 The following night he earned a shot against Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship on "Monday Nitro", but was not successful.A month later he was one of the sixty competitors in the annual World War 3 pay-per-view in 1996.Still managed by Teddy Long, Powers entered 1997 by facing Hugh Morrus on the January 6th episode of Monday Nitro in Monroe, LA, but was defeated.