10 Wrestlers Who Vanished When WWF Became WWE
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00:00When the WWF became the WWE in 2002, it was more than just a name change.
00:05I'm not sure we thought this at the time, but looking back it did indeed serve as the
00:09catalyst for a bunch of wrestlers to just disappear.
00:13Given some of these were never explained, if we are keeping it kayfabe, it means they
00:17are literally missing person.
00:19So let us find out what really did happen to them, because I am Simon from WhatCulture,
00:23please hit that subscribe button for more glorious content, and this is 10 wrestlers
00:27who vanished when the WWF became WWE.
00:3010.
00:31Shaun Stasiak
00:32Or Meat, and as he has come up, I will tell you my story quick.
00:36Because when me and a friend went to WCW over here in the UK and were basically both kids,
00:41we decided to shout Meat at Shaun as loud as we could.
00:44He saw, looked sad, walked off, I still regret it.
00:48It is kinda nuts that this gimmick and that of Planet Stasiak were all WWE had for him,
00:53because look at the guy, he is 6 foot 4, jacked, his dad was a star, he looked like
00:57Vince McMahon made him in a lab.
00:59This all really did come to a head when he returned to the company after World Championship
01:03Wrestling had been bought out, because not only did Stasiak let slip secret plans when
01:07it came to the invasion angle, but once done, he lost 15 matches in a row on Sunday Night
01:13Heat.
01:14It didn't look good.
01:15I think Shaun knew that too, so asked for his release, but on TV, poof, he just wasn't
01:19there anymore.
01:20Seems like he was just done because he only wrestled 4 independent shows before becoming
01:23a very successful chiropractor.
01:25Stasiak is still doing the rounds as well as I saw him at WrestleCon during WrestleMania
01:3038 weekend, so good for him, he got out, and he is happy.
01:349.
01:35DEBORAH
01:36Deborah had two significant runs both in WCW and the WWF.
01:40A combined 6 years meant she was a mainstay on TV, and while she didn't wrestle that much,
01:44she would pop up all the time most famously alongside Jeff Jarrett, before teaming up
01:48with then-husband Stone Cold Steve Austin.
01:51Zoom forward to 2002 though, and things did indeed get weird.
01:55After butting heads with Stephanie McMahon before the Raw Rumble where a brawl broke
01:58out, which seemed like a big angle, by June, she was shown the door.
02:02At the time, people were baffled, but once again, it was never addressed on the show.
02:07We were soon going to find out why.
02:09Shortly after, it was revealed that Deborah's marriage with Austin was falling apart, including
02:12a charge over domestic abuse.
02:15For the record, Steve pleaded no contest to these charges, and was given a year's probation
02:19as well as a fine, but it's all out there from both sides, you can hear the stories.
02:24This was around the same time The Rattlesnake was also gone from the company, and whereas
02:27he returned in 2003, Deborah would never be seen again.
02:31The pair officially divorced that year too, and ever since, I don't even know, as long
02:35as she's doing okay.
02:368.
02:37STEVE BLACKMAN
02:38The greatest thing to happen recently was a photo curtsy of the Hardys where they were
02:41posing with Steve Blackman.
02:43We haven't seen him in years, and yet there he was, looking great, and like he could still
02:47kick your ass.
02:48Let's make it very clear, I love that guy, don't even know why.
02:52He was also one tough SOB, and you don't need to read any autobiography from his peers to
02:56hear the stories.
02:58Hardcore Holly once told a tale about how he was ready to kill Bradshaw after he deliberately
03:02wound him up, which makes the fact Al Snow convinced him to wear a piece of cheese on
03:06his head even more mad.
03:08What powers does that guy have?
03:10I always felt like Blackman could be one of those dudes that floated around for ages,
03:14but sadly it was the other way around.
03:16WWE had teamed Steve up with Grandmaster Sexay, because why not, and when he got released,
03:21the martial artist was sent down to HWA, which at the time was considered developmental,
03:26you tell me.
