After spending a year wrestling independents throughout the Northeast and a tour of Austria for Catch Wrestling Association, Duggan signed a contract with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the summer of 1994. He debuted on the edition of August 6 of "WCW Saturday Night", defeating Rip Rogers. A month later at Fall Brawl, as a replacement for the injured Ricky Steamboat, he defeated Steve Austin in a squash match lasting thirty-five seconds to win the United States Heavyweight Championship. After becoming champion, he quickly started a feud with Austin, and eventually defeated him in a title rematch at Halloween Havoc by disqualification. The two had a second title rematch on the November 16 "Clash of the Champions XXIX", where Duggan retained the title again by disqualification. Duggan's reign ended at Starrcade (1994), where he was defeated by Vader.