Unheralded original plans for the NWO Hollywood/NWO Wolfpac in terms of members

[TEIWCSCSAATBHPHASP]

For those of you who have never heard of WCW, let alone never grew up around the era of the Monday Night Wars era from '95-'01,...

,...let's take ourselves to 1998 where after the WWF had WrestleMania XIV (14) as their most successful WM for the first time in several years with Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon with Mike Tyson playing a factor in the Austin/HBK/Vince feud.

With D-Generation X (DX) now being seen as a cool group of rebels that got over with the fans because of how cool they are, it was hinted that the Original NWO from '96-'98 needed to split into two sides. Plus, Hollywood Hogan and Kevin Nash couldn't get along for much of 1998 when Hogan was always having to use his Creative Control politics to always get his way, and Nash recently seeing his best friend, fellow Kliq buddy and Outsiders tag team partner Scott Hall go to rehab to deal with his ongoing alcoholism after Uncensored '98 where he had just lost his WCW Championship match against Sting, as well as Sean Waltman getting fired by FedEx due to his neck injury that kept him from working in-ring matches in late '97 and early '98.

And when I said rehab, I meant after all, it was the year 1998 in which Scott Hall's ongoing alcoholism was made public knowledge to wrestling fans for the first time ever.

Rumors had Hall and Nash going back to the WWF in '98 which could've happened now that Bret Hart and his family were no longer around in the WWF, and although only Owen remained, he was rightfully a victim of poor booking because there were too many problems backstage and creative-wise for wrestling promoters to deal with the Hart Family for people to give a damn about them.

And NWO Hollywood (Black & White) was supposed to be composed of just the old guys who people didn't care about by 1998, and NWO Wolfpac (Red & Black) were supposed to be composed of guys whose biggest strengths are great promo abilities, hence NWO Wolfpac were supposed to be WCW's version of D-Generation X.

In case a single wrestling fan or a single smark and a single mark don't know it, the original plans in terms of members for the NWO Hollywood/NWO Wolfpac were supposed to be:

NWO Hollywood: Hollwood Hogan, Randy Savage, The Giant, Bret Hart, Stevie Ray, Brian Adams, Vincent, Scott Norton (if there were no plans for Vicious & Delicious/Bagwell & Norton to continue as a tag team), The Disciple (aka Ed Leslie), Eric Bischoff, Miss Elizabeth and Horace Hogan

NWO Wolfpac: Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Konnan, Curt Hennig, Scott Steiner, Buff Bagwell (he was set to be NWO Wolfpac if he came back from his broken neck that sidelined him for much of 1998), Scott Norton (if there were plans for V&D to continue as a tag team, or have Norton go solo but not talk), Sting and Lex Luger.

Nobody noticed that Scott Hall and Scott Steiner were supposed to be NWO Wolfpac, but it seems like a questionable moot point since Hogan always got his way, and it worked, so Hall, Bagwell, Norton?, Hennig & Steiner were on NWO Hollywood, and Savage was NWO Wolfpac.

And many doubt Steiner being an NWO Wolfpac member in 1998 because he had just turned heel at SuperBrawl VIII against his own brother and former tag team partner Rick which meant The Outsiders pretty much won their feud with The Steiner Brothers for '97-'98.

Scott was supposed to have a feud in the works against his brother Rick in 1998, but WCW writers dragged the brother/brother feud and match to the point that people didn't care about either Steiner. Also, Scott being a Wolfpac member would've neutered all the plans on a brother/brother feud that people ultimately didn't care about anyway.

Plus, Scott Steiner was known to be injury prone at the worst of times, first in 1991 when he had a muscle tear that seriously derailed him as an athletic wrestler and it happened while he was still young and tag teaming with Rick.

Then in late 1996 when he was plagued with a back injury that forced him to the sidelines, and had to be written off in storylines by The Outsiders (Nash & Hall) and Syxx via being run off the road in a car accident. 1997 was when Scott Steiner was beginning to transition from the highly athletic workrate wrestler who was the innovator of the Frankensteiner move (which many cruiserweights use, although it's dubbed Hurricanrana) to the hulking musclebound who is only known for his hilarious promos.

The years of wear and tear from taxing out his body from high impact wrestling moves would've meant that Scott Steiner was 35, not getting any younger, and needed to extend his career longevity by changing his wrestling style since his '88-'97 wrestling style really wrecked his body, especially when every time Scott did the Frankensteiner to oncoming opponents from the ropes, Scott actually hit his head a lot from doing the Frankensteiner during those years.
That was why Scott started doing the Frankensteiner from the top rope, which may have been a high risk maneuver, but it was necessary once he was robbed of his vertical leap. Plus, Scott only does the Frankensteiner every once in a while, and he can't do any high impact moves with regularity any longer once he aged.