03:27This is why when his contract expired in October 2002, he decided he was done, and I think
03:32we've seen him once since then during the 15th anniversary of Raw.
03:35He also never really made that many indie appearances, and literally decided that was
03:40it, and went and beat up a tree or something.
03:42I don't know, he definitely could.
03:447.
03:45Perry Saturn
03:46What a year 2002 was for Perry Saturn.
03:48When it began, he had just finished his Moppy storyline, so WWE decided to try and turn
03:55him into a serious warrior again.
03:57Given that he had just been in love with a cleaning utensil, I don't really know what
04:01they thought was going to happen.
04:02Just before the big initial change, Saturn was drafted to Smackdown during the first
04:06roster split, and it was bad instantly because he was the last person to be named.
04:11It then got worse when he injured his ACL, and four months later, when it was time to
04:15let guys go, Perry was told he was on the list.
04:18That is a mad turnaround, given a year prior, The Radicals had been the coolest thing ever.
04:23Following this, it didn't really click either, because after a small stint in TNA, a few
04:26New Japan dates and some indie bookings, Saturn was just gone, barely even with a word.
04:31Very sadly, as we soon learned, Saturn had some very serious personal issues with drugs
04:35and ended up being homeless.
04:37The good news is, today he has overcome all that and is back on his feet, but it goes
04:40to show.
04:41Take every day as it comes, you really never know.
04:446.
04:45Terry Runnels
04:46If you watched the ad shoot era, you know almost every single Raw featured Terry Runnels,
04:51literally nearly every one of them.
04:52She was a backstage interviewer, a wrestler, a manager, a sometimes girlfriend, turned
04:56up as Melina every now and then.
04:58She was a fixture of WWF TV as we headed towards the millennium, and then we had the name chains,
05:03but to the end of 2002, nobody knew where she was.
05:06Now Terry must have had some goodwill built up, because despite barely ever getting into
05:10a story, she wasn't released until March 2004.
05:12It really did feel like after the influx of new women, after WCW was done, she got bumped
05:17down the cart, and when other projects such as the WWF XS show dwindled, there wasn't
05:22much else for her to do.
05:23It got even more strange, as 15 months after not doing a whole lot, she teamed with Lita
05:27to lose to Molly Holly and Gal Kim, and then fell off the wrestling map.
05:32Terry was on Raw 25 in 2018, and a talking head on Dark Side of the Ring, but otherwise,
05:37she had clearly had her fill.
05:385.
05:39The Godfather
05:40So Charles Wright hasn't gone anywhere.
05:41We see him all the time, usually talking about The Undertaker, but in terms of that 2002
05:47period, it was a proper 180.
05:48We all know the deal with the Godfather character too, but look, it was crazy over and got reactions
05:53every single night, which is why when the newly found WWE decided to fire him in December,
05:58some people went huh.
05:59It was such a rollercoaster too, as he had spent 6 months as The Godfather alongside
06:03Wright to censor, which he has since admitted he hated, before he got to the Raw Rumble
06:06and boom, the pimp was back.
06:09What a sentence that is.
06:10It can't have been the ultimate plan however, as while he did get a little run, as soon
06:13as the WWF was gone one month later, so was he.
06:17Wright basically retired after this, although did do some matches here and there, but look,
06:21he's married, he's got kids, he's in the Hall of Fame, he has a successful business,
06:24so it ain't all bad.
06:25It kind of did feel like he'd get a bigger send off than this though.
06:284.
06:29Ron Waterman
06:30Forget Brock Lesnar.
06:31In the early 2000s, everybody was saying that Ron Waterman was the next big thing.
06:36He was thrown around in the same breath as The Beast given they were tagging together,
06:40and was in the same developmental class that housed John Cena, Batista and Randy Orton.
06:44It really did feel like Waterman was going to be the guy, especially as he was a high
06:48school wrestling coach who had done MMA, this is the stuff that WWE loves.
06:52So you may now be saying, well I've never heard of the guy, and that's because it
06:56all went weird.
