Line #165 Wrestling/NewWorldOrder


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nwo.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[AC:"[[ElectronicSpeechImpediment NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW World Order]]"]][[note]][[AC:For For For Life For Life]][[/note]]]]
3
4	->[[AC:The following trope article has been paid for by the New World Order]]
5
6	->Hey, yo!
7
8	->''(Cheers.)''
9
10	->Did everybody come to this trope page to read about... ''[[Wrestling/{{WCW}} Dubya-See-Dubya]]?''
11
12	->''(Boos.)''
13
14	->OR... did everybody here on TV Tropes come to read about the--!
15
16	->''(in unison) "'''''n-W-o!'''''"''
17
18	->Survey says: One more for da good guys!
19
20	The New World Order ([=nWo=]) was a {{professional wrestling}} PowerStable that formed at Wrestling/{{WCW}}'s ''Bash at the Beach'' pay-per-view in 1996.
21
22	Wrestling/{{WWE}} and WCW were embroiled in a ratings war which would be nicknamed the "Wrestling/MondayNightWars." Two of the biggest stars at the time were [[Wrestling/ScottHall Razor Ramon (Scott Hall)]] and [[Wrestling/KevinNash Diesel (Kevin Nash)]]. Both jumped ship to WCW, lured with the promise of lucrative contracts for less work. Hall and Nash debuted in '96 under their real names and made it seem like they were not supposed to be there, even implying that they were moles sent by the WWF. The announcers dubbed them "The Outsiders."
23
24	The main event of ''Bash at the Beach'' pitted the duo against three opponents, since their "third man" had yet to arrive. Late in the match, Wrestling/HulkHogan (who had signed with WCW two years earlier) came down the ramp, set on rescuing the WCW mainstays. However, in one of the biggest swerves in wrestling history, Hogan delivered a leg drop to one of The Outsiders' opponents, a downed Randy Savage, revealing himself to be the "third man" and becoming the villainous "Hollywood" Hogan in one of professional wrestling's most infamous [[FaceHeelTurn Face-Heel Turns]].
25
26	Hogan risked a lot with that move: His image had been sullied enough as it was, thanks to the steroid case against Wrestling/VinceMcMahon (in which Hogan was a star witness). But it added another dimension to his legacy, and jolted WCW to be #1 in the ratings. ''[[Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro Nitro]]'' displaced ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Raw]]'' for 84 straight weeks, mainly on the strength of Hogan's heel turn. There was even a point where WWF was seriously looking at bankruptcy.
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28	With the addition of Hogan, The Outsiders created the New World Order, and from 1996-97 it was one of the most dominant stables in wrestling history, if not ''the'' most. They grew to over 20 members, and became as synonymous with wrestling as ''Nitro'' almost did. There was good and bad about it: good in that it made Hogan a more effective heel by having an [[JustYouAndMeAndMyGuards army of guys protecting him from reprisals]]. Bad in that it was done to placate a bunch of guys who would have otherwise looked elsewhere for employment. (Along with a ton of lower card wrestlers who thought it was the only way they could [[ArcWelding get some kind of a push]].) What made the nWo such an albatross is that there wasn't really an end in sight. As James J. Dillon and others have said, even when they were selling out stadiums, you could see from the inside that WCW was falling apart.
29
30	The original run of the nWo ended in 1999. A reunion, nWo 2000, with Wrestling/BretHart as leader, was formed in December of that year; however, Hart left the group in January 2000 after suffering what ended up being a CareerEndingInjury, after which the new group slowly disbanded. In February 2002, almost a year after WCW closed down, the original trio resurfaced in WWE, but Hogan would turn face again at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania X8'' and get kicked out of the group. A small shuffle of members ensued, during which Hall was fired[[note]] Due to his behavior during the infamous Plane Ride From Hell incident [[/note]] and Nash would suffer a legitimate quadriceps tear that put him out of action for nearly a year, after which the group was officially disbanded in July. After Hogan returned to WWE in 2014, the original trio would make sporadic appearances (in a non-match capacity), and in December 2019, it was announced that the nWo would be inducted into the 2020 Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame, with Hogan, Hall, Nash, and Sean Waltman as the inducted members.
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32	The [=nWo=] [[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas should not be confused]] with the infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_(conspiracy_theory) conspiracy theory]], the comic book ''ComicBook/SquadronSupremeNewWorldOrder'', or the music that plays in ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' upon hearing an important revelation.
33
34	----
35	!!The nWo and its affiliates are examples of:
36	[[foldercontrol]]
37
38	[[folder: #–D]]
39	* NinetiesAntiHero: The nWo were essentially just popular villains. But when the Wolfpac formed, they became bona fide antiheroes, right up until they rejoined with Hogan.
40	* AbortedArc:
41	** The white Hummer which rammed into Kevin Nash's car. Allegedly, the driver was either going to be Carmen Electra (a new celebrity addition to the nWo), Wrestling/{{Sable}} (who was in talks with WCW and appeared in the ''Nitro'' stands), Hogan, or countless others. Sting was blamed for a while and Wrestling/RandySavage did a promo saying he'd reveal the name of his bodyguard, who was also the driver of the hummer, only to reveal he never had a bodyguard. The actual answer is Wrestling/BillyKidman: In 2000 it was shown that Wrestling/EricBischoff put him up to it. But obviously that wasn't the original plan, and the whole angle was discarded.
42	--->'''Actual fan sign:''' I DROVE THE HUMMER.
43	** In late 1999, the nWo reformed with a different lineup, this time in black and silver. The "nWo 2000" angle was aborted after treading water due to Bret Hart (the leader) and Goldberg being taken out of action. (Goldberg nailed Bret in the head with a side-kick. Shortly afterward, Goldberg punched what he thought was a sugar glass window, but was actually glass, wrecking his hand.)
