The nWo angle

[Arthur Digby Stamp]

Here's some food for thought...

I've noticed that a theme that keeps coming up is "Who are the next Rock and Austin". We all remember the wrestling boom of the late nineties, and how instrumental both men were in that period. But wasn't the nWo angle just as important, and maybe moreso, in terms of actually drawing that swelled audience to professional wrestling in general?

[thestinger]

Yes, the nWo angle saved Professional wrestling. It is still the most important angle in wrestling history.

Austin, and later the Rock saved Vince from Bankruptcy.

For a very long time, it was considered inevitable that WWF would cease to exist, leaving WCW the sole power in the industry.

At least that's what we hoped....

What's funny is that I watched the horsemen DVD, and the horsemen had the same number of failed re-launches as the nWo, only spread out over two decades.

Time Warner believed the nWo would ultimately save WCW, and they may have been right. If nWo 2000 wasn't destroyed by injuries WCW might still be around today.

[Flexy Lexy]

No, it was more of a vehicle to cross-brand WCW with stock car racing and the NBA. It didn't have mainstream appeal like Sauceton (S. Austin) or The Rock.

[Joe]

The NWO was huge, but mostly because of how it was booked.

The angle itself worked because, in 1996, wrestling fans were not as cynical or, thanks to the Internet, as "smart" as they are in 2007. This is not to say an NWO-type angle could not work today, but the fact that a great deal of the fans would know, or at least be speculating, that somebody was about to jump ship to TNA or ROH would take a lot of the magic from the storyline. As many people within the industry have said, the NWO got over so big initially and swelled the wrestling audience because people had never seen anything like it and bought into it completely. They really thought that Razor Ramon and Diesel had come from the WWF to show WCW which was the best wrestling promotion.

Add to that the presence and availability of a Hulk Hogan, who had been known as a WWF good guy for the last 12 years, and all the stars were lined up just right to make the NWO the biggest thing wrestling had ever seen.

That is why no one speculates about the next "NWO" and why there will never be another one.

The Rock and Austin, on the other hand, could have blown up at any time. Austin may have been helped by the move to more mature program content, but the charisma and ability to connect of both men, not to mention their ability to put on top-flight matches, made them superstars, and would have done so 10 years earlier or ten years later.

That is why people are always speculating about the next Austin or the next Rock. If you find a guy with that much ability and that much charisma, given the opportunity, he will almost always be able to put his company, and perhaps an entire industry, on his back.