IF the KLIQ had been the original NWO members

[Ubermensch]

Just spit balling an idea. Let's say in the land of oz that Vince had been so irate with the Curtain Call Incident that he found some reason to get rid of Michaels and HHH after the incident and/or Bischoff wooed HHH and Michaels over with Billionaire Ted's money (entirely possible). In the case of HHH, let's say that WCW convinced him to come back over after his uneventful stint the first time.

Even before the era of the Internet Wrestling Community the Curtain Call Incident was widely publicized in all the wrestling magazines. Or let's say that Bischoff bit the bullet and decided to suffer the legal ramifications of airing the house show footage of the Curtain Call Incident. Capitalizing fully on the curtain call incident could have been massive for WCW during the Monday night wars.

I think this group would have had more on air chemistry than what you saw with the NWO as is and may have been a more sustainable product in the long run. All 4 wrestlers were still relatively young and could still give off the appearance of being anti-tradition and as an altogether separate organization from WCW, and the WWF.

How it could have been booked. Roughly the same. I would have Hall, and HHH as the initial invaders.

Bash at the Beach: Goes down the same but with Nash as the third mystery man (granted this is not as climatic).

The NWO forms and introduces DiBiase as their financer as an independent entity. The group begins their attacks on the WCW, Dungeon of Doom, and The Horsemen.

War Games: Michaels is the mystery man and as a complete outsider to the company would probably get a bigger reaction than the two Stings. Somehow through handcuffs or whatever illegal means the NWO wins War Games. After the desolation of team WCW/Horsemen the Horsemen come to the rescue but are attacked with weapons, and eventually even the Dungeon. Michaels the NWO cut a lengthy promo post match laying the groundwork for what they're going to do. War Games ends roughly with the Dungeon, Horsemen, and NWO all going at each others throats at the camera fades. This lays the groundwork for the next couple of months of gang wars style battles between the three groups that establishes the NWO as the top stable.

Halloween Havoc: Leading up to Havoc the NWO acquires Syxx and continue their antics attacking The Horsemen, WCW, and Dungeon of Doom. The shift turns toward the World title, Michaels bills himself as the Giant killer and wins the belt from The Giant at Halloween Havoc. The Dungeon of Dooms dissolves.

World War 3: The next month is much the same with the NWO's focus now on The Horsemen. Flair and The Horsemen vow to win for the WCW and tradition and become dirty faces in their efforts against the NWO but consistently get one-upped by them. Flair wrestles Michaels for the World title at World War 3. The NWO attempt a run in but are halted by The Horsemen. Finally The Giant emerges, but choke slams Flair and joina the NWO. During the 3 ring battle royal, Hogan emerges as the 60th man and wins the match to face Michaels at Starrcade.

Starrcade: Several grudge matches are on the card. HHH wrestles Luger. Syxx and Benoit. The Giant wrestles the Macho Man. Sting wrestles Nash. Flair wrestles Hall. The Main Event could get either way, if Michaels beats Hogan than the NWO can take credit for killing Hulkamania. If Hogan beats Michaels than you have a climatic, but expected ending with the face winning out in a traditional Starrcade fashion. If Hogan loses his image has to be revamped in some way. If Michaels loses he has to get the belt back at some point.

Souled Out: The NWO get their first PPV. Sting steps up is slated to wrestle Michaels in a no DQ match. The NWO end up dismantling Sting and Michaels breaks his back with the Scorpion Deathlock. This puts Sting on hiatus for several months and gives time for the Crow gimmick to evolve and come to fruition with Sting beating Michaels cleanly at Starrcade 97.

After Starrcade 1997 I would have wrapped the NWO storyline up because WCW needed to begin transitioning their midcarders like Benoit, Jericho, and Eddie into the main event to become a more sustainable promotion.

Pros:

HHH-was largely punished after the Curtain Call Incident. His career was fruitless until late 1997. Despite his IC title run, his gimmick was stupid and he was squashed by the Ultimate Warrior. We would have seen him evolve quickly his charismatic persona he had with DX would have been demonstrated faster during the invasion angle.

Hogan: Would not have played as large of a role in the company during this time. What to do with Hogan during this time would have been difficult to foresee. He demanded main event status but his time as the face of the company needed to begin winding down and this would have solved that issue. If Hogan loses at Starrcade to Michaels, then he and Savage could have made a decent team outside of the NWO with a slightly grittier gimmick. The Hollywood and NWO turn injected a lifeline in Hogan in many ways to keep as the face of wrestling.

Michaels: Difficult to say if this would have been the best career move for him. He would have came to the WCW with strong reaction after winning at WrestleMania and becoming the WWF champion and later the WCW champion in the same year. Michaels would be easily be the biggest name in wrestling with his two title runs and leadership of the NWO.

