Which nWo faction was the greater?

[CM Steel]

Every old school wrestling fan knows that the New World Order angle was at the begining of the big boom period in WCW. They had made the first move in their game with the WWF/E during the infamous Monday Night wars. With the legendary babyface Hulk Hogan turning heel being aided by both Scott Hall & Kevin Nash as the founding members of the New World Order. And after a few months, the nWo grew with new members. But after awhile the stable was divided by certain members with certain members. You had nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpack. With nWo Hollywood as the heels and the nWo Wolfpack as the urban babyfaces.

But eventully WCW's creative team put the faction back as a whole after "the infamous" Hogan "finger poke of doom" angle went about. WCW also had the Latino World Order led by the late great Eddie Guerrero at one point riding off the success of the nWo faction. But the nWo as a whole will be remembered as one if not the greatest wrestling faction in wrestling history.

But in your opinion. Which nWo faction was the greater?

 

[Evil Ernie]

The Original: HH, Nash and Hall. It wasn't that bad when they added Dibiase, but it just got out of control too quickly.

Honorable mention goes to NWO 2000. Kind of Lame, but I liked every member (Nash, Steiner, JJ, Hart) and I think that they could have actually done something if not for all the injuries and WEIRD WCW booking.

 

[r2d2ott]

When Hogan joined the Outsiders, that killed WCW for me. It wasn't even because Hogan turned heel. At all. I would have loved that.

It's because The Outsiders were basically booked as the WWF invading WCW. Smashing shit, shoving commentators, kicking all sorts of ass and starting a revolution. It was the Kliq moving on from the WWF in order to take over wrestling as a whole. If it was left as that, with Hogan, Savage, and Flair uniting the veteran classic "face" wrestlers from both WCW and WWF against the NWO, then they would have destroyed the WWF. It wouldn't have become a gigantic joke. Hogan never ran with Hall or Nash. They were in different places. In fact, they were the "New Generation" that tried to break away so much from Hogan.

If there was good booking going on, and honest politics, Flair would've been the third man, and Hogan/Savage/Sting would've joined forces against the nWo for great monumental television.

Instead, Hogan came out to legdrop Savage at BatB, killing an awesome idea before it even happened. It changed the nWo from a group who ran around with baseball bats trying to change the world, and made it a heel group, who did generic "Let me tell ya something brother..." heel promos, and tried to remain what it once was while at the same time selling out for t-shirts and towels. They expanded to the point that they were an unrecognizable bastard creation of what they once were.

Hall wouldn't have ended up nearly as fucked up if he had stayed with the fed. I guarantee it. And best angle? Definitely LWO. I guess.

 

[TheHorndogSays]

I've never been a fan of Face stables, stables are about giving their people a numbers advantage. Advantages should ALWAYS go in the heel favor. The LWO was more of a parody than a serious threat so my vote goes to Team Hollywood.

 

[FlairFan2003]

The group expanded too quickly after the initial Hogan Heel turn. They courted (unsuccessfully) DDP, added Giant, then Savage, then Henning, alongside a slew of mid carders. It's hard to say what version was best per se because no one version stayed in tact for very long. The only mid carder who really got a bump from the group was Marcus Bagwell, Scott Steiner's heel turn was a bump in his career but he was already a major star prior to that (Bagwell wasn't, he was about one step above "enhancement" talent).

My fav version was the early 99 model, after Nash turned heel and re united the group with Hogan (returning from a long absence). You had the original 3 man crew of Nash, Hogan, and Hall (a shell of himself at this point but still a name) alongside Bagwell and Steiner, who's heel persona was very entertaining. The Wolf pac vs Black & White thing that never made any sense was over, as was the part time memberships of Lex Luger, Sting, Brett Hart, and the main eventers purged the mid carders like Horace Hogan, Virgil, etc from the group. I would have liked to have seen WCW do more with Scott Norton as a legit bad a@# character, he was wasted, otherwise the Jan 99-April 99 model was the best for me. I still cant believe after all the hype that WCW invested in Goldberg they bumped him into the midcard and kept him far away from the title scene and money matches after his Starrcade loss, failing to capitalize on the money to be made with a re formed super bad NWO being chased by Goldberg, but this is the same time period in which WCW took its other most popular star (Ric Flair) and inexplicably turned him heel after building his return to oppose the NWO for nearly 6 months, when he was red hot they canned the whole thing. Top it off after everything invested in the re formed NWO they immediately had Hogan jump ship and turn face, but he never feuded with the group, they folded soon after.

