STOP LIVING IN THE PAST Volume 2: The nWo arrives in the WWE

[The Naitch]

When Vince McMahon decided to inject the WWE with a lethal dose of poison, did you mark out like a bitch or was it a "meh" reaction, since the nWo was already passe and old news?

I recall the crowd didn't go too crazy at first, when Hogan, Hall, and Nash appeared on the titantron when Vince made the announcement the week after he scribbled nWo on the back of his chair.

I thought the crowd would go nuts seeing Hogan up there, seeing as how big he was in the 80's. In this case, it took a while for people to realize "Oh shit, Hulk Hogan is actually in a WWE ring again". Plus he was in his black and white attire, so it wasn't really "the Hulk Hogan of old" in the ring just yet.

For some weird reason, I always wanted to see The Rock be in the nWo, so I thought this showed a glimmer of hope. (I actually thought that The Rock would join the nWo at WrestleMania X8 when Hall and Nash turned on Hogan )

I would like to say that I did mark out when Vince turned around in his chair. I had such high hopes for a memorable nWo run in the WWE and was sad to see the nWo finally die in the late spring/early summer of 2002. Kinda reminds me of The Nexus: Started out strong, went through different incarnations, but now is on life support, soon to be over with.

List down your high and low points in the nWo's WWE run.

[Jordan]

High point is obviously Hogan vs Rock at Wrestlemania, that is the only good thing I remember other than the initial debut and announcement. Nash got injured and Hall disappointed, it was unfortunately a bad move. Plus Kid was going through some shit with Chyna and addiction so he couldn't be there and that made it suck more.

[Aguakate]

I marked out when nWo was announced, and when they made their debut at No Way Out in '02...

...that was the high point.

[The Naitch]

Scott Hall was a shell of his former self of course, and it was a far cry from the larger than life Razor Ramon the fans were used to seeing in the mid 90s. Might as well have called him Fake Razor

[Aguakate]

Doesn't help matters out when you're supposed to be this big, bad group of guys, yet you're ridiculed by The Rock right off the bat:

[Tom Guycott]

Originally Posted by Aguakate I marked out when nWo was announced, and when they made their debut at No Way Out in '02... ...that was the high point.

This. Loved the "film burn/feed interruption" on the nWo entrances. Wish WCW did that to begin with and not just with the vignettes.

Low point... I'd have to say when Shawn superkicKKKed Booker T out of the group because he was "different". That, and at the point Shawn was even there to begin with, they were grasping at straws for people who mattered "nWo" wise without the inclusion of Pac and Hall.

[Rammsteinmad]

I kinda marked out when we saw the promo with Vince sat in the chair with the NWO initials on it, but once they debuted I was kinda 'meh'.

Also, I believe this is SLITP Vol. 3. Unless 'Volume 2' is the name of the series. Shoulda copyrighted that when I had the chance.

[MoFo]

Marked, cause it had never been done in WWE before so although it had dragged for years, it still seemed kinda fresh

I marked out HUGE at this. lol @ Scott Hall saying he wants to have a few beers with the boys.

[Rammsteinmad]

'We're a bunch of marks' lol wtf.

Scott Hall gets a high-profile match at Wrestlemania with Steve Austin, Matt Striker gets taken off the Smackdown announce desk.

[Volare]

Must be a big difference between 2002 and 2011 "rules" in the WWE on what you can and can't say.

[The Jayman]

Originally Posted by Rammsteinmad I kinda marked out when we saw the promo with Vince sat in the chair with the NWO initials on it, but once they debuted I was kinda 'meh'.

This. I also marked out for Rock vs Hogan but I just felt the nWo was a little too late. It would have been more interesting had they been involved in the Invasion angle.

[Next Big Thing]

I loved the announcement and their debut at No Way Out. But it was all downhill from there when they were getting mocked by Rock and punked by Stone Cold. That was when I figured Hogan would eventually go face and they'd probably be jobbed out by the end of the year.

[Rammsteinmad]

Looking back, the biggest fault I think with the WWE nWo was that it lacked the 'invasion' feel of the original. When the first nWo debuted in WCW, it was two of the WWF's top stars 'taking over' WCW. They would attack anyone who crossed their paths, and the overall atmosphere amongst all the other wrestlers/staff was that they were under attack and had to be on guard at all times etc.

