The New World Order remains an all-time relevant act with conversations and merchandise about the faction still showing fan interest. Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall changed the industry by starting WCW’s boom period to kick start the Monday Night Wars reaching new levels. However, nothing is perfect and the NWO showed that with their history.
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Quite a few harsh realities can shift talking points about some of the variables rather than just reciting the big moments. An act that pivotal to a company is bound to have both hits and misses associated with the nearly three-year time period. Fans will look at the NWO for better or worse when pinpointing harsh realities of their run.
10 Syxx Getting Fired Was Bigger Mistake Than Realized
No one would name Syxx as one of the top three members of the New World Order, and he often felt secondary to the main three and other names like Eric Bischoff or The Giant. However, the chemistry between Syxx, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash was too great to break up.
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Bischoff made a massive mistake firing Syxx believing he could use it to send a message to Hall and Nash over their controversial backstage behavior. Losing Syxx coincided with the NWO starting to lose some momentum for the first time since they had nothing but positive traction before then.
9 Too Many Pointless Members
A common argument that some New World Order fans choose to ignore sees the number of members being a huge issue. WCW originally wanted to book the angle for the NWO to have their own full roster and show to become a competitive organization within the bigger company.
This was fine when taking flyers on names like Buff Bagwell or Scott Norton who could have done more with the right push. A bigger issue came when names like Virgil, Horace Hogan and Brian Adams joined the group with fans struggling to remember everyone involved.
8 Opposing Talents Often Suffered From Working With Them
The New World Order was extremely protected to look much stronger than their opposition. WCW sacrificed a lot of their wrestlers to ensure the new act came off credible. Some names like Diamond Dallas Page and Sting benefited from feuding with the NWO.
Unfortunately, most other names ended up suffering or wanted to join to avoid looking weak. Ric Flair and Randy Savage taking beatings for their feud with Hulk Hogan was not ideal. Almost every mid-carder on the WCW roster took a beat down when the NWO had to look strong every week.
7 Wolfpac Should Have Lasted Longer
WCW decided to take a gamble when splitting the New World Order into two factions upon growing stale. Kevin Nash led the Wolfpac version of babyfaces with Randy Savage, Lex Luger, Sting and Konnan joining him to force an all-star squad of fan favorites.
The story had its flaws, but fans treating the Wolfpac like top babyfaces added a new twist in the NWO to help all those wrestlers involved feel fresh. WCW made a much bigger mistake ending the NWO civil war storyline too early and sacrificing the Wolfpac to make Hulk Hogan the leader again of the NWO Elite.
6 NWO 2000 Version Ruined The Bret Hart Vs Goldberg Feud
Bret Hart had a terrible WCW run due to the booking always failing him. WCW waited too long to elevate Bret into a top main event spot like his previous few years in WWE. Hart and Goldberg feuding over the WCW Championship should have worked to perfection, but WCW ruined it.
Their two big matches had horrible endings all designed for Goldberg to get cheated and for Bret to form the NWO 2000. The potential was there for this idea having some upside, but it went as poorly as possible afterwards. Even if things did work out for the NWO 2000, the Hart vs Goldberg feud still suffered for it.
5 Not Having An Ending To Original Group Was Embarrassing
Most major all-time storylines have a satisfying conclusion, but the New World Order had the opposite scenario. WCW made the NWO takeover the biggest angle in the wrestling industry to make Nitro must-see television with monster ratings.
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The NWO thrived for about two years before the road got a bit rocky due to the risks of getting stale. WCW had the NWO Elite version extending the run until it just ended out of the blue. There was no storyline or match that explained it beyond the members moving on to other things.
4 Most Of Their Big Matches Disappointed
Another issue with the New World Order was how disappointing many of the big matches were. WCW booking wanted to protect the group as a dominant force, but that clouded the potential of finish ideas. Nitro often had mega main events that ended with DQ or brawls to protect everyone from defeat.
Even some major PPV matches like Hulk Hogan vs Sting or Kevin Nash vs The Giant were overbooked to provide disappointment. The matches failing to deliver after a great build can hurt the overall product since it adds a negative to something that fans connected with.
3 Big Show's Weird Face/Heel Turn History Started In Group
One of the funniest running gags in wrestling was how often Big Show moved back and forth from the babyface and heel roles in WWE. The WCW tenure of Big Show as The Giant started this when he had a weird relationship with the New World Order.
Giant was the fourth member and the first to join the original trio in 1996 until getting kicked out for wanting his owed title shot from Hulk Hogan. The strange dynamic grew when Giant turned heel to join the NWO Hollywood faction years later before once again getting kicked out at the end.
2 Were Considered Locker Room Cancers
CM Punk’s AEW run has wrestling fans talking about the concept of a locker room cancer that can make things toxic for others. The first massive instance of this being discussed in wrestling was how the New World Order core members felt in WCW.
Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were viewed as abusing their influence at times and creating conflict between others. WWE even used this as part of the on-screen characters for their appearance there when having other wrestlers talking to them as such.
1 Souled Out 1997 Was An All-Time Failed PPV Concept
The first major sign of failure for the New World Order took place on a single night when the Souled Out 1997 PPV was thrown at the wall to see if it would stick. Eric Bischoff wanted the NWO to have their own weekly show, so having their own PPVs was a test for that.
Everything WCW did to make this show feel different flopped. The PPV opening of NWO members riding to the show on garbage trucks, the ring announcer insulting every WCW wrestler, and a bizarre contest to crown the first “Miss NWO” all led to the show failing with no more NWO PPVs.
