Thursday 20 October 2011

New World Order (professional wrestling)

New World Order (commonly known as the nWo, the official typeset in the logo) was a professional wrestling stable that originally wrestled for World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The group later appeared in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) after the purchase of WCW by the WWF. The group was briefly revived in 2010 under the name of The Band in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). The stable's gimmick was a group of unsanctioned wrestlers aiming to "take over" and control WCW in the manner of a street gang; many of the group's initial seven members had each gained fame in the rival World Wrestling Federation, although this connection was only implied.
The nWo angle is one of the most influential forces in the late 1990s success of WCW, and was instrumental in turning mainstream American wrestling back into a more mature, adult-oriented product. The brainchild of WCW Executive Eric Bischoff, and fueled initially by the unexpected heel turn of Hulk Hogan, the nWo storyline is generally considered one of the most successful angles in the history of modern-day professional wrestling, spawning several imitations and parodies (including groups such as bWo, lWo and oWn). It dominated WCW programming throughout the late-1990s and almost until the dissolution of WCW in 2001, during which time there were several, sometimes rival incarnations of the group; the rival WWF even resurrected the angle for a time in 2002. As a result of so many members having joined, the nWo holds the record of the biggest wrestling stable in wrestling history.




Concept


The nWo storyline was an idea WCW Executive Vice President Eric Bischoff came up with after attending a New Japan Pro Wrestling show. He wanted to do an invasion-type angle where WCW was kayfabe being sabotaged by another wrestling group (initially insinuated as being the WWF, since its founding members had previously wrestled for the company). The nWo was originally portrayed as a separate entity from WCW (often, propaganda-style vignettes and product commercials concerning the nWo were preceded by an "interruption in the feed", and a voice proclaiming, "The following announcement has been paid for by the New World Order").
Others, such as Kevin Nash, television director Craig Leathers, chief WCW booker Terry Taylor, and his assistants Kevin Sullivan and Paul Orndorff all contributed their own ideas to the nWo concept. For instance, the logo was designed by Craig Leathers, Scott Hall is credited with the group's trademark hand-signals, and Taylor belatedly scrawled the group's most popular catchphrase, "When you're nWo, you're nWo 4 life", in one segment he scripted for WCW Monday Nitro in late 1996.




History


World Championship Wrestling (1996–2001)


Formation


On May 19, 1996, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash wrestled their final matches for the WWF as their contracts had expired and they had recently signed with WCW. Eight days later, on the May 27 episode of Nitro, Hall unexpectedly interrupted a match between The Mauler and Steve Doll and called for the ring announcer's microphone. "You all know who I am," Hall said to the stunned crowd, "but you don't know why I'm here." He went on to deliver a now-famous speech which has since become known as the "You Want a War?" speech, stating that he and unnamed allies had a challenge for WCW Executive Vice-President Eric Bischoff and any WCW superstar. As Nitro neared its end Hall accosted Bischoff, who was also the lead broadcaster for Nitro at the time, in