44	** The initial excitement for the nWo coming to the WWF was huge. It was actually a success depending on what you believe the parameters to be. They were introduced for two reasons: (1) Set up Hogan vs. [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'', (2) Sell a bunch of nWo merchandise. They did both of those. WWF were probably hoping to get more mileage out of Nash and Hall, but there is no way they had long-term plans knowing the history and age of the group.
45	* AffectionateParody:
46	** The [[Wrestling/TheBlueMeanie Blue World Order]], though the "affectionate" part is debatable. One of their gimmicks being that (in the words of Wrestling/JoeyStyles) they "didn't deserve to make a dime" yet made a boatload of cash, the bWo was formed at Wrestling/{{ECW}}'s ''November to Remember'' '96. To further the parody, it became a revolving door stable, with members constantly joining and leaving. The bWo's popularity became so great that it propelled Wrestling/StevieRichards to ECW's main event.
47	** In the early days of Wrestling/{{TNA}}, Wrestling/JeffJarrett came up with a novel angle of his own for ''Impact'': It involved exposing the entire [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA]] Board of Directors for petty crimes. Security took sides in the power struggle and split into two feuding factions: Red Shirt Security and Black Shirt Security. Joe E. Legend (WWF jobber "Just Joe") became a major player as leader of the Red Shirt faction.
48	* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: To Wrestling/DGenerationX in the WWF. Both were invasive force to their respective companies and made reference to Wrestling/TheKliq during those times. Ironically, through their feuds with them, DX led to the rise of [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] and Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, allowing ''Raw'' to compete with ''Nitro'' on an even playing field.
49	* AnimalMotifs: Wolves for the nWo Wolfpac.
50	* AnnualTitle: The final iteration of the [=nWo=] in WCW was known as "[=nWo=] 2000".
51	* AntiHeroSubstitute: A recurring theme for the nWo during its heyday was chucking away the preconceived, established idea of what a {{Face}} was in pro wrestling and substitute it with the DarkerAndEdgier, AntiHero version of their own.
52	** The group's genesis was a result of Hulk Hogan doing this to himself via FaceHeelTurn. Older fans were already completely sick of him, and younger fans still adored him (though not to the degree they had in the 80s), so his heel turn was able to combine them into one big ball of hatred.
53	** The nWo themselves. It got to the point that in the ''Nitro'' prior to Starrcade 1997, the nWo hijacked the broadcast and renamed it ''nWo Monday Nitro''. Bischoff attempted to chuck the WCW brand entirely, and the stragglers who had refused to join nWo made up their own club, nWo Wolfpac.
54	** The nWo eventually resulted in Wrestling/{{Sting}} undergoing this himself, turning his bleached-blonde, multicolor-facepaint, happy-go-lucky "Surfer" persona into his jet-back hair, black-and-white facepaint, silent [[Film/TheCrow1994 "Crow"]] persona to go up against them.
55	* AscendedExtra: The whole "nWo Sting" thing started because the big WCW players (Wrestling/LexLuger, Rick and Wrestling/ScottSteiner, Wrestling/RandySavage, [[Wrestling/BigShow The Giant]]) didn't trust Sting or believe that he wasn't with the nWo until they saw they had their very own fake Sting: Jeff Farmer. Curiously, nWo Sting, while keeping the gimmick, went to Japan as part of WCW's arrangement with Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling and was a surprisingly popular babyface.
56	* TheAssimilator: Pretty much their entire M.O. was to turn as many WCW wrestlers into their side as possible, up until the nWo would become their own wrestling promotion. They even got their own pay-per-view and ''Nitro'' episode.
57	* TheBadGuyWins:
58	** The babyfaces were constantly on the losing end. Their only hope left was the reinvented Sting, who went from 'tanned musclehead' to an avenging angel with a baseball bat. In what was billed as the most-anticipated match of all time (and it may very well have been), Hogan largely dominated a slow, plodding match. What was supposed to be the climax of the nWo feud ended with a tainted finish.
59	** In the summer of '98, the Warrior (known as the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior in WWF) debuted and formed the One Warrior Nation ([[SdrawkcabName oWn]]) to counter the nWo. Hogan went on to defeat the Warrior and get back the loss he suffered at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' VI.
60	** Nash broke away and formed his own splinter group, the nWo Wolfpac, in 1998. The Wolfpac/nWo feud dominated the show that year, as wrestlers shuffled between the two teams. Kevin Nash earned a title shot against the still-undefeated Wrestling/{{Goldberg}}, the reigning World Heavyweight Champion, which Goldberg lost when Scott Hall shocked him with a cattle prod. In January 1999, a rematch was slated to take place, but Goldberg was falsely charged by the police and replaced by the returning Hulk Hogan. [[ThrowingTheFight The match was fixed]]: Hogan gently poked Nash in the chest, and Nash fell over for the pin. Months of dissent between the nWo Wolfpac and the nWo Hollywood had ended for no reason, and after that, it became very plain that the nWo were never going to lose. This happened on the same night that fan favorite Wrestling/MickFoley shocked audiences by defeating The Rock to win the WWF Championship.
61	* BadassBiker: 90s version. nWo-approved sunglasses, black tees, cowboy boots, and mom jeans.
62	* BandwagonTechnique: It began with 3, but when it became apparent that the nWo had the financial backing and the talent to be able to win championships by helping each other out, more people wanted to join them and be part of that success rather than face the prospect of getting beat up constantly. There were very few who opposed them. In addition, the nWo sowed seeds of doubt as to who was in the group and who wasn't, to keep everyone paranoid and off their game. Wrestling/BobbyHeenan and Wrestling/TonySchiavone constantly wondered out loud if Sting was joining the nWo, and Sting considered this to be extremely insulting, so he kind of shut everyone out for a long time.
