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"This is where the big boys play, huh? Look at the adjective: 'play!'. We ain't here to play."
Nash on his debut on WCW Monday Nitro

Kevin Scott Nash (born July 9, 1959 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American retired professional wrestler and actor.

Like most wrestling stars to come out of the nineties, Nash cut his teeth in WCW as a jobber under the names Master Blaster, Oz, and Vinnie Vegas. After 3 years of this, he was scooped up by Shawn Michaels and signed a contract with WWF, where he was given the gimmick of Diesel, a long-haired cocky biker thug.note  He started out as Michaels' bodyguard, and in 1994, Nash won all three titles comprising the WWF Triple Crown (Intercontinental, Tag Team,note  and WWF Championships, in that order), before leaving for WCW in 1996.

In WCW, Nash joined his friend Scott Hall in becoming "The Outsiders", which would evolve into the wildly-successful nWo angle after being joined by Hulk Hogan. The group dominated the ratings for two years and rocketed WCW into becoming the world's most profitable wrestling company, with Nash becoming a four-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and a nine-time world tag team champion. But in 1999 it all started to go wrong: Nash becoming booker for the company coincided with it hatching the most ridiculous and camp storylines wrestling had yet seen (until Vince Russo came along), which all seemed to be designed to push Nash, Hall, and their small circle of friends into the spotlight at the expense of homegrown talent.

After the company was bought up by WWE, Nash waited out his contract and was rehired by them alongside Hall and Hogan in 2002, until he was finally released in 2003. He would go to TNA in 2004 and, after Hogan followed suit in 2010, attempted to reboot the nWo angle. Nash remained with the company until 2011, and has made semi-regular appearances on WWE programming ever since. He is a two-time inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame, first as an individual in 2015, and with the nWo in 2020. His last wrestling match at the Big Time Wrestling Heavyweight Championship happened on August 10, 2018, before he announced his retirement via Twitter on January 5, 2020.

Nash was a member of The Kliq, an influential backstage group that included Michaels, Hall, Triple H and Sean Waltman.

Nash is also an actor. He has appeared in roles such as Super-Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, The Russian in The Punisher, a bodyguard in John Wick, Bass Armstrong (himself a Hogan parody) in DOA: Dead or Alive and Gus in Dog. You may know him best as Tarzan from Magic Mike.


"Look at the adjective: Trope"

