nWo 2026

[Chili]

Ugh, following my own post with another, but the WWE Vault has decided to PROPERLY celebrate 30 years of the nWo.

HA!

 

[wandshogun09]

Pretty sure I also found out about the Hogan turn through teletext. The joys of not getting WCW PPVs. First time I actually would’ve seen NWO Hulk would’ve been the first Nitro he appeared on after Bash At The Beach. Was it the night after when they were at Universal Studios? I just remember a Rey Mysterio vs Dean Malenko opener and a load of madness about this new thing called the NWO. Think they showed stills from the Bash and seeing pictures of Nash and Hall in a WCW match was strange to me. Even though they’d both been in a WCW ring just a few years earlier, they weren’t Diesel and Razor back then. Weirder was seeing them both in their new red ring attire. Especially Nash in the all red clobber. He looked ridiculous. Like a 7ft saveloy. Then even weirder than all that was seeing Hogan come out and rip into the fans. He was never my favourite but he’d been the ultimate babyface for all of my fandom. To see him as a bad guy was mind boggling. 

But yeah, it got run into the ground and went stale eventually. Too much shite was let into the ranks and, as others have said, even some of the additions who weren’t shitehawks felt like a bad fit. And for me, one of the things that I remember started doing my head in was the commentators just constantly banging on about the NWO throughout every match on Nitro, even if both guys were WCW all the way. I get that it was by far the biggest story in the company at the time and they had to put the bulk of the focus on it. But it just started to feel like overkill for me, even as a kid. I don’t need to hear Larry Z blurt out “the New World ODOUR!” for the 95th time during a random Bobby Eaton vs Jim Powers match thanks. 

[gmoney]

Jim Powers is an underrated workhorse of 96 Nitros. Not related to the topic, but fuck it, it needs to be said. Man was solid. 

[wandshogun09]

1 minute ago, gmoney said:

Jim Powers is an underrated workhorse of 96 Nitros. Not related to the topic, but fuck it, it needs to be said. Man was solid. 

A workhorse for sure. You might even go as far as to say he was a young stallion. 

[SuperBacon]

22 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Especially Nash in the all red clobber. He looked ridiculous. Like a 7ft saveloy.

😆😆😆 chippy tea 4 life.

This reminds me that a few weeks back I saw this, you can create your own nwo theme song. Minutes of fun to be had.

https://www.wjkhmedia.com/nwo/

[Merzbow]

5 hours ago, Chili said:

Hogan trying to get over people calling him "Wood" as a nickname during his JNCO jeans era is my favourite. Proper Rimmer trying to get "Duke" to stick feels.

Between that and Triple H's short "TRI" era I don't know who came across as completely uncool the most.

Everyone wanted to be The Rock at one point, wasn't Macho Man copying him during his "I'm edgy actually" time when he could barely move and roided up.

[Chico Torres]

Fuck it, let’s talk Jim Powers in WCW since it’s not exactly a topic that comes up too often. No matter how long he was around (since at least the mid 80s in WWF?) he was always talked about as a exciting young prospect even when he must have been pushing 40. Basically he was the most generic (not bad, generic) handsome wrestler and in their infinite wisdom WCW attempted to create a babyface faction whose common thread was that they were all hunks. If they had lasted more than one match they could have been great lower card heels because who couldn’t hate a faction consisting of our Jim, Renegade, Joe Gomez and Alex Wright, although Das Wunderkind was way above their level.

I don’t know if they had an official name, I’ve heard them referred to as “The In Crowd” or “The Hot Boys of Summer”. Never destined to be long for this world but they left us with this gift forever 

 

[Chili]

If only Jim Powers listened to Teddy Long during his "ate all the food at the restaurant and they had to close the restaurant" phase the Powers might have gotten beyond the odd win on Pro and Worldwide.

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Really hard to believe that this 30 years ago.

I use to watch WWF on SKY, no way of watching WCW, so I use to buy tapes from Glen Radford and kept up with WCW through Powerslam, as well as the WCW magazine.

With regards to Bash at the Beach and Hogan’s heel turn, I cannot quite remember how or when I found out. Although, I do remember a really good friend of the family who we use to go to Florida with more or less every year, had travelled to Atlanta to see one of the Olympic Games events being held there. As it was cheaper to fly to Orlando than Atlanta he stayed in Orlando for a few days before driving up to Atlanta and was at Disney MGM on the Monday at one of the Nitro tapings. Whilst he had no interest in wrestling, he knew I liked it and when I saw him when he got back home he told me that Hulk Hogan was now dressed in black and was part of a new organisation. Those were his exact words and considering Hogan used the word Organisation at the Bash of the Beach,  I reckon he had seen an item on one of the local new channels promoting the taping.