the broadcast booth and demanded that he tell Ted Turner to pick three of his best wrestlers. The next week, Hall reappeared on Nitro five minutes before the end of the broadcast and again interrogated Bischoff. Sting confronted and slapped Hall after he threw a toothpick at him and said he had a "little...no...BIG surprise" for Sting. During the next Nitro Hall again pestered Bischoff in the broadcast booth. Bischoff demanded to know of the "surprise" Hall had in store for Sting while being unaware that Nash, the surprise, was standing right behind him. Hall finally pointed his partner out, and Nash said "So this is WCW, where the big boys play, uh? Look at the adjective: Play...we ain't here to play." From then on, the two would become known as The Outsiders and would randomly appear at WCW events to cause trouble and (inevitably) be led out of the building by WCW security. Although the two were not referred to by name yet, the broadcast eventually referred to Hall and Nash simply by their last names.
Despite Hall and Nash being fully employed by WCW, the implication that they were invading WCW from the WWF was enough of a concern that the WWF was considering legal action over Hall and Nash's antics. Hall was the largest concern to the WWF; in addition to Hall's references to "Billionaire Ted", "The Huckster", and "The Nacho Man", he had not fully distanced himself from his "Razor Ramon" character and had continued to speak in his faux-Cuban accent and refer to people as "chico", which was a characteristic gesture of Razor Ramon. WCW attempted to acknowledge those concerns at The Great American Bash in June 1996, where Bischoff invited The Outsiders to do an interview with him. Bischoff promised them a match at the next pay-per-view event. He then directly asked both Hall and Nash if they were employed by the WWF, with both acknowledging they weren't. The WWF was not pleased and filed a lawsuit, charging that Bischoff had proposed interpromotional matches for TBS to associate the two companies with each other. This was despite the fact that the WWF and Ted Turner had carried on a rivalry for (at the time) eleven years, based on the fallout from Vince McMahon's purchase of Georgia Championship Wrestling and its flagship program World Championship Wrestling and McMahon's subsequent failure and sale of the timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (which was the forerunner for the modern WCW). Bischoff was also prone to revealing results of taped episodes of Monday Night RAW, the WWF's flagship show, on Nitro broadcasts (at the time RAW was only live every other week, as the WWF would show a live RAW on a Monday night and then tape the next week's show the following day) and had also presided over a controversial angle on a December 1995 edition of Nitro where Madusa, formerly known as Alundra Blayze in the WWF and who was the reigning WWF Women's Champion when she signed with WCW, appeared on the air with her championship belt and threw it in a trash can.
During the interview, both Hall and Nash pressed Bischoff again to name his three representatives. Bischoff said that he had found three representatives but would not name them. Hall became skeptical of Bischoff's refusal and it led to an attack by both Outsiders, ending when Nash powerbombed Bischoff through the interview stage.[4][ Following the Great American Bash, The Outsiders continued to randomly terrorize WCW events and were always chased away by armed security guards. Meanwhile, Bischoff held a draft on Nitro to determine WCW's representatives. Sting, his tag team partner Lex Luger, and Randy Savage were chosen.




