nWo - The Complete Wrestling Bios Collection

[Music] welcome bye [Music] the following announcements have been paid for by the new world order [Music] when scott hall and kevin nash made the jump from the wwf to wcw in 1996 the wrestling world got turned upside down razor ramon and big daddy killed diesel had been key players in vince mcmahon's world wrestling federation garnering a huge amount of fan support during the wwf's new generation movement and losing two of these big names to the opposition world championship wrestling was a huge blow to the company no one could have predicted the impact that nation hall would make in wcw the two men had worked for world championship wrestling previously with limited success but this time it was very very different build ads the outsiders the former razor ramon and diesel would usher in a new era in wcw kickstarting the company's most groundbreaking and lucrative storyline in history today's video looks at the wcw debut of the outsiders razer ramon was the first guy to reach out and try to get a deal with wcw razer had been an excellent intercontinental champion in the world wrestling federation and a big fan favorite too but he wanted to earn more money within wrestling scott had asked vince mcmahon if he could get a pay raise or even if he could work some dates in japan to try and earn a little more on the side both ideas were shot down by vince scott hall was good friends with diamond dallas page and when ddp learned that scott's contract was coming up with the world wrestling federation and scott wanted to potentially earn more money dallas spoke to eric bischoff and a lucrative offer was made to bring razor ramon to wcw scott hall said i went to vince mcmahon and asked if i could improve my situation with the company i didn't want to leave but at that time vince felt no vince couldn't accommodate me the way i wanted to be accommodated so i had to do what i felt was best for my family and that was to accept an offer from wcw it goes back to what chief j strongbow said to me in this business you can make friends or you can make money i looked at kevin and i looked at kid i've already made friends i'd like the money [Music] so scott hall worked his final wwf did on the 19th of may 1996 putting triple h over before the infamous curtain call incident in madison square garden and someone else who also worked his final match on this very date was big daddy cool diesel diesel had been the wwf champion during most of 1995. the wwf had ran on diesel power for a little while big daddy cool had been billed as the leader of the wwf's new generation and he was a cornerstone of the wwf's movement to get away from superstars of the past during the mid-90s kevin was good friends with scott he was also good friends with the one two three kid triple h and sean michaels and when scott told kevin how much wcw had offered him big daddy cool instantly wanted a piece of the pie kevin said scott pulled me aside and he said he got an offer to work for turner i asked him how much and he told me i asked him for how many days and he said 150 i said what it was huge money and it was guaranteed money so i got on the phone dallas page was kind of brokering the deal eric didn't want to be seen as interfering or talking to us i went through dallas and they made an offer to me so i talked events i said this is the offer they gave me i want to stay if you can match the offer i'll stay vince mcmahon said that both kevin and scott were willing to take a little less on their wcw offer but the wwf would have to guarantee their income and vince mcmahon didn't offer guaranteed money during this time frame vince would say he doesn't offer guarantees but he does offer opportunities this wasn't enough to keep razor ramon and diesel on the wwf books though the two men decided to leave and diesel had his last match in madison square garden also on may 19 1996 losing to wwf champion sean michaels in the stadium cage match after the bite the curtain call incident took place the click broke kfabe in the middle of the ring to give scott and kevin an emotional send-off to wcw vince mcmahon later admitted that if he knew the impact kevin nash and scott hall would have on the wcw versus wwf monday night war then he would have offered them enough money to stay put wcw executive producer eric bishoff had been studying japanese wrestling during the early to mid 90s and he had become enamored with the uwf versus new japan invasion angle throughout 1995 and early 1996. when wcw had secured scott hall and kevin nash two of the wwf's biggest stars eric felt he could reenact some key aspects of the uwf versus new japan storyline when it was time for both men to make their television debuts eric said in the united states the wwf and wcw were really having a hard time in the live event side of things while in japan they were putting 60 80 100 000 people in the tokyo dome for big shows to sum it up i was over there kind of studying what worked and the differences between the way the product was presented in japan in comparison to the states one of the things i noticed it was much more real there the storylines the characters the action in the ring was more reality based here in the united states it was more about characters and comedy in japan i was watching the inter-company wars that kind of thing and that's where the nwo ideas started scott became available kevin became available and that loose idea i had from studying japan became kind of a reality the may 27 1996 episode of nitro was remarkable for two things firstly this episode of nitro was the first two-hour broadcast of wcw's flagship show a move here that would eventually force the wwf to also move to a two hour format down the road secondly scott hall made his debut on this very same episode of monday nightro during a match pitting the mauler against steve dawe scott hall appeared from the audience making his way down to the ring to interrupt this match the way this was booked was perfect scott hall got in the ring and said one of the most infamous quotes in wrestling history when he said you people you know who i am but you don't know why i'm here scott went on to ask where billionaire ted and the nacho man were these were names the wwf used to mock ted turner and randy savage and this is important when looking back at this promo scott was using terms that the world wrestling federation had been using to poke fun at wcw so by using these names scott himself was also making fun of world championship wrestling scott said that he can go wherever he wants whenever he wants before ending his promo by saying you want to go to war you want a war you're going to get one what's never really talked about here is how tony shavonny reacted on commentary after scott hall's promo randy anderson the referee from the match that scott hall had interrupted got on the apron and asked scott to leave tony siobhani could be heard asking randy what was going on adding a sense of realism to the segment and that feeling of this wasn't supposed to happen tony then said that it looks like the match had been cancelled before apologizing to fans before going off to commercial break siobhani doesn't really get credit for this and i think he definitely helped add a sort of surreal feeling to the whole thing he helped portray what wcw and eric bishop were trying to present here for sure scott hall wasn't done though the former razor ramon promised us all that he would speak with eric bischoff before the end of the night bishop took over on commentary for the second hour of nitro and to end the broadcast scott hall approached eric at the commentary table scott told eric bischoff that billionaire ted should find three of his top guys to take on scott hall and some of his friends but there was no mentioning of who scott's friends could be scott kept saying things like we are going to take over and while eric beschoff would ask scott who he was referring to scott wouldn't give eric any answers paul said the war should take place in the ring not in the dirt sheets it should be a match inside the squared circle where it matters the nitro broadcast ended with eric bischoff and bobby keenan looking at each other totally lost for words again it was played off really well by the broadcast team and like tony shavonny earlier on i don't think these guys get enough credit for their reactions to scott hall's wcw debut and these threats of a takeover the very next week nitro ended the same way when scott hall interrupted eric bischoff at the commentary desk scott said it was eric bischoff who started this war but hall and his friends are going to finish it this was in regards to the creation of nitro by the way scott was trying to say that eric bishop fired the first shot by going head-to-head with raw and so scott and what we could only assume were some of his wwf buddies were going to shut wcw up for good hull wasn't playing he was still with the wwf here by the way the key word though is implying never once did scott say he and the wwf were going to take over wcw but his use of names like scheme gene and the nacho man along with his threats to bring a war to wcw and scott himself sounding exactly like razor ramon all of this was scripted to make it seem like scott was bringing a fight to wcw from the wwf anyway sting interrupted scott hall here on nitro while defending the honor of wcw scott hall threw a toothpick sting a classic razor removal move and sting replied with a slap to the face enraged scott said he has a big surprise next week on nigro for both eric bischoff and the stinger so let's move on to the june 10th wcw nitro the episode before the great american bash and an interesting week indeed when talking about the outsiders when he was once again interrupted by scott hall eric bischoff asked where the big surprise was kevin nash then walked into frame big daddy cool diesel had arrived in wcw kevin nash's promo here was great by the way but it's remembered for a botch kevin nash said to eric bischoff this is where the big boys play huh look at the adjective play we ain't here to play yeah a small heck up there that didn't go unnoticed but anyway kevin said that wcw should get to work dusting off some fossils to get ready for the war eric bishoff then delivered a classic baton switch eric said he has a meeting with wcw executives in atlanta the following day and he will see if the higher-ups will allow three guys to bring the fight at the great american bash pay-per-view of course the hostile takeover wouldn't happen at the great american bash wcw were going to mug this one a little while longer but something else happened at the great american bash that is very important the wwf had forced kevin nash and scott hall legitimately to declare they were not representatives of the word wrestling federation how did the wwf managed to do this well wcw had gotten word that vince mcmahon and the world wrestling federation were going to try and sue wcw when scott hall came over to wcw his mannerisms his voice even the way he walked it was a carbon copy of his razer ramon character from the wwf vince mcmahon owned both the razer ramon and diesel characters from the names to the entrance music the likeness the rights the wwf owned everything that was razor ramon and diesel except scott hall and kevin nash themselves so over on wcw here we have scott hall walking out talking with his cuban razor ramon accent talking about the nacho man and scheme gene in a wwf-esque manner saying he was going to bring a war to wcw that eric bishop instigated with the debut of monday night row and wcw's rivalry with the wwf vince mcmahon didn't take too kindly to this vince felt that eric was using the razer ramon and diesel gimmicks that he owned in order to gain an advantage over the wwf by presenting this invasion angle of course razer ramon and diesel were not sent by the wwf at all but wcw had been implanted this whole time that the duo were representing the world wrestling federation to get this settled and to try and stop the whole angle completely the wwf took wcw to court accusing turner's wrestling organization of defamation slander trademark infringement and unfair competition as part of the complaint the wwf sought an immediate temporary restraining order against further use of scott hall and kevin nash in ways that could deceive or confuse wrestling fans into thinking the world wrestling federation was affiliated with this ongoing wcw storyline so basically vince mcmahon was trying to stop the nw storyline from happening the case dragged on but the knee-jerk reaction from eric bischoff and wcw was to have kevin nash and scott hall come out of the great american badge pay-per-view and admit to the word that they were actually not representing the world wrestling federation point blank eric asked both men do you work for the wwf and both men said no here's another interesting fact part of the eventual settlement terms of this very lawsuit would give the wwf the right to bet on wcw properties should they ever be up for liquidation this means in a roundabout way the nwo was the reason why vince mcmahon was able to purchase wcw anyway both companies were able to settle out of court there's much more to this lawsuit and we could literally talk for hours about it so let's move on wcw were not allowed to mention that any future nwo members were previously hired by the word wrestling federation leading to the wwf trang and failing to get the last laugh with the fake razor ramon and fake diesel characters on wwf television a shining example of vince mcmahon's pettiness here ironically when it was announced that razer and diesel would return to the wwf just before we were introduced to these fake versions scott and kevin got a pay rise in wcw hall and nash were signed to what was known in wcw as daily mammals pretty much a preliminary contract that outlands the legalities of the working agreement between the company and the worker but signing a deal memo isn't the same as signing your final contract hall and nash could in theory return to the wwf at any time before their legitimate final contracts had been signed so when the wwf said that razer and diesel would return on television wcw panicked pushing more money in the faces of nash and hall in order to expedite the signing of their final wcw contracts so vince mcmahon's pettiness over the razer and diesel characters actually led to the real kevin nash and scott hall getting paid more money in wcw it's truly an unbelievable and remarkable tale of vince mcmahon constantly shooting himself in the fruit the real razor ramon and diesel would use their real names in wcw scott hall and kevin nash respectively and the wwf couldn't really stop wcw from going ahead with the storyline as long as wcw didn't exploit the fact that hull and nash along with the whole nwo were former wwf guys at the great american bash then the outsiders would not have a match as previously mentioned eric asked both hall and nash if they worked for the wwf both men said no eric then said that three wcw guys would face hull nash and their third mystery partner at bash at the beach 1996 but hall and nash got pissed off when eric wouldn't reveal who would represent wcw in the six-man tag eric ended up taking a jackknife power bomb to end the segment main gene oakland announced the next night on monday night rule that sting lex luger and randy savage would be the three men representing wcw at bash at the beach nation hall now known as the outsiders were still a man down though and i'm not going to go into great detail here regarding hulk hogan by the way it's already been covered and you guys i'm sure all know the story but the big question leading up to bash at the beach now was who is this mystery third partner who would be siding with hall and nash again you guys know the story but let's wrap things up here and focus on what the outsiders got up to right before the bash at the beach pay-per-view on the june 24th edition of nitro we had a good triple team tag match the standards versus harlem hate versus lex luger and sting towards the end of the match the outsiders made their way to the ring through the audience a bunch of security guys stormed the ring to make sure hull and nash couldn't interfere in the main event but the damage was already done the outsiders had pretty much put an end to the nitro main event bringing wcw's flagship show to a complete standstill hall and nash bought tickets to the july 1 1996 episode of nitro meaning wcw security were unable to throw the outsiders out of the building the guys couldn't help themselves though hall and nash grabbed a microphone and started patronizing eric bischoff as the outsiders were approaching the commentary table the wcw locker room emptied baby faces and heels who would normally be squaring off against each other all came out to ensure hall and nash couldn't get any closer eventually security got rid of the outsiders and the show ended with the security guys forcing hull and nash to get in their car and leave the arena that sunday the hostile takeover was booked for bash at the beach hall and nash had their very first match since returning to wcw and history was made when hulk hogan joined the outsiders and the new world order was born and so kevin nash and scott hall had ushered in a new era for wcw an era based on eric bischoff's vision and an era that changed the course of professional wrestling itself i don't think i need to explain how important the new world order was to wrestling in the 90s the outsiders would become one of wcw's most successful tag teams capturing the tag titles six times while gaining a huge fan following thanks to how wcw presented the new world order as cool villains after some time sean michaels and triple h formed their own tag team that when you think about it really did have a lot of similarities when comparing to the outsiders both teams included members of the click both teams were hands but they got cheered for being rebellious and both teams used their backstage stroke to further their own standing within the company people today call this a bad thing and maybe it is but when you talk about producing results setting legitimate trends and breaking new ground well both the outsiders and the original degeneration axe done all of these things the outsiders however maybe struggled with longevity but that's something we can look at in another video something i did take away here though when watching this all back was how wcw completely altered their presentation when hall and nash would make appearances just to make it feel real i watch a lot of old wcw nitro episodes and these things may appear subtle to your average viewer but commentators would immediately change their tone when talking about hall and nash pre-recorded videos about completely unassociated wrestlers would end abruptly if the outsiders made an appearance wcw even used camera angles that were never used before when hall and nash showed up we saw more of the arena we saw things that weren't part of the regular broadcast and these subtle changes made a huge difference look out for this if you decide to go back and relive this time period in wcw [Music] bye [Music] in today's video we're going to take a look at hulk hogan's first year in the new world order hulk hogan by far is the most requested superstar on this channel and i feel that making a one and done video for hulk hogan would be both impossible and unfair the man means so much to wrestling and has done so much during his active years that i feel the best thing to do would be to look at certain time periods of his career hogan will appear on this channel at different times we won't spend the weeks on hogan because well although he is the most requested superstar not everyone wants to see consecutive videos for weeks based on one guy so let's start at one of the more interesting time periods for hulk hogan the first year of the extremely successful and lucrative new world order in wcw in the summer of 1996 hulk hogan was able to reignite his career when he became a bad guy in wrestling for over a decade the hulkster had been telling us to eat our vitamins and say our prayers as he portrayed the all-american hero on television screens to great success hulk was smart enough to notice that times had changed even by mid-1996 people were getting tired of the same old hulk hogan and people were now starting to get behind the concept of cool villains and wrestling hogan's audience receptions before becoming a bad guy had been good but nowhere near as great as what they once were i don't think hogan would have ever faded in the obscurity had he not joined the new world order but i do agree that hulk hogan and the red and yellow stuff was getting quite tiresome you have to understand that hogan did not have to join the nwu in order to remain financially stable within wcw looking over hogan's contract at the time we can see that the guy was making serious money from the day he joined the company what is interesting though is hulk hogan's wcw incentives his bonuses within the company in the most basic terms hogan got 15 percent of pay-per-view buys as a financial bonus and if by rates were particularly high for wcw domestic pay-per-views hogan got paid even bigger amounts of money based on the success of each individual show hogan also got 25 percent of ticket sales for every nitro and thunder show that he appeared in with a guarantee of no less than 25 grand per show so it's clear that it was in hogan's best interests for people to attend shows and buy pay-per-views at home and while gambling on the nwo wasn't a necessity you can see that hulk stood to make much more money if he and wcw was a success when fans were getting tired of hulk mania you best believe he would hitch a ride with the nwo in hopes that shocking the world and becoming a hill would make people tune into wcw shows and buy pay-per-view shows but still the decision to turn hail didn't come easy to hulk hogan hulk was and still is very aware of how lucrative the hulk hogan brand is during his time in the wwf the man became a household name and even still in the mid 90s his name carried with hogan had been smart and savvy enough to protect the hulkamania image both on a commercial level and by making sure he'd done what was right for hulk hogan in the ring and if he were to turn into a bad guy there was a serious threat there that this very image would be somewhat cheapened the decision that hulk hogan had to make was in very simplified terms based on risk versus reward does he risk the hulkamania empire for the possibility of higher pay bonuses with wcw while adding a new layer to his character or does