63	* BatDeduction: Used to explain Sting's heel turn in a truly amazing hype video. In a nutshell: someone in a white hummer tried to run over Kevin Nash. On a different show, Sting was seen coming out of a ''black'' hummer. So Sting must have been the one who ran over Kevin Nash. This after Hulk protested that he couldn't have run over Nash, because his hummer is black.
64	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: After ''years'' of trying to win over Sting and have him join the nWo, Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff got their wish during an nWo EnemyCivilWar, with Sting joining their nWo Wolfpac enemies in defeating them.
65	* BeautyPageant: The infamous "Miss nWo Pageant". They paid a lot of money for the custom nWo-style production for ''Souled Out'', you'd think they could have dropped some money on some models. But Bischoff does manage to get the last laugh. From his book, ''Controversy Creates Cash'':
66	-->''Sometimes on different college campuses around the country, guys will have contests to see who can bring home the ugliest chick. And that’s where the idea came from. We wanted to find the nastiest, gnarliest white trash we could possibly find. The women were in on it. We told them what we were doing. We said, “We’re looking for some real women, wink, wink.” A couple of them weighed two hundred and fifty, three hundred pounds. As the leader of nWo, I was the one who got to pick the winner, crown her, and swap spit with her. At that moment, my wife sat back and said, “Oh, my God.”''
67	* BatterUp: In one of the most famous moments of the initial takeover, Hall and Nash once broke into the locker room with aluminum baseball bats and got into a standoff with WCW talent, putting the crowd in a frenzy.
68	* BrainsAndBrawn: Hogan hid behind everything and everyone he could to keep from having a match with Sting (in 1997 especially). Bischoff held the power to change the show's title, replace the set for ''nWo Souled Out'' events, pay off referees, and so forth.
69	* CamelCase: The group's prefered abbreviation was "nWo". That goes for the knockoffs and parodies too. lWo, bWo, eCt.
70	* CarFu:
71	** Nash got wrecked by a Hummer in a notorious [[Series/{{Dallas}} "Who Shot J.R.?"]]-like storyline. The New Blood pulled the exact same trick on Hogan with a brand-new Hummer and a different limo.
72	** In the last ''Nitro'' of 1999, Steiner made the save for [[Wrestling/SidEudy Sid Vicious]] who was about to powerbomb Jarrett before he hit Sid with a lead pipe. The nWo then put Sid into the back of his spray-painted car, which was then run over by Wrestling/BretHart in a monster truck.
73	* CavalryBetrayal: Hogan's heel turn at ''Bash at the Beach'' '96. He clears the ring of Nash and Hall, and then pauses for a few seconds. It looks like Hogan is soaking up the cheers, knowing that he won't hear them again for a long, long time. And then he drops the leg on Wrestling/RandySavage, revealing himself as the third man. It was so shocking that for a moment there was absolutely nothing from the audience, seemingly in StunnedSilence. Hogan seemed to notice this and so he did it again, and that's when it started to sink in that he was turning bad. In the span of 120 seconds, the crowd went from cheering Hulk Hogan's surprise arrival to booing and hurling garbage at him. At one point, a fan (definitely not a plant) charged into the ring and got dropped by Hall and Nash.
74	* CelebrityStar: Actors, musicians, athletes and various other personalities that have joined the [=nWo=], even if it was just for one promo or "Paid Announcement". These include NASCAR racer Kyle Petty and actors Creator/GraceJones and Creator/RobertVaughn in WCW, various baseball players, cyclists, motorcyclists, musicians, two soccer players, a sumo wrestler and an announcer for [=nWo=] Japan in NJPW, and the infamous Bubba the Love Sponge (in TNA) when he briefly joined "The Band", but the most notorious back in WCW was pro basketball player Dennis Rodman. Obviously he wasn't essential, but from a PR standpoint, Rodman was famous back in 1996-1998 and having him join the nWo gave it some mainstream exposure.
75	* CharacterCatchphrase:
76	** "Wolfpac rules", "We never forget", "It's 4 liiiiife" and "Tooooo sweeeet".
77	** Scott Hall had his "survey":
78	--->'''Hall:''' Who's here to see... dubya-cee-dubya?\
79	''crowd cheers''\
80	'''Hall:''' And who's here to see the [=nWo=]?\
81	''crowd boos''\
82	'''Hall:''' That's another one for the good guys!
83	* TheChewToy: [[Wrestling/{{Virgil}} Vincent]] debuted as the "Head of Security" for the nWo. He was always the first guy to get Scorpion Deathdropped by Wrestling/{{Sting}} whenever he cleaned house. Sometimes they fed Vincent to the sharks to allow everyone else to get away. However, following the nWo reunification, Vincent gained a degree of {{genre savvy}}: the boys would give him a task that would no doubt end in pain, but then Vincent went to [[Wrestling/GlennGilbertti Disco Inferno]] (who for weeks asked the Wolfpac to join them) and claimed they wanted ''him'' to do it, with predictable results. Vincent was very pleased with himself.
84	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder:
85	** People betraying WCW for the nWo left and right.
86	** "When you're [=nWo=], you're [=nWo=] 4 Life!" Or, at least until you get kicked out. The nWo dropped anyone who was a threat to Hulk Hogan, or arbitrarily upset the rest of the group.
