Trivia / New World Order

• Creator's Favorite: It is very obvious that Eric Bischoff's affinity for the group wasn't just in-storyline: He even had ideas for launching an nWo spinoff show and such. In the Rise and Fall of WCW documentary, Big Show admitted that—while it was no fun to be part of this group—it was the only way they could get ahead of the rest of the roster, and get some sort of a push. In Chris Jericho's book he also talks about when the nWo came to WWE and how Scott Hall and co. interacted with the other superstars. Apparently when Hall met Bubba Ray he said, "I like that 3D move you guys have, I can't wait to kick out of it."
• Fan Community Nicknames: Bizarrely averted, especially for what was the most Merchandise-Driven faction in wrestling history. Hulk Hogan tried floating the term "nWo-ites" in promos (and during his cameo in the 1999 film Muppets from Space) but it never got over.
• Follow the Leader: After the nWo hit its stride, the ripoffs and parodies came out of the woodwork:
  • In truth, every stable in the WWF/WWE after The Nation of Domination, up to and excluding Evolution (which was modeled after The Four Horsemen instead), would never have existed but for the overwhelming influence of the nWo. This includes D-Generation X, The Corporation, the Ministry of Darkness, and quite a few others, even those involved in the "Gang Wars" nominally started by the Nation. The original (and most successful) of these was DX, which lasted until 2010 despite being down to only two members at one point. One could also look at The Authority as this gone wrong, as like the nWo, the Authority rarely ever lost and damaged their company's reputation.
  • ECW had the Blue World Order (bWo - and, as Joey Styles put it, "if any gimmick never deserved to make a dime and made a whole boatload of cash...and the best part was that they couldn't sue us because of parody").
  • Japan got in on the action with the Demon Monster Planet (dMp).
  • The Aloha World Order of Dramatic Dream Team, because no parody of American pro wrestling would be complete if it didn't spoof the nWo, especially not one started a year after the nWo did.
  • WCW itself even made copies, with the Latino World Order (formed by Eddie Guerrero, out of frustration with how he was being treated by the company) and Ultimate Warrior's One Warrior Nation.
  • A subtle case was Cybernetico's Lucha Libre Latina, which at first glance looked nothing like the nWo beyond being a really large stable, what with the lack of "Outsiders", off case or the like. Ultimately though, their attempt to takeover and replace AAA ended up being very similar, with an increasing amount of established roster members joining their cause.
  • New Japan Pro-Wrestling, who inspired the gimmick in the first place when the UWF "invaded" them, exploited their partnership with WCW by launching a sister group, nWo Japan, led by Masahiro Chono and The Great Muta. Many of whose members even appeared in WCW under that name. ECW went the extra mile with its parody, entering into a working agreement with Michinoku Pro Wrestling to create a bWo Japan.
  • The Fyrebird World Order (fWo) of NWA Phoenix and NWA Coastal was basically the nWo with women...women wrestlers that is, given that there were "nWo girls" who largely didn't wrestle or do run-ins.
  • The Pussy World Order, the X-rated stable of Women's Extreme Wrestling located in Philadelphia. The pWo was an excuse for numerous adult film stars to "invade" WEW for a while.
  • The Juggalo World Order. Though given this was in Juggalo Championship Wrestling, they were actually faces. Hall was also a founding member, with Kevin Nash and X-Pac joining later. In true nWo fashion, jWo had planned invasions of WWE, UFC and Ring of Honor but only got around to buying front row tickets to a TNA event, which they were expelled from by frightful TNA officials/security.
  • Fans of Botchamania are said to be part of the uMo (the nWo logo turned upside down), the "United Maffew Order".
  • A non-wrestling example showed up in Team Fortress 2, of all places. A popular SFM series named Cult of Personality depicted several mercenaries splitting off from the game’s RED and BLU teams to form a new faction, oWn (Our World Now). Successfully capturing the appeal of the original nWo's aesthetic, many TF2 players who watched the series would take to “joining” oWn themselves through Steam groups, avatars and reskin mods.
• Follow-Up Failure:
  • Eric Bischoff at one point intended to make the nWo into its own brand, and even claimed that WWF would be the third most popular pro wrestling brand in the USA. Then the trial episode of nWo Nitro did horrible ratings, and brand expansion plans were brought to an end.
  • nWo 2000 was Vince Russo's attempt to revive the concept as a means to push Bret Hart back into the main event scene. Unfortunately, audiences at the time were absolutely sick of the nWo so the group failed to get over before Bret's Career-Ending Injury brought the whole storyline to a premature halt.
• Fountain of Expies: At their peak, they were the gold standard Power Stable in professional wrestling. At their nadir, they were a cautionary tale of all the things not to do with a power stable in professional wrestling. And as a result of that, most every well-known stable that came after has been at least compared to them (favorably or otherwise) - if not taken direct inspiration from them.
• I Knew It!: Given all the time Bobby "The Brain" Heenan had been feuding with Hulk Hogan, he wasn't about to let his Face–Heel Turn pass without comment...
  Heenan: I've been telling you people what a scumbag this man is for the past 15 years, and did any of you listen? NO!
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Although the higher-ups were content to keep the nWo running forever, injuries to the group's main players—including Hogan, Scott Hall, and Lex Luger—took them out of action and without them, the nWo just kind of disintegrated. The same thing also happened to Vince Russo's attempt to revive the group with nWo 2000, where, again, most of the group's members wound up being out on injury—permanently in Bret Hart's case—which brought the storyline to a premature end.
• Signature Scene: Of all the No Holds Barred Beatdowns they've ever given, none is more widely recognized than the parking lot brawl that saw Kevin Nash pick up Rey Mysterio Jr. and chuck him headfirst at the side of a truck and bellyflop onto the concrete (a.k.a. the "lawn dart" spot).
• Throw It In!: When filming the very first nWo vignettes after Hogan had been revealed as the third man, the timbre was very different than the product eventually shown. Up until that point, the nWo's plotline had been very reality based, while the wrestling promos filmed for the vignettes sounded like... well... wrestling promos. Kevin Nash recounted a story where Hogan had cut a decent, but otherwise standard, promo but that he and Hall, and later Hogan himself, just weren't feeling it. During a break in filming, a television production assistant got to talking to the group and asked them what they wanted to get across to the fans. After a bit of discussion, he asked to film some short segments that he'd edit together to see what they thought. And so was born the jump cut, straight to the point, soundbite-based format that New World Order vignettes were known for from that point on.
• Viral Marketing: The random emergence of The Outsiders led many fans (and even a few industry pundits) to believe Hall and Nash were actually sent by Vince McMahon to "invade" WCW—a belief which made people interested in WCW's product.
• What Could Have Been: See the nWo folder on the WhatCouldHaveBeen.WCW page.
• Written by Cast Member: Bischoff, Hogan, and Nash were the principal bookers of the nWo angle.