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Random thoughts thread v2 *NO NEWS ITEMS*


tiger_rick

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I've noticed any time I see NWO Red & Black/Wolfpac brought up online (usually Lance Storm's Twitter or Wrestlecrap) they slag it off and go on about what a shite idea it was, is this the common opinion?

 

I loved it at the time. The nWo vs WCW storyline had been brilliant but obviously peaked at Starrcade, and when Sting beat Hogan again at SuperBrawl, it felt like the actual war had been won, and the best story to move onto was the nWo dissolving into chaos because they'd been beaten. The Wolfpack off shoot seemed a great idea to placate the vocal fans that had been wanting to cheer for the nWo for ages anyway by giving them an nWo they were MEANT to cheer for, but still letting them boo Hogan. The Outsiders were cool, Savage respected and when they threw Sting in there too, it was getting near impossible not to go "Fuck yeah, the Wolfpack." My mate came back from Florida at the peak of nWo vs nWo and brought me a red n black nWo shirt and its still one of my favourite possessions. The impact of Hall turning on Nash as well was devastating at the time. I really didn't see that one coming. I never thought it was the Wolfpack was a shit idea. I thought it was a perfectly logical storyline progression.

 

It certainly appeared to be a cynical attempt to shift more shirts, and as they were babyfaces it diluted the nWo vs WCW feud somewhat. Plus the fact that some of WCW's biggest stars, who had spent so long fighting them (Luger & Sting specifically) were now members meant there were some major logic holes in the booklng. Sting especially, it seemed so incongruous with his silent pursuit of Hogan and the nWo to join one of their factions and left WCW very much in the lurch and with only really DDP and Goldberg left as major players for them.

 

It was a BRILLIANT attempt to shift more shirts, utter genius. As for the nWo vs WCW feud - if you don't think that was over after SuperBrawl (with WCW winning) then it was certainly going to go nowhere. WCW was never particularly united at the best of times, the Horsemen were dead and Flair in legal dispute with the company, they'd already split up The Steiners by having Scott join the order, so there wasn't anyone really to continue that fight anyway apart from Page and Goldberg, and I don't think the nWo splitting harmed their 1998 in the slightest, with Goldberg becoming the franchise player and DDP having great runs with Benoit then Raven and being the perennial United States champ.

 

I don't think Luger joining the Wolfpack meant much, he was already beneath Sting and Goldberg in the babyface pecking order, and it made sense for him to join at that exact time since it was Hogan that had given him so much grief and at the time Scott Steiner was his most recent big falling out.

 

As for Sting....

 

Sting did make absolutely no sense as well. At the time I loved the big moment when he joined them (and took 6 years to tear off his t-shirt for the big reveal) but yeah Sting in an nWo shirt made their best ever story with him spending last 2 years as the crow, make absolutely no sense.

 

Just me that thought it made complete sense, then? Nash and Savage secede from the REAL nWo to form a "No Hogans" club, his best mate joins up.... yeah, complete sense.

 

I don't even buy that Sting gave that much of a shit about WCW as he did taking personal revenge on Hogan for driving the wedge of mistrust between him and Luger and him and the fans. When JJ Dillon was trying to get him to come back, he was turning down the offers to wrestle Syxx or Scott Hall - it was Hogan he wanted. When he lost the World title to Savage because he had no strength in numbers being such a loner, and because he got in the middle of an nWo vs nWo tiff, a lightbulb must have gone off that he could have done some mates. Considering they were slowly moving towards going with Goldberg as the loner top babyface, it was ideal for them to put Sting in the Wolfpack. They wanted the Wolfpack to be popular, and whether Sting was dressed in black and white, red and black or bright pink taffeta, they were always going to cheer him. And like I say, when the red and black are making up their PowerPoint presentation - don't worry, all Konnan has to do is click to move on to the next slide - the very first page reads "Mission - fuck with Hollywood Hogan." Why wouldn't Sting go for that? It was his raison d'etre at the time.

 

So yeah..... it's great fun for the talking heads to go "Oh, the nWo was better when it was just three of them" rather than the two warring factions, and that's true, I'd say, but for that exact time, I think it's ludicrous to say that having the nWo split into two warring groups in their frustrations was a shit idea. I certainly can't think that there was much less appeal for Nash / Savage / Sting / Luger fighting Hogan / Hall / Scotty Steiner / Giant in the weeks big matches and angles than for the top babyfaces all laying face down every week getting the boots put to them by fake Sting and Virgil.

 

But then, I also thought the nWo "elite" reformation was a great idea at the time. For about a month.

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I legit hated the nWo as a kid and I think what bothered me about the Wolfpac, was them still going under the nWo banner. I know it sold shirts but maybe the awesome red wolf shirt could have been enough.

 

I really hated Sting joining them, and he looked like such a dick.

Edited by WWFChilli
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Sting had a goatee for Halloween Havoc. I dont remember Luger with a beard. He definitely started wearing FUBU jeans in his matches, though. Sting, in some kind of midlife crisis, tried to wrestle in a tank top and JNCO jeans for some odd reason for about a fortnight. And who could forget Randy Savage getting a new bird, and suddenly wearing earrings and a ponytail back in 99. Everyone over 40 had this idea of wanting to be hip at the time. Hollywood Hogan wearing a flannel shirt and Hardy Boy pants, with a beanie hat was wrestlings version of Richard Madeley dressing up as Ali G.

Edited by IANdrewDiceClay
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There's a bit in one of the wrestlecrap books on his goatee:

 

 

 

1. Lex Luger's Goatee: 
Throughout his career, Lex
Luger had one look. He was tanned, muscular
and had long, wonderfully conditioned flowing
blond hair. A clean-cut guy, he was the living
embodiment of the buff bully who kicked sand in
skinny guys' faces at the beach. But that look
wasn't "fresh and dope" enough for a trendy
Wolfpac member, so when the so-called nWo
Red'n' Black came on the scene, along with it
came ... Lex Luger's Goatee. Dear reader, this
was not mere facial hair. No, it was a dark,
Spider-Man 3-style alien entity that consumed
Lex's entire face and took on a life of its own.
With Goatee in tow, Lex embarked on a new era
of hip-hop, rough-and-tough, badboy coolness
that lasted about ... two weeks. Like every white
guy who has turned his hat around to be more
"thuggish" and ended up looking more like a
douchebag of a tool, Lex saw the error of his
stubbly ways and murdered Goatee with the help
of an accomplice described as being small,
white and yellow. Authorities have helped
identify the suspect as a Bic disposable. In time,
WCW followed suit and mercifully shaved the
nWo Wolfpac off the booking sheet.
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