87	* DoNotAdjustYourSet: The "THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN PAID FOR BY THE NEW WORLD ORDER" promos came about when WCW wanted the stable to do promos, but it made no sense for WCW to air promos for an organization which was not a part of WCW, since why wouldn't they just edit it out? The workaround was taping grainy videos and airing them under the kayfabe explanation that the NWO bought their own time on the show (Wrestling/TedDiBiase being their financial backer).
88	* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The driver of the Hummer is jokingly "revealed" in ''Film/ReadyToRumble'': It's the Nitro Girl Chae. She was shown driving a Hummer at the end of the movie. No one else in the movie was. One can only assume that it was intentional.
89	* DragonAscendant: With the departure of Hall, the nWo leadership briefly broke up, and Vincent was left holding the whole pie for a month or so.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder: E–M]]
93	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Hogan had trouble shifting gears. Hall and Nash spoke very casually, but Hogan sounded like a typical wrestling promo at first. If you watch the early black and white promos, Hogan is very energized in comparison to Hall and Nash. He sounds like he's ready to jump into "WHATCHA GONNA DO BROTHER???..." at any moment. But in the end, Hollywood Hogan worked out fine.
94	* EnemyMine:
95	** Once The Outsiders were established, they attacked the entire WCW roster indiscriminately, forcing faces and heels to unite and oppose the trio.
96	--->'''Wrestling/ArnAnderson:''' "And I started to think, new world order, new world order, where have I heard that? And I remembered in the [[AsTheGoodBookSays Good Book]] it says, 'When the new world order is put into place it signals the beginning of the end of time.' Well, WCW is our world, it's where we live and breathe. And if you want to destroy it, Hogan and The Outsiders, you've already made a mistake that jumps off the page. If you're gonna take a baseball bat to a Horseman, finish the job. Because there's one rule of gang fighting. See, we are the original gang and we're the most vicious in all of professional wrestling history. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send two of theirs to the morgue."
97	** Heenan actually said, "What have I been saying all these years?!" (implying that it's something that he has always said about Hogan) shortly after Hogan did his leg drop. It's kind of interesting because Heenan almost came across as a face for a moment, saying "What do we do now?", as if to say that even he finds what Hogan did to be reprehensible. Heenan also had a personal vendetta against The Outsiders: Heenan hated Hogan for breaking his neck and ending his in ring career (in {{kayfabe}}). He also hated The Outsiders because they were [[EvenEvilHasStandards a new breed of heel]]. They were "Outsiders", with no loyalty to WCW faces ''or'' heels. Heenan's use of "we" placed The Outsiders on the outside.
98	** With Wrestling/RicFlair beating Bischoff to become WCW President, the two nWo factions put aside their differences. This angle involved merging the elite members of the nWo ("Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Lex Luger, Scott Steiner, and Buff Bagwell), the purpose being to create a heel factory for Flair/Goldberg to contend with.
99	* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Hulk Hogan made an example out of his nephew Horace Hogan to [[Wrestling/UltimateWarrior Warrior]] by beating the former senseless and later hitting him with a steel chair, the nWo members accompanying Hogan ([[Wrestling/BigShow The Giant]], [[Wrestling/{{Virgil}} Vincent]] and Scott Norton) were all shown to be horrified by this, given Hogan's earlier promise of recruiting Horace into the nWo. They even briefly argue with their leader before Warrior shows up.
100	* EveryoneIsASuspect:
101	** The Third Man. We're talking months of build-up, with Hall and Nash wrecking havoc and talking about their surprise partner. The speculation about said partner was some of the best drama on TV at the time. It was speculated to be Hogan, but most people thought that was too far-fetched. Savage and Luger were accused of being the third Outsider -- Luger especially. He had been acting jittery in the months before the ''Bash at the Beach'' card. Most of the dirtsheets were pegging Bret Hart as the third guy. Basically anyone who had a history with the WWF was a suspect.
102	** Kevin Nash pissed off a lot of people in 1999; most of them, ironically enough, inside his own stable. Betraying Hulk by entering into talks with Ric Flair, dumping a vat of sewage onto Randy's sunroof, and kicking Scott out of the group for intoxication, among other things. In retaliation, someone tried to kill him with a white Hummer.
103	* EvilCostumeSwitch:
104	** Anyone who joined the stable lost their old attire — or at the very least had its color scheme altered to fit the group. (Randy Savage wore a black hat when he joined up.)
105	** What started as a costume switch eventually became Sting's "Crow" gimmick: black baseball bat, black trenchcoat, and white warpaint to replace "Surfer" Sting.
106	* EvilVersusEvil:
107	** The Wolfpac was originally the name Nash, Hall, and Waltman (as Syxx) used as a subgroup within the [=nWo=]. Nash's growing issues with Hogan and Bischoff led to the split: those ranged from Syxx being fired to Hall being sent to rehab. In '98 the nWo fractured, with the Wolfpac (led by Kevin Nash) and wearing black and red and turning face. The nWo Hollywood (led by Hogan), still wearing the traditional black and white, stayed heel. The nWo and Wolfpac reunited as a heel faction, with the big names now wearing black and red and the "nWo b-team" relegated to black and white.
108	** When Flair returned from a suspension to ''Nitro'' in mid-September of '98, he reformed the Horsemen and proceeded to [[WorkedShoot shoot]] on Bischoff in the most memorable tirade of his career (which is saying something). He quickly lost his marbles after being appointed as WCW President, and there was no one but the nWo to remove him from decision making. By 2000, even Arn Anderson was begging Hogan for help.
109	* EvilerThanThou: It's heel logic: they follow the guy with the bigger stick. The Giant joined the nWo less than a month after Hogan beat him for the title. Scott Steiner joined after Hall and Nash literally ran the Steiners' car off the road, causing it to flip (and they laughed it off, too). When the nWo took over ''Nitro'' and the commentator booth, Heenan was all, "I love you guys let me in." Next week he went back to normal. It seemed like he joined out of cowardice more then anything.
