They are regarded by many as the greatest unit in the history of professional wrestling, but I couldn’t help but think that this thing came about a little too late.
Released in 2002, NWO Back In Black took a look back at the story of three men, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hollywood Hogan, as they took World Championship Wrestling by storm in 1996 with the formation of the coolest brigade of the nineties, the New World Order. The impact they had was incredible, and propelled the Atlanta-based promotion to unparalleled levels of success.
We get to see the story of Hall and Nash’s arrival in WCW, and Hogan’s infamous heel turn at Bash at the Beach.
However, where this collection fails is the fact that the majority of the release looks at their WWE tenure, which in comparison to their WCW tenure was quite disappointing. The sense of style and coolness was gone when they began to focus their attacks on The Rock and Steve Austin, but this may be because of the WWF’s refusal to put The Outsiders back together on a full-time basis, and Hogan only going after the WWF title after he left the group.
It’s obvious that the group’s highpoints were in Atlanta when you see the additional matches included here - the infamous Bash at the Beach tag-team match where Hogan turned on the fans, the Fall Brawl War Games bout where Sting walked out on WCW, and the Starrcade ‘98 match where Nash won the World title from Goldberg in controversial circumstances.
We get to see the story of Hall and Nash’s arrival in WCW, and Hogan’s infamous heel turn at Bash at the Beach.
However, where this collection fails is the fact that the majority of the release looks at their WWE tenure, which in comparison to their WCW tenure was quite disappointing. The sense of style and coolness was gone when they began to focus their attacks on The Rock and Steve Austin, but this may be because of the WWF’s refusal to put The Outsiders back together on a full-time basis, and Hogan only going after the WWF title after he left the group.
It’s obvious that the group’s highpoints were in Atlanta when you see the additional matches included here - the infamous Bash at the Beach tag-team match where Hogan turned on the fans, the Fall Brawl War Games bout where Sting walked out on WCW, and the Starrcade ‘98 match where Nash won the World title from Goldberg in controversial circumstances.
In conclusion - this is a disappointing look at the NWO’s impact on the wrestling business, mainly because this is the WWE’s view of things, which means they’re hardly going to praise what the competition was doing at a time when they were losing the Monday night war. It’s also interesting when you think about the timing of this release, because a short time later, Hall was fired after another confrontation with his personal demons, Nash was on the shelf after tearing his quad while walking across the ring, and the New World Order was finally laid to rest.
And this biggest shame here is that with all the footage at it’s disposal, the WWE could release a more in-depth chronicle of the New World Order’s fortunes, and given that nostalgia in professional wrestling is big business, it would be a guaranteed best seller.
And this biggest shame here is that with all the footage at it’s disposal, the WWE could release a more in-depth chronicle of the New World Order’s fortunes, and given that nostalgia in professional wrestling is big business, it would be a guaranteed best seller.
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