I loved the NWO and thought it was so cool seeing the members coming to the ring via the crowd, little things like that really did make it feel like a takeover

1996 and 1997 were my favourite time to be a wrestling fan and I reckon I could watch both of those years with all the output from WWF, WCW and ECW and would never get bored 

[westlondonmist]

20 hours ago, simonworden said:

I always feel amazed how quick they did dilute the mix with Giant, Ted Dibiase, Syxx and even nWo Sting having at least some reasoning to be there storyline and booking wise but then it isn't even 1997 and you've got Virgil, and IRS joining. I get the argument you could make that they needed some bodies for the faces to throw around but they weren't exactly stellar picks at the time. 

I figured the justification was they needed something for Hogan's mates to do given the money they were earning. Also the idea of tune into Nitro to see who's joined the nWo this week. 

 

I think Dibiase kind of made sense, the wealthy man funding it and Syxx to have the nWo in the Cruiserweights, they're just hidden within lots of shit. 

[Supremo]

I was a fully brain-washed Fed Head at the time (“a Rollins”?), so I wasn’t switching over to TNT no matter how cool or hot the nWo became. In my head, it was still the retirement home for all the old wrestlers who couldn’t compete with The New Generation in the WWF. However, watching it all back you almost forgive the fact that Bischoff had a ratio of about 100:1 in terms of shit ideas to good ideas throughout his career. The nWo was that good that it almost cancels everything else out. Even the current grifting.

I’ve always had a morbid fascination with the WWE’s version of the nWo in 2002. From Vince drawing a backwards nWo logo on his chair with Tippex so it looked correct in the mirror, to Austin catching The Outsiders in a net like the Wet Bandits. From HBK finally wearing the nWo shirt he was probably desperate to wear since 1996, to how the whole thing fell apart quicker than Kevin Nash’s quad. What a mad, disastrous couple of months. Whole thing feels like a fever dream.

I can’t think of anything worse than listening to Nash’s podcast, but has he ever gone into detail about this run? Exactly what was the plan if Hogan hadn’t gotten so over with The Rock match that they turned him face? Was Shawn originally going to return to full-time wrestling as a part of the nWo? Was he going to tag with Kevin? Did they even plan for Scott Hall to stick around? Or was it taken as a given he’d fuck up and be gone, quick smart?

I went back to see if it ever ended “officially,” or if it was quietly brushed under the rug and discovered this segment, where Vince announced the end of the nWo. Bizarre to watch.

Taking this as the official end of the nWo, I’ve done the maths and it spells disaster for The Bloodline, who are still doing rookie numbers.

 nWo 

Started July 7, 1996, ended July 25, 2002.

6 years and 18 days (2,210 days total).

Bloodline

Started July 9, 2021, still going today.

4 years, 11 months, and 29 days (1,825 days total).

So we’ve got at least another year or two of The Bloodline if they’re going to beat the nWo. My bet is they’ll double them when all is said and done. Haven’t they just signed that Zilla Fatu guy? Every Samoan alive will eventually get a go.

Edited July 9 by Supremo

[TheScarlettChad]

Wasn't the plan that HHH would join them and then Nash got hurt and that was that. 

[tiger_rick]

On 7/8/2026 at 4:19 PM, Chili said:

Ugh, following my own post with another, but the WWE Vault has decided to PROPERLY celebrate 30 years of the nWo.

HA!

 

I really enjoyed this. It's a fascinating time, that year or two after the attitude era died, ECW died and WCW died.

There were a few things I'd completely misremembered, like Scott Hall still being employed after Mania 18, Rock jobbing to Hogan in that superstar tag match before Mania 18 and Kevin Nash's quads not immediately disintegrating.

The beat down on a bloody Austin was a decent angle to try and give it some steam. Hogan's promo with cardboard Rock is about his best work.

Hall is in rough shape. Just worked so ugly. Nash's horrific attempt to jump over the top rope off The Rock is dreadful but hilarious. Tbf to Big Kev, he did seem to take the top rope clothesline bump every show and they got better.

[Arch Stanton]

On 7/8/2026 at 5:09 PM, SuperBacon said:

😆😆😆 chippy tea 4 life.

This reminds me that a few weeks back I saw this, you can create your own nwo theme song. Minutes of fun to be had.

https://www.wjkhmedia.com/nwo/

I have just had so much fun with that!

[simonworden]

I always assumed the original plan was for Michaels to return to the ring at Summerslam as a heel against Austin. That's from my memories of watching highlights back in 2002 and nothing else though.