NWO 4Life: Greatest Hits And Misses

Which members of the NWO should be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame?

Juan Bautista: Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. They were the core four.

Steven Jackson: Has to be Hogan, Hall and Nash. These three guys started the nWo and although people have come and gone, they are the flagbearers. When you think now, you think Hogan, Nash and Hall.

David Gibb: Hall, Nash, Hogan, Waltman, Bischoff.

Matthew Smith: The original three Hogan, Nash and Hall. They started it off and everyone wanted to join in on the party.

Chad Gelfand: The original three should be inducted, but if they’re throwing in X-Pac, then Big Show needs to be inducted, too, since he was a prominent member outside of the original three.

John Corrigan: Hall, Nash, Hogan and Bischoff. The original three and the mastermind.

Jack Goodwillie: When it comes to Hall of Fame induction, you need to at least induct The Outsiders + Hulk Hogan, the third man. After that, I could maybe see Eric Bischoff and then Big Show/Giant/Paul Wight, as they were truly at their best when the five of them ran together. The original three were already a force, but once they added Bischoff and then The Giant, they seemed totally unstoppable. If it were just Hall, Nash and Hogan, however, I wouldn’t be upset.

Ultimately, did the NWO help or hurt WCW’s business?

Bautista: It helped WCW’s business. The issue was that’s the only thing that WCW got the fans to fully invest in. Despite a strong midcard, the stories eventually all fell under the NWO umbrella until WCW 2000.

Jackson: This is a really difficult question which needs much more typing about it than I can in our weekly roundtable. The nWo helped WCW’s business exponentially. The company was finally making a profit from the radical stable and ushered in a new era of edgy programming for major wrestling promotions. The nWo didn’t hurt WCW; it was WCW’s treatment of it.

Gibb: Ultimately (as in “at the end”) it hurt WCW, but before it hurt WCW, it helped a lot.

Smith: Before everyone got their hand in the cookie jar, they helped WCW. These guys dominated everywhere. They brought a real star power to WCW and made cheering the bad guys cool. We got to see Hogan drop the gimmick of saying prayers and taking vitamins and we still loved him.

Gelfand: The NWO helped WCW get to levels that it otherwise wouldn’t have. What hurt WCW was poor management and not having anyone with enough power or authority to reign in the NWO.

Corrigan: Helped. Without the NWO, WCW would have never gotten ahead of WWE for any length of time.

Goodwillie: Of course, they helped WCW’s business tremendously. Without the nWo, there is no 83-week run atop the wrestling ratings, plain and simple. When you’re embroiled in a competitive war the way WCW and WWF were, it’s “go big or go home” and WCW happened to hit a home run. Only problem is, WWE hit two home runs of its own and WCW gave up 11 runs in the bottom ninth.

Was bringing the NWO to WWE in 2002 a good idea?

Bautista: Yes, if well executed, it would’ve done wonders for WWE. While a fresh crop of young’uns was developing, the NWO could’ve been running over the roster and gang warfare could have returned. Eventually, the new crop of stars would’ve been ready to challenge the NWO. Unfortunately, due to injuries, individual issues and WWE managing to accomplish what took WCW about four years in about one year by killing the group, nothing really became of the NWO reboot.

Jackson: As an excited 9 year old, the nWo coming into the WWE in 2002 was the coolest dream (bar Sting arriving in WWE) I never expected to see. It was a great short-term idea, but looking back and hearing accounts of the time, the members were really not in the right place, so it was a disappointment it didn’t take off as it could have done.

Gibb: In a world where everybody involved had the same mileage on their body and passion to get over that they did in ’96, it would’ve been a great idea. That wasn’t the circumstance, though; so it wasn’t.

Smith: On one hand, the invasion angle had everyone excited for mega superstar matchups, but left fans with only Booker T as the biggest draw from WCW. No disrespect to Booker, but he was hardly the main eventer we wanted. By the time the NWO arrived, it just felt like we missed out on a lot. We saw how WCW guys weren’t taken as serious in WWE. However, we did get The Rock vs. Hogan at Mania and that was worth it.

Gelfand: It was worth a shot at bringing them to WWE and seeing what’d they could get out of them. However, they missed the boat by not bringing them in during the Invasion storyline, that’s when they really could have made an impact.

Corrigan: Absolutely. Who knew Nash would get injured? Hulkster and Hall still had gas in the tank, plus, having X-Pac come in was a great stopgag.

Goodwillie: Yes, it was, but the problem was the idea was never fully committed to. Mr. McMahon’s promo on “killing his creation and injecting the WWF with a lethal dose of poison” was the stuff of legend, but beyond WrestleMania, there was no clear plan for the group and it quickly came to pass that it was merely a conduit to bring Hulk Hogan back into the WWF to maximum fanfare.

What’s your favorite NWO moment/angle?

Bautista: It’s hard to pick anything other than the formation because it was their first impression. The reaction they got from the fans was priceless and they were off to the races.

Jackson: How long have you got!? There are so many angles and moments that made the nWo great. But nothing will top that leg drop at Bash at the Beach 1996, and the course of WCW changing forever.

Gibb: The Bret Hart welcome party episode of Nitro.

Smith: Honestly, I know they have tons, but The Rock turning to Hogan and asking him to main event one more Mania with The Great One still gives me chills.

Gelfand: I loved when DDP feigned as if he was joining the NWO, only to hit Scott Hall with a Diamond Cutter. That made DDP a star and is one of the best moments in WCW history.

Corrigan: Sting finally descending at Uncensored 1997 and laying waste to the NWO.

Goodwillie: It’s gotta be the unveiling of Hulk Hogan, which was a master class on how to book a surprise in wrestling. Nobody saw it coming, and it is still meme’d to this day. Combine that with the fact that it’s one of the defining moments of Hogan’s illustrious career, and that says it all. Besides, many nWo angles in later years were about as cringe-worthy as it gets, (but not as much as Bobby Lashley’s sisters or ‘The Old Day.’). Remember the Miss nWo Pageant? Disgusting.

Do you consider the NWO the greatest wrestling stable of all time?

Bautista: Bullet Club and LIJ are giving them a run for their money.

Jackson: I wouldn’t say the nWo were the greatest wrestling stable of all-time, as their match quality is extremely poor. However, I don’t think anyone can deny that the nWo are the most influential stable in pro wrestling history. They took what had been around in the past, learnt from it and became the most important stable of all time. Too Sweet!!!

Gibb: No. The Four Horsemen had greater longevity, did more to get the entire roster over and didn’t chew the scenery as much.

Smith: Not the greatest, but the most influential hands down. DX became WWE’s answer to the cool heel group. The Bullet Club uses their hand gesture. Finn Balor basically had his own Clique in NXT (Kevin Owens, Finn, Sami) buddying up with Triple H. The Elite still move T-shirts like the NWO. They are by far the most copied group in wrestling history.

Gelfand: I don’t know if I’d say the best, but I’m willing to say that they are the most influential faction with how they affected business, especially how contracts are structured.

Corrigan: I put the NWO behind the Four Horsemen because the Horsemen were the original nationally recognized wrestling stable. That means DX goes behind the NWO, though.

Goodwillie: It’s so close between nWo and the Four Horsemen. On one hand, when you think of modern wrestling stable, you think of nWo, but then again, The Horsemen really invented the blueprint for how to do a heel faction in pro wrestling. But then again, the nWo took that blueprint and evolved it. Sure, Evolution was a carbon copy of the Four Horsemen, but The Nexus took the basic nWo formula and helped make Raw watchable at the turn of the century. In the end, the lasting impact of the nWo on the Monday Night War is just too much to overlook, so I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s the greatest stable.