So Steiner being a Wolfpac member in '98, that would've meant his 1998 heel turn could be all for nothing, and he would've had to revert back to his high impact wrestling moveset. That would've spelled a recipe for disaster and his career would've been over long ago, so he would've been a poor fit for the Wolfpac. Plus, Scott being a heel made him one of pro wrestling's key heels rather than continuing to risk his body with high impact moves if he continued his career as a face.

And for Scott Norton, I can only see him being a member of the NWO Wolfpac if Buff Bagwell continued to be by his side. Bagwell was very decent on the mic, since he would've been able to hide Norton's lack of promo skills. Vicious and Delicious would've been the clear cut tag team of the NWO Wolfpac, since Nash was the #1 guy, and Hall would've been the U.S. Championship contender frequently as the #2 guy of the Wolfpac.

Speaking of Buff Bagwell, as he was sidelined with a broken neck for much of 1998, rumors had him joining the Wolfpac once he returned to the ring or was rushed back solely for strict promo work.

As for Hall, the reason why Hogan wanted Scott Hall on his side of the NWO was because Hogan wanted a cool guy on his side, since guys like Brian Adams, Scott Norton, The Disciple, Vincent, Horace Hogan and Stevie Ray can't even cut a halfway decent promo if their lives depended on promos, so Hogan fans can't really blame him for wanting to beef up his side of the NWO.

I think The Outsiders should've stayed together as members of the NWO Wolfpac since they were the cool heels who can get cheered like faces whereas Hogan was merely a pure heel who was old news by 1998.

And I think it's a BIG MISTAKE for Hollywood Hogan to demand for Scott Hall to be a member of the NWO Hollywood faction, all because Hogan wanted a cool guy in his side of the NWO instead of Nash's NWO. If anything, couldn't Hogan have relied on himself, Randy Savage and The Giant as the only decent mic talkers in NWO Hollywood instead.

Now that the original plans revolving around the NWO Hollywood/NWO Wolfpac members have been revealed to IWC circles, let me know if you are in either agreement or disagreement in terms of NWO members from either NWO Hollywood or NWO Wolfpac, regarding the likes of Hogan, Savage, Hall, Nash, Hennig, Konnan, Bagwell, Steiner or Norton.

 

[sMark]

I think it was a mistake to continue nWo angle in 1998.
Hogan lost to Sting at Starcade, so with him nWo should be done as well.
He could continue as Hollywood, but nWo name should be lost, he could use today's Cena catchphrase : "Future must go through me", so he make a new group (Wrestling Elite or whatever the name could be), add Savage, Giant, Bret Hart, Hennig and couple of others, while there should be another faction with the new talented guys, with DDP as the leader (hot right after Savage matches and new to the main event he could be a perfect guy for the role), Nash should stay as a single star, so is Sting and Goldberg, so there will be ok main event scene (Goldberg, Sting, Nash, Hogan, Page) and a story that fans really wanted to see at the time - new talented guys beating old selfish stars.
If WCW had the guts to already start a change by 1998, maybe they could exist today.

 

[ECPirate37]

I remember as a teen, the wolfpac splitting off from the NWO. I thought of the wolfpac as the cool ones, but it was weird to me to see Sting in it, and Lex Lugar. They just didn't fit. Savage fit though for some reason.

Until now, I had no idea about the plans to have the groups organized a different way. I actually liked Steiner with Hogan. I can't remember specifics, but I do remember they had some good vignettes.

To me, as a teen it was weird that the red and black were still considered nwo. I would have liked them better if they were just the "Wolf Pack" or something like that.

I think looking back, a great Wolfpac would have been Nash, Hall, Waltman, Steiner (if he was allowed to do crazy promos), Buff (w/silent Norton), and Nitro Girl Spice. I mean, since the NWO had Miss Elizabeth, the Wolfpac needed a female too, and Spice always seemed the coolest one to me.

Was there every plans to have more members of OWN? That was '98 as well, right? Or was Warrior only brought in to job to Hogan? [I know that is off topic, but originally I was going to say Warrior could have come in to side with Hogan in the Hollywood side, and then turn on him later].

 

[New Hot Fed]

If Hogan wanted to keep Scott Hall for his side to have a cool guy, it didn't work. I remember back then when the Wolfpac was created how much suddenly Hogan looked old and felt old. Whereas in the past he would do the same promos and he came off as cool, now it was just barking and it was annoying. Furthermore Hall not being in the Wolfpac was horrible, he was along with Nash and Pac WERE the Wolpack! Another thing is that Hogan probabably lobbied to have Macho in the Wolfpack so they could feud with one another so the whole thing would be about them. lol selfish bastard. Hell the war began when Macho and Nash fought each other and then Nash fought Hogan but it quickly turned into Macho getting in a war with Hogan. Which made no sense for Macho to side with Nash cause it was their hate for each other that started it.