110	* EvilKnockoff: Jeff Farmer as Fake Sting/nWo Sting. At the time it worked really well. All "Sting" did was pop out of a limo in a dimly-lit parking lot and kick Lex Luger before getting back in the limo. Farmer was close enough in size to Sting that it sold well. He worked a ''[=WarGames=]'' match, too: Hall, Nash, Hogan, & nWo Sting vs. the Horsemen and Sting. He was around for a good while, but after the initial angle it was clear he was an impostor, and nobody tried to pretend otherwise.
111	* FingerpokeOfDoom: The TropeNamer was an infamous "match" between Hollywood Hogan and Kevin Nash where the former poked the latter in the chest, whereupon Nash sold it like it was the most devastating move he'd ever received and lay down to give Hogan the WCW Championship, reuniting the Wolfpac and Hollywood factions.
112	* ForeignRemake: Of a New Japan angle. Bischoff played a black-suited hypeman, similar to Sonny Onoo. The funny part is, New Japan agreed to the feud on the condition that they controlled the booking; all of the [[Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation UWFI]] guys ended up getting destroyed by New Japan, and the promotion died a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UWF_International#Feud_with_New_Japan_Pro_Wrestling slow death]] in the end.
113	* HijackedByGanon: When Wrestling/VinceMcMahon brought the NWO into the WWF in 2002, he outright confirmed in Kayfabe that he was the one who set the original trio on WCW in the first place with the intention of killing the promotion, which, if not the single main cause of WCW's downfall, was a major contributing factor.
114	* HoneyTrap:
115	** The pretext for the "FingerPokeOfDoom" was that Goldberg had been arrested for stalking Elizabeth. Apparently, the earlier draft stated that he had been falsely charged with rape, which Goldberg flat-out rejected.[[note]]This was actually not uncommon in wrestling in the 90s: Undertaker made comments about how sweet Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon was when he joined the [[Wrestling/MinistryOfDarkness Ministry]], and D-Generation X claimed to have gang-raped somebody in the locker room on ''Raw''.[[/note]]
116	** 1999 has a two-month ongoing storyline which involved a mysterious black and white camera that followed the antics of Wrestling/TorrieWilson (then-known as Samantha) and David Flair. The whole point of this angle was Hogan and Nash were hiring sexy prostitute Samantha to start a relationship with David Flair, thus messing with Ric Flair's head by having his son turn on him and join the nWo.
117	* HostileShowTakeover:
118	** It began with Hall getting into with altercations with WCW wrestlers: attacking wrestlers during matches, in the backstage area, and in parking lots. Hollywood Hogan vyed for, and won, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in the pay-per-view following ''Bash at the Beach 1996'', and spray-painted "nWo" on the belt.
119	** There has been lots of speculation that ''Souled Out'' was a test run for what would have been a ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown SmackDown]]''-style brand extension in '97: The original plan was for the nWo to take over ''Nitro'' while all the babyfaces fled to the newly-minted ''Thunder''. At around this time there were instances of the nWo taking over ''Nitro'' commentary booth and covering up virtually all of the WCW logos. The stipulation for control of ''Nitro'' was fought over by Eric Bischoff and Larry Zbyszko at ''Starrcade'' '97. The nWo then had their own "unauthorized" pay-per-view where they pitted themselves against literally everyone else on the roster...and then the PPV flopped. After a poor showing at ''Souled Out'' and an even worse ''nWo Nitro'' test run (the episode where they spent an hour remodeling the set), the decision-makers got the point.
120	** In 1998, Hogan and Bischoff feuded with TV personality Creator/JayLeno, even 'taking over' a taping of ''Series/TheTonightShowWithJayLeno''. Between a commercial break, Leno teamed up with Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage to force the nWo out of his studio. This was a lead-up to the main event of ''Road Wild'', Hollywood Hogan vs. Jay Leno. (Sadly, it wasn't even the worst match on the card.)
121	* IfICantHaveYou: This was Vince's reason for bringing the nWo into the WWF, as he was in a feud with Ric Flair at the time (who in storyline was controlling half of the WWF) and didn't care for the way Flair was running his half of the company.
122	* IntercontinuityCrossover:
123	** The idea for the nWo was based off a New Japan storyline where a group of wrestlers broke away to form a rival brand (UWF International) within the company. Eric Bischoff would go on to make deals that resulted in a talent exchange and an nWo-themed stable in Japan. Scott Norton was a representative of nWo Japan and one of the biggest members of that group.
124	** The nWo used to be ex-WWF guys only. That was their whole shtick: guys from up North who were there to crap on WCW while showing their old boss (Vince [=McMahon=]) that they were bigger than his whole promotion. Not long after Hogan turned heel, it was also reported that Jeff Jarrett and Ted [=DiBiase=] would join the group once their WWF contracts expired and would will be making plays for any WWF stars (such as Davey Boy Smith) whose contracts were nearing their end.
125	** At ''[=WrestleMania 31=]'', we got to see the original nWo square off against the infamous D-Generation X Army.
126	* InvincibleVillain: The New World Order really did become the "poison" which helped kill WCW. Their top guys (namely Hogan, Hall, and Nash) rarely lost, and when they did lose, they often got their wins back. If they lost a belt, odds are their opponents would be stripped the next night. The group grew in power when Eric Bischoff (one of the commentators) was revealed to be the Executive Vice-President of WCW, and began to work on their behalf.
127	* JokerJury:
128	** Hang on, is that ref wearing sunglasses....? It's Nick Patrick! He's ''[[FaceRevealingTurn baaaaaaaaaaack.]]''