  • Aborted Arc:
    • The Mystery of the White Hummer. It was originally pitched as a way to get Carmen Electra (a friend of Nash) or Sable over, but negotiations with both fell through, and the story was left unresolved for years.
      Jay Hunter: Maybe it was Hogan! Maybe it was Sting! And eventually: Stop asking.
      V1: Sorry. The name... sticks out quite a bit. CARMEN ELECTRA?
      OOC: W-what... why was she tryin' to kill Kevin Nash?
      Jay: Why you gotta hassle me about this, man?
    • His match with CM Punk was canceled due to Nash not being able to be cleared to compete due to taking cardiovascular medication and the risk of being off it for an extended period.
  • Achilles' Heel: Nash has become infamous for his susceptibility to tear his quads.
  • Affably Evil: Nash turned on Sting four times in 1999-2000 alone, and then did it again in 2009. Each time they went back to being buddies again thanks to Nash's general affability.
  • Ascended Meme: On at least one occasion, Nash has faked tearing his quad in order to make his opponent(s) drop their guard.
  • The Atoner: Nash expressed some regrets for his misdeeds in WCW, which led to him working with a couple of young guys at TNA like Chris Sabin or Alex Shelley. Partially averted, because he kept lambasting guys like Chris Jericho, though. (And he regularly took the piss out of Impact, much like in his Nitro days.) Ultimately this was confirmed as part of his character in TNA upon his exit from the company, serving as his reason for refusing to go along with the Immortal conspiracy (though his biggest motive for opposing them came when Hogan axed his Wolfpac buddies).
  • Ass Kicks You: He was a 'massive' victim of this. During a match against King Mabel Kevin Nash was having lower back problems and asked Mabel to take it easy on his back. What happens during the match? Mabel (who was near 500 pounds mind you) proceeds to while Kevin is laying face down simply do a butt first ground pound on Kevin's back and sat on Kevin's back for a minute. Kevin could be heard screaming in pain for a good while after this.
  • Beard of Evil: He's had a beard his entire wrestling career, and he also had that beard during the initial runaway success of the villainous nWo.
  • Bash Brothers: With all members of The Kliq at different times, but especially with Scott Hall. His turn on Jeff Jarrett came after Jarrett accidentally struck Hall, and he had heat with Samoa Joe both on and off-screen because Joe lost his top in a Worked Shoot after Hall no-showed their tag match at a TNA pay-per-view.
  • The Big Guy:
    • He sees himself as one. When asked about the The Nexus, specifically after they attacked The Undertaker to help Kane bury him alive, Nash described Wade Barrett performing the Wasteland looking like a boy trying to hold up a man and boasted that he'd beat the piss out of him and take his girlfriend.
    • Scott Hall explained that he would usually start the match when they would team together because he firmly believed you had to "showcase the big man" and make Nash's tag in a big deal.
  • Bodyguard Betrayal: Originally Shawn Michaels's loyal biker bodyguard in 1994, he hit him with a steel chair in 1996 during a house show at Madison Square Garden as part of a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Deadpan Snarker. Almost always, in and out of character.
  • Dented Iron: No surprise for a wrestler his size. He looks good, still pretty ripped and since his face hasn't aged much since his WCW days could actually pass for a lot younger when he colors his hair, but he's still carrying plenty of injuries and has trouble being on his feet for long periods of time.
  • Didn't See That Coming: He Jackknifed CM Punk at SummerSlam 2011.
  • Dumb Muscle: While his partnership with Samoa Joe was supposed to be about Kevin Nash curing Joe of his affliction with this trope, Kevin Nash more often than proved himself to be the dumb muscle.
  • Finger Poke of Doom: The recipient of said poke, which he sold like he was hit by a finisher.
  • Finishing Move:
    • As Diesel and his real name, the Jackknife Powerbomb (a release powerbomb).
    • As Oz, he used the Emerald City Slam (a sidewalk slam) and the Emerald City Twister (a spinning crucifix toss)
    • As Vinnie Vegas, he used Snake Eyes (throwing your opponent face first into a turnbuckle.) It remains a staple move for big wrestlers.
  • The Gambler: You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away... from a terrible gimmick. He wasn't the first WCW wrestler to wear the Gambler's mantle, even if his name was Vinnie Vegas.
  • Game-Breaking Injury: Kevin Nash's Powerbomb against the 500-pound Giant at Souled Out 1998. Sure, he managed to Powerbomb the Giant before at Superbrawl VII a year before, although Nash hurt his back in the process (the Giant was fine). However, the Souled Out execution gone horribly wrong and injured both men: Kevin's back got injured and caused the execution to land on the Giant's head/neck. Fans thought that the coffee spill to the Giant's face was unnecessary and may have caused the Giant's body to be slippery when gripped for the powerbomb preparation. Had it been left with just a low blow, the execution would have been done right.
  • The Giant: His wrestling style. He is one of the best examples of it actually, when directly compared to frequent partner Scott Hall or the interim Diesel, Kane.
  • Glass Cannon: Big, deals out lots of punishment, extremely injury prone. How injury prone? After suffering a bicep injury that took nearly ten weeks to recover, he made his return in a tag team match and within twelve seconds of ring action, managed to tear his quad and was put on the shelf for the next nine months.
    Chris Jericho: [on the June 27, 2005 Raw] Nash would tear a hamstring just picking up the phone..
