nWo: Back in Black
Released: May 28, 2002

The Program:

Three men, two companies, and one organization. They set the stage by explaining just what the nWo was supposed to mean to the wrestling business. Hulk says it was about ushering in the new generation of wrestlers (yes because of all those hungry rookies in the nWo) and Hall says what everybody knows to be the truth: making loads of cash.

Hulk Hogan History: Clips are shown of Hulk Hogan giving people legdrops and winning WWF championships in the 1980s. Then in 1994 along with many other ex-WWF superstars, he was “lured” to WCW by big fat contracts. How dare he fall for more money, less dates, and creative control over his own character?

Razor Ramon History: Hall says his dreams were finally coming true with the success he was having in the WWF. They show him beating people to win four IC titles.

Diesel History: Next, Diesel. He defeated Razor for one of those IC belts in 1994. Seven months later he would pin Bob Backlund in eight seconds in MSG to win the WWF world title. The voiceover guy gives Diesel, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, and others (HHH and Yokozuna) credit for revitalizing the WWF. No Bret Hart love back in 2002. Once again, Razor and Diesel were lured to WCW with those big fat contracts. The MSG Incident in May 1996 gets shown. Meant no harm, just wanted to say goodbye to the MSG crowd. Razor says he felt like he sold, but felt like he was doing what was best for his family.

Scott Hall on WCW Nitro 5/27/96: Hall appears coming up through the crowd and makes his famous “You know who I am, but you don’t know why I’m here” speech. He later shows up at the announce table to make a challenge to the boss Eric Bischoff.

Kevin Nash on WCW Nitro 6/10/96: Nash was the big surprise Hall had in store. He wants to know who the opponents Billionaire Ted has waiting for them. So onward to the Great American Bash. Again, they want to know who their opponents are. Bischoff says he’ll let them know the next night on Nitro. They don’t like it and POWERBOMB BISCHOFF THRU THE STAGE! On the Monday Nitro before the Bash at the Beach, the Outsiders try to interrupt the show all night long.

Bash at the Beach 7/7/96: Video montage of the Hostile Takeover match. Once everybody is knocked out, Hogan heads down for the LEGDROP HEARD ROUND THE WORLD on Randy Savage to be revealed as the super-secret third partner and officially turn heel. The whole post-turn promo gets played as well.

nWo on the Rampage: They show their first appearance together on Monday Nitro when they made Big Bubba feel special and then dumped him to the curb. Hogan shoots out a challenge to the Giant for the WCW world title at Hog Wild. Various backstage sneak attacks dished out on WCW during the summer of 1996 get shown.

Hog Wild 8/10/96 Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant: We JIP to Giant hulking up on Hollywood. After Hall and Nash interfere and take Chokeslams, Hogan blasts Giant with Jimmy Hart’s megaphone and pins Giant to win the WCW world title. Afterward, the belt gets spray painted with ‘nWo’.

Spray Paint Truck: It’s just Hulk spray painting nWo on one of the Turner semi-trucks.

The Giant Joins nWo: During an nWo attack on the Four Horsemen and the Dungeon of Doom three weeks after losing to Hogan at Hog Wild, Giant comes out to hopefully save the day when he starts giving out Chokeslams to the WCW guys. Not cool, Giant. Savage runs down with a chair, but he winds up taking a Chokeslam and gets the spray paint treatment.

nWo Attacks Ric Flair: A week before the Giant heel turn, Ric Flair got spray painted in his eyes and then on top of his hair. Pretty wild stuff. With everybody down in that main event down, the original nWo threesome pose in the ring while the crowd pelts them with trash.

Bigger Is Better?: They all agree that as they added more friends to the crew, it became watered down. Hall says the plan was to hopefully have their own TV show, so you could either watch WCW or watch the nWo. Over on WWF programming, they were getting bigger and better with top stars like the Rock, Steve Austin, and Triple H by constantly pushing themselves to the limit to be more successful than WCW.

Ric Flair’s Back!: Skip ahead to Ric Flair’s return to the WWF on November 19, 2001. When Stephanie and Shane sold their WWF shares to a consortium to buy WCW, the consortium was RIC FLAIR! WOO! He then reveals himself as a part-owner with Vince McMahon of the WWF.

Injecting Poison: Vince felt with Ric Flair assuming control of the WWF that his company had terminal cancer. He won’t let Ric Flair kill what he created! In his mind, he’s the only one who can kill the WWF. So now he’s bringing in the nWo to do it. Ric Flair tries to do the right thing to keep the nWo out by asking Vince what he needs to do. He wants Ric Flair to sell him back the stock at the price he paid for it so he can have 100% control of the company. If he does that, then Vince will call the whole nWo thing off. Of course, that isn’t what happens and the nWo show up as planned at No Way Out 2002.

nWo Poisons the Federation: In the first promo on the PPV, they change their minds about what their purpose is showing up in the WWF. They don’t want to destroy it, they want to make it better. WHAT. Hulk thanks Vince McMahon for giving them a chance to come back to the WWF. God bless Vince, God bless the people, and God bless America. Afterwards, they try to make “nice” with Stone Cold Steve Austin by offering him a six pack of cold Steveweisers. Austin takes the six-pack and throws it over his shoulder. Then they head over to hang out with the Rock. Hogan gets a picture for his son with the Rock since he’s his favorite wrestler and all. After they snap the picture, Hulk makes a smart comment trying to be funny. Big mistake. Rock makes all the nWo’s old WWF characters look retarded by taking that camera, shining it up real nice, turning it sideways, and shoving it up all their butts. Later in the show, the nWo beat up Austin and wind up costing him the match with the WWF Undisputed champion Chris Jericho. After the match, Austin gets the nWo spray paint treatment. Well, that doesn’t end up being a good idea because Austin always comes back strong to get his revenge. They show a montage of the Austin-Hall feud leading into WrestleMania x8.