With the WWE version, all that tension was gone. It was simply three past-their-prime spotlight-hogs basically coming into the WWE. The 'poison' setup was a weak excuse to bring them in, rather than the whole 'we're taking over'. And the whole feel of their 'invasion to the WWE' lacked all the excitement of the original because rather than the whole roster being on guard, the nWo 2002 only went after The Rock and Steve Austin.

Of course, what could WWE do? Nobody wants to see Hogan, Hall and Nash return to the WWE after so many years away, only to go after Crash Holly! But sadly, unlike the original nWo, different circumstances, different outcomes.

P.S. Just kinda proof-read this, and I'm kinda waffling a bit, but I hope you all understand what I'm getting at.

[Jordan]

The problem here was the NWO didn't put anybody over to my memory. With Hall and Nash injured they could have stayed on screen and been in the corner of a new NWO member or two, and Hogan could go after his last run with the title, which maybe once he attains turned face and feuded with the new NWO member which could have been anyone, I dunno, Kurt Angle maybe.

[Rammsteinmad]

The IWC would have loved that.

[M-A-G]

Three terrific things about the nWo's arrival:

1. Rock vs. Hogan essentially made WM 18.
2. The Rock verbally abusing the trio at No Way Out was tremendous.
3. Kevin Nash's return from a bicep injury only to re-injure himself in his return match.

[Onyx]

Originally Posted by Rammsteinmad Looking back, the biggest fault I think with the WWE nWo was that it lacked the 'invasion' feel of the original. When the first nWo debuted in WCW, it was two of the WWF's top stars 'taking over' WCW. They would attack anyone who crossed their paths, and the overall atmosphere amongst all the other wrestlers/staff was that they were under attack and had to be on guard at all times etc. With the WWE version, all that tension was gone. It was simply three past-their-prime spotlight-hogs basically coming into the WWE. The 'poison' setup was a weak excuse to bring them in, rather than the whole 'we're taking over'. And the whole feel of their 'invasion to the WWE' lacked all the excitement of the original because rather than the whole roster being on guard, the nWo 2002 only went after The Rock and Steve Austin. Of course, what could WWE do? Nobody wants to see Hogan, Hall and Nash return to the WWE after so many years away, only to go after Crash Holly! But sadly, unlike the original nWo, different circumstances, different outcomes.

This.

When Vince first turned the chair around and it had nWo on the back, my reaction was WTF? I mean, there had been so many versions of the nWo in WCW that just seeing the logo didn't really say who would be there. I mean, when the WWE brought WCW into the company, there was no Sting. No Goldberg, etc. They were lacking most of the big and important names. Because of that, I didn't really expect much out of this. To be honest, I kind of expected Vince to start leading around his own version of the nWo ala Eric Bischoff, which I kind of thought would just be a bunch of WWE guys wearing the shirts. When Hogan, Hall, and Nash were shown on the titan tron, I thought, ok this is going to be good. I really couldn't care less about Hogan, but I was always a fan of Hall and Nash all the way back to their Razor Ramon and Diesel days (would have personally preferred them to return under these names instead of as nWo members, but whatever), so seeing them finally back in the WWE was exciting.

