How Would You End The nWo?

[sungod2020]

Inspired by the Wolfpac thread, it got me thinking how the original nWo should've ended instead of dragging on and on, fizzling out and reforming, split up into groups etc etc.

As we know, the New World Order(sparked by Hulk Hogan's heel turn) helped make WCW a competitor force against the then-struggling World Wrestling Federation. As Eric Bischoff likes to brag about, his company beat them for 83 consecutive weeks. 

While the nWo was wildly popular with the fans, all good things must come to an end and this was no different. In kayfabe they were set out to kill World Championship Wrestling, and ironically enough, they ended up doing so in reality(I know that wasn't the only reason, but it did play a hand. Mission accomplished...I guess.

That being said, if the nWo was given a proper ending, how would you do it, and subsequently given WCW a longer shelf life?

Some say it should've ended when Sting beat Hogan at Starrcade for the World Heavyweight Championship, which I think would've been abrupt, since as the ratings showed, there was still juice left in continuing it. I do however feel that could've been a good starting point(with a much less screwier finish). 

From there, Hogan could've kept challenging Sting for the championship only to come up short. Meanwhile, their could be dissension within the ranks of the faction leading a portion of them(lead by Kevin Nash as in this universe) to forming the Wolfpac while dropping the nWo moniker in the process. 

Also, in the first half of 98, the individual members of the group can gradually show their own personalities and storylines while only loosely affliated with the group. This can all come to ahead at a War Games(if we can stretch it out to September without becoming stale) where the last remnants of the nWo(still lead by Hogan) can be defeated by WCW's top stars or upper midcarders(Sting, Goldberg, DDP, etc etc). Any combination of regular WCW and Wolfpack will do.

From there, the remaining nWo members would blame Hogan for their lost and turn on him, which would lead to a hiatus on The Hulkster's part and come back as a babyface sometime in 99 to get revenge on his former stablemates.

Any idea how you would book it?

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

I wouldn’t.

That’s right the NWO would still be rolling in 2021. By now it would NWO Neon Yellow and Black and be led by Curt Hennig’s reanimated head in a jar.

Sure you can make the argument that, that technology doesn’t exist, but in this reality where the NWO never ended, it does.

[Wilfred]

Team WCW- Sting, Goldberg, Bret, Luger and DDP
def.
nWo-Hogan, Hall, Nash, Savage and Hennig

Goes down at Fall Brawl ‘98 in War Games with everything on the line. Losing organization is destroyed. Either Goldberg or Sting beat Hall and the nWo are no more. This leads to civil war between Hogans side and a babyface Nash where they have a big singles match at Halloween Havoc. Goldberg is champion running through everyone as the new face of the company.

[celtics543]

Have them end at Starrcade when Sting beats Hogan. You always want to leave the fans wanting more and this would've been that moment. They implode the next night on Nitro and you can have the Wolfpac come out of the ashes.

WCW stays in business by pushing new guys, Goldberg running wild, and new storylines. A couple years later they have a scenario kind of like the tag match when ECW joined the Alliance. Everyone looks around and realizes they're all former NWO guys and they ideally become faces and have a face run. Basically end it at Starrcade 97, put it away for a couple years, and then pull it back out in 2000 or 2001 for a big time face run.

[Mozenrath]

Not sure how I'd end Wolfpac, but I'd keep them face. Hogan loses a rematch with Goldberg for who gets a title match against Nash, getting jumped by nWo members with someone else as the new leader, maybe Bret if they insist on heel Bret. Hogan goes yellow and red as a face just since Hogan probably needs to be allowed to feel important or he'd bitch.

Goldberg, Sting, and DDP win against three major nWo people, forcing the dissolution. Wolfpac also remove nWo from their branding and probably don't last a lot longer, either. Hogan runs off nWo inteference with a steel chair after showing up and fans probably thinking he was going to turn heel again, but WCW resists WCWing it up and commits to something for a change.

[Hit Girl]

Sting beats Hogan at Starrcade and the NWO is disbanded after a brief civil war.