he keep the red and yellow image and mildly successful endorsements simply coasting along and collecting guaranteed money to put it in perspective kevin sullivan revealed that hulk hogan's agent peter young cried actually cried on the phone to him until 2 30 in the morning that wcw should not and could not turn hulk hogan hail scott hall and kevin nash arrived in wcw in the summer of 1996 claiming they were in world championship wrestling with the intention of taking over the company hall and nash had been successful in the wwf as razor ramon and diesel and they said they had another partner who would be revealed at wcw batch at the beach 96 rumors were rampant of who the third man could be with sting brad hart and even davey boy smith being names that seem to constantly creep up scott hall said we had no idea who it was going to be the whole third guy thing came up by accident i remember kev and i called brett and i spoke to him kev spoke to him and we told him it was really fun working at wcw it was really laid back guaranteed money it was easy we were so used to being in a shark tank in new york coming to atlanta was like being in a country club it was really tame in the locker room in wcw compared to new york we told brett he should come down bishop was interested he was offering him a pretty sweet deal but brett wasn't interested we wanted it to be hulk but hulk had creative control in his contract so he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to do we went to the ring we hadn't even met hulk yet i met him briefly at wrestlemania 9 but i didn't know hulk we actually went to the ring in daytona and hogan wasn't even there yet he was on a jet flying cross-country from shooting a movie bishop wanted it to be hulk before we went out betchov told us if hulk doesn't show i'm gonna send out sting going back a little eric bischoff revealed in his book that he had meetings with hulk and hulk's home regarding the hoaxer becoming the third man in the new world order hogan apparently wasn't sold on the idea initially mainly due to being the good guy in wrestling was what gave him his fame and fortune [ __ ] off left hogan's house without a straight answer and it was days later when hogan picked up the phone and confirmed that eric that he was in he was going to turn hill as scott hall mentioned eric was still wary of hogan changing his mind or not even showing up at bash at the beach so if hogan didn't show or if hogan changed his mind sting would have been the third man crazy to think that even if a plane was delayed or if hogan slept in that day then the future of wcw would have looked way way different eric bischoff said on his 83 weeks podcast i think at the time probably a week before bites at the beach is when i started letting people know about hulk i think i let kevin national i know i was out in los angeles doing something because we met for a beer at sunset boulevard at some biker bar i wasn't sure if it was going to be hulk hogan or sting one was plan a and the other was plan b i tried to let kevin know how much he should know and the other part was because i was worried he would leak it out so it was probably a week before i let those that needed to know know that hogan was going to be the third member so hogan made the bush at the beach and turned into a bad guy against his agent's wishes hulk hogan felt that this could be the shot of adrenaline his wcw career needed hogan stood in the middle of the ring and called the fans trash while reminding them that they turned their back on hulkamania when he walked out wearing all black on nitro it really hit home for a lot of people that the unthinkable had happened the american hero of wrestling wasn't a hero anymore he had a real disdain for some of the fans that hung onto his every word back in the 80s and early 90s needless to say hulk hogan turning helen forming the new world order with kevin nash and scott hall was the right move hogan became not only relevant again but he became the talk of the entire wrestling industry and you got to think that hulk hogan now known as hollywood hulk hogan was thinking of his bank balance as the headlines came rolling in from the wrestling magazines at the time his mission now was to stay relevant while hoping the wcw shows would sell out and people would buy the pay-per-views at home his financial interest in the success of wcw was just too great to ignore so let's do what we normally do and take a look at the matches hogan had during this time period hogan's very first match as the leader of the new world order happened at wcw hog wild in 1996 where he defeated the giant for the wcw championship this also saw the championship getting the nwo spray paint job for the very first time the match is a slow paced affair a lot of holes here which makes things a little flat it is interesting though to watch hogan work as a heel here after being such a huge draw as a baby face so for this reason the hog wild championship match is still worth a watch the outsiders interfered to give hogan the upper hand and mr brutus beefcake the bootyman ed leslie himself got dropped by the nwo when he tried to present hogan with a birthday kick hogan's first title defense was just 5 days later a clash of the champions 33 a match that saw the hulkster defend the championship against nature boy ric flair this one doesn't even reach the 10 minute mark and it was a little rough around the edges when you watch this one you will quickly realize why this match isn't talked about all that much hogan even does his classic hooking up routine during this match as a hill which made fans cheer for him definitely a bad move here but anyway the outsiders hit the ring and attack flare leading to the horseman sting and laxlegger running down for the save this led to hogan's next match in the nwo a war games match at fall brawl 1996. hogan hall nash and the bogus nw sting defeated aaron anderson lex luger ric flair and the real sting in a good wargames match that's definitely worth your time i feel it was after the war games match that hulk hogan finally became comfortable as a hill his promos got better in the ring and his moveset changed also to complement his hollywood hogan character it took a while but hogan had been so used to working as a babyface that sometimes he would still mount hulkamania style comebacks and try to work from underneath by the time hogan got to his next match with old enemy and friend macho man randy savage he had fine-tuned his heel persona but admittedly this match here really wasn't that good the hogan vs savage halloween havoc match in 1996 should have been spectacular but it turned out to be one of those big fight field main events that kind of falls flat at nearly 20 minutes long hogan also decided to wear this wig which has became meme worthy today but those who followed wcw back then would remember that hogan had mocked savage about going bald in the build up to this match pot calling the cattle black hair for sure but this was the reason why hogan was wearing the wig it was to make fun of savage without the context some people seem to think that this was hogan actually trying a new look for himself anyway the wig was soon removed during the match even randy savage himself put it on for some giggles and those who take the time to watch the match will know it was simply used as a gag the match ends with shady referee nick patrick and the giant making sure that randy savage has no chance of becoming the wcw champion this wasn't wrestlemania 5 by any means and if you want to see hogan versus savage i'd recommend going back to 1989 after the match roddy piper makes an appearance to set up the next big hogan pay-per-view match two men who were in the wrestlemania 1 main event are going to square off at starkid 1996. before we get to starkid though i should mention that hulk hogan defended the wcw championship against lex luger in a dark match on the 11th of november edition of wcw nitro piper vs hogan then at starkid we all blindly assume that this match the main event of starkid 1996 which was billed as the match of the decade would be for the wcw championship it wasn't wcw never said it would be a championship match but then again they also didn't say that it wouldn't be for the wcw championship either we had no reason to think that piper vs hogan wouldn't be for wcw's top prize piper defeated hogan and got a huge pop in the process but the following night on nitro hogan and bischoff acted like the match never could he strut happened here and show his face after what happened last night starkid 1996's main event was a complete throwaway match which and hogan and eric bishol's minds meant absolutely nothing we won't get into the ins and outs of starkid 1996. there's a story here that i'm sure could take up the remaining time on this video but piper vs hogan at starkid96 is something i will come back to in the future [Music] [Music] [Applause] during mid to late 1996 the new world order were easily the biggest thing going in professional wrestling the wrestling world was legitimately buzzing when hulk hogan sided with kevin nash and scott hall at the 1996 batch of the bench pay-per-view and wcw executive producer eric bishoff made sure to capitalize on the hottest storyline in professional wrestling by pushing the new world order as wcw's main angle not only did eric bishop create a team of bad guys who would never stop growing in numbers and not only did eric bishop create the most talked about wrestling storyline of the year but eric also created a brand with the new world order the nwo had its own distinctive look and feel from the nw logo itself becoming instantly recognizable not only in wrestling circles but in pop culture itself to the new world orders jimi hendrix sampled the music the nwo became more than just a faction on the storyline the nw became its own entity it could seemingly exist outside of a monday night wrestling show eric had in many ways hit the jackpot with the new world order and he wanted to not only generate revenue for time warner with his creation but he wanted to turn the nw into a media product this went beyond your standard t-shirts and compilation video tips this went beyond action figures and posters there were plans at one point to air a new world order wrestling show that would co-exist with wcw nitro on tnt you'll hear time and time again that the nw added too many members and while this may very well be true there's an obvious reason behind it when you consider eric's ultimate vision of having two separate brands in wcw and the new world order long before eric bischoff changed wcw nitro to nwo nitro for a one-night experiment eze tested the popularity of his creation by producing a pay-per-view event completely based around the new world order happening on january 25th 1997 nwu sold out was a spin-off pay-per-view that was completely clean of any wcw branding a unique take on the pay-per-view attractions that eric bischoff was seeing success with over the past year or so in eric's mind the new world order had become so successful and so ingrained in contemporary wrestling that his mw storyline and faction could host a pay-per-view that could attract both casual viewers and die hard fans keep in mind here that the idea was to make people pay to see a show completely dedicated and branded towards a healed faction and professional wrestling it was a risk worth taking eric understood the nwo was popular and he himself wouldn't be out of pocket if the whole thing turned out to be a disaster people like to call out wcw and eric bishop for putting on the sole 1997 pay-per-view and while some criticisms do have merit you have to respect eric's decision to think outside the box and her relatively safe wrestling landscape especially during late 1996 and early 1997. nwo sold out will never be anyone's favorite pay-per-view event but the idea the concept and the risk factor i believe compliments eric bashoff more than disparages him i will admit though that the actual event itself from an in-ring perspective left a lot to be desired eric pishov said we experienced a tremendous amount of growth in 1996. we clearly knew we had lightning in a ball and the very basic idea of creating warring factions and eventually allowing nwo to have its own pay-per-views and special episodes of nitro was something i started formulating and thinking about during the last half of 1996. we then didn't have the challenge of producing wcw thunder at this point in january of 1997 that mission didn't exist we had the nwo that was clearly at war with wcw kevin and scott had came in and of course it started to build after that once it became obvious that this was becoming successful the ideas already started ricocheting in my head that we were going to split the two brands so take away the cool factor of the new world order take away the distinctive branding and take away all the buzz and all the hype what the new world order was at its very core was a group of bad guys in wrestling not only were they your typical hail wrestlers but they were almost impossible debate via pinfall or submission week after week the new world order would gain the upper hand on wcw's finest superstars through strength in numbers under handed ring tactics even a dodgy referee which we will talk about a little more as this video progresses if you're a younger wrestling fan you maybe didn't care about this new world order stuff you didn't like the cheating and you cheered for the true babyfaces you wanted to see the nwo get their comeuppance on the flip side of this if you're a die hard wrestling fan who has been loyal since the jim crockett days then you'd see the nwo is nothing more than a bunch of new york guys showing how skilled they are collecting large paychecks for as little work as possible eric bischoff may have struck gold from a television standpoint with the new world order but it was those die hard fans who purchased pay-per-views or it was the parents of the young casual fans this was a pay-per-view focused around heels and wrestling it becomes evident that it would be challenging trying to sell this kind of pay-per-view to the masses yes there were wcw babyfaces that sold out but the whole selling point itself was the new word order when questioned about the overall theme of nw sold out eric said in my perspective as a producer this pay-per-view was a means to an end it wasn't an end and it wasn't a blow-off pay-per-view this pay-per-view was structured as a vehicle and means to further establish the war we were trying to create between wcw and nwo and we checked that box there wasn't a lot of storytelling here it was all about building the characters and further establishing the distinction between wcw and mwo really it was an experiment we did a lot of things on this pay-per-view that we wouldn't have done on a more traditional show if you back it up all the way to the very beginning to when we launched nitro in 1995 i wanted to be different from the wwf i can't overemphasize the success nitro and the nw had and being completely different from the wwf and attracting a new audience because of it everything that we did that was successful was out of the box this pay-per-view was my way of taking that to another level and experimenting and like any experiment sometimes you're successful and sometimes you fail wcw and wwf pay-per-views had never been this targeted before the overall theme of nw sold out would be so different from anything that had aired on pay-per-view previously and eric wanted people to pay money to see at its very core a bunch of predominant new york bad guys in the spotlight the true experiment here was in the branding and notoriety of the new world order adding in that cool factor and the buzz around the nw was the trump card and all of this there was definitely reason to believe that aw sold out could be a success by just riding on the wave of popularity eric was banking on fans literally banging to the hype cedar rapids iowa january 25th 1997 here we are at nwo sold out it's a strange location choice eric bischoff explained that booking arenas in areas that never really got live wrestling would be an easy way to move tickets but that's also a double-edged sword for obvious reasons there could be a very viable reason as to why wrestling doesn't sell well in certain locations but anyway nwo sold out is the biggest wrestling show ever to happen in cedar rapids and that says a lot to highlight how different this broadcast would be in comparison to traditional wcw pay-per-views headbooker kevin sullivan had absolutely nothing to do with the event he was completely against the nw expansion due to fears of overexposure the show opens up with the nw arriving to the venue and garbage trucks garbage trucks with nwo flags this opening has been ridiculed by many and yeah there's really no defending it the whole nw led by eric bischoff walk into the arena before a video package airs featuring eric bishop giving a speech reminiscent of citizen kane in this video which i thought was actually done pretty well eric says i stand before you today humbled by the premier event that's about to take place we are in control to those of you who have risen to the challenge and joined the ranks of the nwu to change the face of the professional wrestling world as we know it to you i say thank you one and all and to those of you who offered yourselves up as opponents what the hell were you thinking we then get a look at the arena for the first time and one thing i will say is that the arena looked fantastic for this show the nwo branding was all over the place from the ring mats to the entranceway where tvs were set up showing the nwo logo it all felt very different and this as we just learned was what eric was aiming for there's a sort of dystopian failure nwo sold out that's hard to explain but the production staff done an incredible job of making the show look like nothing we'd seen before from wcw and wwf eric beshoff introduces the three founding members of the new world order hall nash and hogan appear on three separate screens and this i felt was also a nice touch i recently learned from guy evans nitro book that wcw senior editor camber rogers actually had to play three separate videos at just the right time to make it seem like the nwo were talking to each other these days this wouldn't be any trouble of course so learning that little bit of information made me appreciate the opening even more anyway from this point forward nwo sold out would be filled with ups and downs more downs than ups if i'm honest but let's look at the entire show ted dibiase and eric bishop provide commentary for nwo sold out there's no announced desk just eric and ted setting on some production boxes chris jericho comes to the ring for his match against the man who made the nwo international masahiro chono jericho doesn't have anything music he doesn't even have a lower third for his name to appear on the screen neil pruitt the guy who lends his voice to the following announcement promos and the guy known as the voice of the new world order can be heard making fun of jericho as the lionheart makes his way to the ring this would be a common theme throughout the entire show nick podrick is our referee for this match and he's in the nwo's back pocket so what we end up getting is a bunch of slow counts when jericho tries to make a pen and yes this would also be a common theme throughout the entire show nick podrick would be instrumental in most of these sold out matches the chono vs jericho match then is kinda symbolic of the nwo as a whole y2j brings the fight while chono doesn't really seem to care at all preferring to just get through the match and nothing more show up do what you need to do and get to the back during the match we see harlem heat iron anderson and other wcw guys enter the building sitting in the audience to cheer for the wcw guys jericho tries his best to get a match out of chono but it's just not happening there's a moment where jericho is screaming for chono to run the ropes and you can't help but feel that jericho is legitimately fed up of doing all the work the crowd then begins to chant usa which doesn't make any sense but anyway jericho hits a pinning german suplex but nick podrick performs a slow count the audience boos loudly but the match just continues on the same thing happens once again neck takes longer to hit the mat for the three count and so you now understand what this pay-per-view is all about and why a lot of people don't like it a top rope spot is then botched chono sets up a table on the outside jericho eventually gets sent through the table chono delivers the yakuza kick and it's all over nick patrick brags that masahiro chono is japan's finest under the camera and we have our first wcw versus nwo showdown in the bag chono vs jericho sounds excellent on paper it just didn't work it sold out eric beschoff tells us that there will be a miss nwo contest and pictures are shown of some of the contestants who wanted to enter this beauty pageant bishop later revealed that he sent staff out to find women who would eventually participate in the infamous contest and eric specifically requested that his staff did not bring back supermodels the miss nwo contest is one of the things this show was remembered for it was an absolute train wreck where eric would end up kissing the winner on tv a lady named miss baggy who looked like she could be eric's mother the miss nwo segments that ran between each and every match were led by jeff cutz who is jeff cutz i hear no one asked but i'll tell you anyway jeff's father was an executive at new line cinema and a wcw events promoter wanted eric to give jeff a chance on tv that's all there is to it really and that's all i'm going to say about the miss nwo stuff the interviews were awkward the ladies didn't look like they knew what they just signed up for they just sat around the entranceway with some biker dudes and it just didn't work as a pay-per-view showcase eric bischoff defended the beauty pageant by saying it was designed to be the exact opposite of what people would expect the nwo to do everybody including the day of melters of the world would have probably booked the hottest girl they could find i wanted to go the other way and i did and it didn't work anyone that's ever been in the business of actually producing television that will say to you they've never misjudged an audience is a liar and they have never been there dave meltzer falls into that category up next we have hugh morris versus the nw's big bubba for a little backstory big bubba ended his association with the dungeon of doom to join the aw and so hugh morris was out for revenge