The Hostile Takeover Match


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The match Bischoff promised, a six-man tag known as the "Hostile Takeover Match," served as the main event of Bash At The Beach, which was held at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida on July 7, 1996. Hall and Nash came to the ring by themselves, leaving speculation open as to who would be their partner. Gene Okerlund came into the ring immediately following Hall and Nash's entrance and, after discussing the situation with ring announcer Michael Buffer and referee Randy Anderson, demanded that The Outsiders tell him where the third man was. Hall and Nash assured Okerlund that their partner was in the building, but they did not need him at the moment. After Okerlund left the ring Team WCW made their entrance with all three members wearing facepaint as a sign of solidarity; Sting had been wearing facepaint for years in the ring but Luger and Savage had never done so before.
The match did not start well for Team WCW, as Luger was taken out of the match shortly after it began. While he was being held in a corner by Nash, Sting ran over and hit a Stinger Splash to try to break up the hold. Although he hit Nash as well, Sting's move sandwiched Luger between Nash and the corner; Luger slumped to the floor unconscious and had to be stretchered out of the ring. Bobby Heenan was heard on the broadcast asking for someone out to replace the injured Luger since Hall and Nash had a third man waiting. With the matchup even at two a side for the moment with Hall and Nash's partner still yet to be revealed, the two sides continued to battle as announcers Tony Schiavone, Heenan, and Dusty Rhodes speculated as to who the third man was, at one point even accusing each other of being the third man.
The match reached its climax at approximately the sixteen-minute mark, shortly after a late tag from an exhausted Sting to Savage. Savage immediately went on the attack, nailing both Outsiders with repeated axe-handle smashes from the top rope. However, while referee Anderson checked on a downed Hall, Nash nailed Savage with a low blow which knocked both men to the floor. With all four men down, as Sting had not made it out of the ring, the referee had no choice but to begin counting them out. As he began his count, the fans' attention turned to the entrance area as Hulk Hogan entered the scene and began walking to the ring to a loud roar from the crowd. Hall spotted him and immediately rolled out of the ring.
Hogan, who had not been seen on WCW television for several weeks, climbed into the ring to chase away Nash. He then did his trademark tearing off of his T-shirt gesture and threw the ripped shirt at the Outsiders, staring them down outside the ring while Hall and Nash feigned shock. Hogan then walked to the nearest corner, stared to the crowd one final time, then stunned the audience into silence by hitting his leg drop finisher on the fallen Savage. The Outsiders came into the ring as Hogan leg dropped his long-time ally and friend for a second time, then celebrated with Hogan as their partner. After Hall and Nash beat down Sting, who made one final attempt to save the day for WCW, Hogan threw the bewildered referee out of the ring and hit a third and final leg drop on Savage while the Outsiders performed a mock three count on Savage. The official match result was a no-contest
After Savage was then carried out of the ring the crowd at the Ocean Center, which had only moments earlier given Hogan a loud ovation, now began showing their anger at his actions. One fan attempted to jump into the ring and attack Hogan, only to be intercepted by Hall and Nash and taken away by WCW security. Many more fans began picking up garbage and throwing it into the ring to show their displeasure with Hogan's actions. Hall later recounted that the throwing trash in the ring took him by surprise, as he had always believed that no matter how angry the fans got, they never should throw things at the wrestlers.
By the time Gene Okerlund returned to the ring to speak to Hogan, the ring was nearly full of debris and more was continuing to come in. A disgusted Okerlund demanded answers from Hogan for his actions, wanting to know what he was thinking joining with the Outsiders. Hogan started the interview by saying that Hall and Nash were the future of wrestling and declared that The Outsiders and himself were "the new world order of wrestling", which stuck as the group's name. Hogan then brought up two reasons why he decided to join with Hall and Nash: his own ties to the WWF and the boredom with the direction his career had taken after he signed with WCW in 1994. He then made a declaration that the three wrestlers were going to take over WCW and destroy everything in their path. Hogan's final portion of the interview was an angry diatribe toward the fans, who had been increasingly negative toward Hogan over the previous eighteen months. Hogan said that after two years of holding his head up high and doing everything asked of him, he'd had enough and then reminded the fans that if it wasn't for them, none of the fans would be in the building and none of the newer wrestlers the fans had taken a shine to (who Hogan referred to as "johnny-come-latelies") would be there. Hogan even took a shot at Eric Bischoff, saying that without Hogan, he "would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis." Hogan then asked the fans and Okerlund, "Whatcha gonna do when the new world organization (he had twice referred to the group by this name during his diatribe) runs wild on you?". The show closed with the three wrestlers continuing to taunt the fans, who continued to throw garbage in the ring. Just before the pay-per-view went off the air, a still-stunned Tony Schiavone told Hogan that he "can go to Hell. Straight to Hell." When Hogan began his heel turn many of his enemies from the WWF; whom he had feuded with such as Roddy Piper and Randy Savage had their popularities as faces boosted, immensely.




