Spotlight on nWo Part 2
Welcome back to our Spotlight on nWo story. Let’s go from where we left off, shall we?
nWo was great for WCW in both senses of the word. It brought great success and great pain for the promotion. For 83 straight weeks, WCW was beating WWF in the ratings during the peak of the nWo run. Turning heel revitalised Hulk Hogan’s career. It made a lot of people a lot of money, even the WWF.
Without nWo being the hottest thing in wrestling creating an edgier, more adult product, WWF wouldn’t have been pushed to end the cartoonish product and created the Attitude Era. nWo can be responsible for influencing other factions, such as the Latino World Order, the Blue World Order in ECW, and Juggalo World Order in ICP owned promotion Juggalo Championship Wrestling.
Even Degeneration-X can claim inspiration from nWo. In 2010, during their run in TNA, Hall, Nash, and Waltman teams together caking themselves The Band, as a play on their catchphrase “The Band is Back Together.” Bullet Club in NJPW is the current day faction that models itself after the nWo.
In total, there were 60 members of the faction between WCW, NJPW, and WWE, which left many to think it was too diluted and confusing. There was questionable booking (members having creative control, and booking power didn’t help matters). What was once the saving grace of WCW also helped with its downfall.
Too many ego’s got in the way of helping continue to grow WCW. So, while it’s influence can still be felt in pro wrestling today, nWo was both a good thing, and a bad thing. In the years since it was officially disbanded, they’ve made sporadic appearances in WWE (including helping Sting counter Triple H and DX at WrestleMania 31) and some Indy promotions.
In 2020, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman were inducted as a group under the nWo name, a fitting end to a driving force in wrestling, and showing once and for all that when you’re nWo, you’re nWo 4 Life.
PPV + PLE Content. Northern Adelaide suburbs resident with a lifelong passion for professional wrestling since the age of 14. What drew Rhys to wrestling was the antics of Eddie Guerrero and the freestyles of John Cena, and has been hooked ever since. Currently, Rhys watches WWE and AEW programing. This passion for wrestling has led to Rhys writing for PW Down Under, where he has become the resident PPV guy.