yes the dungeon of doom stuff was still going on in 1997. hugh morris doesn't have any theme music either and big bubba comes down to the nw b team theme song a theme we would hear quite a lot through this entire show this was booked as a mexican death match conan was originally supposed to wrestle in this match but funnily enough he wasn't able to leave mexico to attend this show anyway you'd quickly forget this was a mexican death match because nick patrick threatens to disqualify humors quite a few times i understand he's an nw referee but still this one here wasn't great either nick patrick slow counted at every opportunity robbing hugh morris of any chance of winning in the end big bubba runs morse down with a motorbike on the entranceway and nick patrick suddenly wakes up counting rather quickly to give bubba the win it's too nil to the nwo and we are treated to more awkward interviews from the miss nw hopefuls eric beshoff promises more exciting action next jeff jarrett versus michael wall street and again it's a story about nick patrick this show should have been called nick patrick sonned out at this point nick puts his hands on jared early on physically forcing double j away from wall street and this leads to a bunch of stalling deborah mcmichael is watching from the audience and she grows concerned for jared as the match progresses clearly seeing nick helping wall street at every given opportunity eventually debra pleads for big mongol mcmichael to help double j [ __ ] hits wall street with the briefcase before telling nick patrick to make the three count although patrick doesn't want to he has no choice jeff gets the win scoring the first pinfall victory for wcw the problem here though is that absolutely no one cared about jeff jarrett nor the outcome of this match the first wcw victory couldn't mean any less in the eyes of fans next up the american males explode as scottie riggs takes on buff this stuff bagwell it becomes apparent around this time of the show that the fans are getting bored with the action in the ring bagwell and riggs goes close to 15 minutes here and it feels like an absolute eternity when watching this one back neil pruitt the nwo voice over guy called scottie riggs a loser on the pa system during the match this provides a little bit of entertainment but apart from that this match really struggled with bagwell leading the way for most of the boat guys like bagwell and riggs were really more conditioned for those snobby and quick television matches you'd see on wcw saturday night and wcw nitro giving both men at the very most seven to eight minutes was already pushing it so what you end up with here is a lot of time wasting the guys really didn't know what to do to fill up time it seemed buff bagwell gets the win with the blockbuster you'll miss nothing of significance by skipping this match diamond dallas page takes on scott norton next another match that sounds exceptional on paper and a match i quite enjoyed even though it was very short norton easily overpowers page at the beginning of the bite but ddp is able to outsmart norton and bring him to the mat as norton begins to swing things back in his favor the audience suddenly makes a lot of noise when we see sting in the arena watching the match from the crowd back to the match and norton is dominating paige on the outside the guys working the pa system are getting a little trigger happy with the loser sound bite the novelty has already worn off page begins rallying back and after ddp hits a ddt members of the nwb team come to the ring led by buff bagwell bagwell asks ddp to join the nwo keep in mind that ddp already refused an offer on nigel from the outsiders that led to scott hall taking the diamond cutter paige says he's in he puts on the black and white colors and he shakes hands with scott norton paige then pulls norton in for a diamond cutter before running off into the audience the exact same way he refused the outsiders on nigro it gets the desired crowd response here it's sold out though nick patrick rules the match in norton's favor page gets counted out we get more miss nwo nonsense before our next match the outsiders defending the wcw tag team titles against the steiner brothers out of all the new world order members we have seen so far in early 1997 maybe hall and nash were the only guys who were truly over in the united states they brought a certain star power to the new world order and so this was really the first match that felt significant it was a fun match too not great by any means it does get slower and slower as the match progresses but in comparison to what we've just seen and the caliber of superstars we've had on display this match went a long way in waking the audience up a little and on top of this hall and nash seemed motivated here something that many consider a rare sight during this era of wcw kevin nash took some big bumps from scott and rick stanner doing an impressive cell job here for the steiner brothers the boat falls into familiar territory though as rick stanner needs to make the tag he can't get to his corner and you'd expect the fans in attendance to rally behind the suffering babyface but it feels like the audience is a little underwhelmed at this point nick patrick takes a bump rick and scott stanner gets the batter of scott hall while nash is on the outside and wcw referee randy anderson who has been watching the show in the audience jumps out of his seat to count the pinfall new tag team champions are crowned and zoned out and the audience suddenly comes to life with this rather unpredictable outcome eric bishop said on commentary that this is a grave injustice and there will be consequences the next night on monday nitro eric reversed the decision and the titles went back to the outsiders the best match of the show came up next united states champion eddie guerrero taking on six in a ladder match you could always count on eddie guerrero to deliver the goods in wcw those of you who watch the reliving the war series on my channel would know that eddie worked hard in world championship wrestling and this match here is no exception and say what you want about sean walton but when he was on he was on he could fly around the ring delivering a unique moveset and he could bump like a champion when needed and also he never really got lazy latter matches were a rarity in wcw two so this was a treat for fans who exclusively watched turner's wrestling show for those wondering by the way six stole the us title hence why he's wearing it while coming to the ring high-risk aerial offense suplexes to the outside the ladder coming into play and being used as a weapon it's a great match all around here and yes it has been surpassed numerous times in the years that followed but you have to remember that this is the beginning of 1997. with the correct mindset you'll have fun with this one and honestly with the exception of the production of the show it's one of the only essential reasons to check out nwo sold out both men unhooked the belt at the same time eddie hits six with the belt and guerrero wins the match eddie celebrates with the wcw superstars in the audience after the match the winner of the miss nwo contest is revealed and eric beschoff gives her a big sloppy kiss afterwards you know because he wanted to be different than the wwf whatever you say eric whatever you say this all went on way too long nobody cared and it came across as embarrassing our main event features the giant challenging hulk hogan for the wcw championship the giant won the world war three battle royal in 96 and therefore he had earned a wcw title shot against hulk hogan hogan refused to give the giant a title shot the night after starkid and hogan made fun of the giant for losing the lex luger at the same pay-per-view this all led to the giant getting kicked out of the nw and hogan putting the title on the line it's sold out to be honest and i've said this before but i don't think this hogan versus giant match is as bad as others make it out to be at least in comparison to their previous matches we had just sat through a painfully mediocre show at this point too it's very difficult to get excited for hogan vs giant and sold out but try watching this one before watching everything else like the outsiders hogan seemed motivated here and while there is the standard stalling the waste time and whatnot there's still decent action here when things pick up after some back and forth hogan hits the leg drop but the giant gets back on his feet the giant hits the chokeslam and it looks like we have a new wcw champion but then you remember that nick patrick is the referee for sold out patrick only counts to two the giant keeps pinning hogan over and over again but patrick simply refuses to count to three the nwo then run to the ring but the giant is able to take care of the hail faction hogan then uses a guitar that was passed to him by eric bischoff and the giant gets destroyed there's no bell to end the match so i think this was a no contest anyway giant gets nwo spray painted on his back the audience chants we want sting but the stinger doesn't make an appearance the show ends with hulk hogan playing air guitar with the wcw championship and yeah that was nw sold out with the experiment now in the bag eric beshoff waited anxiously for the buy rate numbers and it must have been quite a blue when eric got word that nw sold out attracted only 170 000 pay-per-view buys not bad by today's standards you may think but consider that starrcade drew 345 000 buys the month before and super brawl 7 the month after brought in 275 000 buys you can instantly tell that the experiment didn't work as a matter of fact sold out was wcw's worst 1997 pay-per-view in terms of pirate it's not that eric misjudged the popularity of the nwo but eric was asking fans to buy into a novel pay-per-view concept featuring a hill faction and fans were very right to be wary of the show those who did buy sold out in 1997 were disappointed by the in-ring action only six and addy guerrero truly delivered a show-stealing performance and word quickly spread that nw sold out was a wake show filled with ridiculous one side officiating and a weird beauty pageant i said earlier that the arena looked good and the whole aura of the show was on point but once you see that for the first five minutes then you're left with what's in the rank and the show just didn't deliver in that respect thankfully eric had the sense to think twice about putting on another nwo themed pay-per-view on the very next episode of nitro we have the first televised nitro match featuring hulk hogan since he had joined the nwo isn't that crazy when you think about it hogan had went from july 1996 all the way to the beginning of the new year without wrestling a single match on wcw's flagship tv show hogan worked a total of 11 nitros in 1996 and every one was before the nwo even existed when looking at match histories you will also notice that while in wcw hulk like to work the majority of his contracted nitro dates in the first half of the year seemingly getting these out of the way this could also be per foresight by eric bischoff too but who knows of course hogan still showed up on natural and sometimes even got physical but he was not obliged to work additional matches after he had wrestled the agreed amount in his contract additional matches would cost wcw additional money anyway hugs first nitro match of 1997 saw him lose to the giant by dq and yes the nwo interference is what led to the disqualification roddy piper the man who defeated hook at starkid in a non-title match got a chance to win the gold at super bowl 7 when he faced hogan once again of course hogan won this match and capped his wcw championship after team nwo defeated team piper and team wcw at uncensored hulk hogan performed in a rare house show match where he put over home town hero jacques rujo and montreal quebec it was a non-title match of course and the match is available in its entirety on youtube hogan then used up more of his wcw nitro dates by wrestling on the show two weeks in a row lex luger defeated hogan on the 9th of june episode and the following week lex luger and the giant defeated hogan and dennis rodman by disqualification a quick match here which was done to get some last minute sales for the next pay-per-view by shed the beach bicycle beach 1997 was also the one year anniversary of the nwo formation and the main event was once again the giant and lex luger taking on dennis rodman and hulk hogan a match that hogan and rodman lost for those unaware dennis rodman was brought into wcw with the sole intention of getting the company more media attention he didn't care about wrestling at all but also he couldn't turn down the money that was offered in total dennis rodman earned over 1.5 million for the dates he worked for wcw over 1997 and 1998 and so this ends year one of hulk hogan and the nw remember those bonuses and incentives that were written in the hoax contract well let's just say that wcw became extremely successful during this time period the new world order became the hottest thing in wrestling more people tuned into nitro more people bought the pay-per-views and more people attended shows wcw was gearing up for starcat in 1997 which would feature hulk hogan vs sting in the main event and thanks to the build up for this particular match starkid would also be the most financially successful pay-per-view in wcw's history and if wcw was financially successful so was hulk hogan the night after bash at the beach lex luger challenged hulk hogan to a future wcw title match hulk hogan wasn't in the building he had the night off but it looked like wcw was going to go with a lex luger vs hulk hogan main event at the next pay-per-view road wild hogan formally accepted luke's challenge the next week on nitro the hulkster said he would break luger and sturgis as he lay down in the middle of the ring with eric bischoff by his side before getting the road wide though we need to stop off at the august 4th 1997 edition of nitro the special 100th edition of the landmark monday night wrestling show to celebrate the occasion nitro ran for three hours and to populating and to get fans to tune in it was decided that hulk hogan would defend his title against luger keep in mind that rode wild was happening later in the week hogan vs luger was still booked for the pay-per-view so fans were going to see the total package versus the hoaxer twice in one week in the nitro main event lex luger put hogan in the torture rack and hogan submitted that's right hogan lost the wcw heavyweight championship the lex luger on a weekly wrestling show the crowd response was absolutely insane here too it's one of the better moments in nitro history and after winning the wcw title luger took the belt backstage where the nw spray paint was removed from the heavyweight championship if we knows hogan like what he knows hogan then the smart money says that the world heavyweight championship was going straight back to the hulkster it rode wild and of course this is exactly what happened luger's big moment on nitro was completely negated when the hoaxer won the title back in sturgis the fakes then caused luker the championship and a pretty mediocre match and the ending of worldwide 1997 left a really sour taste as fans realized that luker's title win was empty and pointless say what you want about lex luger but he was over during this time period even a month or two with the world title would have sufficed but after all was said and done we were right back to where we started at this point wcw was looking forward to starrcade on the in-ring return of sting jj dylan had been offering sting match contracts that jj felt would appease the stinger but sting only wanted the phase one man and that was hulk hogan eric bischoff wanted to build the inevitable match as slow as possible and in order to do this hogan would have to face other opponents and the run-up to starkid immediately following road wild hogan didn't work a single televised match until halloween havoc 97 and even then the wcw title wasn't on the line everything was secondary here when compared to the hogan vs sting rivalry and i just want to point out that i'm not bashing the creative decision at all here it was smart and it was the right thing to do the wcw title wasn't defended at halloween havoc because roddy piper was booked a bait hollywood hogan inside a steel cage a bunch of bogus stings stood around the cage watching the match and the show ended with piper taking a bidding from both hulk hogan and randy savage after hot rod scored the victory [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] when eric beschoff decided to create the new world order faction within professional wrestling he never envisioned the faction having a true ending he of course knew in the back of his mind that one day it would all come to a close because really everything has to come to an end eventually especially within the professional wrestling landscape when ted turner requested an additional wcw tv show for his network however any ideas of ending the nwo faction were completely forgotten about it simply was no longer an option for consideration wcw thunder on thursday nights created an incredible problem for eric bishop in wcw wrestling not only was eric stretched at his limits with nitro and his energy sobbing rivalry with vince mcmahon in the world wrestling federation but bishop was dealing with a tremendous amount of big name talent he was keeping eagles in check trying to keep creative in some sort of order keeping wcw profitable and i really do believe that eric bischoff sometimes doesn't get enough credit for the work he undertook during the monday night wars with the creation of thunder though eric had a few ideas a few plans that were actually pretty radical in terms of originality eric wanted to make thunder a strict world championship wrestling show and he wanted to change wcw monday nightro to nw monday nitro you can see why any thoughts of wrapping up the new world order storyline were completely out of the question eric bischoff said the nwo were supposed to take over niger and wcw were going to have thunder that was the strategy the strategy wasn't to put on the end of the nwo the strategy was how do i create nw to be its own unique and distinct brand and its own show there was never a desire to put an end to the nwo there was never a reason to put an end to it there was a desiring reason to try and build it as its own brand so it could sustain a kind of brand position within the wcw program when the thunder discussions began happening any thoughts of how do we end the nw storyline went out the window and it became more like okay we have this juggernaut called the nwo how do we best take advantage of it and how do we best utilize it the decision was made for nw to get nitro and wcw gets thunder that was the goal [Music] when it comes to the success of wcw during those fabled 83 weeks of the monday night war it's ridiculous to downplay how important the new world order really was we all know that kevin nash scott hall and hollywood hogan had their own agendas no one is arguing that but that doesn't mean the storyline wasn't a success it was a massive success even with the weird booking the indecisive match finishes the fact that the nwo put a limited amount of superstars over the new world order were still the hottest thing in wrestling the nw though were also so far removed from the traditions of world championship wrestling and the company's roots in georgia there was still old-school fans of wcw who felt that the nwo was nothing more than a bunch of new york guys coming in and collecting a paycheck and there's also a lot of truth to that during the glory days of the monday night war you had guys like ric flair and the horsemen and sting who would fight for the traditions of world championship wrestling and plenty of fans got behind their old favorites noticing that fans were effectively cheering for both the nw and the baby faces of wcw and noticing that the nwo branding held a lot of weight during the mid to late 90s eric bischoff's initial knee-jerk reaction was to change wcw nitro to nwo nitro a lot of people including the wrestling media criticize eric bishop for this move but when the common complaints of modern wrestling always center around everything being the same and wrestling having a real lack of originality these days well eric bischoff's idea should be at least praised for being very outside the box and something completely different it was a ballsy move eric truly felt that the popularity of the nwo could sustain a weekly show and traditional fans of world championship wrestling could be kept happy with a wcw exclusive show known as thunder we can only assume that there'd be crossovers between both shows and it's all very hypothetical in terms of how this would work we can only guess what was going to happen but fortunately there was a test run of nwo nitro that aired on tnt and today we're going to take a look at this broadcast to see how it all went down the very first episode of wcw thunder took place on january 8th 1998 and the pilot episode of nw nitro happened just two weeks prior at the time wcw nigeria was a three-hour broadcast and the trying these viewers ended this new wrestling experience the decision was made to air a more traditional first hour of wcw action before transforming the show for the final two hours it all happened on december 22nd 1997 six days before wcw's biggest grossing show in history starrcade97 you have to believe too that this was strategic to give credit the whole sting versus hogan angle had been built up very very well and wcw had a serious amount of viewership going into starkid putting on nwo nigro before starkid would expose an insane amount of fans to this new directive and it would also provide wcw with an incredible amount of feedback eric also really did believe that fans would enjoy it he felt the new world order was established enough to take over an entire tv show and keep in mind that this was 11 months after the ill-fated nwo sold out pay-per-view whether eric had more faith in his creation at this point who knows but at the end of the day eric had to try and do something the thunder program was a huge headache that wouldn't go away so bishop was seriously hoping that fans would buy into nw nitro is the future of his flagship monday night wrestling show and as ballsy as this move was you can't help but thinking back to sold out in january and how badly that pay-per-view was received the show kicks off with the nitro guards doing a dance routine as tony chavanni announces that eric beshoff