nWo - The Best Angle Ever?

[Moneyinc]

There were solid points made about WCW. Bishoff's Monday Nitro's were basically like 2 hour long pay per views with commercials. He won the Monday Night ratings but couldn't come close on the Pay Per View ratings. Bishoff/NWO/WCW is just not even on the same level of what Vince has done over the years. Guys like the Rock, Stone Cold, Rowdy Piper, Hogan had legitimate acting careers. What last effects has the NWO had? Absolutely none. Just 3 pages on a thread in a pretty active forum.

NWO was real cool at the time, but years later what did it do for any of those guys? Not a damn thing.

Certain angles like Stone Cold at King of the Ring, or the Rock vs whoever ended up being so much more important than the NWO.

[braveh]

I think it's the most historic and biggest angle of all time because it was such a game changer. I can't think of any other angle that had the same impact.

I wasn't just the Austin/Mcmahon angle that changed things for WWF. That was just the biggest angle among several angles(involving DX, Foley, Taker) that won them the ratings war.

I started watching Raw in 97 and when I watch the Nitro dvd, boy do I wish I had watched Nitro instead. For almost two years there it seems like WCW did everything better as far as the tv-show goes.

Originally Posted by Moneyinc

There were solid points made about WCW. Bishoff's Monday Nitro's were basically like 2 hour long pay per views with commercials. He won the Monday Night ratings but couldn't come close on the Pay Per View ratings. Bishoff/NWO/WCW is just not even on the same level of what Vince has done over the years. Guys like the Rock, Stone Cold, Rowdy Piper, Hogan had legitimate acting careers. What last effects has the NWO had? Absolutely none. Just 3 pages on a thread in a pretty active forum.

NWO was real cool at the time, but years later what did it do for any of those guys? Not a damn thing.

Certain angles like Stone Cold at King of the Ring, or the Rock vs whoever ended up being so much more important than the NWO.

WCW did beat WWF in ppv-buys in 1997. Starrcade outperformed Mania, Halloween havoc outsold RR and Survivor series. So Bischoff probably did beat them in PPVs.

[spaldoni]

The NWO angle was awesome but in my opinion the greatest angle was when the 4 Horsemen locked Dusty Rhodes in the cage and beat him down setting up the Flair/Rhodes Starrcade 85 main event. The set up to this was pure gold. Flair had a feud going with the Russians that led to a Flair/Nikita Koloff cage match. After the match the Russians came in and attacked Flair, Rhodes came in and saved Flair then the Horsemen came in and attacked Rhodes. The fans went nuts and it took the Horsemen 45 min just to get back to the locker room. That set the Horsemen up as the most hated heels in the business.

[Weems2k]

The NWO angle is by far the best for so many reasons. One, it was new. This was at a time when only a few ppl knew of the "inside" workings of wrestling. Also, there was no No Compete clauses back then. So everyone saw Razor & Diesal on Raw one week, then the next Hall suddenly shows up on Nitro the next. That added to the shock value, and a bit of "are they really invading" kind of vibe.

The internet wasn't as common back then, as it is today. And for those few who were online, it was all dial-up. So again, nobody knew what was going to happen, who would show up.

Then finally, Hogan's huge heel turn. Aside from his early AWA days, everyone knew Hogan as the Superhero Face. Having him turn into a bad guy, and his promo at BATB made the angle all more gold. Then they did what all the other invasion angles haven't done since. The NWO kicked, and dominated WCW. Thus setting up what should have been the epic end between Hogan, and Sting at Starcade. Of course, they botched that ending up, and watered down the NWO so much with all these mid-card jobbers.

Finally, the nWo was the spark that launched wrestling into the big time mainstream. Because of the nWo, The Attitude Era was born along with Stone Cold, and The Rock. So yeah, the nWo in my opinion is the greatest angle ever.

[dukes07]

Originally Posted by obamartins

Incorrect the nWo angle was followed up on - do I really need to elaborate on how it was because you didn't watch it?

#1 The Outsiders invade & engage the marks as cool heels.
#2 Hogan jumps on bandwagon, turns heel forming nWo.
#3 nWo take over.
#4 nWo battles WCW.
#5 Problems develop in nWo causing a split.
#6 nWo Hollywood battles nWo Wolfpac.
#7 Both nWo factions merge back together due to WCW gaining strength with Ric Flair becoming WCW President.

People say nWo was stale in 1999 yet the ratings don't reflect this.

Average rating for NITRO in Nov/Dec 98 was 4.24 while the average rating for NITRO in Jan/Feb 99 was 4.75 meaning the average rating for NITRO increased 0.51 after Finger Poke of Doom. Also worth noting January 99 was the second best ratings month in history of NITRO with a 4.85 average (August 98 was best ratings month in NITRO history with a 4.98 average) plus the 5.7 rating NITRO drew on Feb 8, 99 was second highest rating NITRO EVER drew in the history of the show.

Average rating for NITRO in 98 which was WCW’s most successful financial & ratings year was a 4.43. Average rating NITRO during first 4 months of 99 was a 4.45.

nWo dominated WCW TV in Jan, Feb & March 99 & was still prominent in April 99. Long term injuries to Luger (biceps tear in Jan), Hall (personal issues in March) Hogan (knee surgery in April) plus Steiner (back injury in May) brought premature end to nWo in May 99 which coincidentally just so happens to be when ratings noticeably & significantly went down.

So WCW didn't drag it out until then end. From early May 1999 to March 2001 the nWo was only brought back for 3 months by Vince Russo from Late December 1999 to March 2000. Hardly dragged out until the end like you claim.

Eric Bischoff didn't steal the UWFI vs. NJPW fued from NJPW he simply took the concept & made a different & better version of it. Ask yourself this why did Masahiro Chono take WCW's nWo concept back to NJPW in early 1997 to form nWo Japan? The nWo was the kickoff off the late 90's boom period & while Hogan's heel turn was a big deal the impact that Nash & Hall had (even more so then Hogan) in terms of changing the direction of business cannot be denied.

Also what on earth are you going on about? On the night of 22nd September 1997 when Austin stunned McMahon at MSG the WWF got a 2.2 rating compared to WCW's 3.7 rating. WWF didn't beat WCW in ratings for another 6 months, so NO Austin stunning McMahon the first time in MSG DID NOT "bring ratings that neither company had seen, before."

You say best angle ever was Bret Hart vs. Austin (your subjective opinion) & highest drawing was Austin vs. McMahon & that nWo angle doesn't fit either one of those spots. Erm...nWo angle is best angle in history (my subjective opinion) & just because you named a great feud that was perhaps only other angle that drew more money then nWo angle doesn't mean that it was better.

Thank you!

One of the biggest myths is that the Fingerpoke ended WCW. It didn't. I may not fully agree with it but at the same time it did tighten a lot of the angles and streamline the myriad of factions. And the first couple of months of 99 were pretty damn good. Minus the first hour being all promos, the reasoning being that Nash was upset because management was getting pissed about the declining ratings and he did that to supposedly show that no matter what was done the ratings would not budge. They didn't.

Anyway, as to the nWo and I am sure it has been said before, but it revolutionized wrestling. That Summer of 96 was absolute perfection. It even made me a fan of Hogan....for awhile. The reactions of the announcers and wrestlers and how it played out was beautiful. It not only made wrestling must see but forced the WWF to change and without Nitro and the nWo, the wrestling landscape would be a lot different today. And the great moments of that decade would not exist.