NWO: The NWO was great as it was. However, I think the on air chemistry with The KLIQ would have been even better.

Bret Hart: The Dark Horse of the argument. Hart came to WCW during the prime of his career. I would think in all likelihood he would have still ended up there (depending on Michaels). If so, a Bret Hart versus NWO Michaels would have been gold.

Cons:

Backstage Politics: Would have been at a fever pitch between what the KLIQ allegedly attempted and the clout of the veteran superstars with large contracts. However, they may all have ended up keeping each other in check.

Hogan: Most would agree that the NWO needed Hogan. This may very be true. Personally I think the angle allowed him to linger at the top longer and the Outsiders could have worked without him, especially if they were the KLIQ members.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

Interesting theory.

A couple of comments:
1) It would only come close to being as big as it actually was if Shawn Michaels left WWF for WCW/joined the nWo as their leader WHILE he was the WWF Champion. If Shawn did what Vince was afraid Bret would do - then this angle could have likely been bigger than it was the Hogan heel turn. Does Vince try to screwjob Shawn out of the title before he leaves? Shawn/Bret's fates could have been reversed in this situation in regards to leaving Vince.

2) Shawn Michaels would likely be dead or in a similar situation as Scott Hall right now. Hall & Nash kicked up their partying to another level in WCW, and with Shawn there with them, who knows how it would have escalated. Either way, it wouldn't have ended well for him.

3) You say HHH would have evolved quicker into his D-X character. That maybe so, but he NEVER would have been pushed and evolved into The Game in WCW. In this angle, he is the #4 guy behind Shawn, Nash and Hall. And there is Hogan, Savage, Sting and Flair all in the mix as well. Now he would have influence being friends with Nash and Shawn, so maybe he could have evolved into a guy on the level of DDP. But certainly not the dominant force he became in WWF.

4) With Shawn gone, Bret would have never left the WWF. This actually would have been the best situation for Bret. He'd get the title when Shawn left (or maybe from Sid as an interim champion). So WrestleMania 13 becomes Sid 'C' vs Bret Hart for the title, and then WrestleMania 14 becomes Bret Hart 'C' vs Steve Austin.

5) Vince would have still had a very grim 1997. Would he have lasted financially after his champion jumped ship and started the nWo? Could he make it to 1998 where Austin would eventually become the face of the company? Does the Mr. McMahon character ever happen? Does Austin ever get as big as he does without D-X? Is Mike Tyson still available?

I think for the most part, things in 1998 would have played out as they eventually did, and Bischoff and Hogan would have eventually railroaded your nWo story above since Hogan isn't involved. It would be a hot angle, but with the politics backstage in WCW - it would have been a legit locker room invasion backstage too. The Kliq vs Hogan & co. I think the entire thing would have been over by Starrcade 1996 - with Hogan ending it for the "good WCW guys".

 

[supaman5279]

I think everything would've happened a bit quicker. For ex. The Outsiders would've had their wrestling debut at Great American Bash as opposed to Bash at the Beach. I would have HHH and Nash as the initial invaders, former WCW guys coming straight from WWF. the sad thing to me is that I have to admit that the nWo NEEDED Hogan. The whole build up to the "third man" was the big draw of turning the BIGGEST DRAWING FACE at the time. I don't think HHH, Nash, Hall or HBK had that kind of drawing power back then, hence why they were losing the Monday Night Wars. The world knew of the nWo because the world knew of Hulk Hogan. There's no way around that. The only positive I think would've happened would be that I don't think the nWo would've clusterfucked the way it did. It would've been more exclusive and would've leveled out as a stable with the coming of DiBiase and Syxx. Sad thing is that it probably would've gotten stale around Starrcade 97. The nWo went all the way to 2000 and even found its way to the WWE. It was HUGE!!! So to answer your question "If the KLIQ had been the original nWo members" it would've been just another stable and not the phenomenon it grew to be. Dennis Rodman was nWo and Hogan was about to run for president.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Shawn would be dead for a start... he was very nearly there in the WWF between his various misadventures and it damaged Hall and Nash immensely with the level of partying they did.

The danger of the Kliq as a unit in WCW would have been that all would have been on those Safe Harbour clauses, even Triple H who at the time was unproven. They wouldn't have stood for one getting a deal the others didn't... so immediately the landscape of WCW is ruined because 2 of the talents in the group were barely 4 years into their careers and earning crazy money... the kind that the more seasoned stars like Hogan, Flair and Savage would be angry about. A lot of guys would either have left or not jumped as they couldn't get the same deals and guys like Sting and Flair would have been headed North rather than take less than the guys who all left while they were main eventing only to head back 2-3 years later...

