Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in DX

[BigLuther]

Time to play the "what if" game for a second. I'm watching the Attitude Era blu-ray and came across the segment where X-Pac joined Triple H's DX Army in 1998. Pac cut a promo saying that Hall and Nash would be standing in the ring with both of them if WCW weren't holding them hostage.

Just for fun - what would the futures of both the nWo and DX have looked like if Nash and Hall DID jump ship to WWF with X-Pac? Since the nWo really kind of lead to WCW's end, it would have been interesting to see how they moved forward past 1998 without the original nWo.

 

[prush80]

This is one of my favorite things, "What If's"
So my thought: Effect on WCW- They had no plans beyond The NWO so
A) WCW would have gone out of business earlier then they did or B) Nitro would have been taken off Monday and placed on another day. Hogan would have left the NWO (as it would not be cool or the big thing any more) NWO would get dismantled. Some crappy version of the Horseman would be formed for Hogan, now a face, to fight against. But perhaps with them switching Nitro to another day, they could still be in business after finding a new station, maybe TNN/Spike.
Effect on WWF: The "New" DX would have worked at first. Hall's issues would have still been there, so either they would have disband earlier or Hall would have been gone, fired from WWF. With Hall gone, Nash would have left and go on to feud with DX.
The real question is, with this alternate reality, what about the New Age Outlaws? Would they have formed? Would they have gotten such a shot to be big not being in DX when they were? If Hall did get fired and Nash left DX, would The Outlaws have then been put in DX (DX would only have HHH and Pac after Hall and Nash left)
What if, What if, What if.......

 

[wrestlingfan]

WCW would've gone out of business faster if Hall & Nash jumped ship. They helped keep the NWO alive with Hogan, and the NWO is what was keeping WCW alive (Even though it eventually caused its fall). With the NWO dead and added talent to DX with Hall & Nash, WCW would just crumble and WWF would've just gotten better. ( A DX with HHH, HBK, X-Pac, Chyna, Outsiders, & New Age Outlaws is scary)

 

[vampxx24]

not understanding the people saying they would of gone out of business faster...... they didnt go out of business because of ratings of losing money(even tho they wernt bring in big bucks.)..... they went out of business because aol bought into turner and aol did not want wrestling..... if people remember correctly , wcw was supposed to take a break, which they stated on the 2nd to last ppv that itd be a season finale...shortly after(when the announcement was aol was axing wrestling) that it would be off air.... bish wanted to buy the company and move it to at the time highly rumored fox.....its because of aol wcw died, not the rating war or anything like that..... no matter what ted was a wrestling fan(after buying wcw vince made turner sign documents stating he wasnt able to back another wrestling company for something like 10 years) and would of kept wcw alive, it was aol who gave wcw the final headshot..

hall n nash jumping would of just lead to lower ratings in wcw and higher ratings in wwf.....itd basically be what were seeing today in wwe vs tna. as far as how nash and hall would fit into dx...quite honestly im not sure that they would and would of likely fueded with dx.....as the expression goes, there would be too many cooks int he kitchen.... even in the nwo mass member days you still had your tier levels of what guys were where....it was clear hhh was the leader who would be getting the push to the top, xpac being midcard and nao tag..when u add nash and hall to the mix hhh gets lost int he schuffle as nash would be getting the main event push and hall lingering around the ic title.

 

[RicSpade]

Well this is one of my favorite what ifs and honestly the question is more when they jumped ship what would happen to WCW so lets break it down shall we.

Inception of NWO: It would have been a short lived stable followed by a Hogan turn, and honestly we would've never seen main event caliber out of guys like Goldberg, DDP, Booker T., Jeff Jarrett, etc.

Peak of NWO black and white/Pre faction split: This would probably be the most beneficial for WCW to have Hall and Nash leave here, only because at this time, Outsiders were becoming less the focal point, there were 30 guys in the NWO, while it would've taken away from ever bringing in the Wolfpac you still seen DDP have main event caliber matches with Hogan and Savage, and Goldberg had just become in play as the star player. Right here WCW would have survived without Hall and Nash, but would've been nice to see another key player from WWE here.

During Red/Black and White and Black NWO: Hall was downhill here, this was where his alcoholic storyline blurred the lines between kayfabe and storyline, so having him be with his Kliq could have helped Hall from going downhill, but otherwise it would have seen a washed up Hall and a then dominant Nash (since Nash booked at this point in time) align with DX, and it would have brought the tangible of a bigger feud between factions and we may have seen Hall and Nash vs. The Rock and Austin, and more.

So really IMO before Russo came in I think WCW would have survived without Hall and Nash in a certain light, but I think Hall and Nash is what made WCW better, the only difference would be the spotlight would have had to be picked up much quicker by younger talent, or WCW would've needed a bold move people cared about.