The bigger stars are repackaged with their own gimmicks and gradually phased out in favour of younger stars.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2021 12:34:09 GMT -5 Wilfred said:

Team WCW- Sting, Goldberg, Bret, Luger and DDP
def.
nWo-Hogan, Hall, Nash, Savage and Hennig

Goes down at Fall Brawl ‘98 in War Games with everything on the line. Losing organization is destroyed. Either Goldberg or Sting beat Hall and the nWo are no more. This leads to civil war between Hogans side and a babyface Nash where they have a big singles match at Halloween Havoc. Goldberg is champion running through everyone as the new face of the company.

This what I've always thought. 

Based on the guys at the ppv... Goldberg did have the night off but throw him a little extra to be there. 

Team WCW:
Goldberg, Sting, Warrior, DDP, & Piper
vs.
Team NWO:
Hogan, Hall, Nash, Luger, & Hart

[CeilingFan]

As long as Hogan had creative control, the storyline would never end correctly.

[mc74]

I did a WCW 1997 TEW save a couple of years back on this. I remember having a long-term plan in place, and it all started when Randy Savage won the WCW World Championship from Sting at Road Wild '98. The following month, team WCW (Bret Hart, Sting, DDP, Lex Luger, and Ric Flair) defeated the nWo at Fall Brawl's War Games. Fast forward to Starrcade, and the nWo for the most part are on the losing end of things. Even though Savage retains his title against Flair in the main event, The Outsiders lose to DDP and Sting, and Hogan would lose his match against Bret Hart. The nWo would also lose the WCW Tag Team titles to Los Guerreros.

Hogan, having his ego hurt as a result of his loss against Bret Hart, still holds a grudge. However, this is where Hogan lets his ego get in the way of business with the nWo. Randy Savage was scheduled to defend his title against Bret Hart, and during the match, Hogan gets himself involved and damn near costs Savage the title. After this, Savage would confront Hogan about getting his nose involved in his business, reminds him that he almost cost him the title, and then warns him not to let his ego get in the way of things.

However, that's where I last ended things off. At that point, the cracks were beginning to form from within the nWo, and the overall story here that I was trying to tell was one where the huge egos from within the nWo would lead to their own downfall.

[Gravedigger's Biscuits]

nWo Hollywood vs nWo Wolfpac at Fall Brawl '98 in War Games. Loser has to disband.

Wolfpac wins and remains a face faction, gradually phasing out the 'nWo' name.

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

Live sex celebration going-away party on a random episode of WCW Saturday Night...

[Mayonnaise]

Hogan gets the belt back from Sting at Super Brawl but the in fighting in the nWo starts.

They set up Hogan/Goldberg for Bash at the Beach. WCW brass seeing this as their best shot to get rid of the nWo wants to add that the nWo is dead if Goldberg wins but Hogan only agrees if Goldberg agrees to join the nWo when Hogan win. Both sides agree.

The nWo flips out, how could Hulk do this, blah, blah, blah. Hulk talks about everyone he's beaten, not to worry and they'll be there anyway, blah blah blah.

Match comes, Goldberg dominates but, Hogan catches a break and calls for backup but no one comes. Hogan realises his fate, turns around and eats a spear and Jackhammer. New champ, no more nWo.

Next night Hall and Nash explain that everyone was sick of Hogan and this was the unavoidable result. Hogan isn't seen for months. Nash starts destroying people and we get to Starrcade 98.

Nash and Goldberg have a somewhat even match until Hall runs in with the cattle prod. He shocks Goldberg and Nash sets up for the Jackknife. Before Nash can hit the Jackknife, Hendrix hits and Hogan makes his return. He attacks Hall and in the chaos Goldberg recovers and hits Nash with the spear and Jackhammer to win.

Hogan the next night talks about how losing sucked but it was at least to the better man, that night, what sucked more was losing his brothers. Now however he was going to make them hurt. He starts with Hall at Soul'd Out, moves on to Steiner around March and finally it all comes full circle when he faces Nash at Bash at the Beach.

Now the nWo is dead and they've done the feuds as well.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I wouldn't "end" it, because stables aren't stories.

To me, the story was always "nWo wants WCW's talent and time slot". They were still really marketable and probably had more potential angles after that. And Bullet Club is still around. Should they have disbanded after the Bucks booted Balor in NJPW?

If WCW wanted to avoid oversaturating nWo, they could just take them out of the main events for a while. BC, LIJ and Suzuki-gun can go between the midcard and the main pretty seamlessly, same with Inner Circle and groups like DX. That helps stables stay relatively fresh, because the different forces are being shifted around to keep things interesting.