Then they arrived, and the excitement pretty much faded. I wanted to see them come in and just kick everyone's ass who made eye contact with them. Instead....
1) They came in and immediately denounced the "poison" moniker, and claimed they wanted to be friends with everyone (a ruse, yes, but a dumb one).
2) They got pwned by Stone Cold and The Rock on a weekly basis. Austin even kidnapped Hall on one of their first Raw appearances, and played "keep away" with Hogan and Nash for the entire night.
3) Nash got injured and spent almost the entire nWo run on the shelf, leaving Hogan and Hall to do all the in-ring work.
4) The Austin-Hall feud was nothing special (a drinking contest between the two would have been more exciting). The Hogan-Rock feud was good, but I was never a Hogan fan, and was never that big on The Rock either so I, personally, didn't really care.
5) Hogan was thrown out of the nWo by Hall and Nash immediately after the WrestleMania X8 match. It was only just over a month after they debuted, so it made absolutely no sense. OMG, it's the nWo! They're here! Then after like 5 weeks they drop one of the members? The starting lineup lasted only about as long as the initial hype surrounding their arrival.
6) Hall and Nash recruited X-Pac (should have called him Syxx) which made a lot of sense, and The Big Show which made less sense. I know The Big Show was one of the early recruits of the original nWo, but having him in the group seriously ruined the Clique vibe they had otherwise.
7) Booker T being brought into the group made NO sense. Him still having a partnership with Goldust, who tried to join the group every week was plain stupid.
8) Hall left the WWE around the time X-Pac came in, so now within about 2 months after the debut of the group, we only have one original member left, who is still injured and can't compete.
9) HBK comes in and joins the group. Awesome! The following week, HBK proclaims he is not back to wrestle, and is only there to manage the nWo. Less awesome. Now the two biggest members of the nWo are there in a non-wrestling capacity, leaving X-Pac, Big Show, and Booker T to do all of the actual matches.
10) HBK kicks Booker T out of the group, literally. Why? At this point, it just felt like the nWo had a revolving door. In WCW the nWo just kept getting bigger. In the WWE, you needed a score card to keep track of who was a member this week.
11) Nash gets cleared to wrestle, and immediately gets injured AGAIN less then a minute after getting tagged in during the big main event tag match.
12) The nWo is nowhere to be seen the following week, and is officially disbanded.

In WCW, the nWo changed the face of the company. In WWE, they accomplished what exactly? The only really memorable match they had was Hogan vs. The Rock, with Austin vs. Hall being memorable to some. They recruited 4 members, and lost 3 members (2 being original members). Nash was injured for almost the entire run, having only 2 or 3 televised matches. And more then half of the nWo run, the only active competitors they had were mid-carders (X-Pac, Big Show, Booker T).

Reaction for the entire angle: Less than "meh."

[Fox]

The nWo beating the holy shit out of Rock and running his car over was pretty awesome.

I enjoyed Shawn Michaels being added to the group later on and superkicking people to kick them out of the group. Felt like the "I'm a total dick" HBK of old and looking back now it was the last time we would see it.

[Onyx]

Originally Posted by Fox I enjoyed Shawn Michaels being added to the group later on and superkicking people to kick them out of the group. Felt like the "I'm a total dick" HBK of old and looking back now it was the last time we would see it.

Well, we kind of saw it again during his SummerSlam feud with Hogan. His impression of Hogan and teasing a Bret Hart return to the Canadian audience by having Bret's music play was classic asshole/DX style. It is such a shame they didn't give him a decent heel run after his return because he is so good at it.

[Rock Bottom]

I didn't mark out but it's one of those things that I kind of miss years after the fact.

[NormanSmiley]

i thought the rock's segment ripping them was hilarious.

[Jordan]

Yeah I wanna watch some old WWE NWO videos now

[CSL]

Originally Posted by Fragile X The problem here was the NWO didn't put anybody over to my memory. With Hall and Nash injured they could have stayed on screen and been in the corner of a new NWO member or two, and Hogan could go after his last run with the title, which maybe once he attains turned face and feuded with the new NWO member which could have been anyone, I dunno, Kurt Angle maybe.

Hogan put Rock over in the middle in one of the biggest matches ever which pretty much cemented Rock's legacy (along with beating Austin clean a year later) since he had one quick run with the belt and was a 'special attraction' afterwards. He also put a heel Angle over clean at KOTR and let heel monster pushed Brock destroy him during the same run outside of nWo. Hall never really had a chance to do anything since he was gone about 2 months after No Way Out and after being injured and staying on screen for a bit, I doubt Nash could barely walk with his quad injury, let alone make towns and stay on-screen after it.

I personally loved the first month of after they came back up until WrestleMania. My Sky was cut off after X8 though so I couldn't really tell you what I think of the rest since I'd look up some videos online at school (like HBK's return) and the rest was just reading spoilers. Didn't actually watch a lot it until 3-4 years later.

[The Naitch]

Originally Posted by Fragile X Yeah I wanna watch some old WWE NWO videos now

[Mjdiesel]

Originally Posted by Fox The nWo beating the holy shit out of Rock and running his car over was pretty awesome. I enjoyed Shawn Michaels being added to the group later on and superkicking people to kick them out of the group. Felt like the "I'm a total dick" HBK of old and looking back now it was the last time we would see it.

