New World Order



"The following trope article has been paid for by the New World Order."

Did everybody come to this trope page to read about... WCW? (Boos.) Or, did everybody here on TV Tropes come to read about the (in unison)"n-W-o!" Survey says: One more for the good guys!

The New World Order (abbreviated as "nWo") was a professional wrestling stable which formed at World Championship Wrestling's Bash at the Beach 1996 pay-per-view. Months prior to the show, "The Outsiders" -- Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, freshly-released by the World Wrestling Federation—terrorized WCW, threatening the company with war. The duo also said a "third man" was coming to help them, which led many fans (and even a few industry pundits) to believe Hall and Nash (Razor Ramon and Diesel in the WWF) were actually sent by the WWF to "invade" WCW—a belief which made people interested in WCW's product. During the main event of Bash at the Beach, All-American Face Hulk Hogan was revealed to be the "third man"—and in the post-match interview, Hogan (who would call himself "Hollywood" Hogan during his run with the group) labeled himself, Hall, and Nash as "the new world order of professional wrestling".

Once the nWo was established, it attacked the entire WCW roster indiscriminately, forcing faces and heels into an Enemy Mine situation to oppose the trio. The nWo soon added three new members to round out the Five-Bad Band: Ted DiBiase (implied to be the financial backer of the group), The Giant (WCW's first defector and the group's powerhouse), and Syxx (Sean "1-2-3 Kid" Waltman, who served as the group's token Cruiserweight).

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 Finger-Poke of Doom and alleged backstage politics which killed the creative direction of the product). After a split into the "Hollywood" and "Wolfpac" groups, and a "reunion" of the two groups (following the Fingerpoke Of Doom), the group slowly faded away from WCW programming as the company's fortunes began to turn south. A final attempt at reviving the group in 2000, but this attempt failed, and WCW was driven out of business in early 2001.

The original nWo triumvirate of Hogan, Hall, and Nash were brought back as the nWo in February 2002—this time by Vince McMahon, who sought to destroy the WWF when he saw what his own creation had become in the hands of Ric Flair (who, in kayfabe, was co-owner of the company). The return of Hogan to the WWF as part of the nWo resulted in a legitimate dream match -- The Rock vs. "Hollywood" Hogan at WrestleMania 18—but an injury to Kevin Nash in July (during a ten-man tag team match on Raw) caused the nWo angle to be dropped in its entirety practically the next week.

After Hulk Hogan arrived in TNA in early 2010, Hall and Waltman (the latter of which had gained notoriety as X-Pac in the intervening years) formed "The Band" and tried to associate themselves with Nash, Hogan, and former WCW President/nWo supporter Eric Bischoff. Hogan and Bischoff wanted little to do with them, and while the duo turned on Nash shortly after, they would later bring Nash into the group as a swerve on Eric Young—and then Young joined them just weeks later (giving him Stockholm Syndrome in the process). This nWo variant fizzled out as well when Hall's personal demons caught up with him again and both Nash and Waltman disappeared from TNA programming.

The nWo should not be confused with the infamous conspiracy theory.

"Hall: Who's here to see... dubya-cee-dubya? crowd cheers Hall: And who's here to see the nWo? crowd boos Hall: That's another one for the good guys!"
 * A House Divided: The group initially capitalized on this in their battle with WCW wrestlers, sowing the seeds of doubt as to who was in the group and who wasn't to keep everyone paranoid and off their game; eventually, the nWo themselves fell victim to this...
 * In 1998, the nWo split with the Wolfpac, lead by Kevin Nash and wearing black and red, turning face, and nWo Hollywood, lead by Hogan and wearing the traditional black and white, staying heel.
 * The nWo and Wolfpac re-merged as a heel faction, with the big names wearing black and red and the "nWo b-team" relegated to black and white.
 * Around 2000ish, the nWo reformed with a different lineup, this time in black and silver.
 * Black Dude Dies First: Well, it's not a literally fatal example, but Vincent was always the first guy to get Scorpion Deathdropped by Sting whenever he cleaned house of the nWo. (Sometimes, they fed Vincent to him which allowed everyone else to get away).
 * However, Vincent became Genre Savvy shortly after the nWo Reunification: The boys gave him a task that would no doubt end in an asskicking, and Vincent separately went to "Wolfpac-wannabe" Disco Inferno and said they wanted him to do it. (With predictable results). Vincent was very pleased to avoid it for once.
 * Catch Phrase: "When you're nWo, you're nWo 4 Life!" Or, at least until you get kicked out.
 * "... just... 2... SWEEEEEET!"
 * Scott Hall had his own routine:

"Kevin Nash: Cue the porno music!"
 * Celebrity Star / The Cameo: Adding to the roster of an already massive nWo roster total (see Loads and Loads of Characters below), there were 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 pro-basketball player Dennis Rodman, NASCAR racer Kyle Petty and actors Grace Jones and Robert Vaughn 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".
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
 * Dirty Coward: All the heel members, but Hogan in 1997 especially, as he hid behind everything and everyone he could to keep from having a match with Sting.
 * Ear Worm: The nWo, Wolfpac, and nWo Japan themes.