has some sort of surprises in store tonight that's right nwo nitro was just completely sprung on the fans there was no announcement it wasn't advertised at all and this too was a strategic move wcw nigel was already a proven success with a track record of high viewership announcing a change this big could have potentially hurt that viewership so while it was a little sneaky it also made sense to test this out in front of a regular wcw viewing audience now that's not to say that a complete nw takeover of nitro wasn't hinted at or mentioned in storylines it very much was eric bischoff was wrestling larry zabisko at starkid 97 and if bishop won the nwo would gain full control of nigro so the concept of a new nitro broadcast with the new world order was definitely a proposition at least in the storylines the first 16 minutes of this nitro though was pretty standard the commentary team done a lot of work to build up starkid we had eddie guerrero versus fit finley ming vs steve mcmichael van hammer versus chris benoit we had promos from the giant and dallas page all seemed pretty standard after the benoit match nwo members rick rood buff bagwell vincent scott norton and conan paid a visit to the commentary desk siobhani mike tinay and larry zabisco disappeared and the nwo began handing out new world order t-shirts to the production staff some of which couldn't act to save their lives a few were seen smiling at this hostile takeover the nwo made the production crew remove wcw natural logos away from the set conan went into the production truck and he gave out more nw shirts while asking if the staff were with the nwo or not basically the new world order were bullying people into doing their dirty work even the arena banners were taken down and nw natural banners were used as replacements this was pretty cool but i do have two small complaints the first being that really it should have been hall nash and hogan calling the shots here and also the whole dismantling of the nigel set went on for over 10 minutes doesn't sound like much i know but it seems like an eternity when you're watching it to end the rebranding of mundy nitro a giant metal block with the nwo nitro logo gets lowered down from the ceiling covering the entranceway and then a new intro is played for the nwo portion of the show the intro shows an unnamed man destroying the wcw nitro logo and replacing it with the new nwo version and we see grainy clips of the new world order in action the destruction of the classic nitro set is pretty much what everyone remembers about this episode of nitro so now that we've got that out of the way let's take a look at the remainder of the show the first segment is of course an nwo promo eric beshov comes down to the ring riding a motorcycle and eric welcomes the fans to nwo nitro eric then introduces the new world order a long entrance takes place and bishop announces that he has some early christmas presents for hulk hogan as nwo nigel propaganda falls from the ceiling not one but two motorcycles are delivered to the hoaxter hogan is overjoyed he can't believe what the anw have done for him that's not all though hollywood hogan gets a convertible limousine hot tub and women included rick steiner was then scheduled to face scott norton in a one-on-one match jj dillon tells rick that he doesn't need to go out there and perform but rick and his manager ted dibiase decide to go ahead with the match-up the stanners music players in the arena is eric beshoff rickroot and kevin nash take over on commentary duties and we see a replay from last week's action you can see here that the replays use that grainy black and white nwo filter wcw trying to make this nitrogen different in every way possible a new screen overlay is used to introduce the competitors and during the match we can hear the voice of neil pruitt with his classic new world order sound bites very reminiscent of nwo sold out here the match ends under disqualification when conan gets involved scottie steiner ends up helping brother rick vincent and ray trailer get involved and yeah the match is over nothing special at all here [Music] kevin nash takes a little time to make fun of his upcoming opponent at starkid the giant funnily enough this match wouldn't happen nash apparently went to hospital because he feared he was suffering from a possible heart attack moving on disco inferno comes to the ring dancing and ripping up the nwo flowers on the floor and he'll be facing kurt hanig the night curtis putting his u.s title on the line when the match begins rick rude says that kurt hanig is toying with this boy and eric bischoff tells rick to be careful he might end up getting sued good stuff hennig pretty much dominates the entire match the audience gets a little excited when disco shows some signs of life but by and large this was incredibly one-sided [ __ ] often nash talked about how nwa nitro will be the new standard beginning on the 29th of december nash praises the video producers for putting together the intro to the show and bishop says that nwo natural will only feature the most elite superstars of professional wrestling the bird ends with the perfect plaques and after the match bobby keenan makes his way to the commentary desk bobby pleads with eric bishof to be part of nwo nigro the brain says that eric bischoff is a winner the nwo are winners and throughout his whole broadcasting career keenan has always been with the winning team eric bischoff gets tired of bobby's groveling and kevin nash ends up giving hayden his spot on the commentary table the next match doesn't feature any nwo guys at all it's harlem hate versus the flocks scotty riggs and lodi rickroot actually takes some time to praise booker t and stevie ray kind of strange to hear but it's also refreshing bischoff leads the commentary desk also during the match and mike tennais is brought back so rick rude is the only nwo member left on commentary harlem he'd get the win decent enough match nothing more to say lionheart chris jericho takes on buff the stuff bagwell next bagwell is his usual cocky self while jericho looks like he'd rather be anywhere else than on the cnw night rule show still jericho fires up early getting a chance to show off his athletic abilities and this one actually turns into quite a good tv match jericho flies around the ring while buff tries to slow things down on the mat bagwell does quite well in getting some cheap heat from the audience while jericho continues to impress with his fast-paced offense throughout the boat the match ends with the blockbuster buff bagwell scores the win although chris jericho completely carried the match from an in-ring perspective buff was good at getting the audience to boo him but jericho brought the action next up is yet another nwo promo the whole group comes to the ring once again to bestow more gifts on hulk hogan the hulkster gets a wcw world title ring easy says that this is an exact replica by the way and eric even gets down on one knee to give hogan the ring announcing that hogan is the champion of the world hogan's famous sports illustrated cover is displayed for all to see along with a photo from rocky iii thunder lips is choking out rocky balboa as the audience begins chanting for rocky and that's another segment over it seems that nwo nigel was all about giving presents to the holster what a great knight he's having next up is the nw nitro main event lex luger versus randy savage and i'm sure a lot of you who watch reliving the war or maybe a little surprised that luger and savage were still feuding with each other away until late 97 but yeah this rivalry would start and stop numerous times and the two men would make up and break up often randy dedicates the match to hulk hogan so let's see if the macho man can give the hulkster another present by defeating the total package things don't start out very well for the macho man as lex luger goes full throttle luger brings the fight to savage while stopping every now and then to fluff up his hair honestly luger done this constantly during this time period and it shouldn't annoy me but it really does savage is eventually able to lay in a few punches before choking legs with his boot the fight spills to the outside and lax is able to get the upper hand after fighting with savage in the audience back inside the ring lex hits savage with a series of clotheslines luger goes for the bionic elbow and the macho man moves out of the way while referee randy anderson gets nailed lex fixes his hair before delivering a gorilla press slam savage hides behind elizabeth on the outside and this allows buff bagwell to hit the total package from behind kevin nash ends up hitting the ring and luger takes the jackknife a big elbow from randy savage follows and the macho man scores the win really there was no other way this match was going to end anyway and anyone who watched main event nitro matches that featured the nw would know that run-ins were pretty much expected the final segment of nw nitro then take a guess who it includes of course it's eric bischoff and hulk hogan once again three separate promos featuring these guys in one night granted this was the final segment before the star key at hogan vs sting match so it made sense here but still it is a little too much i suspect some people will remember this one though the hulkster begins talking about starrcade and how the pressure was on sting to bring his a-game for the biggest match in wcw history some guy brings another present to hollywood eric bischoff is confused easy thinks this must be a gift from scott hall or kevin nash just then brad hart shows up in the nw limousine brett would be refereeing the bishop versus subisco match at starkid and hogan then opens up his gift it contains his own severed head hogan's reaction here is comical and it's made worse by the complete silence of the audience i think too many people were busy wondering why brad hart had just showed up to even care about the hulkster standing there holding his own [ __ ] head just then sting appears from the top of the endurance way and the stinger ziplines to the ring as nigeria goes off the air we don't get to see any more the screen fades the black as sting approaches the ring tune into starkid 1997 to see what happens next so the experiment that was nwo nitro was now complete it was time to get a little feedback and see if this test run could be made into a weekly show wcw nadro was in the middle of their winning streak against monday night raw so no need to worry about bidding the wwf in the railings but man it was very close nitro drew a 3.5 while raw drew a 3.1 to give some context here the nitro from the week prior drew a 4.1 and the nitro that aired the week after this nw edition scored a 4.6 now you also have to consider that nw nigel aired as fans were getting prepared for the christmas holidays viewing habits would naturally change around this time of year but wcw dropped quite close here to wwe for all levels and this nwo nigro episode drew wcw's lowest rating since july of 97 when the company were typically around that 3.5 area wcw had done well to break the 4 mark and nw naturals seemingly dropped them right back down when nitro went back to normal they bounced right back up into the fours so in short nw nitro was not a really success and fans seemingly tuned out to watch wwf raw the moment fans turned over to raw was when the nwo began dismantling the nitro set and as mentioned earlier i do feel that this went on way too long fans switched over to raw and they didn't return and this will get covered way down the line in the reliving the war series on this channel but over on raw we have the infamous shawn michaels vs triple h european title match there was a large portion of fans who wanted to see what happened with degeneration x on this night and not another nw takeover and i find that kind of interesting needless to say the wrestling media didn't care much for nw nigel either the observer seems to be one of the only outlets that gets archived these days and uncle dave said what we would all naturally assume there would be a lot of second guessing around turning wcw nitro into nwo nitro so you know how the story ends really wcw nitro continued as it was sabisco defeated bishop at starcade the sting versus hogan match ended with controversy and things just carried on as normal eric rethought his thunder strategy and he planned to give thunder its own set of big stars but that didn't work either thunder ended up becoming a sea show that didn't draw very well in comparison to the monday night wrestling shows still as mentioned earlier you have to respect the effort here and the philosophy around thinking outside the box nw nitro may not have resonated well with fans and on tv the planning and organization of the nw takeover could have been handled a little better fans didn't really care to see the nw setting up their own entranceway and whatnot think about this too if eric did announce that the 22nd of december edition of wcw natural would have a complete nwo theme then there's a very high chance that fans wouldn't have tuned in to begin with and the ratings winning streak could have ended a lot earlier so it was smart to try this unannounced even if it did make a lot of years switch over it was still a bad outcome but it could have been way worse i do respect the risk-taking aspect of it though keep in mind that nw nitro was an experiment it was a test it may have produced bad results but at least it was something different and it would be nice if someone out there in wwe land would try doing something different with their own product today thank you very much for watching hollywood hogan vs staying at starkid was made official during a contract signing held in late october of 97 fans would have to wait around two months before seeing one of the most hyped matches in wrestling history take place at the starrcade show wcw world war iii took place on the 23rd of november 97 and hulk hogan was part of the world war battle royal the hulkster appeared towards the end of the match as a surprise entrant and an elaborate nw plan led to scott hall winning the battle royal but let's just fast forward to stark here then the biggest match in wcw history and a night that would end up filled with controversy i've talked about this main event before in a previous video and i've gone over the finer details of the match and the build up so i'll keep things as brief as possible here i'll start by saying that the hulk hogan and sting entrances at starrcade97 are absolutely phenomenal the atmosphere in the arena is electric and the whole 18-month build-up finally coming to an end really does make for a grand spectacle i do believe that sting maybe should have came down from the rafters and i think it was a mistake having the stinger just walk on out there like any other competitor but still this didn't stop the starcade main event from feeling like a really big deal this type of spectacle is something that wcw struggled to achieve during the mid 90s but eric bishop and company completely nailed it at starkid the term big fight fail is so overused in modern wrestling and it's a term that's just slapped onto any main event these days but sting vs hogan really had that big fight fail and it's hard for me to think of a match in wcw afterwards that had the same energy when the bell rings though things began sinking pretty quickly i think we all expected more but in the end hogan vs sting was just possible again i'm not going to go over the details but hulk hogan pin sting at the end of the match and sting's shoulders were counted to the mat brad hart then showed up and he ordered the match to continue with the hitman as the new referee sting then applied the scorpion death lock and sting was crowned the new wcw champion it was a mess nick patrick's three count was supposed to be fast but it wasn't it looked like hulk hogan actually got robbed and the match never should have been restarted but what's done is done you can learn more about this in my starcade 97 video and i'll include a link at the end of the video the next night on monday nitro the controversy surrounding starkid was addressed hogan argued that nick podrick was supposed to be the one and only official involved in the starrcade main event and hogan also said that podrick ordered for the bell to be wrong and therefore the hosters should still be the world champion sting ended up issuing an open challenge to any nwo member on the same episode of nitro and hulk hogan accepted the challenge there was no decisive finish here nigel went off the air as sting hit the stinger splash accidentally hitting the referee at the same time fans had to tune in next week to see what was going on and in classic wcw fashion jj dillon said on the next episode of nitro that fans would need to check out the debut episode of thunder to get the latest news on the world heavyweight title so on the january 8th 1998 episode of thunder sting was forced to vacate the championship the two men had another match at super brawl aid and sting was able to defeat hulk hogan to once again become wcw champion randy savage had hulk hogan with a spray can while the nw tried to attack sting and this led to the mega powers exploding once again hogan would move into a rivalry with randy savage that would eventually lead to the complete split of the new world order randy savage and hugh hogan had been having problems in the run-up to super brawl yet savage remained a member of the new world order when savage caused hogan the title in the sting man event all bets were now off and hogan wanted to face the macho man at the uncensored pay-per-view inside a stay cage build as a power struggle between two nwo members hogan and savage ended again in typical wcw fashion without a clear winner the disciple interfered to help hogan and this led to sting coming down to assist savage but the macho man attacked the stinger before leaving the cage this brings us to spring stampede then hulk hogan teamed up with kevin nash to take on the giant and roddy piper kevin nash had also been having problems with hogan recently and this resulted in hollywood attacking nash at the end of their tag team match later in the evening randy savage had a title match with the stinger and thanks to interference from kevin nash randy savage became the new wcw champion the next night on nitro hogan challenged savage for the title saying that savage and nash had worked together to keep the belt away from the hulkster even though kevin nash got a little payback for the bat attack at spring stampede hulk hogan ended up becoming a four-time wcw champion thanks to brad hart jumping in this business with nash and savage though resulted in irreparable damage being caused to the new world order both in storyline and in reality and this resulted in a splinter group known as the nw wolf pack being formed kevin nash led the red and black version of the nwo while hogan maintained the black and white faction and the main storyline that would dominate the coming months within wcw was the war between the nwo wolf pack and nwo hollywood [Music] so the nwo wolf pack the red and black version of the nw the more hip and contemporary group that was created due to infighting within the nwo either you love the wolf pack or you just didn't care looking back now it's kind of weird that we accepted these middle-aged dudes trying to act like gangster robbers wearing baggy clothes and entering the ring to hip-hop music but it was a different time a different place and hey it's wrestling anything can work so how did the wolf pack come to be scott hall was the man he referred to himself 6 and kevin nash as the wolf pack during 1997. the best way to compare this would probably be how the elite were members within the bullet club faction at one point in 1997 there was no official red and black wolf pack but nash hall and six still refer to themselves as such check out the episode of nitro on the 28th of april 1997 to see the first time scott hall called the trio the wolf pack towards the end of 1997 the huge sting in hollywood hogan build would be seeing its payoff when the pair met in the ring at starkid 1997. sting left starkid 97 as the wcw champion but had to vacate the title due to the controversy surrounding the win hulk hogan would get another shot at the stinger and this is when the problems began happening within the nwu before moving forward you have to remember throughout this video that the nwo was a huge faction it was actually way too big what started off as nash hall in hogan grew under a huge gang in a matter of months of course with this many nwo members some would get irritated both on screen and off screen that they weren't getting their proper time to shine one of those members was macho man randy savage at super brawl 8 hulk hogan lost the sting in a match for the vacated wcw world heavyweight championship and was attacked by macho man randy savage later in the match after super brawl savage then made his intentions clear and declared that he no longer needed the nwo's help to win matches he also said that hulk hogan had dropped the ball in reclaiming the wcw title and he was going to go off their sting to try and bring the championship back to the new world order meanwhile sean walton who had been out injured since october of 1997 was released from his contract and sent to rehab shortly thereafter his click buddy scott hall was removed from television this all led to a confrontation between kevin nash eric bischoff and hogan on the march 26th episode of thunder when hulk hogan famously said that sex couldn't cut the mustard sex then returned to the wwf four days later as x-pac and returned the favor saying that if hall and nash were able to do so they would be joining waltman in the wwf and in dx eric bischoff replied the axe pack on nitro simply saying bite me with all this going on kevin nash also noticed that hulk hogan was all about himself and not about the greater good of the nwo on top of this he was not happy with how his friend sex was treated by eric bischoff with this in mind nash and hogan were still nwo teammates and they had a big match coming up where they would need to put their differences aside they were successful in doing so at spring stampede where hogan and nash defeated roddy piper and the giant but after the match hogan orchestrated a beat down on his tag partner later in the night kevin helped macho man roundy savage defeat sting earning savage the win which in turn made randy savage the new wcw champion hogan came out following the match not pleased at all while arguing that savage had his title hogan and the disciple then attacked nash