[Deleted]

Yeah, Fall Brawl 98 seems like the perfect time. Wolfpac (Nash/Sting/Luger/Konnan) v Hollywood (Hogan/Hall/Giant/Steiner) war games for the rights to the NWO name. Red and black wins then afterwards they disband the NWO and just use the Wolfpac name going forward. Nash uses the momentum of that big victory to go into Starrcade and face Goldberg which happened anyway.

They could have milked so much money out of that red and black v black and white feud even before they got to the war games. Remember around spring 98 when fans were begging for Nash to turn on Hogan? Hogan v Nash should have been a big time match but they didn't do it until August 1999. That was a year too late.

[sungod2020]

May 18, 2021 15:46:28 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

I wouldn't "end" it, because stables aren't stories.

To me, the story was always "nWo wants WCW's talent and time slot". They were still really marketable and probably had more potential angles after that. And Bullet Club is still around. Should they have disbanded after the Bucks booted Balor in NJPW?

If WCW wanted to avoid oversaturating nWo, they could just take them out of the main events for a while. BC, LIJ and Suzuki-gun can go between the midcard and the main pretty seamlessly, same with Inner Circle and groups like DX. That helps stables stay relatively fresh, because the different forces are being shifted around to keep things interesting.

Given the premise of the story was this big evil faction wants to take over WCW, then yes, it was pretty much designed to end at some point, and in a big dramatic way. The problem is, Eric Bischoff and co couldn't imagine a life after WCW so they just kept milking it and milking it, let it die a slow unnoticeable death, then exhume it's grave with nWo 2000, only for the process to repeat again.

So yes, booking 101 says it HAD to end based on the narrative.

[Hit Girl]

The One Warrior Nation defeats them and they all become Warrior's sex slaves.

[bob]

first Sting beats Hogan clean as a sheet at Starrcade 1997

then the Wolfpack vs nWo Hollywood slowly start to fall apart, after Hogan disappears for a while after losing to Sting

it comes to head when at Fall Brawl

when team WCW DDP, Sting, Goldberg and Bret Hart beat team nWo Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Curt Henning where the losing faction disbanded forever

on the under card WCW sweeps the nWo in the following matches

Roddy Piper vs Eric Bischoff

Booker T vs Randy Savage

The Steiner Brothers vs Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger

Ric Flair, Benoit and Dean Malenko vs Konnan, Scott Norton and Stevie Ray

Chris Jericho vs Syxx

[rnrk supports BLM]

Goldberg spears Hogan in half. Literally, like a Mortal Kombat fatality. He does the spear and Hogan's torso goes flying through the air and lands somewhere in the crowd, while Hogan's legs are still standing in the ring for a minute before wobbling over.

[eJm]

May 18, 2021 16:32:31 GMT -5 sungod2020 said:

May 18, 2021 15:46:28 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

I wouldn't "end" it, because stables aren't stories.

To me, the story was always "nWo wants WCW's talent and time slot". They were still really marketable and probably had more potential angles after that. And Bullet Club is still around. Should they have disbanded after the Bucks booted Balor in NJPW?

If WCW wanted to avoid oversaturating nWo, they could just take them out of the main events for a while. BC, LIJ and Suzuki-gun can go between the midcard and the main pretty seamlessly, same with Inner Circle and groups like DX. That helps stables stay relatively fresh, because the different forces are being shifted around to keep things interesting.

Given the premise of the story was this big evil faction wants to take over WCW, then yes, it was pretty much designed to end at some point, and in a big dramatic way. The problem is, Eric Bischoff and co couldn't imagine a life after WCW so they just kept milking it and milking it, let it die a slow unnoticeable death, then exhume it's grave with nWo 2000, only for the process to repeat again.

So yes, booking 101 says it HAD to end based on the narrative.

Also, it was pretty much proven that, despite how much money the nWo was making, nWo Souled Out was a bomb and nWo Nitro was a ratings failure so it showed that the crowd was pretty much not going to watch an nWo only show.

[J. Hova]

I don't know how I would drag it out this long, but I'd get it to NYE 2000 and have the blow off of all blow offs, WCW vs. NWO for all of the marbles on the eve of the new millennium.