 

[Dmbfantomas]

DX would have been even lamer than they were then. The older DX got, the sadder it got. It's hard to buy into guys as rebels when they're all older. DX were trouble makers, NWO were "real" (for a little while, anyway).

NWO was already lame by this point, but it might have actually been a good thing for WCW. Finally forcing them to think of new ideas.

 

[vampxx24]

Well this is one of my favorite what ifs and honestly the question is more when they jumped ship what would happen to WCW so lets break it down shall we.

Inception of NWO: It would have been a short lived stable followed by a Hogan turn, and honestly we would've never seen main event caliber out of guys like Goldberg, DDP, Booker T., Jeff Jarrett, etc.

Peak of NWO black and white/Pre faction split: This would probably be the most beneficial for WCW to have Hall and Nash leave here, only because at this time, Outsiders were becoming less the focal point, there were 30 guys in the NWO, while it would've taken away from ever bringing in the Wolfpac you still seen DDP have main event caliber matches with Hogan and Savage, and Goldberg had just become in play as the star player. Right here WCW would have survived without Hall and Nash, but would've been nice to see another key player from WWE here.

During Red/Black and White and Black NWO: Hall was downhill here, this was where his alcoholic storyline blurred the lines between kayfabe and storyline, so having him be with his Kliq could have helped Hall from going downhill, but otherwise it would have seen a washed up Hall and a then dominant Nash (since Nash booked at this point in time) align with DX, and it would have brought the tangible of a bigger feud between factions and we may have seen Hall and Nash vs. The Rock and Austin, and more.

So really IMO before Russo came in I think WCW would have survived without Hall and Nash in a certain light, but I think Hall and Nash is what made WCW better, the only difference would be the spotlight would have had to be picked up much quicker by younger talent, or WCW would've needed a bold move people cared about.

this is how i feel pretty much.....hall n nash made wcw better, they didnt keep them alive..... wcw would of reverted into basically pre nwo and lingered..... nash n hall joining theorically set off a whole bunch of what if scenerios as we dont know who would of jumped where to where......again the bottom line was aol buying into the company which was the final blow... but the whole last 5 years of wcw could just be summerized as "what if"..... without hall n nash coming, its un known if wwf main stays would start jumping over such as henning,hart ,russo ect ect.....its also unknown if the young frustrated talent in wcw would leave for wwf such as jericho,benoit, malenko,saturn, eddie as they wouldnt be held down by the hall n nash type guys.... no one can say for certain what would happen to wcw without hall n nash as a bunch of things would of likely changed as well... the bottom line was bad booking and bad spending HURT wcw, aol killed wcw due to their non interest in wrestling.....to say how them buying out turner would change i dont know about that.... but wcw was looking at a hiatus then returning with supposedly adding rvd sabu and some other guys in what was said to be a fall "season premier" before the aol deal was announced.

 

[thebarber]

well this was around the time that nWo split into two factions, so WWE would have got Hall and Nash back only two year after they left, WCW would have just opened their cheque books up a little more. Bret Hart would have become a more solid part of WCW booking, Flair and the Horsemen would have benefited.

 

[Rabbid Wolverine]

It probably would have seemed cool at first. but it could have also had a negative effect on hhh, remember hhh was finally the leader of a group since hbk left. If nash and hall came in they may have over shadowed hhh since they were more established than hhh at the time.

What would have been cool is if they first were pretending to have them join DX only to have hhh, xpac and the outlaws jump hall/nash. hhh's beef could have been that they got him in trouble before they left to go to wcw with the MSG incident. X-pac could have said they didnt stick up for him in WCW since he was fired. Also this way the Outlaws get their push.

 

[harrythem]

If Nash & Hall rejoined WWF then WCW had more chance of surviving. Maybe not staying as number 1, but def had better odds of surviving. By 1998 Halls issues were out of control so he's out of the equation. Then you've got Nash who, while still valuable, took over the book towards the end of 98 and then managed to write crap after crap after crap. Hell, he was a booker who couldn't even write logical storylines for HIMSELF let alone the rest of the roster.

Goldberg would've still happened, Jericho might not have left (wouldn't have had Nash in Goldbergs ear telling him not to work with Jericho). All in all it could've been interesting (although not sure what effect it'd have had on WWF).