Despite the unbelievably bad booking during this time that last version of the NWO, the final version that really meant anything other than the brief revival of the Big 3 in WWE in 2002, is my favorite, I always felt they had real storyline potential and the stars were aligned in their favor, particularly with how Goldberg's and Flair's stories had evolved up to that point (early 99). The returns of Sting of Brett Hart from injury related hiatus would have only added to the drama. It was wasted for sure, but this was a great grouping within the NWO dynamic.

If the NWO ever gets their due in the WWE HOF I doubt Steiner or Bagwell will be inducted, they'll probably get brief mentions the way non inducted members of The Four Horsemen did but only the original three will be inducted. For me, I would also induct Steiner for sure, and consider the contributions Bagwell & Henning made to the group. Of course, I felt Ole Anderson & Lex Luger deserved to be inducted as part of The Horsemen but it didn't happen.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

The original nWo (Hogan, Nash & Hall) was really only one month long. After 2 months in the storyline they had added more members (DiBiase, Giant, fake Sting, Syxx) and it was still awesome.

It started to get bloated in October/November 96 (only 3 months into the angle) when Vincent, Nasty Boys (only for two weeks), Elizabeth, Buff Bagwell, VK Wallstreet and Eric Bischoff joined. By the end of December they had also added more useless members like Scott Norton and Big Bubba Rogers. They'd gotten so far away from the point of the "invasion" and it turned into more of an "implosion" angle.

By mid-97 it had gotten so big they had guys coming in and guys going out on a weekly basis you can't even keep track of it. They had an nWo Japan even. Splitting the faction into two was the right thing to do after Sting took the title from Hogan. Splitting Nash/Hogan was big, but should have been even bigger.

My vote would go to the early days of the nWo from July - Sep 96 before Bischoff/Elizabeth/Vincent/everyone else joined. But if I'm comparing the 1998 Wolfpac vs the 1998 Hollywood versions, the Wolfpac is the hands down winner. They were leaner and had bigger stars in a super over babyface Nash, Sting, Luger, Konnan and Savage. Hollywood had Hogan, Bischoff, Steiner, Giant and a bunch of jobbers (aka the B team) like Stevie Ray, Norton, Brian Adams, Vincent, The Disciple, Horace Hogan.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Hogan, Hall, Nash, Giant and Syxx -- those were the NWO to me. Having the core three and then the inital newcomers just made for an outstanding team. It was after that that all of a sudden some of the B team members started coming in, and by the time that they actually had "factions", the NWO's sell-by date was long past due.

 

[relentless1]

the original nWo was the best by far, their first mistake was adding Eric Bischoff into the group, yes he was the best heel boss this side of Mr Mcmahon but they already had Ted Dibiase as the manager for the group, adding Eric was overkill. They should have kept the group at Hogan, Hall, Nash, Dibiase, Syxx, fake Sting (only for the angle), Giant, Vincent as the whipping boy and Bagwell as the up and comer. In my booking of WCW, Savage and Konnan would have been added mid 97, Giant would still get kicked out and Hennig would have remained with the Horsemen and Steiner would have joined a lot earlier...anyways I thought the Wolfpac/Hollywood split was awesome at first but they should have kept the Outsiders together and followed thru with it and had the two teams face off at War Games 1998, loser disbands. They still could have done the reunion angle in 99 if they wanted to

 

[pipebomber]

The original nWo (Hogan, Nash & Hall) was really only one month long. After 2 months in the storyline they had added more members (DiBiase, Giant, fake Sting, Syxx) and it was still awesome.