and savage to close out the show hogan regained the wcw title the next night on nitro in typical wcw fashion the match between savage and hogan was booked with a no running stipulation but of course there were a lot of run-ins in the end brad the hitman heart helped hulk hogan capture the wcw title during all of this feuding between hogan savage and nash the other nwo members would soon have a decision to make do they side with hulk hogan or do they side with nash and savage kevin nash has since said that the nwo was split because he and hogan had legitimate heat with each other backstage and the pair didn't want to work with each other anymore mainly due to creative differences eric bischoff however has said that the nwo needed to split due to having too many members wcw thunder was originally planned to be a straight wcw show and monday nigel was going to be an nwo exclusive show however plans changed after the abysmal nwo nitro episode that deader in place of a traditional wcw nitro show was a complete failure on top of this the nwo themed sold out pay-per-view also didn't draw the kind of numbers bishop had hoped whatever story you care to believe the nwo was indeed going to split which is actually quite telling of the state that the nwo managed to get itself into on the may 4th episode of nitro nash savage and conan appeared wearing black shirts with a red nwo logo they called themselves the nwo wolf pack and soon they were joined by kurt hennig rickroad dusty rhodes and miss elizabeth this new branch of the nwo would work as baby faces while hogan's side still worked as bad guys wearing the classic black and white nwo colours hogan's side would be renamed nwo hollywood and would feature eric beshoff brian adams scott norton vincent and the disciple oddly bret hart would not align himself officially with nwo hollywood but was named as the recruiter for the black and white hills hall had been out with an injury but due to return at maid's slamberry pay-per-view the obvious assumption was that scott hall was joining the red and black wolf pack and he and nash were scheduled to defend the wcw tag titles against sting and the giant the giant joined nw hollywood shortly before slamberry but also remained loyal to the stinger that said that jan was the first person to suggest this thing that he needs to choose an alliance among the nwo factions on wcw at slambury hallmate has returned to wcw in the colours of the wolf pack as he teamed with kevin nash during the match however hall turned on his long-serving outsider tag partner by hitting him with the title belt which gave the win the sting and the giant the next night on nitro hall was introduced as the newest member of nwo hollywood lex luger would join the wolf pack and urge his friend sting to do the same on the may 25th edition of nitro in 1998 at the same time though nw hollywood were also trying to secure the services of sting sting revealed his decision on the following week schnitzel where we all thought sting had done the unthinkable and joined forces with hulk hogan only to rip off the black and white nw shirt he was wearing to reveal a red and black one underneath sting was now officially a member of the nwo wolf pack and he would replace his black and white attire and face paint to the red and black this would probably be a good time to talk about the image of the wolf pack along with the theme music the wolfpack came out a hip-hop song with lyrics such as don't turn your back on the wolf pack you might wind up in a body bag it was a cool song for sure the mw members also acted like wannabe gangster robbers wearing loose fitting clothes bopping their heads as they walked to the ring and using the wolf pack or the click hand gesture like a gang sign now bear with me here but looking at the main demographic of the viewers who enjoy this channel i can tell that half of you guys watching would have been in your late teens or early in the adulthood when the nwo wolf pack were in full swing just like myself so for a lot of us guys the wolf pack styling gimmick was pretty acceptable back in the day but man looking back at the wolf pack these days is it's it's hard to put in the words the sight of lex luger and kevin nash trying to show their street cred and later life is kinda like watching that embarrassing drunk uncle at the party for its time though nwo wolf pack was popular no doubt about that just watch some old nitros and you can see how over they were but looking back now it also definitely hasn't aged that well at all the music is still cool the red and black logo is still cool but honestly go back and watch some wolfpack promos these days still destroys a barn corbin promo though but anyway let's move on kurt hennig and rick rude would soon defect the nwo hollywood leaving the wolf pack a few members down at the great american bash on the same night sting won the wcw tag titles and chose nash as his tag partner the two would go on to defend the titles over on the nwo hollywood side hogan would drop the wcw title the rising star goldberg on a historic edition of monday nitro the hulkster would then involve himself in celebrity matches including the legs of dennis rodman carl malone and jay leno nash continued the feud with his old buddies scott hall hall and the giant got a tag titled shot at sting and nash on the july 20th episode of nitro which hall in the giant won after interference from nwo black and white recruiter brad hart the nash versus hall feud came to an end at halloween havoc when nash walked out of the ring and hall got a count out win nash stated that he didn't want to fight his old friend and he wanted the power to become buddies again this was on the same night that hogan faced the warrior in one of the most brutally bad matches that ever grace our wrestling ring many people forget though that brad heart also defeated nwo wolf pack members sting on this same night nash would go on to win the 60 man world war 3 match to secure himself a title shot against goldberg meanwhile at the world war iii pay-per-view scott hall would get kicked out of nwo hollywood hulk hogan soon announced his retirement from pro wrestling and scott steiner became the leader of the black and white nw during mid-1998 the new world order faction and wcw had split in two there was the nw black and white led by hulk hogan and there was the nwo wolf pack led by kevin nash the nw storyline had been a major success for wcw after the summer of 1996 but by the time we got to mid 98 things were getting a little stale the group had expanded in a big way and this led to the overall impact of the new world order getting watered down the nwo wolf pack did freshen things up a little and fans were receptive to the red and black version of the nwo but the new world order in general felt like a tired idea that wcw was running into the ground on the flip side of this 1998 was a pivotal year for the world wrestling federation wrestlemania 14 had ushered in the stone cold era with steve austin becoming the wwf champion and vince mcmahon had decided to update his wrestling organization to a much more contemporary product the wwf were full of fresh ideas while wcw were seemingly stuck with the nwo and their main event picture there was an exception though there was one man who was making a lot of noise in wcw he had no affiliation with the nwo he wasn't an old wwf guy and he was booked in such a unique manner that fans had no option but to pay attention that man was bill goldberg goldberg seemingly done the impossible in 1998 wcw he was able to break into the main event scene while guys like kevin nash and hulk hogan were at the top of the mountain on the july 6 1998 episode of wcw nitro in front of a record audience inside the georgia dome the undefeated bill goldberg became the wcw world heavyweight champion after defeating hollywood hulk hogan this ended up being the single most profitable episode of wcw nitro ever and it's a real moment in wcw history that you just have to see for yourself words can't do it justice something i'd like you to keep in mind throughout the entirety of this video though is that hulk hogan signed a new contract with wcw shortly before this episode of nitro so the creative control clause was also kept intact this is important and we'll circle back to this later with the world title now on goldberg hulk hogan would shift his focus onto other competitors such as the ultimate warrior and the hoaxer would eventually tease a retirement from wrestling while running for president starkid 1998 was headlined by wcw champion bill goldberg versus wolf pack leader kevin nash after a little assistance from disco inferno bam bam bigelow and scott hall and his trusty taser kevin nash done the unthinkable he ended goldberg's winning streak many fans today questioned this decision and again we'll talk about this in the second half of the video but it's insane how many people bash this outcome without watching the footage the audience inside the mci center in washington dc go absolutely crazy when nash wins the belt granted fans are probably cheering due to the shock of seeing goldberg take his very first wcw loss and empty pops like this evidently don't mean a lot in the long run but for all the complaints directed at kevin nash due to the starkid 98 finish no one can say that the crowd weren't extremely excited when goldberg got bait so to keep the timeline of events fresh nw black and white leader hulk hogan was the wcw champion going into the georgia dome on the 6th of july 1998. he was defeated by the unbeatable goldberg on a live episode of nitro and goldberg became the champion and then on the 27th of december 1998 nwo wolfpack leader kevin nash beat goldberg ending goldberg's run as wcw champion and also ending goldberg's long winning streak nitro was in baltimore the next night and kevin nash was annoyed that his win at starkid had an ostrich beside it thanks to disco inferno and scott hall getting involved big sexy came to the ring and he announced that goldberg will get his rematch the following week on nitro which ironically enough would be inside the georgia dome the same venue where goldberg won the title from hulk hogan back in july so we arrive at the 4th of january the very first nitro of 1999. during the first half of the show bill goldberg got arrested we didn't know what the charges were but it looked like the notch versus goldberg match was in jeopardy kevin nash was visibly upset about this turn of events while hulk hogan who was scheduled to make an appearance on nitro seem pleased with what happened hogan said that if goldberg was a criminal then he deserved to go to jail remember hogan was doing his phony presidential campaign during this time period as it turned out miss elizabeth was accusing goldberg of stalking her kevin nash came out of the arena saying that if miss elizabeth is behind goldberg going to jail then hulk hogan is obviously pulling the strings nash asks ric flair the wcw president at the time for a warm-up match against hogan nash said that goldberg would get cleared before the end of nitro and the nash versus goldberg rematch will still happen later in the night but big sexy wants a piece of hulk hogan in the meantime ric flair agrees so the fans in attendance are kind of expecting two kevin nash matches on nitro this evening and the wcw title would be on the line in both matches hulk hogan comes out for an interview and he agrees to the match also saying that he's going to beat kevin nash while retiring from wrestling as the world champion after the promo tony chavanni told fans what was going to happen over on raw in the main event tony told wcw viewers that mick foley was going to win the wwf title and he sarcastically said that that should put a lot of butts in seats we'll come back to this a little later too miss elizabeth admits that she made the accusations up and bill goldberg arranges a drive back to the georgia dome meanwhile it's time for hogan versus nash hogan comes out with nwo hollywood member scottie steiner and something i just want to point out here it's been reported time and time again that fans didn't want to see hogan vs nash here tonight but look at the audience they're dancing fans are actually dancing in the arena before the scheduled match you notice things like this quite a lot when you take the time to go back and do your research instead of reading reports or reading books or even watching wwe produce documentaries kevin nash comes out to a great ovation but the audience goes nuts when scott hall follows scott hall walks out wearing the nw wolf pack colours hogan and nash are annoying the squared circle and the two men circle around the ring for a little to waste some tv time nosh mocks hogan by ripping off his shirt in classic hulkamania style the audience is at a fever pitch and let's cut to the cheers finger poke of doom it was all an elaborate scheme hulk hogan just won the world heavyweight championship and it was a big plan all along to reunite the nwo while bringing the belt back to hollywood hogan goldberg shows up after finally making it to the arena keep in mind that tony shivani said earlier in the broadcast that the police station was just across the road by the way and bill goldberg storms the ring to take out the nwo things were going well until hogan hit goldberg with the title belt but goldberg was able to spare the hulkster lex luger then showed up and we thought luger was going to help goldberg but instead the total package assists hogan goldberg takes a baiting in the ring the plan nash versus goldberg match has obviously been axed and the show goes off the air with kevin nash saying to the camera can you say deja vu the nwo had reformed and this would be the birth of the nwo elite okay that's the first part out of the way you now know what happened on tv now it's time to look at some behind the scenes aspects and look at how the finger poke of doom truly affected wcw let's first tackle one of the biggest questions why did kevin nash beat goldberg and who made the decision to end goldberg's streak the common story we hear is that kevin nash had taken over his head booker in wcw before starkid and he booked himself to end the streak and win the title from what i've gathered kevin nash was indeed on the booking committee in some capacity and he did have the ability to throw out ideas but the final decision still came down to eric bischoff kevin nash along with diamond dallas page had become what was described as idea man they had seven creative meetings in give input but they didn't have any kind of final say it all came down to eric bischoff in the end but eric admits that his creative team during this time period were a bunch of yes man eric said i don't know whose idea it was and it's impossible for me to tell you other than a few creative bits that i know for a fact were mine 98 of the things you saw on tv were a collaboration from a bunch of different people so it's really hard to pinpoint who raised their hand and said kevin nash should beat goldberg it might have been kevin but it was probably someone else kevin was hesitant he had seen what happened when ric flair was the booker and when flair was booging for himself it made sense then because he was flair but rick also got a lot of hate for it it's a bad position to be in i doubt it was kevin's idea but when i heard it i went with it how do you keep the streak alive when there's nobody left so eric basically says that nash could have came up with the idea but he doubts it eric also confirms that he okayed the angle and eric did indeed have the final say so that's done kevin sullivan who was also on the committee at the time said eric and kevin were doing a lot of the booking it might have been eric's call it might have been kevin's call it might have been somebody else's call but when they gave me the finish i said please don't do it this way sullivan pretty much washes his hands of the whole thing yet he still doesn't say whose idea was kevin nash himself said people wanted to see goldberg get big but when he got big they went oh i'm not sure i wanted to see that that's only because of the 15 run-ins the cattle prods if we went toe-to-toe and if i had beaten goldberg with the power bomb i would have been a god the whole thing was designed to put together a faction to oppose goldberg it was the old-school hulk hogan philosophy built a team of hills that goldberg could fight for eight months that's the way it was laid out anybody that knows kevin nash knows that i'm a pretty smart guy if i'm going to beat bill goldberg after 172 wins in a row i'm sure is not going to turn around and next monday do a finger poke of doom and hand the bell to hulk hogan what did that do for kevin nash what did goldberg's streak do for kevin nash now if i'm going to pick myself i'm going to go on 173 win streak and dodge goldberg as a hill and so kevin nash also says that the booking decisions around starkid also didn't come from big sexy himself nash makes a great point too when you really think about it nash came out of the whole ordeal looking like a chump yes he did end the streak but to hand his achievement for doing so to hulk hogan really didn't do kevin any favors in terms of perception the key phrase that kevin nash said though was hulk hogan philosophy when we look at hogan's history with the wcw championship the poke of doom has hogan's fingerprints all over it excuse the pun kevin nash pretty much confirmed this during an internet q a days later when he said until hulk hogan completely retires from professional wrestling he's the man he can make your life in this business very easy if you're on his team his money and his power can make your life a whole lot easier you can either jump aboard his express earn a ton of money and live an easy life or try to fight him like i did for almost a year and not get used you're not going to beat him politically you're just not going to be able to function in a company when he's on top unless you're on his team it's a business decision and it's the right decision honestly my theory here is that hogan wanted to win the belt back in the georgia dome after dropping it six months prior in the same venue the creative team including kevin nash had come up with this idea to appease hulk hogan remember creative control so a bad decision was made to have kevin nash win the title and then nash les down the week later for hulk hogan you may wonder why hulk just didn't beat goldberg at starkid and it's a good question but keep in mind that hogan was only contracted for a certain amount of matches per year and starrcade was right at the end of 1998. this could also explain why the finger poke of doom didn't happen the night after starkid hogan's last match before the finger poke of doom was the atrocious halloween havoc showdown with the ultimate warrior and that was months prior plus goldberg had already paid hogan kevin nash versus goldberg at starkid was legitimately the first time the two men stepped into the ring in a one-on-one match and then there's the nbc wcw special that no one mentions wcw were negotiating with nbc to air a special event in a prime time television slot on valentine's day along with more specials down the road after their success with wwf saturday night's main event nbc reportedly wanted hulk hogan and randy savage in the main event for the first special this explains why randy savage returned the week prior and then didn't show up again until april and this explains why hogan came out of his quote retirement earlier than scheduled if nbc wanted hogan and savage then it's very possible that hogan and indeed wcw wanted the hulkster to main event the show with the wcw belt the specials though never took place the first special was to fill a hole in mvc's broadcast schedule when the nba all-star game was cancelled due to the 98-99 season lockout but in the end harvey schiller told eric bischoff the turner higher-ups were not very keen on nbc making profits from a turner broadcasting franchise and when the nba eventually returned to nbc after the lockout the daily completely fell apart and wcw did not appear on the network if all of this was the reason for hogan getting the belt then you have to appreciate the irony and the finger poke of doom happening on tv when in the end it was absolutely unnecessary hogan possibly won the belt in preparation for an event that didn't even happen as bad as the finger poke of doom was wcw airing on nbc could have led to a significant boost in viewership still this all doesn't change the fact that the fingerprint of doom was a per booking decision it's just a shame that we can't pinpoint who definitively came up with the nash versus goldberg finish and we can't pinpoint who came up with the finger poke of doom angle no matter what stories i've read online or the books that i've read if neither bishop sullivan or nash can confirm whose idea it was then to me we will never know who came up with one of the most infamous moments in wcw history there's been a lot said about how fans switched over to raw and tony shavonny announced on nitro that mick foley was going to win the wwf title around six hundred thousand fans not a million six hundred thousand turned over to raw from nitro to see the title change there's no doubt that this was a catastrophic blunder but as mentioned in guy evans nitro book the only book that contains painstaking research into the subject along with sources within tbs a total of 2.3 million viewers joined the tnt broadcast during the goldberg run-in at the end of the show this was due to nitro running a few minutes later than raw of course this was an eric bischoff tactic that done well to capture extra numbers before and after raw went on the air no doubt about it though announcing that there would be a new wwf champion crowned on the opposing show was a really bad move it was a free advertisement and a free invite for fans to switch over and see something special no matter how many viewers wcw got at the end of the nitro broadcast it was still a big mistake to announce what would happen on raw and remember too that fans who actually decided to stay with nitro were treated to the nash versus hogan match if there was ever a case of getting caught with your treasures then then this was it there's a giant misconception though that this whole episode of nitro drove fans away and there was no recovery afterwards like this was the only reason wcw went down the toilet but this is a very very big generalization that's been put forward to make the downfall of wcw seem more glamorous to try and blame the decline on a single entering moment on nitro and it's absurd to do so consider this the january 