1996


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The night after Bash at the Beach, Hall and Nash arrived at Monday Nitro by themselves without Hogan and made no apologies for their actions. They also factored in the end of the program as they attempted to attack Sting, Arn Anderson and Randy Savage but were held back by WCW security.[4] Hogan returned the next week on Nitro and assisted Hall and Nash in beating up Lex Luger and Big Bubba Rogers during Nitro's main event. He then made a challenge to the reigning WCW World Heavyweight Champion, The Giant, for Hog Wild in August. The newly rechristened "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan won the match after knocking The Giant out with his title belt. After the match, The Booty Man came to the ring wearing an nWo t-shirt and carrying a cake and gift for Hogan, who was celebrating his birthday. All three nWo members assaulted Booty Man and left him lying unconscious on the outside of the ring. They did, however, make use of his gift- a can of black spray paint. Hogan spray painted "NWO" on the belt, and declared himself to be the nWo World Heavyweight Champion.This tagging would become a signature gesture of the group as they spray-painted almost anything with their initials, especially the backs of wrestlers they had knocked unconscious. Hogan would also refer to himself as the nWo champion during this and any other time he held the belt while a member of the group.
As WCW's annual pay-per-view Fall Brawl was drawing closer, WCW was preparing their team to fight at Fall Brawl 1996: War Games against the nWo. On September 9, the nWo tricked fans and wrestlers into thinking that Sting had joined the nWo (in reality WCW put Jeff Farmer, who had wrestled for the company as Cobra one year prior, into the Sting facepaint). Although Sting had not joined the nWo, many of his fellow WCW wrestlers doubted his story and believed that he had in fact jumped ship. Even Lex Luger, his longtime ally, friend and tag team partner, doubted his alliance and pointedly told Sting that he didn't believe he was with WCW. This came to a head at Fall Brawl. Going into the match only three wrestlers on each side had been officially named- Hogan and the Outsiders were to fight for the nWo and Luger, Arn Anderson, and Ric Flair for WCW. The last man out for team nWo was indeed the fake Sting, who apparently had convinced everyone (including the broadcast team) that the real Sting was nWo. However, Sting showed up as the last man for Team WCW and began taking apart the four members of the nWo by himself. After assaulting Hogan, Hall, Nash, and the bogus Sting, Sting walked over to Luger, shoved him, and said, "Is that good enough for ya?" Sting then left the ring and Team WCW, now fighting a 4-on-3 handicap match, lost when the nWo Sting locked Luger in the Scorpion Death Lock while Hogan executed a rear chinlock. The next night on Nitro, an angry Sting laid into his fellow wrestlers as well as the fans for doubting his true colors. Sting said he was no longer going to help WCW in its battle with the nWo, declaring himself a "free agent". He then told his doubters to "stick it" and left the ring in the beginning of a dramatic character shift and a fifteen-month retreat from the ring.
During this time the faction began introducing new members. Ted DiBiase was introduced as the man who was "financing" the nWo on August 16 (since this was implied as a continuation of DiBiase's "Million Dollar Man" gimmick in the WWF and the WWF had copyrighted the name, DiBiase was referred to as "Trillionaire Ted" on air). The Giant became the first WCW defector when he joined the nWo on September 2. Two weeks following that Sean Waltman, who had recently left the WWF where he starred as "The 1-2-3 Kid", debuted in WCW as "Syxx", the group's cruiserweight contender.[5] In October the nWo debuted Vincent, who had previously been DiBiase's manservant in the WWF as "Virgil", as its "head of security".[1] Referee Nick Patrick became the group's official referee after he began showing partiality to nWo members during their matches. The nWo continued to dominate WCW, with Hogan successfully retaining his "nWo" World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Savage and Hall and Nash winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) at Halloween Havoc 1996.
As WCW only recognized Hogan, Nash, and Hall as WCW employees due to their holding WCW titles, the other nWo members went unrecognized as WCW employees. Because of this, they were unable to wrestle other WCW wrestlers, which led to the nWo starting a segment on WCW Saturday Night, called nWo Saturday Night, where nWo stable members wrestled jobbers in an empty arena.[4] The nWo used their financing to purchase ad time during WCW programming, which amounted to low budget anti-WCW propaganda. They would also hijack the broadcast signal on occasion. While all of this was going on, the nWo began gaining more and more power.