I was in college at the time and my roomie and our buddy were in our room watching Raw. They knew I was a bigtime Rock mark and they couldn't stand him much--very akin to how many view John Cena now....

When that happened, with Hogan smashing that truck into the ambulance Rock was in they were cheering with big Christmas morning grins on their faces and I was laughing my ass off.

[Mjdiesel]

NWO didn't last though they certainly tried to get them over.

I LOVED in the Smackdown! after the Raw that they annihilated Rock that each member read a prepared written apology from their lawyers having remorse for their actions and wishing the Rock a speedy recovery.

That pompous type of sarcasm Hall and Nash orchestrated got me happy as a pig in shit, wishfully thinking that THIS was going to be the same NWO that took over Monday Nitro and always had something to say about anything and everything because they could.

Then of course Hogan was still so over with the crowd, they made him a good guy again at Wrestlemanix XV111 and Hall and Nash carried on and crashed the office of the APA.

I think Hall broke in and stolen a beer. That was when I knew that had NWO jumped the shark. That led to a match, APA got the duke and then that's when officials arguably went into a contingency plan mode or whatever may have you and went

"We gotta fuckin', we gotta put Show in NWO---ever'one will member him from NWO in WCW as The Giant. And YEAH, Sean Waltman too--remember when he was Syxx???"

I think putting Shawn Michaels in there was a mistake. That to me wreaked of a last minute attempt to give credibility to the angle. And as a nitpicky little thing, he was always DX.

Shawn's hair looked weird in it too with that fucking beret he wore. I remember he cut a promo on HHH during his title run at the time, saying that he'd have no choice but to join their ranks, which as we know, never happened.

[djoutcry]

Originally Posted by The Naitch

ROFLMAO at nash n pac not able to hold in their laughter LOL

i can really sense they weren't meant to laugh and that this entire scene was meant to have booker being irate and then leaving nash n pac thinking "wtf is his prob?" but instead, LOL, nash cudnt hold it LOL i dont blame him

[CSL]

your senses really need some work

[CSL]

scrap that, yours might be beyond recovery, just get some new ones

[DAMN iNATOR]

Awesome opening promo to an awesome match at WM x8.

[JimmyMess]

Originally Posted by Rammsteinmad 'We're a bunch of marks' lol wtf. Scott Hall gets a high-profile match at Wrestlemania with Steve Austin, Matt Striker gets taken off the Smackdown announce desk.

And also Scott Hall was a way bigger deal than Matt Striker

[Rammsteinmad]

Originally Posted by The Naitch

Always wondered why Big Show was asleep here. He's in his wrestling attire so he clearly was 'here to work'.

[Evil Vito]

I liked the nWo being treated as a big deal even when they'd been drafted to Raw. I also liked the idea of adding Show to the group.

It was officially dead to me though when Flair ostensibly joined the group. Then he booked a lumberjack match where Austin would face the newest member of the nWo, every heel on the roster was already around the ring before Flair yells "BOOKER T! GET IN THE RING, YOU'RE THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE NWO!" it just felt like the most random booking of all time.

[The Naitch]

Originally Posted by Rammsteinmad Always wondered why Big Show was asleep here. He's in his wrestling attire so he clearly was 'here to work'.

Pre-match nap. Came to the arena early and he's just resting before having to "work"

Funny how X-Pac just pops out of the washroom. It's like they both just finished having sex. Show is all tired out, and Pac has to clean off the filth

[XL]

In fairness to WWE this was one thing they didn't fuck up.

They couldn't predict the crowd turning Hogan face. The guy hit one of the most popular faces of the last decade (at that point) in the back of the head with a hammer and then drove a truck into the ambulance taking the guy to hospital. Hogan tried to kill The Rock and the crowd still cheered him.

Nash's quads jobbed to walking and Hall is, well, Hall, I guess they could have seen that one coming.

[MVP]

I kind of felt that Hogan shouldn't have made his WWE return with the nWo, at least not right away with Hall and Nash. I would have preferred to see just Hall and Nash for a while kind of like in WCW and watch them terrorize WWE. Then once they start struggling they introduce Hogan and he makes an epic return and decimates WWE. They could have run with a long-term angle pitting guys like Austin, Rock, and HHH against the nWo.

Kind of sounds a little like BATB 1996, but Hogan was hugely over even in 2002, and it would have been better than what WWE actually did with the nWo.