It started to get bloated in October/November 96 (only 3 months into the angle) when Vincent, Nasty Boys (only for two weeks), Elizabeth, Buff Bagwell, VK Wallstreet and Eric Bischoff joined. By the end of December they had also added more useless members like Scott Norton and Big Bubba Rogers. They'd gotten so far away from the point of the "invasion" and it turned into more of an "implosion" angle.

By mid-97 it had gotten so big they had guys coming in and guys going out on a weekly basis you can't even keep track of it. They had an nWo Japan even. Splitting the faction into two was the right thing to do after Sting took the title from Hogan. Splitting Nash/Hogan was big, but should have been even bigger.

My vote would go to the early days of the nWo from July - Sep 96 before Bischoff/Elizabeth/Vincent/everyone else joined. But if I'm comparing the 1998 Wolfpac vs the 1998 Hollywood versions, the Wolfpac is the hands down winner. They were leaner and had bigger stars in a super over babyface Nash, Sting, Luger, Konnan and Savage. Hollywood had Hogan, Bischoff, Steiner, Giant and a bunch of jobbers (aka the B team) like Stevie Ray, Norton, Brian Adams, Vincent, The Disciple, Horace Hogan.

You swayed me... I was debating on this poll and was about to vote Hollywood. The nWo was never bigger than when it started. and that was white and black... however... they weren't really the nWo Hollywood yet. they were just the nWo at the time... between the 98 versions though... I have to agree... the Wolfpac is just TOO SWWWEEEEEET!!!

 

[lowandmighty]

The greater? I think the Wolf Pack were treated as the A stars, from memory Hogan never had the belt while the nWo was broken into two factions and he only had that really horrible main event against The Warrior.

Or was the nWo already in two when Goldberg beat Hogan for the belt? I can't remember.

If you break it down, the Wolf Pack had more big stars. They had Macho Man who was arguably the biggest star in the group but not treated as such. Sting the biggest home grown star from WCW's point of view. Nash a big star in his own right and then there were Lex Luger and Konnan.

So you have two massive stars and one moderately big star in the Wolf Pack.

In nWo Hollywood you had Hulk Hogan or Hollywood Hogan as it were. Thats pretty much it, so the Wolf Pack had the star power, you could argue the fact Hogan is a bigger star than all of the Wolf Pack put together which would be true but he wasn't on tv enough.

So even though I was way more a fan of nWo Hollywood because they were essentially still the original nWo and didn't sell out to kiss the WCW fans asses, I would say the Wolf Pack is probably considered greater.

The original nWo will always be the real deal though, being Hogan, Hall, Nash, syxx, Hennig, The Giant, Macho Man etc.

 

[WWEWrestleFest]

The nWo angle was the best around 1997 to me. The WWF stars of the 80's (Hogan/Savage) joining forces with the WWF stars of the 90's (Hall/Nash) and feuding with the WCW stars of the 80's (Flair/Arn) and the WCW stars of the 90's (Sting/Luger) That was a really cool time period to be a WCW fan.

As for nWo Hollywood vs. Wolfpac.. You have to give the edge to the Wolfpac. Originally it was sort of broke up as Hogan/Hall vs. Nash/Savage, which could have been a cool angle. But Hall was gone from WCW tv for a while due to personal issues. Hogan left for a while as well as he was "running for president." If you remember back then, they actually had Scott Steiner leading nWo Hollywood.

The Wolfpac on the other hand were REALLY over. Nash was probably at the peak of his popularity, Savage was always great, as a face or a heel. Luger gets a lot of crap these days, but back then, he was over and he was a huge star. Remember, at one point, Hogan dropped the title to him clean on the 100th episode of Nitro. And no one had a problem with it. Sting was always over as a face, and him joining the Wolfpac brought even more credibility to the faction. And the visual of Sting with red facepaint was really cool.

I don't know why you have the LWO on there.. they weren't affiliated with the nWo at all, it was more of a parody, similar to BWO in ECW.