129	--->'''[[http://i.imgur.com/DjWqgr5.png Patrick]]:''' "Thanks to the NWO, my officiating has improved immensely."
130	** ''nWo Souled Out'' '97. The idea is that it's an nWo show and not a WCW one, so everyone is a heel. The announcer is a heel (a voice over the loudspeaker berating the "face" wrestlers before/during the match), the referee is a heel (Nick Patrick), and ''both'' commentators are heels. Everyone either walks out to nWo music, or no music at all. The nWo's theme is badass, but not for every match (and for most of the matches it wasn't even ''the'' nWo theme, "Rockhouse", but another tune that was later given to the nWo B-Team, which says a lot about it). The only three matches lost by the nWo wrestlers were due to exceptional circumstances.[[note]]Wrestling/JeffJarrett defeated [[Wrestling/Mr. Wallstreet]] after Jarrett's Four Horsemen teammate Steve [=McMichael=] came to the ringside, hit Wallstreet with a Halliburton briefcase, and then threated to hit Patrick with the Halliburton to make him count Jarrett's pin; The Steiner Brothers defeated The Outsiders for the WCW World Tag Team Championship after Patrick was knocked out and WCW referee Randy Anderson rushed to the ring and counted the pinfall (and even then, Wrestling/EricBischoff [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle would later strip the Steiner Brothers of the WCW World Tag Team Championship as their title win was officiated by Anderson, who was a non-sanctioned referee at the event, and then returned the titles to The Outsiders]]); and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero defeated [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman Syxx]] to retain the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship mainly because it was a ladder match, in which the referee couldn't do much to interfere in the finish.[[/note]]
131	* KickTheDog: Telling the audience members to "stick it", firing honest referees (and replacing them with stooges), stripping wrestlers of titles at will, turning friends against friends, spray-painting a championship belt, trashing the set for 30 minutes, the incessant verbal taunts, Bischoff summoning his guys to deliver gang-style beatdowns, slapping women, false allegations of stalking, handcuffing their opponents to a pole, zapping them with a cattle prod, attempted hit-and-run attempt with a white Hummer, beating up Ric Flair in a cornfield, kidnapping...the list goes on.
132	* KneelBeforeZod:
133	** Enticing fallen wrestlers (such as Wrestling/CurtHennig and Randy Savage) to join their stable. Savage took a weekly beatdown, had his back sprayed-painted yellow, got whipped... Then Savage just showed up one day in nWo gear. The implied logic was, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. They also gave him Wrestling/MissElizabeth as a "gift" for joining the nWo.
134	** Diamond Dallas Page was a noted aversion. Having worked with him before, Hall and Nash tried everything in their power in order to get him to join the nWo. However, DDP would always give them the Diamond Cutter for their troubles. The nWo seemed untouchable, so giving that rub to DDP did wonders for his career.
135	* KnightOfCerebus: Hogan's FaceHeelTurn stood out as the most shocking. More and more fans tuned in to watch as war erupted inside WCW, as the entire roster all found themselves in the sights of the ever-growing nWo. Fans must have liked what they saw, since the WWF began hemorrhaging viewers while WCW swept them up.
136	* KudzuPlot: nWo, nWo Wolfpac, nWo Hollywood, nWo 2000...That's a lot of twists and turns for something which was supposed to be [=4LIFE.=]
137	* MerchandiseDriven:
138	** There were a lot of nWo-brand sunglasses and black T-shirts sold. Lampshaded by Kevin Nash squawking out, "Buy the shirt!" in TV spots.
139	** [[https://twitter.com/SCOTTHALLNWO/status/584389935064559616 Scott Hall explains the logic behind the nWo helping Sting at WrestleMania.]]
140	* MeetTheNewBoss: The "nWo 2000" storyline was aborted after treading after Bret Hart (the leader) and Goldberg were put back on the shelf due to injury. WCW management decided to do a creative reboot starting in April. They took a week off beforehand as a "best of" show that established that Wrestling/VinceRusso (who had never been on screen before) believed in younger talent, but Bischoff was supportive of the old guard. It was then announced that ''Nitro'' would vacate all the titles and reboot the storyline: You had The Millionaires' Club, a collection of jaded veterans who want to hold on to their top spot, and The New Blood, a group of hungry, young talent who want a chance to shine (i.e. anyone not named Hogan).
141	* MotiveDecay:
142	** Once Zbysko beat Bischoff at ''Starrcade '97'', the nWo kinda dropped the whole "We want our own show" thing entirely and just started complaining about how Ted Turner wouldn't give them their own show.
143	** The Fingerpoke of Doom saw the nWo Wolfpac/nWo Hollywood feud being dropped for apparently no reason. The behind-kayfabe reason for the Fingerpoke was that Bischoff thought that "rebooting" the [=nWo=] angle might recreate its glory days, but there was never any reason besides "we're heels and it was funny" given by Hogan and Nash themselves as to why they did it.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder: N–R]]
147	* ObfuscatingDisability: The last ''Nitro'' of 1999 saw Scott Steiner making a tearful retirement speech after (allegedly) suffering a stinger earlier in the year, and being verbally berated by the nWo. Later in the night, he was about to make the save for Sid Vicious, hit Sid with a lead pipe, then removed his back brace and shirt to join the nWo. This was also used against Rick Steiner by Buff Bagwell, who was legitimately injured by Steiner, but kept up the appearance long after he had recovered.
148	* OnlyInItForTheMoney: The MO of The Outsiders. They take over wrestling shows, milk them dry, then move on to do the same to a different company.