In October at Halloween Havoc, Roddy Piper made his WCW debut and immediately went after Hogan. For the next several weeks Piper pressed Eric Bischoff to give him a match against Hogan. However, a contract was never agreed to and Piper grew restless as the weeks wore on. The entire situation came to a head at the end of the November 18 edition of Nitro in The Ice Palace in Tampa Bay, Florida. Bischoff, who was still Nitro's lead broadcaster and who had continued to rail against the nWo, went into the ring on air and claimed that he and WCW management had gone to Piper's home in Portland, Oregon to try and negotiate a contract with him and his representatives for a match against Hogan. Bischoff also claimed that Piper was not in the building but swore he'd work with him to get the match signed. An irate Piper had finally had enough and stormed to the ring while Bischoff was talking, to the surprise of the WCW Executive Vice President. He immediately called Bischoff a liar and began berating him with questions that Bischoff had no answers for. While Piper was asking his questions, The Giant ran down to the ring and grabbed Piper. Syxx, Hall, Nash, and Vincent followed and each tried to hold Piper back from attacking Bischoff. Hogan and DiBiase then entered the ring, with Hogan walking over to Bischoff and hugging him. Hogan then took the microphone from Bischoff and revealed to the crowd that WCW's Executive Vice President had been working for the nWo all along.
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Bischoff and Hogan eventually got Piper to sign the contract at World War 3 six days later (November 24), but the signing did not come without an nWo attack. Nevertheless, Piper and Hogan were booked for a match at Starrcade in December. The next night on Nitro, Bischoff permanently left the broadcast booth and became a egomaniacal tyrant as WCW Executive Vice President as well as a manager-type figure within the nWo. At the top of the program, Bischoff issued an ultimatum to the WCW locker room. They were given thirty days to have their WCW contracts switched over to nWo contracts and join the group. Anyone who failed to comply would become a target of the group, as Bischoff plainly stated at the end of his speech: "Either you're with us, or you're against us."
Almost immediately after Bischoff said that, the American Males headed to the ring. The team of Scotty Riggs and Marcus Bagwell, who had won the WCW World Tag Team Championship in September 1995 but had largely floundered since, had been having some friction over the previous weeks that came to a head when Bagwell attacked his tag team partner out of frustration after being eliminated from the World War 3 battle royal the night before. Bagwell and Riggs were debating over whether or not to join the nWo, with Bagwell wanting to and Riggs pleading with his partner not to. Bagwell did not listen and was immediately accepted into the nWo, then joined the rest of the group in an attack on Riggs. Upon his induction into the group Bagwell changed his look and became known as "Buff" Bagwell, playing off his muscular physique. Others who joined the nWo were Mr. Wallstreet on December 9, Big Bubba Rogers and Scott Norton on the December 16 episode of Nitro. Japanese wrestler Masahiro Chono also joined the group on December 16 and established himself as the leader of nWo Japan, a sister stable in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
The Giant won a 60-man battle royal at World War 3 1996, earning a title match against Hogan. At Starrcade 1996, Piper defeated Hogan in a non-title match. The next night on the December 29 episode of Nitro, The Giant was kicked out of the nWo when he refused to choke slam Piper in an nWo assault. At the same event, they stole Eddie Guerrero's newly won United States title belt; Guerrero constantly feuded with mid-card nWo members such as Scott Norton and Syxx.
Toward the end of the year, on an episode of Nitro, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash introduced Kyle Petty from NASCAR as an honorary member of the group, as Petty drove the nWo race car on the Busch Series circuit (Petty had been previously involved in an angle with Jim Crockett Promotions, the predecessor of WCW, as a "judge" in the "Million Dollar Match" between Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair at Starrcade 1984 that featured Joe Frazier as referee for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship). An angle was run where the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) "vandalized" the nWo car at a racetrack by peeling off the wrap (NASCAR teams often use vinyl wrap to cover a car instead of painting the car; multiple schemes printed on vinyl similar to decals are positioned, and each may be peeled off to show another scheme for another race), kayfabe scaring off Petty and replacing him with Steve Grissom. In reality, the deal with Dan Shaver Racing had two drivers driving in selected races each. As part of the angle, Grissom's races carried the WCW paint scheme and Petty's an nWo paint scheme.




