For a few months in the year 2000, World Championship Wrestling put together a storyline that made one of its criticisms literal -- that WCW was dominated by aging veterans at the short-sighted expense of younger, more exciting talent. As a result, an angle was born pitting a stable of veterans called The Millionaire’s Club against The New Blood, composed of younger talent.
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It was a solid idea that was meant to help promote the younger talent but largely didn’t work because of myriad factors including poor booking, too much shooting, and The Millionaire’s Club being cast at the good guys in the feud. There were a surprising number of members of the stable, so let’s rank them.
14 Horace Hogan
There is no possible reality where Horace Hogan is a millionaire. The only way he’s got money is if Hulk Hogan accidentally put Horace in his will, but chances are the Thunder in Paradise residuals are going to Brooke and Nasty Nick. That said, it kind of makes sense that Horace would associate himself with the group, because he always felt like a devoted henchman and hanger-on. He’s basically caucasian Vincent.
13 Terry Funk
Never in Terry Funk’s infinitely long career has The Hardcore Legend ever looked like a person who had a dime to his name, and thus had no place hanging out with Ric Flair unless they were going to try to recreate some of that 1989 magic -- which they did in a Texas Deathmatch a couple months before the stable formed. The Millionaires Club was about older, successful veterans holding down the young guys, but Funk with his hardcore style doesn’t really fit in with the rest.
12 Bryan Clarke
Bryan Clarke and Brian Adams were WWF midcarders who found new life in WCW as a tag team named KroniK. First affiliated with The New Blood, they soon turned on the faction, defecting to The Millionaire’s Club. Adam Bomb was never a big deal in WWF, so it’s tough to imagine him having much money. However, he definitely would have less money than Brian Adams. Sometimes it really felt like The Millionaire’s Club was just the nWo without the cool T-shirts.
11 Sting
"The Icon" Sting is probably a millionaire, but he always seemed like an odd fit every time he joined up with veteran stables like The Millionaire’s Club or Main Event Mafia. Chalk it up to Sting being one of the biggest babyfaces of all time.
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It’s especially grating when Crow-face vigilante Sting is hanging out with mortal enemies Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan and untrustworthy frenemies like Lex Luger. It must have been so hard for all these men to not turn on the Stinger.
10 Sid Vicious
Discussion question: can you truly join something called “The Millionaire’s Club” when your casual outfit involves wearing a vest with no shirt? Sid Vicious was tall, mighty good at powerbombs, and headlined a WrestleMania or two, but he never seemed like someone who’d be part of this kind of stable. With his style and intensity, Sid Vicious seems best suited as a scary guy you’d see in the corner of a bar.
9 Diamond Dallas Page
Despite his moniker, Diamond Dallas Page always seemed way too grungy and abrasive to be in The Millionaire’s Club. Maybe not every established veteran needed to be in this stable and some dudes needed to remain unaffiliated. After all, Page had a pretty fun thing going with Bam Bam Bigelow and Kanyon in The Jersey Triad. That definitely seems more like DDP’s speed than associating with Lex Luger and Hulk Hogan.
8 Brian Adams
Brian Adams might have had more of a right to be in Millionaire’s Club than his KroniK partner Brian Clarke, but only because the Club had a bunch of former nWo guys in it and Adams prior WCW history is best described as “he was in the nWo.”
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Many fans would agree that Adams was the weaker member of KroniK, but maybe that’s okay if your job as a wrestler is “glorified bodyguard for more important wrestlers.”
7 Lex Luger
Time has not been kind to Lex Luger. He was pretty popular with the kids back in the day, but fans have mostly turned on him over the years, deeming him one of those absurdly muscular stars who couldn’t actually wrestle. Luger is definitely better than he’s been given credit for, but he’s a solid addition to the group due to being a big name veteran. He ranks lower because Scott Steiner is also in The Millionaire’s Club, and the problem with many of these huge WCW stables is one of redundancy.
6 Scott Steiner
The problem with many of these huge WCW stables is one of redundancy. Both nWo and Millionaire’s Club had both Scott Steiner and Lex Luger in it, and you honestly only need one guy whose gimmick is “has large, impressive muscles.” It’s impossible to imagine Big Poppa Pump era Scott Steiner as a babyface in any capacity, so he’s definitely a better choice to be in The Millionaire’s Club than Lex Luger.
5 Miss Elizabeth
Aside from a brief experimentation with a joshi-fueled women’s division, there wasn’t enough female talent in WCW. But fans could always count on Miss Elizabeth to be there to side with the worst guys on the show. In the ‘90s, Elizabeth helped manage The Four Horsewomen and joined up with the nWo, so it was expected that she’d be a part of The Millionaire’s Club.
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Also, Miss Elizabeth was -- in kayfabe, at least -- probably a millionaire, because no one could convincingly argue that Macho Man Randy Savage would know what a prenup is.
4 Kevin Nash
Kevin Nash is one of those wrestlers where fans often discuss backstage politics more than any in-ring content. Nash was part of the extremely powerful Kliq in WWF and reportedly started getting booking power in WCW in the late 1990s. In other words, a guy who definitely should be in The Millionaire’s Club. It’s a perfect continuation of Nash’s story. He started out successfully invading WCW with the nWo, so it’s only natural that he’d be part of the establishment by 2000.
3 Curt Hennig
Curt Hennig was such a good heel that he could be believable in any role. In WWF, he was Mr. Perfect, while in WCW he’s been an nWo member, a country music singer who hates rap music, and a millionaire -- or at least a guy who hangs out with them. In WCW, Hennig was hardly a big deal, but he’s always been such an effective heel that it didn’t matter that he rarely ever sniffed the main event scene.
2 Hulk Hogan
Millionaire’s Club was a stable of wealthy veterans who wanted to hold down the younger talent. In other words, it may as well be called Hogan Club. The backstage stories of Hulk Hogan are just as legendary as his accomplishments in the ring, so he’s exactly the right kind of guy to be in a stable like this. For proof, Hogan’s big storyline during this era was a feud with Billy Kidman based on real-life comments he made about the Cruiserweight, and Hogan won both of their PPV singles matches.
1 Ric Flair
There’s no point in having a stable called “Millionaire’s Club” if Ric Flair isn’t in it. A huge draw in the 1970s and 1980s, The Nature Boy’s lifestyle of cars, women, watches, and traveling exclusively by jets and limousines gave a perfect sense of verisimilitude to the whole endeavor. Flair was devoted to holding down everyone he considered beneath him, and if you’re Ric Flair, everyone is beneath you.
