It’s often cited as the biggest dropped ball in the history of wrestling, the rivalry that could have sold more tickets and merchandise than any other angle ever, but didn’t: the WCW invasion of WWE. Following WWE’s purchase of WCW in 2001, a number of WCW talents started cropping up on WWE TV, but instead of the nWo, Goldberg, or Ric Flair, it was Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, and Hugh Morrus. This was due to some of the bigger name talents being under guaranteed Time Warner contracts, meaning that they were going to be paid to sit at home.

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Sting was on one of these contracts, and seemed more than willing to take a buyout like his fellow former WCW World Heavyweight Champions, Diamond Dallas Page and Booker T. It was WWE’s treatment of the WCW stars, however, that cost them “The Icon.” In an interview released in 2007, Sting explained that while he had no issues with Vince McMahon, he was wary of the fact that so many of WCW’s biggest stars hadn’t made the jump, and those who had were getting buried by WWE stars as part of the Invasion angle. In the interview, Sting points out one specific moment involving The Rock meeting then-WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T for the first time and asking “Who are you?”

“That one little comment was all it took to … in my opinion, bury somebody like Booker T, and let’s let the world know that you’re a WCW guy and you’re a peon here,” Sting said. “And after all the years I’d put into wrestling at that point, it just seemed like a gamble to me.”

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It should be noted that the segment in question didn’t go exactly as Sting described, but The Rock did ask Booker T “Who in the blue hell are you,” asked his name and naturally interrupted with “It doesn’t matter what your name is,” and assumed Booker T was going to WWE’s next PPV to help with parking. Booker T, for his part, has gone on the record that Sting missed out by not coming to WWE, eventually signing with TNA Wrestling instead.