149	* PopularityPower: Granted, it was more like, "what will they do next and how will anyone beat them?" They started getting less popular when it became apparent what they would do next is continue to win, and no one would stop them. The Wolfpac were popular for being something different and the best hope to stop the nWo, but everybody ''not'' involved in the nWo storyline was downgraded to geeks. Another nWo problem is that you doesn't want to make them ''too'' heelish or ''too'' facey, since that might hurt T-shirt sales. Thus, you end up with the nWo playing the babyfaces much of the time, whilst wrestling other faces. This weakened the face/heel dynamic which powers the crowd, and made the babyfaces look ineffective for the most part, since they can't get a blowoff win which might make the nWo look bad. And if a babyface ''did'' get the blowoff win, then you'd have a divided crowd on the issue.
150	* PowerTrio: The very first line up, which was composed of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
151	* PuttingTheBandBackTogether:
152	** Fast-forward to 2002. By that point, WCW was a thing of the past, and Hogan was a free-agent after his successful stint in that company, albeit one with diminishing returns after the extraordinary run of '96 and '97. The original Outsiders were brought back for ''No Way Out'', this time by Vince [=McMahon=], who sought to destroy his own company ('''[[MilkingTheGiantCow "INJECT IT WITH POISON"]]'''). Unfortunately, the storyline didn't take off as hoped. This marked the last appearance of the nWo for over a decade.
153	** The old nWo guys are at the point where it seems weird if they aren't involved. Wrestling/{{TNA}} literally put the band back together in 2010: Nash, Hall and Wrestling/SeanWaltman formed "The Band" and began feuding with Hogan and Bischoff, who had gained control of the company in the intervening years. This angle fell apart due to medical concerns, and Waltman turned heel/face/heel ([[Website/{{Botchamania}} giving poor Eric Young "Stockholm Syndrome"]]) in the process of being hastily written off television. Hall's personal demons caught up with him, leading to his exit as well, making this variant of the nWo short-lived. Later that year, Hogan announced the formation of his own stable at ''Bound for Glory'': Immortal, an nWo copycat with Hogan and Bischoff in command.
154	** Feeling pride in what they nearly accomplished in WCW and realizing Wrestling/TheAuthority was trying to stomp out WCW with Sting, they decided to defy [=McMahon=] one more time and help Sting defeat Triple H at ''[=WrestleMania=]''...even though former nWo members were now in DX, [[ContinuitySnarl but nevermind!]]
155	* RenegadeSplinterFaction: Inverted with the nWo Wolfpac. At first they were no better than nWo Hollywood and split from Hogan and Bischoff due to purely selfish reasons, however Wrestling/{{Sting}}'s influence slowly turned them into good guys.
156	* TheRival:
157	** Most of Sting's career, going on 30 years now, has been defined by his battle with Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, and Kevin Nash. With the exception from Flair (now retired, along with the rest of Hogan's rogues gallery) Sting is the wrestler Hulk dislikes most of all.
158	** It took WCW a while to get a counter offensive going. After the [[Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen Horsemen]] were defeated, Sting disappeared from TV, and Macho Man changed sides, it was pretty much just Luger. Lex was always a Tweener though, as he was one of the three guys on the opposing team at ''Bash at the Beach''. Diamond Dallas Page was the first WCW midcarder to finally stand up and get a shot in at the nWo. (In fact, he wasn't even fully face until that moment.) From there, he began his famous feud with Savage.
159	** Everyone talks about Sting vs. Hogan at ''Starrcade''. Fact is, The Horsemen vs. the nWo was the real feud in WCW. It represented the history of wrestling on Turner Broadcasting, actual WCW vs. the WWF, and young vs. old (Wrestling/BrianPillman and Chris Benoit in the Horsemen, then Benoit and Wrestling/DeanMalenko after Arn's injury).
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder: S–Z]]
163	* ShooOutTheClowns: Early 90s wrestling was simply ridiculous, and Hogan arriving in WCW only worsened the problems. Hogan [[FaceHeelTurn turning heel]] was the point when wrestling as a whole got a lot more serious.
164	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: It's "nWo", not "NWO", "Nwo" or "N.W.O."
165	* SmugSnake: [[http://i.imgur.com/T8piCgM.jpg The faces on Hall and Nash the minute they realize they just landed on an awesome pay day.]]
166	* {{Spoonerism}}:
167	** Hogan flubbed the first promo and forgot they were the Order. The hilarious part is he did say Order a couple times. But in the very last one, which is the soundbite they use for almost all of the old nWo promos, it's where he says "New World Organization!"
168	** "'Where the big boys play.' But look at the adjective: play. We're not here to play!" Kevin Nash has professed to be many things, but never claimed to be an English major.
169	* SpotlightStealingSquad: The nWo spread like a virus throughout WCW and dominated storylines for several years, bringing with it both the good (the nWo angle helped WCW beat the WWF in the Monday Night Wars for 84 weeks in a row from 1996 to 1998) and the bad (the Fingerpoke of Doom and alleged backstage politics which killed the creative direction of the product). The few remaining holdouts, led by Nash, formed their own faction called the nWo Wolfpac—and, in doing so, dispelled any lingering doubt that the nWo brand was here to stay. Despite this, the group faded away from television after Time-Warner took a more active role in booking ''Nitro'', and Bischoff was driven away. A final attempt at reviving the group came in 2000, but it failed, and WCW was driven out of business in early 2001.
170	* StartOfDarkness: Hogan telegraphed his heel turn way back in ''Halloween Havoc'' with Darkside Hogan. The Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom were feuding with Hogan at the time, and as the feud escalated, they ambushed Hogan and [[TraumaticHaircut shaved his mustache]] on October 2, 1995. Said 'darkness' was simply not wearing yellow and red, instead wearing black to sell how evil the Dungeon of Doom was, and referring to Hulkamaniacs as Hulkamanoids. The man who can dissect the human chess game known as wrestling could see cracks forming in WWE that the nWo could take advantage of.