 

[ilapierre]

Now folks lets not overrate the importance of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Sure, without either the NWO angle flounders. They were vital to the success and the continued existence of the NWO. But a lot of you believe it was the prolonged NWO angle that killed WCW. Perhaps losing Nash and Hall would have actually saved WCW as the NWO angle would have ended much earlier and thus allowed the other held back talent to shine through. One thing I remember from April 98 or whenever WM14 was is that Hogan and Savage were feuding for control of the NWO. Hall and Nash were pretty much there to give the NWO credibility. Hall was in and out from April 98 for the rest of his career. He'd come back for an interview one month alongside Nash. A month he'd disappear and then return to turn on Nash. He'd return to team with Giant or battle Goldberg but the thing was you never knew when he'd be there. Then that fall he was back acting out his drunk reality and really had no direction until the FPOD. So you could argue that Scott Hall was already pretty much gone at that point anyway. As far as Nash is concerned, he wasn't really anything anywhere unless he had Scott Hall with him regularly. Yes they were vital to the survival of the NWO. But no they were not vital to the survival of the WCW. There were other big time players there. Had Hall and Nash gone to WWE perhaps they would have 'killed' the WWE. Nash would have the backstage power to book himself as champ over Austin and Hall would have been a drunken mess and would likely have been fired like he eventually was in 2002 for showing up to work drunk. So I have an even better question. What if X Pac stayed in WCW and Michaels and Triple H joined the NWO in WCW right after WM14? What would have happened to WWE?

Anyway, back to the OP's original question. Had Nash and Hall left WCW with X Pac then the NWO angle would have had to come to a close to abrupt end. But it's WAY too easy to write WCW off without Hall and Nash around. WWE had just lost Bret Hart the heart and soul of the company. I was certain WWE was finished after the Montreal Screwjob, to me it was just a question of when not if. Michaels left WWE for 4 years the night before XPac returned. How could the WWE survive without those two? They just built up other guys from their mid card like Austin and Rock. One thing a lot of you forget is that WCW was STACKED with main event and mid card talent. They had Hogan, Sting, Savage, Flair, Hitman, Goldberg, Warrior, Piper, Luger, Henning, DDP, Big Show etc etc. Had Nash and Hall left, it would have killed the NWO angle sooner but that might not have killed WCW. It could have saved it. The focus could have now been put on guys like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio Jr. With two of the biggest names gone, that could have made more TV time for Bret Hart to be utilized properly. We may have gotten to see Hitman vs Hogan. Without the NWO, there could have been much more time for classic matches between the best of the past, present and future. Jericho, Benoit, Eddie, Show and Rey could have all stayed with WCW and filled the void. Imagine feuds like Jericho vs Piper. Savage vs Eddie. Hogan vs Hitman. Benoit vs Flair. Rey vs Goldberg. With no Nash and Hall and no NWO, WCW would have had to push their mid card tier sooner (and in the middle of the boom) just to survive. And those being pushed might have stuck around had they played an instrumental part in the boom. WCW did resort to pushing talent but it was a good year or two late in 2000 when the company wasn't on 'fire' anymore like it had been from 96 to early 99. Ratings were down, their mid card talent of 96 to 99 quit in mid to late 99/early 00. Storylines made no sense for over a year at that point and faces and heels didn't make sense anymore. Also, the older guys like Savage were just a little too old and the guys like Hitman were at the end of the line wrestling wise.

 

[The HEEL JuiceLee]

The better question here is what if Vince would of givin Hall & Nash the deals they wanted,plus with Bret,BullDog,NiedHart coming of the books give HBK a garuntee deal.Then at that time gave HHH & X-Pac smaller garunteed deals,so in an effort to keep the Outsiders in the WWE what happened at MSG could of been the start of them becoming an onscreen faction instead of just a behind the stage one. They could of been the Original NWO or DX.That would of been great.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Like all things in wrestling, it would have depended on how it was handled. First off, Hall and Nash wouldn't have simply disappeared - they would have had a period between tendering their wish to leave and WCW allowing it. This would have given Bisch the chance to lessen the impact. As the nWo was getting too bloated at this time, the Outsiders leaving could have been the perfect time to streamline. Imagine the final image of Nash and Hall in WCW being the two left lying by the Giant and Scott Steiner with Hogan and the Big Bad Booty Daddy ripping them to shreds on the mic and sending them off on stretchers with "nWo 4 life" spray canned on.

Hall was just entering the worst period of his career when Waltman left and Nash was just developing into the egotistical SOB we all know and love. The clique reuniting as dX could have created many problems within the WWF, would guys like the Rock have received their push?

Don't let the Mark Madden kool aid fool you, Hall and Nash did not make the nWo - the birth of 'Hollywood' Hogan did. I personally feel that an Outsiders jump at this stage would have benefited, not hindered WCW and things like Paul Wight and the Radicalz jumping may never have occurred.

 

[Denny Crane]

I never thought the problem with WCW was Hall and Nash was the over exposure of the whole NWO group. D-X was great on it's own and Hall and Nash would have meant no New Age Outlaws, which put D-X over the top.

 

[wrestlingfan]

Even with a Kliq reunion in WWF, I still think the Rock would've gotten over. He was too over to not get pushed.

 

[detroitking02]

1. First off without Hall and Nash jumping ship to WCW and forming NWO there wouldn't of been a DX .


2. At the time do you think Hall and Nash were gonna leave WCW which paid more money with guaranteed money & them having creative control. Hall & Nash were not gonna leave WCW during the time X-Pac gave that speech and WCW was on top at the time.