  • Grammar Nazi: Inverted. He either didn't know or didn't care that play is a verb, not an adjective.
  • Height Insult: He made up the term "vanilla midgets" for short-sized wrestlers. According to him, only big-height wrestlers are allowed to become draws and deserve pushes and championships. This glass ceiling was one of the reasons many wrestlers of the Cruiserweight division such as Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio Jr. jumped ship to the WWEnote .
  • He's Back!:
    • Made his triumphant return to the WWE at the Royal Rumble 2011.
    • After dropping off the radar since his 2011 Rumble appearance, he returned to cheap shot CM Punk at SummerSlam after retaining the WWE Championship, allowing Alberto Del Rio to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase and win the title.
    • He had another Rumble moment in 2014, where he came out to the old nWo music that got him a nice pop from the crowd.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Scott Hall, until Hall's passing in 2022. Say whatever you like about Hall and Nash as wrestlers, but as this blog post shows, they mean a hell of a lot to each other.
  • Hostile Show Takeover:
    • As one-third of "The Outsiders", ex-WWE stars who quickly turned WCW into their playground.
    • As part of the Main Event Mafia, he, Booker T and Scott Steiner hijacked an episode of TNA Impact!. While Steiner took the job of ring announcer, Nash and Booker became "Chet Lemmon" and "Black Snow" on commentary, taking the piss out of the entire company during their tenure.
  • I Meant to Do That: His infamous botch attempting to jackknife powerbomb The Giant, was played up as this. In reality, Nash's back gave out on him mid move. However, after the Giant accused him of doing it on purpose, Nash held a PSA where he, confirmed exactly that's what happened then laughed about it.
  • Informed Ability: As Diesel, Vince McMahon sold him as a powerhouse who couldn't be touched. This certainly didn't translate in practice as WWF Champion, however, as he became the lowest-drawing WWF Champion of all time.
  • It Will Never Catch On:
    • Inverted. While working as a booker in WCW, Nash thought actual wrestling was becoming passe, and resolved to prove it by having the first hour of Nitro contain all pre-taped segments and absolutely no matches. The end result was a 2.9 hourly rating — the only time ratings would dip below 3 during the Monday Night Wars — and he was shortly yanked from WCW Creative.note 
    • Nash once referred to Benoit, Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko as the "Vanilla Midgets", due to their short stature (by pro wrestling standards) and introvert personalities. As head booker in WCW, Nash also felt that WCW's Cruserweights, like Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio Jr., would never be considered credible Main Eventers. While it's arguable that Saturn and Malenko were indeed not really as memorable during their time in WWE and so have somewhat faded into obscurity over time, all of the rest of the above named went on to win world championships in WWE.
  • The Juggernaut: In WCW, he trounced The Giant, and broke Goldberg's undefeated streak. In TNA, he pinned AJ Styles clean, and it took Mick Foley giving his all to dethrone him.
  • Miles Gloriosus: Just check out Nash's entrance to the match where the Fingerpoke of Doom happened. Some say the pyros are still going off to this day. At one point, Nash looks back and is like, "...Jesus, still?"
    • Also, his ring introduction (read by Michael Buffer) during that same entrance. "He is from Detroit, Michigan; but his accomplishments in professional sports make him a citizen of the world!" is just one of the many gems.
  • No-Sell: After he infamously got a hit by a Hummer, he showed up at the next PPV no worse for wear. (He never even "lost consciousness" in the crash.)
  • Nothing Personal: Nash and Hall have been friends for most of their professional lives, but he had no qualms about squashing Hall and making a mockery of his alcoholism in '99. Perhaps Hall thought he deserved it and was thankful to Nash for keeping him on payroll, but the viewing audience found it pretty tasteless. Kicking a man while he's down? Even Ed Ferrera would give it a rethink.
  • Older Than They Look: Sure he's a Dented Iron but looking at him appearance-wise, it seems the only thing that gives away his age's currently his silver hair.
  • One-Man Army: Kevin Nash vs. the New Blood. Yes, you read that right. When's the last time you saw someone get over an entire freaking company?
  • Outliving One's Offspring: His son and only child Tristen, died at 26 years old on October 20, 2022.
  • Parts Unknown (as Master Blaster Steele): "The Steele Mines"; (as Oz): "Emerald City"
  • The Pornomancer: Big Sexy isn't a gimmick; it's a lifestyle. He's the kind of man who can fornicate with women just by glancing at them.
  • Power Stable:
  • Put on a Bus: Following his loss to Triple H at TLC.
  • Red Baron:
    • After beating The Giant, he dubbed himself "Big Sexy, The Giant Killer". Later shortened to just "Big Sexy".
    • As Diesel, he's "Big Daddy Cool".
    • Was also called "Silver Fox" for a short time in TNA.
  • Ring Oldies: Even with head full of gray hair, Kevin Nash was still out in the ring, squashing No Limit, a tag team who were on their way into the IGWP tag title scene, on TNA Impact!.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: From the looks of things, he spent more time studying the politics of wrestling from HBK and Hunter than how to put on good matches.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!:
    • Had a clause in his contract (known as a Favored Nations clause in sports) making him the highest-paid guy in WCWnote . If they started paying somebody else more, Nash's salary would automatically go up to equal it.
