Rick Rude debuted in WCW Halloween Havoc 1991 as the masked Halloween Phantom in a match against Tom Zenk, but the following promo is more legendary. Paul E. Dangerously (Heyman) introduced Rude by cutting an incredibly anti-authority promo, adding that the Phantom would defeat Sting and help him bankrupt WCW.

Randy Savage didn't want to leave Vince McMahon's company, but the Chairman was trying to push Savage into retirement. Thus, the two-time WWF Champion jumped ship to WCW in 1994, and on his first promo, he made it clear that he wanted to hold the World title again — which he did one year later in 1995.

On Memorial Day 1996, Scott Hall appeared as his former persona Razor Ramon on "WCW Nitro," declaring, "You people, you know who I am, but you don't know why I'm here." Although more were on their way, Hall was an outsider, and with his invasion, WCW started beating WWF's ratings for 83 weeks straight.