Vader

Yeah in retrospect I'm frankly surprised that WCW made as big of a deal out of it as they did. I think they mostly wanted to unload Vader and his contract and the fight was more of a convenient “Oh, our hands are tied!” excuse than anything. I think it would have absolutely been brushed off a year earlier, and probably a year later as well.

As for Vader in nWo era WCW, that's a tricky one to nail down. He wouldn't have had the right friends to stay relevant, but he might have been able to maneuver into nWo Japan and revive his career that way. I think he might have been better off in WWF in some ways.