Here's the thing though, even though WCW wanted to replicate DX with the Wolfpac, I always thought to turn them full face was a mistake. Like previous posters have said, if they wanted them faces completely, they had to get rid of the nWo name. If it were me? WCW was a heel promotion, people would never accept a DX face group and indeed the Black & Red went nowhere fast cause they lacked an edge. I would have kept them heel but heels that go after Hogan's gang making them tweener. Remember that the nWo itself were never all out heels cause people cheered them. Wolfpack should have stayed bad and as such, they should not have had Sting and Luger in there. (you could turn Luger later on in a big shocking moment when you needed it).

Wolfpac should have been Hall, Nash, Syxx, Steiner, Buff, Konnan, Jericho, Guererro(no LWO). The cool heels. nWo Hollywood should have been Hogan, Savage, Giant, Hennig/Rude, B. Adams, Meing and then you re-hire the Road Warriors from the WWF. They would be a group of scary devatators. (you could keep Disciple as Hogan's lackey, I guess and fire Norton and Vincent cause they were useless)

That way you could still have BPP and Buff screw with Rick cause Wolfpac would be heels still.

Sting, Bret, DDP, Goldberg, Booker T, Luger would be the WCW guys fighting for the WCW name, the pure faces.

 

[Spencesc11]

Black & White Should've Been - Hogan, B. Hart, Henning, Giant, Bagwell, & Norton )
Wolfpack (Nash, Hall, Savage, Konnan, Luger, & Sting)

Bascially a power struggle that could've kept ratings up.

 

[TDFG]

The Wolfpac should have been created to end the NWO once and for all and not merge to become NWO Elite.

Kevin Nash, Randy Savage & Lex Luger get kicked out of the NWO and Kevin Nash decides that he would finish the group what he started, but his team would also need the help of Mr WCW - Sting & challenges NWO Hollywood to a 4 v 4 elimination match at War Games.

Sting doesn't know if he can trust Nash & questions his long-term friendship with Luger in the build up to War Games, NWO Hollywood try to turn the Wolfpac & Sting against each other with some success as it causes the Wolfpac & Sting to cost each other matches leading up to the PPV.

At War Games Team Wolfpac/Sting defeats NWO Hollywood when Scott Hall turns on Hogan, this costs NWO the match and their future & Hall realigns with Kevin Nash forming the Outsiders.

The NWO Storyline & Faction for that matter lost steam when it had the likes of Horace, The Disciple, Stevie Ray etc. as members, it became a cluster****.

 

[relentless1]

Ive said it many time but the Wolfpack was most certainly meant to be the answer to the DX army as far as a cool face group goes.

first off the split should have happened way earlier than it did, like March and it should have been Hogan and Savage leading nWo Hollywood against the Outsiders leading the Wolfpac; hollywoods nWo was more biker style and Wolfpack definitely had that rap/gangsta edge to it

That being said, keep anyone who doesn't effortlessly give off that rap vibe the hell away from the red n black: no Luger or Sting. Konnan and Booker T and maybe Eddie Guerrero should have joined.

So you end up having a roster that looks like this:

nWo Hollywood: Hogan, Savage, Giant, Steiner, Bagwell, Bischoff, Disciple, Norton, Vincent, Adams, Stevie Ray, Hennig and Rude

nWo Wolfpack: Nash, Hall, Konnan, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero

Have the two factions feud until War Games where loser disbands and nWo Hollywood loses ending their status as an nWo;

Wolfpack slowly phases out the "nWo" part of their name

Steiner and Bagwell go on their own as Steiner starts going apeshit on anyone and everyone en route to the WW3 win/ World Title shot instead of Nash.

Hogan does a huge feud with Bret Hart leading into Starrcade

Adams forms Kronik a bit early with Brian Clark and feuds with the Outsiders

Bischoff keeps Hogan, Giant, Norton, Hennig and Disciple around as a little group and feuds with Flair and the Horsemen leading into their match at Starrcade

so with all the remnants of the nWo in play heres what Starrcade 1998 would look like:

World Title: Scott Steiner w/ Buff Bagwell vs Goldberg

Hollywood Hogan vs Bret Hart

Eric Bischoff vs Ric Flair

Tag Titles: Kronik vs the Outsiders

Giant/Norton/Hennig vs Benoit/Malenko/Mongo

now tell me thats not already 1000x better than the card we actually got

 

[Chris1-16]

The second reason WWE took the top spot from WCW in 98...

This crap known as the White and Black vs. Red and Black, a complete waste of time.

Of course the main reason was Hogan's unnecessary title reign and then still dominating and not putting anyone over after he dropped the belt, which he only did because Nitro couldn't buy a ratings victory against Raw at that point.