The participants in the inaugural "World Superstars Championship" were to be the competitors from across the various national and continental versions of the show with the best records in the previous years, and as such the US was to be represented by its previous national champions Bob Seagren, O. J. Simpson, and three time reigning current champion Kyle Rote, Jr. The rest of the participants were to be drawn from the top six finishers from the 1976 European Superstars final, the top six from the US version in 1977, and the winner of the 1976 Canadian Superstars event. In reality, as was always an issue for Superstars, several competitors withdrew in the weeks before the contest, with Rote and Simpson pulling out just a week before taping, leaving a slightly weakened field headed by Seagren, double European champion Kjell Isaksson, Canadian champion Tony Gabriel and the joint runners-up from the US final Guy Drut and Dave Casper.