1997


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At the start of 1997, nWo had become so powerful that they had their own pay-per-view event, titled Souled Out. Hogan and The Giant fought to a no contest in the main event due to the nWo referee, Nick Patrick, being biased in the match. U.S. champion Eddie Guerrero retained his title against Syxx in a ladder match. Nash and Hall lost their WCW World Tag Team Championship to the Steiner Brothers at Souled Out, but were re-awarded the titles the next night on Nitro after Bischoff claimed that Randy Anderson, who ran in to officiate after Nick Patrick was knocked down, was not an official referee for Souled Out; Bischoff also fired Anderson from his refereeing position for his actions. The nWo went 4-1 in the remaining matches on the card, with the only loss suffered by Mr. Wallstreet in his match against Jeff Jarrett.
At SuperBrawl VII, Piper wrestled Hogan for the title in a losing effort. This match marked the first time (and one of the few times) that Hogan had successfully pinned Piper. Randy Savage, who had recently returned and was at ringside for the match, helped Hogan win the match by slipping him brass knuckles which Hogan then used to knock Piper out. Savage then participated in a postmatch beatdown of the fallen Piper, cementing his place in the nWo. Earlier that night, The Outsiders lost their titles to Lex Luger and The Giant, while Syxx defeated Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. The next night, Bischoff returned the tag team titles to The Outsiders, as Luger had been injured and was not cleared to wrestle in the match. Luger, however, would not immediately give Bischoff the belt back and instead issued a challenge for a "winner-take-all" tag team match at Uncensored, which Bischoff accepted. Two weeks later, on the March 3 edition of Nitro, Turner Sports president Harvey Schiller suspended Bischoff for his abuse of his office. Around that same time, NBA star Dennis Rodman became a member of the nWo.
Luger's challenge turned into a three team elimination match at Uncensored. He was on Team WCW with The Giant and the Steiner Brothers. Team nWo consisted of Hogan, the Outsiders, and Randy Savage. A third team was headed by Roddy Piper, who was still angry over his loss to Hogan at SuperBrawl, and consisted of Piper and three of the Four Horsemen- Steve McMichael, Jeff Jarrett, and Chris Benoit. The match did not start well for Team WCW as the nWo jumped Rick Steiner backstage and left him unable to compete. The nWo eliminated every wrestler except for Luger without losing a man, but Luger rallied to eliminate Hall, Nash, and Savage. However, Savage hit Luger with a can of spray paint (given to him by Rodman) while Hogan was in the Torture Rack and Nash held the referee with his back to the action, which enabled Hogan to pin Luger and win the match for the nWo. In addition to winning, per a pre-match stipulation the nWo gained the right to challenge for any WCW championship whenever and wherever they pleased. The event, however, did end on a happy note for WCW as Sting descended from the rafters and attacked every member of Team nWo with his baseball bat and his signature move the Scorpion Deathdrop, thereby indicating his allegiance to WCW. He also set his intentions towards Hollywood Hogan and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
At Spring Stampede 1997, the tension within the nWo grew. Nick Patrick was kicked out of the group after counting Savage out in his loss to Diamond Dallas Page as Nash powerbombed him in the middle of the ring. The show ended with Savage and Bischoff at each other's throats and forcing them both to be held back by the respective members of the nWo. J.J. Dillon, who was appointed as WCW commissioner during Bischoff's suspension, later had Big Bubba and Mr. Wallstreet removed from the nWo due to a contractual technicality. Finally, Ted DiBiase quit the group months later and joined the Steiner Brothers on the August 4 episode of Nitro as their manager. In the interim, the nWo recruited The Great Muta on May 26, and Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Hiro Saito several weeks after Spring Stampede; they made occasional appearances on television due to their working for New Japan Pro Wrestling (with which WCW had a working relationship). The nWo also added Konnan, who they dubbed "K-Dogg", on July 14 after he attacked Rey Mysterio, Jr. while Kevin Nash watched.
At Bash at the Beach in July, Dennis Rodman made his wrestling debut as he teamed with Hogan to take on Luger and The Giant in a tag team match. Luger won the match for his team by forcing Hogan to submit to the Torture Rack, and earned a World Heavyweight Championship shot at Road Wild, set for August. Luger, however, elected to take his shot on the August 4 edition of Nitro, five days before the pay-per-view, and defeated Hogan to win the championship. Hogan managed to regain the title at Road Wild after Rodman, dressed up as Sting, hit Luger with a baseball bat; as the show ended the nWo celebrated in the locker room as Rodman "rechristened" the WCW championship by spray-painting the nWo logo on it.

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A War Games match was announced for Fall Brawl 1997: War Games, after the nWo mocked The Four Horsemen in a skit where they dressed as members of the group. The skit surrounded the recent addition of Curt Hennig to the Horsemen in place of a retiring Arn Anderson. The Horsemen (Ric Flair, Benoit, Hennig, and McMichael) took on Nash, Bagwell, Syxx, and Konnan and were defeated after Hennig turned on the Horsemen immediately after entering and joined the nWo; McMichael surrendered for the Horsemen to stop the nWo's assault on Flair, which proved useless as Hennig punctuated his act by slamming the cage door on Flair's head. The next night, Hennig came out wearing Flair's robe, which he gave to Hogan as a gift, and later that evening became the fourth nWo member to hold a WCW championship at the time (after Hogan, Hall, and Nash) when he defeated McMichael for his United States Championship.
Rick Rude joined the nWo on an episode of Nitro on the same night he made a pre-taped appearance on the WWF's show Raw is War. He spoke of his sympathy for Bret Hart because of the Montreal Screwjob and how he had a grudge against Sting for ending his career in a match in Japan three years earlier. Scott Hall then won a 60-man Battle Royal at World War 3 1997, and per a pre-match stipulation earned a WCW World Heavyweight Championship shot at SuperBrawl VIII scheduled for the following February.


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