06:57After being called up in 2002 and working some Raw and Smackdown Dark matches, he was
07:01fired before he even got on TV.
07:05Happening in July 2002, just as we were getting the F out, I don't think anybody knows why.
07:10I suppose they just figured he didn't have it, or they were too busy looking at Brock.
07:14Ron soon returned to mixed martial arts and was in New Japan for a bit in 2005, although
07:19mostly he started to fight fires, so fair play to that guy out there saving lives and
07:24helping cats and trees.
07:263.
07:27The Big Boss Man
07:28The Big Boss Man was and is one of the most underrated wrestlers ever.
07:32I don't think we realise how smoothly he moved around the ring given how big he was, and
07:36the worst part is that in 2004 at just 41 years old, he passed away from a heart attack.
07:42His final days in the WWE were odd too.
07:45The Boss Man returned towards the end of 2001 after an injury, got in the Raw Rumble,
07:49had a brief tag team with Mr Perfect, and then found himself lounging around on Sunday
07:53Night Heat.
07:54We then got to May when he lost to Tommy Dreamer, and very sadly got hurt again.
07:58As this is what had kept him out for a lot of 2001, both parties wanted to find something
08:01for him to do, so the real life Raid trailer went down to OVW to help the new generation
08:06of wrestlers.
08:07It really did feel like sooner or later he would be brought back before his tragic end,
08:10because I tell you, he is great that man.
08:13We do not respect him enough.
08:15Somehow, X-Pac left WWE in July 2002, and hasn't competed in a Vince McMahon owned
08:22ring since.
08:23I mean, how?
08:24It's even more nuts because by September that year, Shawn Walton was already back in
08:27the ring, and even in 2022 he was having matches against Joey Janela, so he can still go and
08:33yet nobody is ringing his damn phone.
08:35The relationship is still intact as X-Pac is a two time Hall of Famer these days, and
08:38pops up a lot as a face to wave when needed, but this is a dude who changed the game in
08:42many ways.
08:43So, surely we can come up with something.
08:45Waltman too seems game as he has mentioned it during the odd interview here and there,
08:49and the craziest that is that he has been around forever and yet is only 49 years old.
08:54Doesn't make any sense.
08:55So at the very least, let's get him as a special surprise in the Rumble.
08:59Not sure why we went off on this tagent given it's nothing to do with the video, but still,
09:03I am very passionate about this.
09:051.
09:06Bill Buchanan
09:07Are you ready for this?
09:08Bill Buchanan spent 8 years under WWE employment.
09:13Originally signed to a developmental deal in 1995, his first major role was with the
09:18Truth Commission.
09:19The less said about that the better, but then he just bumped around the place, had a tag
09:23team called Armageddon alongside Sniper, became friends with the Big Boss Man, won the tag
09:27titles alongside The Good Father, and was even John Cena's lackey when he was a rapper.
09:31So the man did everything and anything he could to survive, but as ever when that E
09:34came into focus, he was screwed.
09:37He was able to make it through to 2003, but in early February got the chop which wasn't
09:41a major surprise, Bill hadn't done much other than appear on Velocity.
09:45Buchanan was busy after this with All Japan and Pro Wrestling Nowhere and worked indie
09:48dates all the way through to 2014, so that's nothing to sniff at.
09:52What's really interesting is in 2006 WWE invited him back for a tryout before an episode
09:58of Smackdown.
09:59I suppose it didn't work out.
10:00To tie all this in, and in case you don't know, he still does have ties to WWE.
10:05If you go and watch NXT 2.0 and lay your eyes on Brooks Jensen, yep, that is his son, The
10:11Circle of Life.
10:12Know of any other wrestlers who vanished when the WWF became the WWE?
10:16Make sure you let us know in the comments below and don't forget to like the video,
10:18share the video and subscribe.
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10:29My name is Simon from WhatCulture, thank you for watching me as always, know that I will
10:32forever be in your life even when you don't want me to be, and I will talk to you again
10:37soon.