls, one from Bret Hart ( then WCW World Heavyweight Champion ) and another from Jeff Jarrett ( then WCW United States champion ), both saying that they were injured, thus couldn't wrestle and forced to vacate their respective championships.

( See The $ 25, 000 deposit below ) A match was held for the vacated WCW World Heavyweight Championship within two weeks of the departure, but no mention was made of the NWA title.

Turner's company still maintained its WCW World Championship, thus having two World Heavyweight titles present in the same promotion.