All in all, I'd rank the nWo factions like this:

1) Original - Bash at the Beach '96 to the split in '98, the original and the best. Changed wrestling
2) nWo Elite
3) nWo Wolfpac
4) nWo Hollywood
5) WWF/E version
6) nWo B-Team
7) nWo 2000

I know there was nWo Japan too, but I can't really comment on that as I never saw any of it.

 

[Ubermensch]

I would say the original NWO was the best.

The NWO eventually added far too many midcarders. Once they were Hall, Nash, Hogan, The Giant, NWO Sting, Savage, and Syxx they were larger than other stable in terms kayfabe talent, and actual numbers.

For whatever reason, the Wolfpack always got a bad rep retrospectively, even on the NWO dvd. While I will say the original members were the best, the Wolfpack is definitely second. Luger didn't mesh with that group but they had a great deal of chemistry and I remember them being much more popular than they are given credit for. The Finger Poke of Doom is given so much flack because it delegitimized the World title, but I also think the fact that ended the Wolfpack angle was important in WCWs demise as well.

The Wolfpack should have been Nash, Hall, DDP, Konan, Savage, and Booker T. I would have kept Luger out because he didn't fit. I also feel like Sting would have done better outside the Wolfpack and some of his momentum got killed going into it. They should have continued to play on the whole blood v. crips angle they were alluding too with both factions and then ended the NWO altogether later that year.

Honorable mention goes to NWO 2000. Really what hurt them the most was being labeled as a NWO incarnation. Hart, Jarrett, Steiner, Hall, and Nash definitely work and had potential had WCW not been floundering.

The LWO was really more of a rebellion by the Latino wrestlers I don't remember them being anymore associated with the NWO that Blue World Order.

1.) 1996 NWO
2.) NWO Wolfpack
3.) 1997 NWO (with their massive amount of midcarders).
4.) NWO 2000
5.) NWO Hollywood
6.) NWO Wolfpack/Elite
7.) WWE NWO (Hall, Nash, Hogan)
8.) WWE NWO (Booker, X Pac, HBK etc.)
9.) NWO B-Team
10.) NWO Japan
11.) Latino World Order
12.) Blue World Order

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

The greatest incarnation of the nWo was clearly the original line up of Hogan, Hall and Nash (with Syxx and Giant joining shortly after). However, this was soon watered down with second rate additions like Vincent, Wallstreet, DiBiase etc making the faction far too large and bloated.

When it split into the 2 groups- nWo Wolfpac and nWo Hollywood, the initial power and impact of the group had gone. However, The Wolfpac was still pretty awesome with Nash, Sting, Savage and Luger. They were the much bigger stars than the majority of the Hollywood faction, which is why the Hollywood guys tend to get remembered as the "nWo B-team". Plus, the Wolfpac music is still to this day in my top 5 wrestling themes of all time. Very cool.

 

[justtxyank]

Man, the Wolfpac was over like rover. If you weren't watching at the time you can't possibly understand how big they were with the audience. Crowds wanted DDP and Goldberg to join badly.

Nash mentioning to Goldberg that the Pac had a six pack and a shirt waiting for him got an ENORMOUS pop, and the multi-week recruitment of DDP had fans eating out of the palm of their hands.

Of course, Sting joining the Wolfpac made ZERO sense, but it popped the hell out of the crowd and jolted his character.

 

[Ubermensch]

I agree, the Wolfpack has always gotten a bad rep, but I don't see it. The split was big. When I was in the 4th grade you and your boys had Wolfpack shirts and you point out the ones that were still wearing the Black and white. They certainly didn't receive as strong of a reaction as the original NWO, but it didn't make them unsuccessful. It really gave the NWO as a concept a lifeline.

One of the problems I remember was that the despite having 3 hours of programming and two with Thunder. The WCW still had a bloated roster and it looked like they started to lump guys into stables to make sure people were getting screen time.

I believe in late 98 you had the NWO Hollywood, Wolfpack, Raven's Flock, The Four Horsemen, and I suppose you can count the oWn.