wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 New World Order Members

October 22, 2018 | Posted by Mike Chin
New World Order nWo Bash at the Beach Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger Image Credit: WWE

Few and far between are the stables that were as immediately impactful upon the wrestling business, or as influential in wrestling history as the New World Order. The group was arguably the most important kayfabe device in making the Monday Night War competitive, let alone allowing WCW to pull ahead for a time. And while the faction did get over-exposed—grown too large and ran too long—it was nonetheless also responsible for some electric moments, especially in its early going.

Particularly with the buzz around Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash staging a reunion tour, this week’s column looks back at the nWo and ranks its top seven members. To be clear, this list does not concern itself with ranking the wrestlers themselves. So, for example, Bret Hart is certainly among the seven best wrestlers who ever worked as part of the nWo, but his work with the faction doesn’t earn him a spot. The list focuses on the quality of the performers’ work within and importance to the stable. Where applicable, working toward the top of the group and longevity were secondary considerations. As always, my personal opinion weighs heavily.

#7. Curt Hennig

Curt Hennig wasn’t the longest standing member of the nWo, didn’t work at the top of the group, and, to be fair, didn’t have much meaningful to do with them post-entry to the faction. The way in which he joined the stable was important, though, for double-crossing the Horsemen during a War Games match. In so doing, fans witnessed one of the clearest passing of the torch moments from the Horsemen as the top heel stable that stabbed backs at will, to the group that got duped by the new heel masterminds.

Hennig’s turn drew big heat. From there, while his work under the nWo banner was far from the best of his career, even middling Hennig is better than most wrestlers who’ve ever laced up the boots, thus shoring up his spot on this countdown.

#6. Randy Savage

There’s a sense in which Randy Savage represented some of what was wrong with the nWo, in the group absorbing too many members and particularly a disproportionate number of top guys. While the nWo probably could have been just as well off without The Macho Man ever signing on, he made some genuinely positive contributions during his time with them.

First and foremost, as opposed to the general trend of the nWo dominating anything that moved, Savage used his top-shelf credibility to put over Diamond Dallas Page in a competitive feud that ultimately saw him take the Diamond Cutter for DDP to beat him cleanly. Additionally, Savage’s character was key in the Wolfpac spinning off as a face version of the group. Critics will suggest that having two nWos was emblematic of the faction’s over-exposure, but the Wolfpac was over at the time, and Savage’s dissension with Hogan set up a natural reason for The Macho Man and his allies to splinter off.

#5. Scott Steiner

When fans envision Scott Steiner today, they see the bleached blond hair and goatee, and expect a foul-mouthed, uproarious promo. They know him by monikers like Big Poppa Pump, Freakzilla, The Big Bad Booty Daddy, or The Genetic Freak. Prior to joining the New World Order, however, Steiner was the cleaner cut half of a perpetually face tag team with his older brother. Sure, he already had the muscles, but they were part of a super-athlete package then, as opposed to a central part of his heel persona that would make him an intimidating force of a bully.

While Steiner quite arguably did his best in ring work pre-nWo, he found his voice with the group and became more than a popular upper mid-card act, but rather a full-fledged main event star. He’s one of the few guy who can lay claim to, even for a short period of time, leading the nWo, and despite feuding with the original faction at its inception, Steiner would ultimately spend over a year and a half cumulatively with the group to make him one of its longer tenured members.

In the end, Steiner’s work with nWo redefined his place in wrestling history, and he was among the most important contributors to the group, making him a simple enough top five selection.

#4. Eric Bischoff

Vince McMahon would wind up so good at the heel authority role, for such a long time, that fans overlook the fact that Eric Bischoff actually assumed a similar position for WCW before him. Where Mr. McMahon had his Herculean physique, Bischoff had legitimate karate skills. Where McMahon had the credibility of actually owning his company, Bischoff perfected playing the spoiled-rich-kid type as the real life executive vice president for his company who was annoyingly too proud of himself. In part, both men took real word perceptions of themselves, cranked up the volume, and let a rip in defining a new genre of heel that would influence the wrestling business for decades to follow.

In his figurehead and manager-style role, Bischoff drew heat beautifully and in his relatively innovative role as an executive, lent the nWo a sense of truly being unbeatable. He was also willing to take his licks from Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Jay Leno, and others when it was time for his heel character to get his comeuppance.

#3. Scott Hall

In crafting his countdown, there were only three men in the running for the top three spots—the original New World Order trio. Scott Hall can make a case in his bed for the number one spot, given that he was the man to launch the angle, arriving unannounced on Nitro to kick-start the intrigue that would define the early stages of the group. He’d go on to win the WCW Tag Team Championships with Kevin Nash as The Outsiders and later win the World War 3 battle royal. Hall even played a key role in reuniting the splintered Wolfpac and Hollywood branches of the faction when he helped Nash take the WCW Championship off of Goldberg, shortly before the Fingerpoke of Doom and reveal that everyone affiliated with the group was henceforth working heel. Hall would be back for the nWo 2000 faction, and the reunited original trio that came to WWE in 2002 as well.

Hall and the nWo are largely synonymous with one another in wrestling history. However, much like Hall’s entire wrestling career, his importance to the stable was ultimately mitigated by substance abuse issues, injuries, and personal matters that frequently cut off momentum and kept him out of the ring for extended stretches. Additionally, he was the lone guy out of the original trio to never capture a world title, nor officially lead any version of the group (aside from, arguably leading or co-leading when he first appeared to launch the angle, before Hulk Hogan was revealed as the third man).

#2. Hulk Hogan

Had Hulk Hogan never wrestled again after his 1993 run with the WWF, he’d nonetheless go down as one of the most important wrestling stars of all time for his tremendous popularity, drawing power, and charisma demonstrated from the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Hogan had a second act to his career, though, not in the elongated super-hero-good-guy run he had upon his debut with WCW, but as the leader of the nWo.

At the fore of the nWo, one could argue that Hogan overstayed his welcome, politicked, and ultimately suffered from a lot of the same problems as his preceding face run. For a time, though, he also managed to reinvent himself as one of the greatest main event heels of all time—both a “cool heel” and one who fans genuinely wanted to see beaten, particularly when he feuded with Sting and Goldberg.

It’s hard not to rank Hulk Hogan in the number one spot for this countdown as the New World Order’s most definitive front man, a charter member, and the guy who facilitated the group’s first big swerve when he was revealed as the mystery third man and formally launched the faction at Bash at the Beach 1996. It may seem counterintuitive, but I wound up placing him at number two because of how much more he accomplished in his long career, and not having a career quite as synonymous with the faction as the guy I wound up placing at number one.

#1. Kevin Nash

Not unlike Hulk Hogan or Scott Hall, Kevin Nash built his name in WWE. He reigned as WWF Champion and was the face of the company for most of 1995, and its that credibility that allowed him to turn heads when he returned to WCW in 1996. Unlike Hogan or Hall, whose legacies quite arguably remained biggest for their work in WWE, however, I’d argue that Nash was a WWE star who took his stardom to another level, and undeniably peaked working with WCW.

Nash was the second Outsider to arrive in WCW, and as such the one to establish not just a solo act, but the emergence of an intriguing new stable. Nash was often cast as second in command to Hogan, but also spent his time as the de facto top guy in the Wolfpac, and multi-time world champion. Beyond all of that, when one thinks of—for better or worse—the cool heel ethos of the New World Order, Nash feels like the guy to best and most completely encompass it. Add on having been the member of the most different nWo incarnations, and the guy with the longest cumulative tenure, and he’s my pick for the number one spot.

Whom would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.