171	* StartMyOwn: The Wolfpac faction, which became immensely popular over time, was apparently formed because members like Nash and Savage were tired of Hogan trying to make the [=nWo=] all about him even when they were getting world title shots. Yet, not only did they keep the name, but they continued using the exact same nWo logo.
172	* SunglassesAtNight: They wore sunglasses at night.
173	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute:
174	** Ted [=DiBiase=] was the very first addition to the group, acting as a mouthpiece and bribing other wrestlers to join. Within a few weeks he had surrendered his spokesperson role to Eric Bischoff, which [=DiBiase=] believes is what Bischoff wanted anyway. [=DiBiase=] was pretty steamed about this and chose to retire from wrestling altogether, even though he still had a 3-year contract.
175	** In 1998, Hall no-showed and was sent back to rehab, leaving The Giant (of all people) to assume his place: the fist bumps, the cigs, the poses, the "Hey, yos!"... even pushing nWo shirts onto people. Big Tobacco quickly [[NoSmoking ditched the cigarettes]], though, due to pressure from standards and practices. Scott returned a few months later.
176	* ThisIsUnforgivable: "We have seen the end of Hulkamania." The disdain Wrestling/TonySchiavone had in his voice for that call was something else.
177	-->'''Schiavone:''' Hulk Hogan, you can go to Hell. Straight to Hell.
178	* VillainBasedFranchise: The massive expansion of the [=nWo=] was initially conceived as a gateway to turning nWo into its own brand altogether, with the [=nWo=] banner being put either alongside or outright replacing WCW's in several events (namely the two ''Souled Out'' pay-per-views and a ''Nitro'' takeover episode). In addition, ''Thunder'' was also originally going to be ''nWo Thunder'', but after ''Souled Out'' bombed, Bischoff realized, ''oh''.
179	* VillainDecay:
180	** Go check out ''Souled Out'' '97. It's one of the most bizarre things ever seen in wrestling. In Wrestling/EddieGuerrero's book, he complained about this particular match: Eddie was trying to get over as a heel, but the finish to this match, in which he managed to snatch victory, [[HazyFeelTurn made it seem like he was a face]], since a non-nWo heel on an nWo show is technically a face. However, he went back to his heel character the following night.
181	** Want to know why the nWo became a trite gimmick in 1999? Because Stevie Ray and ''[[Wrestling/{{Virgil}} Vincent]]'' were feuding for leadership of nWo Black and White. Since when is Stevie Ray affiliated with the nWo? What happened to all of the main-eventers?
182	** They were very homogenized in WWE. The feeling of invasion is what made them work, and that feeling simply did not exist with Wrestling/VinceMcMahon personally bringing them in. One of their first backstage segments was walking around greeting everyone. Not much of an invading force. Nash would also complain how it was basically dead in the water as soon as Hulk walked out the very first day, got all teary-eyed, and thanked the fans for accepting him back, the exact opposite of his "these fans can stick it, brother!" promo at ''Bash at the Beach'' '96. They were treated like a normal stable instead of a hostile takeover group. As it turns out, there is much more money in Hogan as a nostalgia babyface: by the time they appeared in Milwaukee, they were over with the crowd, and it was hard for them to get heat. All the fans could see was Razor Ramon, Diesel, and Hulk Hogan. They couldn't hate them.
183	** Nash agreed to return to wrestling so long as [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] made Immortal, a new stable modeled on the original Outsiders, look like a dominating force. The Main Event Mafia, who were specifically brought back onto the show to fight Immortal, would be on near-equal ground and the feud would mean something. The week before Nash left the company, TNA filmed an angle where Crimson planted "Janice" ({{Wrestling/Abyss}}'s nail-enhanced 2×4) into the back of Abyss, who was then-serving as Immortal's muscle. Nash saw no point in returning when Immortal looked weaker and weaker with each passing week. After that, it just became an excuse for Garett Bischoff to [[HeelFaceTurn turn face]] and feud with his old man.
184	* WhiteGangBangers: The nWo was modelled pretty heavily on an LA street gang, with their hand signs, members all wearing the same colours and spraypaint, even their motto "nWo 4 life" is similar to several of the more brutal gangs like MS-13 that execute members who try to leave. Being raised from the fairly monochrome WCW roster, they were made up almost entirely of whites, and [[Wrestling/ScottHall one fake Hispanic]]. They did have Wrestling/{{Konnan}} who, with his plaid shirt over a white t-shirt, bandanas on his head and knee, and legit street background, was the most "gangster" nWo member. And on the strength of a Latino-style rap video (though he himself is Cuban by descent), he was for several months one of the most over wrestlers on the roster.
185	* YouAreNumberSix: Syxx was so named for being the sixth man to join, even though the nWo Sting was sixth technically.
186	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Vince brought the nWo into WWE, then disbanded the group permanently when they were no longer useful to him. Ironic when you consider that it was implied Hall and Nash were moles sent by the WWF, though eventually it was established (in kayfabe and RealLife) that Vince was not well-liked by them either and did not send them.
187	* ZergRush: One of the strengths of the [=nWo=] was sheer quantity. Maybe two wrestlers could survive against four or five guys, but when the [=nWo=] sent a dozen people at them it almost always resulted in a beatdown, unless of course Sting was involved. (Sting became an invincible overlord who could get in the ring with literally 25 guys and whip all their asses.)
188	[[/folder]]
189	-----
190	--> [[AC:The preceding trope article has been paid for by the New World Order.]]

Context Wrestling / NewWorldOrder