nWo 2026

[BarryOVega]

Behind the scenes of the first promo

https://youtu.be/kcw0Qwxq1rc?is=P9vMh98RtHxJ2yZm

currently rereading Nitro for the 3rd time and it’s amazing how much of the production stuff came from so many different people backstage, the logo, video effects etc, props to Bischoff I suppose for listening to different ideas, I imagine if it was left to Hogan and him every promo would’ve been Hogan ranting for 5 minutes on a Harley while Hall and Nash stood in the background 

[Merzbow]

Wasn't the story that they had to cut up all his early promos into little parts because they were just Hogan rants?

Who knew Hulk was so good at impressions? His Godfather and Razor ones are actually half decent, never seen him having so much fun and it must have been a breath of fresh air to do something different after all those years in the red and yellow.

[Chico Torres]

Part of what made the nwo work so well at the start is Hogan clearly having so much fun being unleashed as a bad guy, not just in his promos but wrestling as a stooging heel, cheating behind the refs back and doing the cowardly begging off. There’s the one PPV match against Savage where he wears a wig that’s such a great heel performance, also the first match with Piper as well. He could have decided to be some monster power heel type but instead embraced the dastardly cartoon heel side of himself which was so much better.

[The Gaffer]

This still from the recent Vault upload is the most hilarious, perfect encapsulation of nWo - and WWE as a whole - booking post WrestleMania X8:

[SoloJones]

40 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Wasn't the story that they had to cut up all his early promos into little parts because they were just Hogan rants?

Who knew Hulk was so good at impressions? His Godfather and Razor ones are actually half decent, never seen him having so much fun and it must have been a breath of fresh air to do something different after all those years in the red and yellow.

Yeah my main takeaway was Hogan does a very respectable Brando and in general is having a ball. About the editing, I'm sure I heard that Nash and Hall were worried that Hogan was just doing his corny act, but they were assured that the plan was always to cut them up and make him (and them) look better.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

34 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

This still from the recent Vault upload is the most hilarious, perfect encapsulation of nWo - and WWE as a whole - booking post WrestleMania X8:

It took me far too long to realise Kenny Omega wasnt in the NWO.

[tiger_rick]

34 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

This still from the recent Vault upload is the most hilarious, perfect encapsulation of nWo - and WWE as a whole - booking post WrestleMania X8:

The very next clip to that has the worst, most half-arsed nWo effects ever as Big Kev walks down to the nWo music, there's a weird flashing on the screen, some tiny flecks of black and just a general feel of it having been downloaded from Kazaa. Everything about WWE nWo feels like it was directed by someone who'd heard about the nWo from a mate in the pub.

It's fascinating. Even the end. It's mad that they're teasing HHH joining the nWo and literally a couple of weeks later, HHH turns on HBK in the middle of reforming DX. The whole nWo bit is just lost to history.

 

[BarryOVega]

nWo being the Kliq minus Hall but with Show could’ve had legs (sorry Nash) especially as there’s no way Hunter and Michaels would’ve let them be booked weakly, downside is I imagine it would’ve just ended up being some combination of Nash/HHH/HBK feuding once they split up which we got the following year anyway

[The Gaffer]

19 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

The very next clip to that has the worst, most half-arsed nWo effects ever as Big Kev walks down to the nWo music, there's a weird flashing on the screen, some tiny flecks of black and just a general feel of it having been downloaded from Kazaa. Everything about WWE nWo feels like it was directed by someone who'd heard about the nWo from a mate in the pub.

It's fascinating. Even the end. It's mad that they're teasing HHH joining the nWo and literally a couple of weeks later, HHH turns on HBK in the middle of reforming DX. The whole nWo bit is just lost to history.

Watching the timeline back, it's actually the Flair turn that kills it for me moreso than the watering down of the membership (and - on reflection - X-Pac was really trying his hardest to make a bit of business for himself with that initial Hogan beatdown.)

The nWo had just cycled off targeting Austin under Vince's directive and it looked as though coming under a face Ric Flair on Raw, that would be ending. Then they turn Flair, have him move into the authority figure role against Austin and just run the cycle again. 

Probably the first, proper time the on air authority figure became a genuinely annoying, overplayed trope. 

Booker T being unable to get through his own bit here without corpsing is still unbelievable, mind:

 

[Chico Torres]

The WWE version was obviously complete shite but for a great shite NWO we should give a shout out to the legendary nwo B team which was masterfully led by Stevie Ray representing all the fruit booties and yaks out there.

Any group with the big man Scott Norton is obviously great and then you throw in ol’ big ‘ead Horace, Crush, the main man Vincent, it’s quite the crew. 

Genuinely don’t remember Perfecto being a part of this but it’s late 90s WCW so he probably was.

 

Great jazzy theme too

 

[tiger_rick]

1 minute ago, The Gaffer said:

Booker T being unable to get through his own bit here without corpsing is still unbelievable, mind:

 

Yeah, that's brilliant. You can see Waltman go early and him and Nash is probably the most genuine laugh you'll see.

[BarryOVega]

In regards to Chico Torres’ post mentioning Hennig, which I’ve tried quoting but failed, Hennig was kicked out by being twatted by both nWo teams at an airport, obviously he went straight into the rednecks thing but him being kicked out was like a pg13 version of Casino

[Dai]

Speaking of Henig, I can only picture him being in the group as there's that great nWo entrance that starts backstage, and Henig, knowing who the camera is going to be focused on, just stays by Hulk the entire time, even slowing down and stopping to make sure he got his TV time.

 

This thread made me curious about some things, and they would fit into the 'Today I Learned' thread:

- Larry Zbyszko was the one who originally came up with the new world order name for them.

- Paul Orndorff of all people did the original draft of the nWo spray paint logo.

- The music is Turner stock music, and not a Jimmy Hart rip off of something else.

 

Also something else which is interesting to point out. Hall and Nash signed in late May, early June, and within just a few weeks they had convinced Hulk to turn heel. Considering the magnitude of it, and the power Hulk had, things moved quickly, and longer term main event plans must have just been completely dropped

Edited July 13 by Dai

[wandshogun09]

On 7/10/2026 at 2:51 PM, The Gaffer said:

Booker T being unable to get through his own bit here without corpsing is still unbelievable, mind:

 

I actually never saw this until now 🤣 X-Pac’s already cracking straight away but Booker holds it together until he looks Nash in the eyes and then it’s over for all three of them. 

[simonworden]

On 7/11/2026 at 9:38 PM, Dai said:

Also something else which is interesting to point out. Hall and Nash signed in late May, early April, and within just a few weeks they had convinced Hulk to turn heel. Considering the magnitude of it, and the power Hulk had, things moved quickly, and longer term main event plans must have just been completely dropped

I wonder if there were any actual plans should none of this work out. I know there's been thousands of chats about what if no Hogan but what about if they don't get Nash and Hall? I don't even believe WCW had another plan to scrap in all honesty. I wonder if Hogan would have come back at all but looking at PPV results from the early part of 96 it looks to me that the two big feuds would have been Giant crushing people until Starrcade to drop the belt back to ol' Hulkster while Flair and his newest version of the Horsemen are the B story probably mixing it up with Steiners and Sting. Woeful.

The only thing that might have saved things was more dedication to cruisers and international crossovers, but I doubt they were going to keep local business thriving.