4th 1999 episode of nitro was behind raw with a 5.0 to the wwf 5.7 but the ratings in the weeks that followed actually showed that there was still some interest in the nwo reformation wcw thunder was able to achieve record ratings immediately following the incident drawing in ratings around the 2.5 area for the first time ever in january and february and nitro maintained the same viewership it had done immediately before and after the finger poke of doom even recording another two 5.0 ratings in the month of january sure the wwf were now beginning to destroy nitro but it wasn't until late april that the steady and consistent wcw decline truly began by that time hogan had already dropped the title so the evidence clearly shows that the finger poke of doom was not the sole reason for wcw's decline it's clear that it was a mixture of the wwf becoming a better product wcw and eric bischoff being forced to change nigro's content due to pressure from turner executives rendering the company unable to compete with the wwf's edgier product and also it was due to wcw going to the well once too often the nwo storyline had run its course by early 99 and people wanted to see something new and exciting content that the wwf was offering at the time wwf raw was simply a better show than wcw nitro wcw fans were tired of getting burned too with weak finishes and schedule matches not even happening a fine example being the night of the finger poke of doom a lot of fans paid to see nash versus goldberg as advertised and they didn't get that in the end with that being said though the same amount of fans would continue to tune into nitro for weeks after the finger poke of doom it had no immediate effect contrary to what everyone seems to publish on websites following the finger poke of doom incident in wcw the new world order faction went through another change the nwo wolf pack and the nwo black and white had been at war with each other but when hulk hogan joined forces with kevin nash after the finger poke of doom the nwo went through a kind of reboot that was supposed to bring the faction back to its glory days what we got instead was a messy and sometimes confusing reiteration of the groundbreaking group this time known as the nwo elite or more specifically the nw wolf pack elite today's video will look at the group's entire run which was thankfully quite short-lived and we'll also take a look at how the nwo era and wcw came to an end as a heads up my previous finger poke of doom video would serve as a good introduction to this video it kind of sets the stage for what was to come the nwo elaine is a hot mess for sure but hopefully by the end of this upload you'll understand why this version of the new world order spelled the end of an era for wcw our story begins then on wcw thunder january 7th 1999 the episode after the infamous finger poke of doom tony siobhani bobby haynen and mike tennai kicked the show off by calling hogan and nash's actions on nitro appalling and the world heavyweight championship had been disgraced wcw kayfield president ric flair came to the ring and he sent a message to kevin nash flair said in 10 years time knight will have to look at his kid and he'll have to tell the story of how he lay down in the middle of the ring for hulk hogan flair says that he knows who hulk hogan is flair was destined to walk behind hogan since the day the hulkster walked into wcw and the nature boy takes a job at the hulkster by naming guys like dory funk jr jack briscoe dusty rhodes ronnie garvin terry funk and harley race as true champions of wrestling hogan and nash are going to pay the price we just had to wait and see how the nature boy was going to go about it members of the nwo black and white were waiting for the arrival of hulk hogan backstage keep in mind that scott steiner had been the leader of nw hollywood during hogan's absence and stanner had also sided with kevin nash after the finger poke of doom so no one knew what was going on here with the new world order were they still at war with each other where hogan and stanner and i wolf pack members hogan showed up wearing well wearing this and he was also wearing the wolf pack colors scott steiner scott hall buff bagwell lex luger and kevin nash were also wearing red and black the giant approached hogan asking what was going on hogan said he would address the state of the nwo in the ring and he asked the black and white to watch his back backstage nw hollywood agreed later in the show the lw psychosis had a match with billy kidman and after the latino where lorder showed up the wolf pack made an appearance psychosis and huffington guerrera got the lw shirts ripped off their backs as kevin nash grabbed the microphone big saxy said he couldn't believe that ric flair would speak badly about the classic hogan vs nash match that took place on nigro hogan says that there has been world champions of wcw couldn't face facts the nwo wolf pack had set a new standard and the wolf pack now runs the show just then the nwo black and white showed up and the giant wanted answers the giants said that the wolf pack left the black and white backstage while this beatdown of the lw took place and the giant feels like the black and white are playing second fiddle the hogan and the wolf pack hogan said that he's cool with the black and white but he's not cool with the giant calling him out in the middle of the ring the hulkster says that the nwo are trimming the fat and there's only room for one giant in the faction claiming that kevin nash is the true big man of the new world order and so a match was booked for nitro the following week if the giant can beat kevin nash then the giant can take nash's spot in the nwo so yeah it's a mess here but at the same time this all sounds very familiar there's guys wearing red and black guys wearing black and white hogan is claiming there's no divide in the nwo yet the wolf pack is still used as a faction name they're supposed to be unity but the giant is facing kevin nash on nitro there's more questions than answers on the following episode of nitro hulk hogan and the wolf pack showed up in a limousine along with the hells angels and once again the nw black and white were left out hogan tries to tell scott norton that the whole group was supposed to arrive together and there was some sort of timing issue but the guys don't buy it what you're seeing here this whole thing with the nwo black and white getting treated like lesser members of the faction this would pretty much remain intact throughout this nw elite run guys wearing the white and black shirts would become known as the nwb team basically they were the mid to lower card players of the new world order a group of guys who nobody really cared about including wcw management anyway hogan gets into the ring and he says he'll take on anyone nash says he'll prove he's the real giant in the main event really there's nothing special going on kevin nash won his match later in the evening and so the giant was kicked out of the new world order earlier in the evening conan was kicked out of the wolf pack too when he tried to defend rey mysterio from lex luger and you may be wondering where sting was during all of this remember sting was a member of the wolf pack but unfortunately sting was out with an injury and he missed out on all of this on the january 25th episode of nitro the show opened up with nw black and white members kurt hanig and stevie ray discussing the nw elite kurt says that nash and hogan are trying to push the black and white away and stevie agrees stevie and kurt talked to the other members of the bay team and stevie ray announces that he's going to talk to hulk hogan about the problems within the new world order when the nw ela arrived in their private jet stevie ray ran the hulk hogan and he said that kurt hanig had refused to put on his nwo colours the nwo elite and the nwo b team then gave kurt hennig a beating and kurt was kicked out of the nwo stevie ray thought this would have been enough to secure him a little bit of status within the end of the 08 but instead he was thrown right back into the black and white team having to catch a ride with vincent instead of riding in a limousine with hulk hogan at least there was a little sense being shown here removing members of the new world order was absolutely necessary and i'm surprised there was an nwob team at all the manor leagues of the new world order served no purpose whatsoever while simultaneously working out all these issues among themselves the nwo's main rivals inside the ring were the four horsemen and bill goldberg kevin now stated in interviews that the nw elite's main purpose in wcw was to have a faction that goldberg could destroy over an extended period of time but like most things in wcw during this time period long-term booking plans quickly went down the toilet the nwb team continued to feel like second-class citizens in comparison to the elite while the elite began seeing the black and white aw was more of a hindrance than anything else you may be thinking to yourself that this was all leading to something but let me just ruin it for you it didn't the february 8th episode of nitro saw a hulk hogan approaching separate nw black and white members and telling each one that they were the leader of the bay team and two weeks later every member of the black and white claimed to be the leader while they argued among themselves this went on for weeks before finally stevie ray became the leader stevie ray won a battle royal that featured other nwb team members making him one of the more unremarkable leaders of the new world order let's go back then and refocus on the elite because really you don't need to know anything else about the nwo black and white hogan's first title defense after the finger poke of doom was against roddy piper on the february 15th episode of nitro piper won via dq when scott hall interfered later in the week at super brawl 9 the nature boy ric flair squared off with the hoaxer once again on wcw television and the world title was on the line the match ended when a masked man came to the ring and taser greg flair hulk hogan got the pinfall win and the masked man was revealed to be none other than david flair rick's son absolutely nobody cared about this revelation the audience didn't boo they didn't cheer they just didn't care david also looked incredibly out of place as a member of the nwo and i know it's not like you needed to be a high caliber superstar to join the new world order as evidenced by some of the guys who were already in the group but david flair made some of the nwb team members look like absolute superstars and what's more david was wearing the wolfpack elite colours in saying that disco inferno was also a member of the red and black and many people felt that he didn't belong either remember what i said earlier about how it was good that the nwo had gotten rid of some members well yeah they were all replaced ric flair challenged hulk hogan to a steel cage match at uncensored 99 for the world title at the pay-per-view hogan dropped the title and flair became a 14-time world champion it was another match filled with hulk hogan nonsense that old he beat me but he didn't really beat me stuff that hogan played near every time he had to drop the belt the match was supposed to be a first blood cage match no pinfalls of course and even though hogan tried to pin flair numerous times charles robinson wouldn't count flair's shoulders to the mod naturally but flair won the match with a fast three count even though both men were already busted open and so just like starkid 97 it looked like hogan got ripped off it was more of the hulk hogan [ __ ] that continued to tarnish the reputation of both the main event scene and the world heavyweight title and fans were now getting fed up with it the same thing happened the next night on nitro during a tag team match charles robinson simply refused to count flair's shoulders to the mat during a tag team match scott stanner and buff bagwell then had a falling out so we have some in-fighting going on with the nw18 where have we seen this before it looked like we were going to see another feud between kevin nash and hulk hogan as evidenced on the march 29 99 episode of nitro hulk hogan was seen talking to tory wilson and the hulkster said that he could beat kevin nash again if he wanted to we wouldn't find out what was really supposed to happen though as hulk hogan got injured at the next pay-per-view an injury that's still debated to this day because well it's hulk hogan the man called sting made his wcw return on the 5th of april 99 he was no longer affiliated with the wolf pack and it was announced that sting would get a shot at ric flair's wcw title along with diamond dallas page and hulk hogan a four corners match was set up at spring stampede 99 one of wcw's last really good pay-per-views and whoever won the match would be crowned the new heavyweight champion diamond dallas page got the win but during the match page put hogan in a figure four around the ring post leading to hogan being unable to continue the match in my opinion hogan knew he needed to have surgery and this was used to write him off tv for a while it would also explain why the main event was a fatal four-way match and it also explains why hogan had nothing but tag team matches since the uncensored cage bout also at spring stampede goldberg got revenge on kevin nash by bidding him in a singles match and disco inferno also had his last match as a member of the nwo clearly things were falling apart scott hall suffered a food injury that put him on the bench until october both bagwell and scott steiner were fighting among each other and big papa pump would soon end up sidelined with a back injury lex luger had suffered a bicep injury that would keep him out of in-ring competition until september and now hulk hogan was taking a break in terms of big-name superstars all that was really left was kevin nash which is quite ironic saying as nash gets labeled as injury prone with luger hogan hall and eventually scott stanner all out with injuries the future of the nwo looked seriously bleak there was of course the nwob team but the wolf pack had done an incredible job in making the bay team look like mid-quarters that it would have been ridiculous to raise these guys up into the main event in storyline kevin nash blamed diamond dallas page the wcw champion for putting hogan out of action a title match was booked for slamberry big sexy versus ddp and kevin nash won the match being 1999 wcw the win wasn't without controversy macho man randy savage interfered in the match and originally nash won via disqualification eric beshoff restarted the boat and nash ultimately picked up the title after delivering the jackknife power bomb as the weeks went on then the nwo wolf pack became a memory the only holdover being the fact that kevin nash would still come out of the wolfpack theme music the nwob team would still get featured on tv but they too began to slowly distance themselves from the nwo name it seemed like wcw was now free from the new world order but still the television ratings continued to drop kevin nash dropped the wcw title at bash at the beach in july in a tag team match nash teamed up with sting to take on sid vicious and randy savage and because savage got the pinfall victory over nash the macho man became the new wcw champion the very next night hulk hogan made his return to wcw and the hulkster was wearing an nw shirt the hulkster accepted an open challenge from randy savage for the world title kevin nash wearing an outsider shirt helped hogan win the wcw championship later in the evening so yes hogan came back from injury and he reclaimed his wcw title on his very first night back in the company this wasn't an nw reunion however after the match kavanagh told hogan that he wants him in the ring and he wants to win the title from hogan the kevin nash versus hulk hogan match wasn't something that wcw had tapped into yet at least not without finger pokes and all that nonsense so the next week kevin nash aligned himself with rex steiner and sid vicious and a match between hogan and nash was made official for worldwide 99 a wcw championship match where the loser would be forced into retirement on the august 9th episode of nitro nash said and rex stanner were scheduled to take on goldberg hogan and sting and hogan's american-made theme played in the arena as the audience wondered what was going on out walked hulk hogan once again wearing the red and yellow attire for the first time since 1996. at the road wild pay-per-view hogan successfully retained the world title meaning kevin nash had to retire this being wrestling the retirement didn't last long hogan dropped the wcw title to sting at fall brawl 99 the stinger turned heel at the end of the match by using a baseball bat against good guy hulk hogan sting also had help from sid vicious lex luger and diamond dallas page so it's as far away from a clean finish as humanly possible during the same time period wcw was going through some big changes backstage eric bischoff was getting phased out while vince russo was getting broadened and russell felt that hulk hogan should take a break from wcw and apparently no time frame was given to hogan in regards to his return and hogan's book which i know isn't a great source hogan said he had reservations about taking time off but he eventually agreed to do so in a fan example of vince russo's booking style hogan showed up at halloween havoc 99 to face sting for the world title only hogan lay down in the middle of the ring allowing the stinger to pin hulk and successfully retain the tile there's been many different reasons given as to why this happened a common theory is that russo wanted hogan to lose in under a minute but hogan refused preferring to lay down in the ring instead another theory is that this was done to repackage hulk in the future for a feud with the powers that b in wcw who knows people seem to dismiss hogan's creative control clause here and i'm not sure why it's to my understanding that hogan could legally say he didn't want to do the match if he didn't want to do the match but it really doesn't matter the end result was another slap in the face to wcw fans who paid for a ticket to see hogan vs sting that's going to do it for today because the next phase of the nwo has already been covered nw2000 is on the channel and i'll leave a link at the end of the video for you to check out truly though the nwo's glory days and the company were completely gone by the time the nw18 was formed initially fans stuck around to see how it would all pan out but by april of 99 less and less viewers began tuning in the nitro as the nwn fighting became more and more confusing wcw to their credit did try a few new things such as putting the title on diamond dallas page but in typical wcw fashion they reverted right back and things became familiar again for example another hogan vs savage rivalry vince russo tried to revive the new world order with the nwo 2000 but the true era of the new world order dominating wcw nitro was now completely over the nwo 2000 was never going to recapture the feeling of a hostile takeover and the nwo 2000 was never going to bring back those viewers who switched over to raw things would get even more strange for hulk hogan and wcw after halloween havoc and next time we'll look at hogan's exit from world championship wrestling along with the infamous badge at the beach 2000 incident thank you for watching [Applause] the following announcements have been paid for by the new world order [Music] [Applause] the new world order had brought a huge amount of success at wcw during the mid-90s the storyline and faction had helped eric bishof and world championship wrestling become the number one wrestling promotion in the united states but it can be easily argued that the nwo was also severely overexposed and overused there had been so many nwo group reintroductions that it got confusing for casual fans nwo black and white the wolf pack there was the nwob team nwo japan the nw elite the three-man stable of kevin nash scott hall and hulk hogan had morphed into a spatters web of guys who had their own feuds going on both inside and outside the faction it became fairly obvious that the wcw higher-ups including the main event the nwo guys didn't want to let go of their male target even when the storyline was dead in the water it's telling that wcw didn't book a giant blow-off match or angle for the nwo in mid-1999 the end of the new world order could have maybe brought back some interest but instead nwo members kind of drifted off and the new world order brand was there one week and then it was gone the next to sum it up the nwo were victims of their own success still there was one last effort to bring the nwo back to wcw towards the end of 1999 a last-ditch effort to strip the faction down to the bare bones and reboot the entire storyline that gave wcw an incredible edge over the competition this video then we'll look at the creation of nwo 2000. on october 3rd 1999 vince russo signed with wcw russo had been a member of the wwf creative team and the executives at wcw thought that russo could carry over some of that wwf success by making rousseau the head writer at world championship wrestling we all know how that turned out i don't think i need to talk about vince russo's success at television production within wcw but interestingly vince russo said that one of the very first things he wanted to do in wcw was make brad hart the top guy when brad hart showed up in wcw towards the end of 1997 after the montreal screwjob took place the company were presented with an unbelievable opportunity to build a captivating storyline and angle around the head man many thought the whole company should begin evolving around brett striking the iron while it's hot in order to maximize potential viewership and media attention but instead wcw and eric bischoff completely blew it when it came to brad hart's first months within the company bischoff blames brett brad williams bischoff but it really comes down to wcw being wcw no new guys were going to come in and disrupt this nwo money train no matter how good they were or where they came from bishop simply thought that if it ain't broke don't fix it and this lack of forward thinking could be applied to many different factors that led to the ultimate demise of world championship wrestling still when russo came into the company to take over as the head of creative among all the other wild ideas he had vince wanted to put brad hart on a pedestal and make the hit man a true main eventer of wcw russo said he was huge one of