Suddenly WWE is able to pick disgruntled talents from WCW up like Sting, like Hogan and perhaps even Savage... These would have been the guys who the NWO or Kliq needed to feud with to make it work...

Bret would have been the logical choice for WCW to try and poach to feud with them, and it may have worked had Sting or Hogan come in to WWF.

It would have been weird to see the guys known for WCW in the early 90's like Vader, Simmons, Rhodes and Foley in major parts of the WWF and the guys responsible for those lean mid 90's in the WWF being the top guys in WCW.

One signing already made by that point was Pillman, his headed to WWF was intended to be the guy to feud with Bret and basically become what Austin did... so they weren't pinning their hopes on Shawn... once Brian got hurt he clued Austin in to what was planned and he took it on to the next level instead. Pillman pre-accident, with that loose cannon gimmick in the WWF vs Bret for the title would have made shit loads of cash and would have had the effect the NWO and later Austin had, but sooner cos the matches would have also lived up to the angle... the problem with the NWO as it went down and most of Austin's push was that the matches weren't quite there cos someone was always hurt or limited by prior injuries.

Sting would have had a lot of power to shape things, if he leaves WWE gets their new "poster boy" and possibilites... Sting v Bret, Taker, Davey, Vader, Mankind, Goldust, Pillman and Warrior could have been big money matches. Again Stone Cold doesn't happen... Rock maybe doesn't happen... maybe with Shawn and crew running rampant guys like Benoit/Jericho/Eddie jump as soon as possible... maybe DDP and even Goldberg join the WWF instead to build their careers...

But Shawn would have died... that much is certain and it would have been WCW taking the flak for it...

 

[peter_midnight]

There's no way this happens. Your entire theory seems to forget that Hulk Hogan had "creative control" in his contract. Go watch every shoot interview with everyone that had a hand in booking WCW during Hogan's run. Every time the interviewer asks why a nonsensical decision was made that involved Hogan, the answer is "creative control." Do you really think that Shawn Michaels in 1996 would've been able to run roughshod over Hulk Hogan in a WCW environment w/Eric Bischoff heading the company? Hell, Shawn ended up having to job to Hogan in 2005 AND THAT WAS WITH VINCE as the boss!

Something else that you seem to forget is that Shawn Michaels was floundering as champion in 1996, while Kevin Nash was actually picking up steam because he went back to being a heel, this time with a little bit of a bad ass attitude. Also, Scott Hall was decently liked as Razor Ramon. Michaels hadn't been acting like DX Shawn yet, so how exactly does he decide to do this with HHH who was basically a blue blood until 1997.

HHH and Shawn Michaels didn't start becoming attitude until Vince Russo was writing well into 1997. You're telling me that somehow Eric Bischoff or Kevin Sullivan are supposed to just magically give these guys attitude?

The nWo wasn't an overnight phenomenon. It evolved over time. If you remember, Hall came in still using his Razor Ramon accent and Nash was still talking like Diesel until the nWo became cool. Even Hollywood Hogan was experimenting with different things until he found what worked for him (remember when he used to get a spotlight on him during his early promos and did that weird dance at the end of the promo?).

While it's a nice idea, this theory assumes that everyone finds their niche in a completely different set of circumstances than they originally occurred in. While I'm not a fan of Shawn Michaels, I think it's fair to say that very little if few people in 1996 was thinking of him as one of the best workers ever. So him making an impact in the nWo without Hogan at the helm seems like it wouldn't be as eventful as it was with Hogan there.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Perhaps Hogan DID have that clause, but it didn't stop Bischoff offering Safe Harbour clauses to Nash and Hall as well as creative control... that meant NO one could tell them what to do OR be paid more... so Hogan gets a payrise, they get one.

Much as when the Radicalz jumped the other way they were able to "collective bargain" to an extent, had Vince been willing to let Shawn and Trips go then the groups bargaining power would be far stronger... you'd have the guy who was WWF champion for a year, their most recent Mania winner, their most decorated mid card champion and an upancomer who was on leaps and bounds from leaving 2 years prior... It'd be worth giving them the clauses and keeping the group happy.

Now Hogan could have played ball with this, but the first move he made was to get himself inserted into the NWO rather than Sting. Imagine that pissing Sting off to the point he wants to go as there are now 5 guys he has to deal with who are considered more important than him not the 3 it ended up with. Or that with 4 guys to listen to/back him up Bischoff took the line Vince did, that he let them have their demands first as if Hogan kicked off he'd have backup and could argue the value of 4 contracts outweights Hogan's one... or 5 if Waltman was included.

It's out there but entirely feasible.