    • While there is a lot of blame to go around for the death of WCW, Nash created an atmosphere which ensured guys such as Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Benoit would never be elevated, while Nash and his buddies could have all the TV time and championships they desired. This finally led to the hot talent taking their business to WWE. It didn't end up too badly for them: they might have made a name for themselves in WCW and ECW, but it was in WWE that they really became stars. He eventually got called out for it by CM Punk, among other people. WWE itself however was guilty of a similar thing a few years later, when it abandoned its own cruiserweight and hardcore divisions in favour of the 'big guys' Vince was a fan of (which Nash had been one of in the 90s).
  • Self-Deprecation:
    • Big Sexy comin' outta the closet, ooh yeah! (There was an obsession with drag in both promotions at the time.)
    • While on Thunder commentary, Nash mocked the fans who said he didn't know how to book the show, boasting that he knows enough to book himself into a retirement angle so he doesn't have to take any bumps and still make big money.
    • When Christian Cage was stomping around backstage demanding for people to partner with him against the Angle Alliance, Kevin Nash said he was too busy to help. When Christian inquired what was eating up his time Nash replied it was being paid to do nothing.
    • Surprisingly does this A LOT in shoot interviews. He is very aware of his limited wrestling talent and his reputation and pokes fun of himself quite often.
  • Sex Sells: While he was in charge of TNA Impact!, he forced The Beautiful People into a Mud Wrestling match with each other, figuring it would draw a large rating.
  • Silver Fox: TNA ran a competition to give women the chance to be Kevin Nash's valet. This bit him in the ass in WCW when Sting/Savage baited him into a road accident with a limo filled with women.
    Nash: [to Daffney in TNA] Y'know, Tazz says you're "zombie hot", but I think you're just hot. [gets sacked by Abyss]
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Big Kev uses the word "fuck" the way most of us say "uh" or "and".
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Nash has historically done just about anything he could to get out of jobbing cleanly whenever possible. This unwillingness to put other wrestlers over has not always been well-received. In fact, during the Outsiders' various WCW World Tag Team Championship reigns, they imposed what they called "Wolfpac Rules," which allowed other nWo members (including Randy Savage and Syxx [Sean Waltman], the latter being considered a third champion) to sub for one of them, usually Nash, in title defenses.
  • Smug Snake:
    • Nash is to the "Attitude Era" what Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect were to the "Rock n' Wrestling" era: the codifier for "cool heel". He's a member of the Kliq, it comes with the territory.
    • As Nitro's heel announcer, his gimmick was, 'I got better things to do than be calling this!'
  • Spanish Announcers' Table: Responsible for the Ur-Example, when he threw Bret Hart through it at the 1995 Survivor Series.
  • Spiritual Successor: It's been said many times by many people that Roman Reigns is Diesel all over again, except without the It's All About Me Executive Meddling Jerkass/The Bully qualities.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Oh yes, and as a booker for WCW he made himself look pretty good at the expense of other guys. While it's true that a lot of them were middling talents, the same could be said for Bret Hart when he was starting out.
  • Squash Match: The last time the WWE Title changed hands at a non-televised event, Nash as Diesel was the squasher with a simple boot and jackknife to Bob Backlund to win in 8 seconds at MSG.
  • Tacky Tuxedo: One of the failed experiments... complete with over-gelled hair and a leisure suit. Dear God, it's horrible.
  • Take This Job and Shove It: His departure from TNA in late 2010 was not exactly amicable.note 
  • Tall, Dark, and Snarky: It could be said Kevin Nash has been far more celebrated for the promos he cuts than any of the wrestling matches he's had. People would tune into Impact just to hear him talk.
    Audience to Nitro girls: SHOW YOUR TITS
    Nash: I would, but the air's too cold.
  • Traumatic Haircut: Had his famously long hair cut off after being knocked out in a match by Chris Jericho. Behind the scenes, he was required to cut his hair for his role in The Punisher. He kept the short hair for a while in TNA, but eventually grew it back. He cut it short again after his program with Triple H ended and has kept it that way.
  • True Companions: Considers The Kliq to be his buddies for life, both in and out of Kayfabe.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds:
    • With Shawn Michaels. Even though they are best of friends, Nash will readily admit that Michaels could be insufferable at times.
    • With Bret Hart. While "best buds" may be an overstatement, they became very complimentary of each other and seem to consider each other friends. However, back when they were both wrestling, they had a lot of public creative differences, including one where Bret refused to take Nash's Jackknife Powerbomb during their match in a non-ending for fear that it would "look like he could've lost". It proved the last straw for an already disgruntled Nash who ended up leaving the company shortly after.

 
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Hogan vs Nash

Hulk Hogan pokes Kevin Nash in the chest, causing him to go down for the count.

According to Kevin Nash, it was like getting hit in the chest with a cannonball.

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Main / FingerPokeOfDoom

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