the things i noticed when i went to wcw was that they didn't know how to use brett they just didn't know how to use him and i had so much respect for this guy from working with him in the wwe i just wanted to get him in a spot he belonged in so yeah i had big big plans for him at that point it didn't take long for brett's wcw push to begin under the watchful eye of vince russo wcw mayhem in 1999 the first wcw pay-per-view to ever take place in canada would feature the semi-finals and finals of a world heavyweight championship tournament a tournament that the hitman won after defeating names like goldberg perry saturn billy kidman sting and finally chris benoit i know brett likes to say he doesn't have any good moments in wcw and he'd rather forget his whole run within the company but brett fan should check out mayhem 99 the sting and chris benoit matches here were good and it was good to see brett finally reach the top of the wcw mountain the only problem here though is that it was too little too late wrestling fans were all about the wwf and the attitude era during this time period had wcw went all the way with brett when the hitman first showed up on nitro then things could have been different but yeah here we are still russo was true to his word the main event sin would begin centering around the new world heavyweight champion brad hart so far you might be thinking that vince russo was doing a fairly decent job here and picking a guy up who should have been at the top of the ladder anyway but remember this is vince russo we're talking about here ultimately the plan was to turn brad into a bad guy once again not only would brad turn hill but brad would be the leader of a reborn new world order faction known as nwo 2000. now i'm going to be honest we're talking about vince russo booking here towards the end of 1999 some of this won't seem to make any sense but you have to throw your better judgement out the window here and just play along during brett's final match at mayhem against chris benoit kevin nash and scott hall interfered targeting both heart and benoit goldberg came to the ring to aid the hitman and the crippler and the match continued on afterwards the next night on nitro brett came to the ring and he said he'd give bill goldberg a title match at starcade goldberg was attacked by the outsiders during his first round tournament match with brett and so the hitman wanted to give goldberg a shot at the goal the wcw's biggest pay-per-view of the year hall and nash interrupted brett and a challenge was made the outsiders versus brad hart and goldberg on monday nitro as brett was about to leave the ring the chosen one jeff jarrett jumped in smashing a guitar over the head man's back brad says he'll take care of jeff jarrett later on nitro while goldberg will take care of the outsiders brett won his match against jared while goldberg teamed up with old rivals sid vicious to take on hall and nash the outsiders won this tag team match the next week on nitro jeff jarrett aligned himself with the outsiders after the chosen one helped nash and hall in a three-way tag team cage match that also featured bret hart chris benoit said vicious and goldberg goldberg was able to beat jeff jarrett the following week after getting help from brad hart and some other baby faces of wcw so you can see the picture that russo was trying to paint here in the run up the star kid brad hart and bill goldberg were your honorable good guys of wcw who were looking forward to their match at starkid but in the background you had hall nash and jeff jarrett causing issues for both men to further solidify the friendship between bret hart and bill goldberg the pair won the wcw tag team titles on the december 9th 99 episode of thunder thanks to roddy piper coming out and replacing a biased referee brad said after the match that the whole world will truly find out who is the best there is the best there was and the best there ever will be at the starkid show goldberg and brett's ran his tag champions didn't last long the outsiders won the tag titles the following week on nitro when bret hart was mysteriously attacked backstage we never saw the attack on tv screens the hitman did try to run in and help goldberg during the match but brad ended up getting pinned by kevin nash the goldberg versus bret hart starkid matchday and has become infamous brad knew that goldberg worked stiff and apparently brad said to goldberg backstage that he can do whatever he wants in the ring but just don't injure anyone brett was reportedly up for a hard-hitting main event but he was extremely wary of goldberg's ring abilities brad and goldberg shook hands before the match things were going fine during the opening moments goldberg dominated the hitman but brett began working on goldberg's leg softening it up for the inevitable sharpshooter around the 10-minute mark brad hits the referee seemingly by accident after the wrath bump brad hart takes the sidekick from goldberg that would pretty much end his wrestling career the kick from goldberg led to a concussion brad said that he knew he had to get back to his fate to finish the match but he had completely forgotten what the finish was brett's memory slowly came back and the match ended with roddy piper coming out to officiate the match ordering for the bell when goldberg was locked in the sharpshooter a dazed and confused brad hart acted like he didn't know what had just happened but you can't help but think that some of brett's confusion at the end of starcade was very legitimate brad wood of course continues showing up in wcw but ultimately brad's diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome led to bret hart eventually retiring from professional wrestling the severity of bret hart's injuries were either not known to wcw staff or people just felt it would get better as time went on as the very next night on monday nitro brad hart was involved in wcw's next major storyline that was originally going to set the scene for the months that followed to start things off kevin nash came to the ring talking about how the office doesn't care about the boys in the back talking about the lack of benefits and security that's offered the wrestlers of wcw quite a turnaround in comparison to promos nash had been delivering but still this promo came off pretty well and it was all set up to make kevin nash look like a good guy kevin said that the office will screw any of the boys to make a dollar and that's exactly what happened to bill goldberg nash went on to say that he doesn't like belle but what happened at starkid wasn't right and kevin says that brad hart screwed goldberg before calling the headman a piece of [ __ ] roddy piper then has a work shoot promo where he says he done what vince russo told him to do the screwjob finish was written in the script but roddy thinks the ending of starkid was awful and the fans want to see men fighting in the ring and not a load of phony storylines goldberg and brad hart show up goldberg told piper that he made the wrong decision at starkid while brad hart said this is all down to the office echoing kevin nash's sentiments regarding the higher-ups in wcw making the boys in the locker room look bad brad said he didn't want to be the champion if he didn't beat goldberg fair and square so the hitman went back to vince russo and he vacated the championship it was decided then that brad hart versus goldberg would happen one more time on nitro with the vacated wcw championship on the line keep in mind that brad was working with a severe injury here the referee gets knocked out brett delivers a low blue and as the hitman applies a figure four leglock on goldberg the outsiders hit the ring we think that hall and nash are coming after brett but instead goldberg gets attacked the outsiders hand a baseball bat to the hitman and it's made clear that the outsiders were in cahoots with brett all along roddy piper tries to help goldberg but he gets taken out and brad hart scores the pinfall win jeff jarrett then hits the ring proceeding to smash a guitar over piper's head before grabbing a few cans of spray paint the old familiar nwo3 music plays in the arena and kevin nash grabs a microphone saying that the band is back together with bret hart now as the leader the new word order we're back this time the group would be known as nwo 2000 and it featured four initial members us champion jeff jarrett tag team champion scott hall and kevin nash and the world heavyweight champion brad hart this version of the nw would have a black and silver logo instead of the classic black and white with the word new underlined in the nwo 2000 logo the immediate problem here though as you can probably tell is brad's involvement while i'm sure the best of intentions were there brett would be unable to lead the pack and he'd shouldn't be disappearing from tv screens had brett not suffered that injury at starkid things would have been very different but because the original plan could never get played out on tv the story of nwo 2000 feels unfinished and inconclusive the group was pretty much abandoned and the addition of new members would kind of hurt the credibility of the faction still the nw2000 came to the ring on the december 23rd 99 episode of thunder for their very first promo together brad said that this was all planned for over a month while clips are shown of the nwo's master plan unfolding over the past few weeks kevin and scott go on to say that the fans are stupid and jeff jarrett well jared talks about this nwo being different saying there will be no watering down with additional members and that of course wouldn't be the case at all later in the evening the nwo's biggest enemy bill goldberg managed to injure himself when he smashed a limousine window a window that wasn't gimmicked and so this new nw2000 with its severely injured leader and severely injured biggest enemy was already off to a terrible start bret hart and bill goldberg weren't the only problems here though those who watched wcw during this time period would know that scott hall was brilliantly showing up the tv shows completely wasted hall wouldn't show up sometimes on nitro and eventually his adventures during a european tour in february of 2000 would result in scott getting released from his wcw contract according to hall anyway watch this time period back though while hull can admittedly be quite funny he can also be terribly distracting speaking over other nwo members during promos and whatnot the december 27th edition of monday night rule would see nwo 2000 go on a backstage rampage before setting their sights on a new target sid vicious when brett got word that sid wanted a wcw title shot at sold out 2000 the nwo decided to spray paint sid's car said got a little revenge later on and it was decided that kevin nash and scott hall would face sid and the wall in the main event only scott hall didn't show up for this edition of nitro scott stanner ended up joining nw 2000 at the end of this broadcast helping the other nw members take out the wall and sid before bret hart ran over sid's car with a monster truck so things were pretty standard up until this point and things kind of made sense but when brett let the wcw higher-ups know that he now needed time away from the ring it seemed like all hell broke loose and wcw didn't know what to do commissioner terry funk booked a match between kevin nash and brad hart on the january 10th episode of nitro if brett didn't wrestle he would get stripped of the championship and kevin nash went ahead with the match because he wanted to become champion the match ended with arn anderson and sid vicious attacking nash and hart but the damage was seemingly done here the nwo 2000 was already beginning to fall apart and the january 12th episode of wcw thunder would prove to be a pivotal night for this new incarnation of the new world order brad hart didn't arrive to the building with the nw the hitman came down to the ring for a promo without his nwo colours brad said that he had let everyone down because he tried to take shortcuts and brad is now seeing things very differently brad apologizes for getting associated with the nwo the hitman announces that he has left the faction and the pink and black attack is back nash jared and stanner come out now said that brad could have been a god if he stuck with the new world order going on to say that the fans loved the nw and the fans only cared about brad hart recently because of his association with the hill faction brad says that he will take on each and every member of the nwo nosh gives brad a chance to leave the building and go home brett refuses and with that kevin nash tells brad hart that tonight the head man's career will be finished the nw are seen beating brad hart backstage throughout the night but brett comes to the ring at the end of the show to confront his attackers saying he hasn't ran away from anything in his life and he isn't going to start now nash and jared come to the ring with bats commissioner terry funk and aaron anderson come to help brett terry is even carrying a branding iron terry tells brad to get out of the ring so nash and jared can get branded but arn anderson throws a bucket of water over brett double a notices that brett's bruises and cuts are coming off and with that brett and the nwo begin beating up terry funk and aaron anderson it was all another big vintage swerve brat has his nw colors on underneath the calgary hitman shirt and yeah the nwo were still in full force soldier 2000 opened up with the news that brad hart would not be defending the wcw championship in the main event the title had been vacated and chris benoit was stepping in for brad hart wcw were honest here they showed the kick from goldberg that led to the concussion and so brad hart was now unable to compete in the ring brad would still show up to cut promos and interfere in matches his contract wasn't officially terminated until october of 2000 but brad didn't wrestle another match for the company on top of this jeff jarrett also missed sold out 2000 he too had a head injury the two came out of his scheduled three sold out matches on the evening the only member of nwo 2000 who had a match that sold out was kevin nash big sexy defeated terry funk to become the new wcw commissioner and from here things just got more ridiculous and hard to follow the harris brothers had been acting as jeff jarrett's bodyguards and they too became members of the nwo and because of kevin nash's decisions as wcw commissioner the group once again kind of got split where nation hall became like the wolfpack spin-off and jeff jared and the harris brothers became more like the nwo black and white scott steiner on the other hand who knows what he was up to he was too busy cutting promos about how it's much cooler to watch steve austin and the wwf instead of watching nitro while all of this was going on nash suffered an ankle injury that kept him out of the ring scott hall had his final matches uncensored before getting fired and by the time eric bishop showed up to write wcw shows alongside vince russo the nwo had been completely dismantled jared stanner and the harris brothers joined the new blood while kevin nash joined the millionaires club if creative wasn't already questionable enough in wcw the injury and loss of nwo leader brad hart really put the direction of the faction in complete chaos you've also got goldberg the main babyface of the angle missing in action he then had jared not appearing at sold out scott hall seemingly disappearing and reappearing at random times and kevin nash trying to keep things steady but failing to do so with the constant changes that were going on once the harris brothers came in with all due respect it seemed like wcw had topped out on the angle wcw got around three months out of nwo 2000 only around three weeks of it were worth watching while the rest was a fine demonstration of the pure lack of direction wcw had at the time it does make you wonder what the ultimate plan was for bret hart in the year 2000 though of course a goldberg versus heart rematch was inevitable but you also had the upcoming return of hulk hogan along with the return of a man who had previously failed the elevate brand to the next level in wcw won eric bischoff with this in mind it's probably safe to assume that the future looked pretty dull for bret hart anyway and while the nwo 2000 was a nice idea to get brad post as a big heal in wcw the whole faction could never live up to its old roots back in 1996 when the wwf locker room was asked how they would feel about hulk hogan kevin nash and scott hall making a return in 2002 the question was met with mixed responses many guys who formed the wwf roster at the time had worked alongside the nw and many had first-hand experience of the faction's political moves within wcw you also had your wwf veterans who stuck with the company throughout the monday night wars and these veterans felt that guys like hogan nation hall had legitimately tried to put the world wrestling federation out of business vince mcmahon however knew there was still value in the nwo name and more so there was a ton of value in the hulk hogan name it can't be denied that hulk hogan was instrumental in making the wwf what it is today the golden boy of a previous generation who helped make wrestlemania the pinnacle of sports entertainment the epitome of eddie's wwf who the company was built around for so long with a great deal of success for vince mcmahon bringing hulk hogan back on a tight leash of course was a no-brainer while many guys didn't want to see hogan and the outsiders back in the locker room vince mcmahon approached one of his biggest stars the rock to see how the great one felt about hulk hogan coming back to the world wrestling federation not only this vince mcmahon asked the rock how he felt about having a match against hulk hogan at wrestlemania rock loved the idea vince pitched the hogan match to rocky as a means to establish the greatest of all time a battle of the generations to find out who really was the one true icon of professional wrestling with the rock sold on the match and the business upside being too great to pass up the rest of the locker room would really have no other option but to get on board with hulk hogan and the outsiders coming to the wwf under the nwo banner vince mcmahon got in contact with hulk hogan and to establish that tight leash vince mcmahon told hogan that if he's coming back he better bring it hogan had gotten by with doing the bare minimum over the past few years of his professional career in vince mcmahon's wwf in 2002 there was an expectation to deliver in the ring the rock was not vince mcmahon's first choice for hulk hogan's wrestlemania 18 opponent stone cold steve austin was approached by mcmahon before rocky and steve austin refused to work with hogan at wrestlemania steve austin said in the wwf raw magazine i really didn't have a problem with the nwo me and kevin nash used to be riding partners he's a good friend of mine the only one i heard that was a pile of trash was hulk hogan because he's a manipulator and he does backstage politics he's proven that to this day steve austin also said in a different interview it could have happened i just never really wanted to wrestle the guy i guess that's the most honest answer that's a matchup that looks good on paper but i don't think it would have looked that good once it got in the ring i was in a different place at that time i tried to make that happen in wcw and obviously i wasn't high enough on the totem pole for him to consider it when it came time to when it could have happened while i was in the wwe the timing wasn't right this video was going to focus on rock versus hogan but i felt it necessary to get the steve austin stuff out of the way too as austin would end up working against scott hall during this time period a series of events would lead to stone cold no showing wwf shows and eventually austin would walk out of the company still that's for a different video let's move back to the rock even though the people's champion was the second choice here rock didn't really see anything wrong with doing business with hulk hogan at wrestlemania rocky understood that hogan would be doing the job too i think that much would have been made clear when the whole nwo debut was pitched to both austin and rock hulk hogan has even gone on record to say he didn't have any issues losing to the rock or austin at wrestlemania so that key fact that key victory over a wrestling legend like hogan sure would have been enough to sweeten the deal but with that being said this is wrestling outcomes can change before and even during a match rocky said he knew not to count his chickens before they hatched when it came to match outcomes still vince mcmahon's wrestlemania teen pitch had gone over well with the rock and plans were made to bring the nw into the world wrestling federation at the norway 2002 pay-per-view in storyline vince mcmahon had been having a power struggle with ric flair over the complete ownership of the world wrestling federation when things got tough vince decided that the best course of action was to kill the company that he created if vince couldn't have the word wrestling federation then no one could have the word wrestling federation on the january 24 2002 episode of smackdown vince announced that in order to destroy his own creation he would inject the wwf with a lethal dose of poison and that poison was the new world order videos aired over the next few weeks that hyped the wwf debut of the nw at the wwf no way out pay-per-view while long-time old-school fans were coming to terms with hulk hogan finally making a return to the world wrestling federation this was huge hogan left the wwf on bad terms and in wcw hogan and company were ferocious in their quest to make wcw the most watched wrestling program in the united states by any means necessary and let's not forget about scott hall and kevin nash too diesel and razor ramon were at one time big wwf attractions and it was their jump to wcw that sent the monday night wars into overdrive and many fans were curious to see how a national hall would get used during this return [Music] at the wwf no way out 2002 pay-per-view the show kicked off with that familiar nwo3 music out walked scott hall kevin nash and hollywood hulk hogan it was truly something that many wrestling fans thought they would never see holland nash said that they aren't the bad guys here they're fans of the wwf and they don't want any trouble trying to come across as good guys here scott hall got a great ovation from the audience but when it was time for hulk hogan to speak the crowd broke