Mero appeared with WCW as an enhancement talent for several months. Mero competed in his first match on the May 1, 1991 episode of "WorldWide", where he was defeated by Sid Vicious. He was eventually signed to a contract by booker Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes repackaged Mero with the ring name Johnny B. Badd (as a nod to the Chuck Berry song "Johnny B. Goode") and he was given the character of a flamboyant Little Richard look-alike. He was initially a villain and managed by Teddy Long. He debuted at the inaugural SuperBrawl pay-per-view, on May 19, 1991, where he was introduced as Long's newest client. He made his televised in-ring debut on the June 1 episode of "World Championship Wrestling" against enhancement talent Kip Abee. Badd made his pay-per-view debut at The Great American Bash, where he lost to The Yellow Dog by disqualification after Long tried to remove Yellow Dog's mask. Badd was heavily pushed upon his debut, being placed in the rankings of the top ten contenders for the World Heavyweight Championship due to a dominant undefeated streak. He put his lip stickers on the faces of his defeated opponents after matches. On August 25, he participated in a tournament for the vacated United States Heavyweight Championship, where he faced Yellow Dog to a no contest in the quarter-final. As a result, both men were eliminated from the tournament. Badd suffered his first pinfall loss on television on the September 5 "", where he was pinned by the United States Heavyweight Champion Sting. Badd continued his dominance with a win over Jimmy Garvin at Halloween Havoc and unsuccessfully challenged Brian Pillman for the Light Heavyweight Championship on the November 19 "Clash of the Champions XVII". On the December 22 episode of "Main Event", Badd teamed with Diamond Studd to take on Tom Zenk and P.N. News in a tag team match, which Badd's team lost. After the match, Badd was attacked by Studd and Diamond Dallas Page until Zenk and News came to his rescue. As a result, Badd turned into a fan favorite. Badd made his first appearance at the company's flagship event Starrcade, where he was randomly placed with Arachnaman in a Lethal Lottery tag team match against Scott Steiner and Firebreaker Chip. Badd's team lost. Shortly after, he began using "Badd Blaster", a confetti gun that he would fire before his matches.