 * Face Heel Turn: Hogan's infamous turn triggered the beginning of the group.
 * And many more followed.
 * Finger-Poke of Doom: The Trope Namer.
 * 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, up to and excluding Evolution, would never have existed but for the overwhelming influence of the nWo. This includes the Hart Foundation, D-Generation X, the Nation of Domination, the Corporation, the Ministry of Darkness, and quite a few others.
 * 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 was that they couldn't sue us because of Parody").
 * WWE fired back with D-Generation X, which lasted until 2010 despite being down to only two members at one point.
 * Japan got in on the action with the Demon Monster Planet (dMp).
 * WCW even made copies, with the Latino World Order and Ultimate Warrior's One Warrior Nation (OWN), while New Japan Pro Wrestling exploited their partnership with WCW to form nWo Japan (many of whose members even appeared in WCW under that name).
 * Fans of Botchamania are said to be part of the uMo (the nWo logo turned upside down), the "United Maffew Order".
 * Face Heel Turn: Got used for a large portion of the changes. Of special note is The Giant's turn, which came about a month after he turned face in the first place. A completely by-default Heel Face Turn, where he was really only considered a face because he was representing WCW against the nWo. One might say he didn't so much turn as the company turned around him.
 * Five-Bad Band: Initially before the group's expansion
 * Big Bad: Hulk Hogan
 * Co-Dragons: Kevin Nash and Scott Hall
 * The Evil Genius: Ted DiBiase
 * The Brute: The Giant
 * The Dark Chick: Sean Waltman as Syxx
 * Hostile Show Takeover
 * Kick the Dog: Firing fair referees and stripping dissenting wrestlers of titles at will for not following their agenda (especially early on), people turning against friends more than ever before in the name of the group, the incessant verbal taunting during gang beatdowns courtesy of Eric Bischoff, oh yeah, they qualify.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: The original nWo black and white alone had - Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, nWo Sting (Jeff Farmer), The Giant, Syxx, Vincent, Buff Bagwell, Michael Wallstreet, Big Bubba Rogers, Scott Norton, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Konnan, Curt Hennig, Scott Steiner, Louie Spicolli (unoficially), Brian Adams and The Disciple. Including part-time and non-wrestlers, Ted DiBiase, Eric Bischoff, Rick Rude, Miss Elizabeth, Dusty Rhodes, Masahiro Chono, The Great Muta, Dennis Rodman, Nick Patrick (referee) and Kyle Petty (the nWo racecar driver).
 * nWo Japan had, in addition to Chono and Muta who were considered official members of the nWo proper, Hiro Saito, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Tatsutoshi Goto, Michiyoshi Ohara, and Big Titan, with some WCW nWo wrestlers making regular appearances with them. Fun fact: With Big Titan's membership in nWo Japan, this means that there were two entirely separate members of the nWo who were both known as Razor Ramon in the WWF.
 * During the split between the Wolfpac and nWo Hollywood, Lex Luger and Sting (the real one) joined The Wolfpac. Stevie Ray and Horace Hogan would join nWo Hollywood. Bret Hart would align himself with Hollywood Hogan, but never officially joined the group during this time.
 * During the "nWo Reunion", David Flair, Disco Inferno (unofficially) and Torrie Wilson joined the nWo.
 * During the final iteration, nWo silver, Bret Hart, Jeff Jarrett, and the Harris Brothers (Ron and Don) joined, as did Scott Steiner's valet Midajah, and Mark "Slick" Johnson, a partial referee.
 * The WWE iteration added Shawn Michaels and Booker T. to the stable.
 * Obfuscating Disability: Scott Steiner.
 * Popularity Power
 * Power Stable: Let's see. A stable that radically changed the landscape of professional wrestling, blurred the lines between kayfabe and reality, and brought about the biggest success of both its parent company and the professional wrestling industry as a whole? Yeah, I'd say they qualify.
 * Power Trio: The very first line-up.
 * Putting the Band Back Together: This was attempted several times, with the last real attempt happening in WWE in 2002 (since they owned the nWo trademarks); TNA would literally put "The Band" back together in 2010, as Hall, Nash, Hogan, Sean Waltman, and Eric Bischoff (the principal players of the nWo) were all in the company in the early months of the year.
 * Redshirt Army: The "B-Team" with Horace Hogan, Vincent and the other crappy jobber members of the squad. If someone from the nWo lost regularly, chances are it'd be one of them.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": It's "nWo", not "NWO", "Nwo" or "N.W.O."
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The group came to dominate a ridiculous portion of WCW programming, to the point where they almost could have run a full show with just their own guys; they even put on an "unauthorized" Pay-Per-View based around that fact.
 * Well, not ALL their own guys, but rather with nothing but nWo vs. WCW matches.
 * It should be noted neither the PPV or the nWo Nitro they ran did very well at all.
 * The Man Behind the Man: Vince McMahon brought the nWo into WWE, and later disbanded the group permanently when they were no longer useful to him. Hilarious in Hindsight when you considered that in the early days for the group in WCW it was implied that Vince sent them to destroy WCW from within, though eventually it was established that Vince did not send them.
 * What Could Have Been: Davey Boy Smith was originally intended to be a member of the nWo during its early days as a stable of elite invaders, but possibly for that reason Vince McMahon refused to let him leave the WWF.
 * Before the angle even began, Bret Hart was approached about jumping ship to WCW to be the third member, but he said he was comfortable where he was. This inadvertently set into motion events that culminated with the Montreal Screwjob.
 * Sting was considered to be the one to pull a Face Heel Turn, but Steve Borden doesn't like playing a heel. He would eventually become an nWo member when he joined the Wolfpac.
 * In the WWE iteration, there was the beginnings of a storyline involving Triple H being approached to join them. It would have marked the first time that Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H had worked for the same company since 1995, and could have given the original nWo and DX a run for their money in the entertainment department. Unfortunately, Kevin Nash's quad tear put a stop to the angle, and Triple H quickly turned heel on Michaels again.

"The preceding trope article has been paid for by the New World Order."