The history of the New World Order will always be a hot topic in wrestling given the short- and long-term value that storyline had for WCW. WWE still makes huge money off nWo merchandise since fans love that era of time and the t-shirt from it. Hulk Hogan’s heel turn and various other top level wrestlers gaining new credibility created magic.
RELATED: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The WCW Vs. nWo Rivalry
Fans tuned in every week to see the next steps in the nWo hostile takeover or which WCW wrestlers would defect next. Everyone talks about the big moments from the first year like Hogan winning the WCW Championship or the Outsiders dominating the tag division. However, the following things get overlooked from the WCW vs nWo storyline during that first calendar year.
10 Scott Hall Started Storyline During Match Between Two Enhancement Talents
Everyone remembers that Scott Hall entered the ring during a match on Nitro in a cool moment that felt real and unscripted since a match had never been interrupted like that. WCW had it slip under the radar that they put on a match between two lower card names that wouldn’t suffer from ending their match.
RELATED: 5 Worst Members Of The nWo (& 5 Wrestlers Should Have Replaced Them)
The Mauler and Steve Doll were the two wrestlers in the ring until Hall grabbed a microphone and had them leave the ring out of confusion. Neither man ever received a noteworthy push to see why Hall was strategically placed there to not hurt more important talents.
9 Received NWO Saturday Night Segments
WCW tried to find realistic and credible ways to have the New World Order appear on shows despite trying to execute a hostile takeover plan of the company. The weekly WCW Saturday Night show had an NWO Saturday Night segment of the nWo members having a match.
Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were the main names used here and often filmed their matches before the tapings in an empty venue. This allowed them to get their matches filmed faster and sold that WCW wasn’t giving them full rein with the limited time slot each week.
8 Kevin Nash & Scott Hall Called Out Ted Turner
The original New World Order set-up featured Kevin Nash and Scott Hall cutting promos about what they were in WCW. Eric Bischoff was the main WCW representative interacting with them on behalf of the company, but their promos originally called out Ted Turner.
Few fans knew of Bischoff’s position in WCW before this angle had him do anything more than play by play commentary as a babyface. Turner was the first WCW figurehead called out as the owner before Bischoff started to get verbal attacks from the Outsiders.
7 Tricking The Nasty Boys Into Thinking They Joined
Hulk Hogan’s shocking heel turn to become the third member and revealed leader of the New World Order started the group off with a bang. A unique mini-storyline featured Hogan’s real life close friends of the Nasty Boys desperately trying to join the nWo.
WCW filmed segments in a hotel room where Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags were trying to talk their way into the induction. Hogan and the other members tricked them into thinking they joined the group before taking a beating for their troubles.
6 Miss Elizabeth Left Four Horsemen For Them
One overlooked story in the early stages of the New World Order was how Miss Elizabeth joined the group. WCW already had Elizabeth as a heel manager for the Four Horsemen after she betrayed Randy Savage by helping Ric Flair defeat him for the WCW Championship.
Another change came her way when Elizabeth defected to the nWo in an odd storyline. Elizabeth joined after pressure from Hogan saw her wanting to spare Savage from their attacks. However, Savage eventually turning to the dark side as well reunited them as proud heels.
5 New World Order Used Fake Sting As Pawn To Recruit Crow Sting
The Fake Sting storyline was a great concept to have the New World Order con WCW into thinking the real Sting joined them. Sting was heartbroken enough to move to his Crow persona as a loner watching from the rafters with a darker look.
RELATED: 5 Best & 5 Worst Moments Of Wrestlers Joining The NWO
nWo members kept having the fake Sting with them and even stood by when the real Sting arrived to attack him. No one tried to save the fake Sting since the nWo used him as a pawn to have the real Sting get revenge on him while trying to recruit this new Crow version already wearing the black and white.
4 NWO Didn't Save Nick Patrick Vs Chris Jericho
The New World Order having Nick Patrick in their group became a storyline when the idea of a heel referee made it easier to book their matches effectively. Patrick costing Chris Jericho a match led to a weird feud between the wrestler and referee.
WCW forced Patrick to wrestle Jericho with Jericho having one arm tied behind his back. No one in the nWo got involved as it was just Patrick’s storyline to develop more heat. Patrick officially joined the nWo after losing to Jericho by wearing the nWo colors and being with the group in various segments.
3 Hulk Hogan Attacked Brutus Beefcake For Trying To Join
Road Wild 1996 was a huge night for the New World Order just one month after Hulk Hogan turned heel to complete the original trio. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall helped Hogan defeat The Giant to become the WCW Champion again with the infamous spray painting right after.
A forgotten moment of that night saw Hogan’s longtime best friend Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake coming to the ring with a birthday cake for Hulk after his win. Beefcake expected to join the nWo, but he was attacked to portray just how ruthless Hogan had become.
2 Randy Savage Betrayed Sting By Joining
Randy Savage taking quite a few beatings from Hulk Hogan and the New World Order as one of their first main rivals led to a character change. A short absence for Savage after the loss saw him returning with a darker look and appearing with Sting.
The segments of Sting’s mysterious attacks or watching from afar started to see Savage with him to make fans assume they were starting their own group. However, Savage betrayed Sting by ditching him to help Hogan defeat Roddy Piper as the newest member of the nWo. It was among the more fascinating character arcs for one joining the heel faction.
1 J.J. Dillon Become Commissioner Because Eric Bischoff Was Suspended
Eric Bischoff became an on-screen figurehead for WCW when someone had to represent them against the New World Order and used his real-life role to explain that. This was until a huge swerved played out of Roddy Piper exposing that Bischoff was in the nWo as the reason they held such an advantage.
WCW named former Four Horsemen manager J.J. Dillon as the new Commissioner to represent the company against Bischoff and company. The storyline claimed that WCW suspended Bischoff for his actions and that caused Dillon to arrive in the face authority figure role.