out and a huge hogan chant hulk said the nw is here to make the wwf better all they want is a chance to prove themselves to both the fans and the boys in the locker room hoax said god bless vince mcmahon god bless the fans and god bless america it looked like the nwo had turned a new leaf even bumping under the rock and steve austin backstage and trying their best to remain friendly but when the heel faction cost stone called the undisputed championship at the end of the pay-per-view it was clear that the new word order were still bad guys after all hollywood hogan came to the ring the next night on raw is the fans again chanted hulk's name hogan talked about how good it was to be back in the wwf ring saying that the world wrestling federation made hulk hogan a legend and the fans of the wwf had seen hulk hogan do it all during the mid 80s and early 90s to bring the mood down hogan said something happened you people turned on me why did you start taking hulk hogan for granted i never wanted to leave the wwf i wanted to stay in the wwf and i wanted to end my career in the wwf suddenly you didn't have any more respect for hulk hogan suddenly you drove me out of the wwf i'm the reason all you people are here i'm the one to put the wwf on the map i'm the one who made wrestling as big as it is today there's nobody in this business that's a bigger icon than i am i'm the biggest star past or present in the wrestling world today and there'll never be a bigger star in the wrestling business than hollywood hulk hogan at that very moment the rock came down to the squared circle hogan and rock took their sunglasses off to get a good look at each other is the two men circled around the ring rock said that nobody could have foreseen hulk hogan and the rock standing in the same ring at the very same time before telling hulk hogan that it wasn't the fans who drove him out of the wwf rocky says the fans loved and believed in hulkamania and rock even admits that he once believed in hulkamania rocky said you are without a shadow of a doubt a legend you are without a shadow of a doubt an icon quite possibly the best ever and seeing as you're back in the wwf because of vince mcmahon the rock has one thing to say you talk about headlining wrestlemania after wrestlemania after wrestlemania well hulk hogan how do you feel about headlining one more wrestlemania with the rock with the challenge now let down the rock and hulk hogan stood face to face as jim ross says it feels like time has stood still rock and hogan looked out at the fans turning their heads left or right and right to left as the audience chanted for both men it couldn't have worked out any better here this stare down would get reused in the wrestlemania match to dramatic effect and it's one of the moments that many fans remember vividly from wrestlemania 10. hogan says that the rock is nothing more than the flavor of the month the hulkster has seen guys come and go and the people's champion is just like all the rest rocky interrupts hulk by demanding an answer telling hogan that the proposed wrestlemania 18 fantasy match would transcend the wrestling industry as both men competed to see who the best really is the rock asked the people if they wanted to see the immortal hulk hogan versus the great one at wrestlemania and finally hogan agreed to the match the two shook hands but the people's champion pulled hulk back in for the rock bottom and as rocky was making his way back up the ramp scott hall and kevin nash blindsided the great one leading to the rock taking a bidding from the nwo that saw rocky take a bunch of finishers along with the classic nw spray paint job eventually rocky was put in an ambulance but the nw were not content with the punishment they just dished out hulk hogan decided to ram the ambulance with a semi-truck the rock was written off tv for a short period of time while the nwo moved their focus onto stone cold steve austin while austin didn't want to work with hogan he did agree to work with scott hall so hall versus austin was pencilled in for wrestlemania 10. hulk hogan kept his rivalry with the rock going by cutting promos on the great one while rocky wasn't there to answer back even cutting a promo on a cardboard cutout that was still strangely entertaining the driving force behind the match was all about who was the very best who was the biggest superstar in the history of wrestling and yes many fans would say that neither hogan nor rock belonged in a match with this high of a billing and many fans would say that it was pretentious for the wwf to slap such a tagline on this wrestlemania match personally i do feel that austin vs hogan would have meant a lot more but beggars can't be choosers this is what we got and at the end of the day the rock and hulk hogan made the absolute best of it to ensure the match would go without a hitch the hulkster done something he never used to do he sat with the rock michael has pat patterson and vince mcmahon to lay out the entire match and not only this hulk hogan paid a visit to the rock and his late father rocky johnson in miami to go over some of the finer details of the bout hogan said that rocky johnson told his son to listen to what hogan had to say but when it came time to take some bumps in training hogan refused saying he was too worried about getting injured in the run-up to wrestlemania funnily enough on the 1st of march around 2 and a half weeks before mania hogan managed to injure himself the hulkster had his very first match of this wwf return when he faced rikishi in tampa florida a high show match that saw hogan get the victory hogan said that he was distracted by his family at ringside during the match and he didn't protect himself properly resulting in the holster getting a cracked rib at least according to hogan anyway it's up to you whether you believe hulk hogan worked at wrestlemania with this injury or not but hogan did begin holding his stomach and chest as the match progressed either way it is worth noting rocky returned on the march 7 2002 episode of smackdown just 10 days before wrestlemania 18 and the great one cut a fantastic promo here that was sprinkled with a little truth rock said that when vince mcmahon announced the nwo were coming to the wwf a lot of people in the back were concerned about this poison being injected into the company but rocky got excited at the idea of facing hulk hogan at wrestlemania rocky then said he became so obsessed with what hulk hogan used to be that he temporarily forgotten what hulk hogan had now become jaded better and self-centered rock challenges hogan to a confrontation on smackdown but the great one gets the whole new world order instead hulk hogan says he's going to wait until wrestlemania before defeating the rock but scott hall is looking for a fight the bad guy in the great one main event in smackdown the match ended when nash and hogan interfered leading to stone cold steve austin coming down to make the save vince mcmahon came out and a three-on-two handicap match was announced for the following week's episode of raw the nwo would take on stone cold steve austin in the rock one week before wrestlemania the march 11 2002 episode of monday night raw is quite significant this is the one and only time scott hall kevin nash and hulk hogan the true original founding fathers of the nwo would compete as a team insider wwf ring on the other side you have the rock and steve austin teaming up a star-studded team in its own right it also had a little bit of history behind it and on top of all that this is the only time in history that steve austin and hulk hogan would be involved in a match together in a wwf setting you can't help but feel though that this match would have been a much bigger deal around three years prior and the action in the ring surely would have been better also but as an attraction match this was still pretty big i wish i could say it was a good bite but it wasn't the nwo kept stopping the babyface's momentum kevin nash in particular didn't bring much to the table and in the end hogan pinned rock to score the victory after what we just learned regarding steve austin's feelings towards the hulkster stone cold getting pinned was never an option here i still give this match a pass though just for how historic it is and the obvious goal here was to make the nwo look like viable threats to the biggest baby faces the wwe have had to offer but still the execution wasn't great here again i do wish i could say this match was good wrestlemania 18 was held in the toronto skyrim a venue that had quite a lot of significance for hulk hogan and indeed the whole wwf wrestlemania 6 was held in the same venue the very first wrestlemania event to take place outside of the united states with wrestlemania 18 only being the second the toronto wrestling audience was superb at mania 6 and 12 years later they were still allowed and they were also filled to the brim with wrestling nostalgia on april 1 1990 the sky dome hosted the ultimate challenge when hulk hogan put his wwf title on the line against intercontinental champion the ultimate warrior creating a bonafide wrestlemania classic that stood the test of time hogan lost the match and many saw this defeat as the hulkster may be passing the torch onto a new more contemporary wrestling superstar by 1991 just a year later hulk hogan was back in the wwf title picture while the ultimate warrior was moved into a semi-main spot so this maybe wasn't the passing of the torch that manny predicted in the very same venue in 2002 after hollywood hogan had a very interesting time in world championship wrestling the hulkster was back and here he had the opportunity to pass his complete legacy onto someone else while the rock was already firmly established as a wwf main eventer and wrestlemania headliner a win over hulk hogan would still go an incredibly long way in cementing rock's name in the history books and to his credit the rock noticed that there was really nothing to lose when battling hulk hogan at wrestlemania unlike stone cold steve austin austin was maybe letting pride get the better of him stone cold has admitted that he wasn't in the right place mentally during this time of his life and today he does regret not having the match with hogan at wrestlemania but it is what it is hogan and the wwf had done everything they could to make hulk look like a bad guy going into wrestlemania on march 17 2002 but audiences were still chanting for hogan out of nostalgia and respect the rock and hulk hogan aren't dumb either rocky clearly says in promos running up to the match that the skydome would be chanting for hogan just as much as they chanted for rocky but nobody could have predicted how much the toronto audience got behind the hogster at wrestlemania 10. rocky had a pretty much interview with the coach during the first half of the show and the audience could be heard booing the great one in the background as rock said that he wants hulk and mania to run wild tonight and he wants hulk mania in all of its glory scott hall lost his match to steve austin and the outsiders planned on taking out their frustrations on the people's champ but hulk hogan requested that hall and nash stayed in the back this was very smart here vince and company had taken note of hogan's reactions on raw and the rather hostile reaction the rock got during his promo earlier at wrestlemania the wwf knew hogan was going to get a good reaction when he walked into the skydome but the wwf weren't banking on the audience going absolutely insane and hulkamania getting reborn at wrestlemania 18. the time for talking though was no over after airing an excellent build up video the screen goes black and white hulk hogan walks out to an incredible vision as jim ross is forced to tell fans at home that there's a lot of hogan fans here in toronto the crowd roars when hulk hogan rips off his shirt further proving that the fans in the toronto sky dome were all about the nostalgia rock does get a decent ovation too in all fairness when his music hits and the great one makes his way down to the ring what happens next though is a true moment that many fans think of instantly when they hear mention of wrestlemania 18 the stare down remember how rock and hogan looked at each side of the arena of the night after no layout slowly turning their heads in opposite directions to get the audience hyped up well this happens again at wrestlemania only this time the crowd can be seen literally jumping up and down and making as much noise as humanly possible jim ross says that this is a wrestlemania moment and he's 100 on the money with that statement the fans in attendance were so good here at wrestlemania 18 while hogan versus rock was always going to be a good match the toronto fans made it one for the ages and it really goes to show how a crowd can make a match special hulk hogan said he felt like he was back at wrestlemania 3 the atmosphere and the energy in the sky dome took him back to the pontiac silverdome when he stood face to face with andre the giant without either man even lifting a finger hogan and rock had wrestlemania 18 in a state of extreme excitement the two men lock up and when hogan overpowers rock by throwing him into the corner the audience erupts hulk hogan makes sure to flex his 24-inch pythons for maximum effect and even hulk himself looks surprised at the response he's getting from the fans hogan then applies a headlock and when rocky shoots the hulkster off the ropes hogan comes back with a big shoulder block that again sends rocky flying to the mat and it's at this point where rock realizes that he and hulk need to change up their match hogan breaks out some more classic hulkster poses and any shadow of a doubt is thrown out of the window this audience is firmly behind hulk hogan and they want to boo the rock being quick on his feet and wanting to deliver what the audience want the rock decided to adopt and let hogan do his thing hogan said that he overpowered the rock in the early moments of the match in order to look like a quote real monster hulk reasoned that he done this because he wanted the rock to look as good as possible whenever hogan's shoulders were finally put on the mat but some fans would say that hogan was looking after hogan by posing afterwards and rallying the audience in his favor to be honest even if he was only looking after himself i don't care as a wrestling fan watching a wrestling match on tv it added so much more than about that i think it was totally worth it the audience turned out to be the most important aspect of this match and if the opportunity is there to get the crowd even more hyped up then i say go for it out of respect the rock allowed hogan to call the match meaning hogan would lead the way and call the spots and moves that were coming up next in their planned match rock said in a recent interview that if hogan told him to take the bump rocky took the bump and say what you want about hulk hogan he may not have had the best ring skills but he knew much psychology like no one else the man became a mega star without hardly breaking a sweat when rocky and hogan noticed that the toronto audience were getting behind the hulkster their planned match was thrown out and rock began subtly working as a hill it would be silly to think that vince mcmahon wasn't also directing the match backstage nobody is going to go into business for themselves at wrestlemania no matter how much of a great story it makes but what has to be applauded here is hogan and rock's ability to rule with it and give the fans what they wanted hogan didn't deviate too much hulk still choked rocky he scratched his back he beat him with his belt but everything hogan would do got a huge ovation this did a lot to protect the hulkster this wasn't a great in-ring performance from hogan when you talk about actual wrestling moves and bumping around the ring but it really didn't matter anything hogan done here got cheered while the fans stayed against the great one it does make for a really captivating and different match the showdown picks up a little after a referee bump with my kiota down a night the rock hits a spinebuster followed by a sharpshooter the audience booze loudly as hulk hogan begins topping out yet there's no referee to make the call when rock tries to bring the referee around hogan hits a low blow followed by a rock bottom the referee wakes up but hogan only manages a two count hogan then takes off his belt and begins whipping the rock but rocky gets the upper hand with a ddt rock gives the audience an evil look as he picks up the belt it's hogan's turn to take a weapon a rock bottom is delivered and just when you think the rock has the match one hogan kicks out and begins hogging up one of the most effective hulk ups in hogan's career hogan delivers the big bird and the leg drop and rock kicks out there isn't a person sitting down in the sky dome at this point hogan hits another big bit but he misses the second leg drop rock hits two more rock bottoms and the people's elbow is delivered to end the match incredibly the crowd roars at the end of the match fans and attendants make noise for both the rock and hulk hogan knowing they had just been part of a wrestlemania classic hogan and rock she accounts afterwards the outsiders come to the ring upset at this handshake which led to rock and hogan taking out nation hall and to end their time at wrestlemania 18 the rock gave hogan the stage to perform his signature poses this was great too again rock and hogan giving fans what they wanted to see the next night on raw hulk hogan came out to another fantastic ovation saying that the rock was the better man but one day hulk hogan will square off with the people's champion one more time the rock comes to the ring hogan removes his nwo colours and in the main event of raw hogan and rocky to feed scott hall and kevin nash thus beginning a babyface run for hulk hogan in 2002 [Music] there have been a ton of wrestling boats throughout history that have carried a ton of raw fan emotion that have really helped the matches stand out matches off the top of my head that fall into this category include ron simmons versus big van vader eddie guerrero versus brock lesnar randy savage versus the ultimate warrior and sean michaels versus ric flair it's unfair to compare these matches against each other based on crowd responses because each bite was different fans got involved for various reasons but these matches all stand out because fans were so emotionally invested that you could even tell the participants in the ring were feeling it hogan and rock went one step further by altering their match to suit the fans and for that reason for me it stands out as one of the best wrestlemania matches of all time hulk hogan isn't the most popular guy in the world these days but to say he didn't know how to work an audience would be just lying to ourselves really if you've never seen hogan vs rock for whatever reason get on it right away and if you haven't seen it in a long time this is a perfect excuse to go and check it out once again thanks very much for watching this video on the june 3rd episode of raw in 2002 sean michaels made a return to the wwe kevin nash had promised an announcement that would shake the very core of world wrestling entertainment and he didn't disappoint nash announced that hbk was the newest member of the new world order and when he came to the ring sean looked like he was in great shape there was no mike time here we would have to wait until the following week to see what sean had to say the next week on raw sean ducked out of backstage interviews as kevin nash said that hbk will talk to the people later in the ring sean went to the ring later in the evening and he said back in my day in the wwe we had it all we had garbage men we had clowns you name it and we had it all there was one thing however that was very real and that was me night in and night out i gave you everything i had then came wrestlemania 14 and vince and the boys decided maybe we should go in another direction maybe we should go with attitude man i was attitude in this place before it was a catchphrase vince mcmahon always says that you the fans who determine where we go as an organization so it was really you fans that dumped me and ran the stone cold steve austin i can assure you i am not here to wrestle i've done that for you once and rest assured i'll never make that mistake again sean then says that kevin nash was the only person in wrestling who remained his friend through all the hard times the nw then made their way to the ring and sean continued his promo hyping each member of the new world order before getting to booger team sean didn't hype up booger t but instead he super kicked him and ejected him from the new world order so it seemed like hbk was a sort of spokesman for the nwo he wasn't going to wrestle and he made it clear also that kevin nash was still the leader as the weeks went on it seemed like the nwo was quite dysfunctional as the group was more about dishing out tough love to each other rather than taking out the company's top stars a storyline developed where the nwo were trying to recruit triple h as the hpk would remind hunter to make the right decision upon his wwe return it was a decent story no one was sure what hunter's decision would be and seeing triple h in the nwo colours sure would have been interesting the storyline however never got finished on the july 8 2002 episode of raw kevin nash worked a tag match in the main event this was nash's first match in around four months having been on the shelf due to injury in this raw main event kevin nash again got injured tearing his quad and becoming the subject of one of the most played out wrestling jokes in history the nwo was disbanded afterwards with vince mcmahon believing there was no point in continuing the story or the faction triple h was due to make his decision regarding the nwo at vengeance 2002 but now triple h showed up at vengeance to choose if he would go to raw or go to smackdown [Music] you

Channel: Wrestling Bios

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Keywords: Wrestling lists, wwe lists, wrestling bios, nwo wcw, wcw nwo, nwo wrestling, wcw wrestling, kevin nash nwo, scott hall nwo, outsiders nwo, outsiders wcw, nwo souled out, nwo wrestling bios, nwo, new world order, hulk hogan nwo, hollywood hulk hogan, new world order wcw, nwo wwe, nwo wwf, scott hall wcw debut, kevin nash wcw debut, wrestling stories, wrestling facts, wrestling bios collection, wrestling documentary, wrestler documentary, wwe documentary

Id: hAzjndUP3_w

Length: 198min 59sec (11939 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 26 2020