nWo Destroys the Rock: Then on the other hand, there’s this feud. After Hogan agrees to the Rock’s challenge, Hulk beats Rock down with a hammer. Once he’s put in an ambulance, the nWo hijack the ambulance so that Hogan can T-BONE a semi-truck into it. Talk about a criminal offense. The level that this feud took just weeks before WrestleMania was ridiculous.

nWo Wreaks Havoc: They basically beat up people who have no chance against them like WWF crew members and Spike Dudley. This leads to the Rock coming back early to fight Scott Hall on Smackdown. The match ends up in a no-contest with a three-on-one nWo beatdown until Stone Cold Steve Austin makes the save to set up the handicap match on the Raw before WrestleMania.

WrestleMania x8 Scott Hall vs. Stone Cold: Fancy video package with Austin overcoming both Hall and Nash to pick up the win.

WrestleMania x8 Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock: Montage detailing a couple of the dramatic nearfalls in this one. Of course, just video clips can’t do this match justice like watching it in full. They do show Hulk dumping Hall and Nash and giving Rock his due after the match, which is important for our next chapter.

nWo: The Future?: This leads to Hogan saving the day for the Rock during his match with Kevin Nash on Smackdown. Just when it looks like Hulkamania had returned to glory, X-Pac shows up with a chair and lays waste to the Hulkster. Hall says it’s going to take longer to take over the WWF than it did with WCW because it’s a “stronger beast”. Okay, now for one of the only true statements Hulk has made all throughout this DVD. In short, the nWo helped wrestling turn that corner it needed in the 1990s and that’s how it’ll be remembered.

Special Features:

• Lex Luger, Sting & Randy Savage vs. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash – (WCW Bash at the Beach 1996)
  

Gene Okerlund stops the entrances and goes over to ask Hall and Nash where their third man is. Hall tells him not to worry about because he knows too much already. WE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING! Nash says they have enough to handle it right now. Luger and Hall start the match. Hall throws the toothpick, Luger pimp slaps him across the face. Hall peppers Lex with rights, but Luger fires back with a STEEL PLATED FLYING FOREARM! Luger gets dumped to the apron and runs Hall down with a clothesline, but he goes right into Nash’s arms where Nash holds him down across the steel turnbuckle connector as Sting flies in and crushes Nash and Luger with a Stinger Splash. Lex is out cold and quickly gets carried out on a stretcher. Immediately you’re thinking, ‘Alright well Lex Luger is going to be the third man. Now it all makes sense as to why he was acting like a pseudo babyface since he’s returned to WCW last September.” Once everything settles, Sting has enough of Hall slapping people around and goes ballistic on him. Savage tags in, but Hall catches him in mid-air as he tries a flying double sledge. Hall draws Sting in as Nash comes in and gives Savage the Snake Eyes. Tag to Nash, he slams Savage down and misses an elbow drop. Sting tags in and takes the knees in the corner followed by the boot choke. He whips Sting into the corner, but Sting floats over and drills Nash with a dropkick. Sunset flip fails and Nash lifts Sting up in a choke lift. Hall comes in and hits Sting with a Fallaway Slam for two. Sting continues to play *your* face in peril for a little while longer. They switch off an ab stretch and cheat like muthatruckas. Hall dumps Sting out for Nash, but Savage knows what’s about to happen and runs over to save him with a chair. Back inside, Nash hits the Side Slam for two. Sting ducks and punches on Nash, he nails Hall, and makes the leaping HOT TAG TO SAVAGE! He nails Hall with a Flying Double Ax Handle and delivers the DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER! Hall gets dumped and takes the Flying Double Ax Handle across the guardrail! Back in, Savage grabs Nash and takes a low blow. Everybody’s down. Here comes Hulk Hogan to save the day! Hall and Nash clear out of the ring in fear as Hogan rips off the shirt…and LEGDROPS Savage! He gives the Outsiders the thumbs up. Several more LEGDROPS follow. Sting and the ref both get tossed out. Hogan covers and Hall counts to three. (16:00) Doesn’t count of course – it’s a no contest. Sting drags out Savage and helps him to the back. The Ocean Center starts emptying their trash in the ring. A crazy fan gets in the ring and DECKED immediately with a forearm by Kevin Nash. Hall helps him stomp the fan out of the ring. Here comes Gene Okerlund for the infamous Hulk Hogan heel turn promo.****

Gene: Hulk Hogan? Excuse me, excuse me. What in the world are you thinking?

Hogan: ‘Mean’ Gene, the first thing you need to do is to tell these people to shut up if you want to hear what I’ve got to say.

Gene: I’ve been with you for so many years. For you to join up with the likes of these two men absolutely makes me sick to my stomach. And I think that these people here, and a lot of other people around the world, have had just about of enough of this man and this man. And you want to put yourself in this group? You’ve gotta be kidding me!

Hogan: Well, the first thing you’ve got to realize, brother, is that this right here is the future of wrestling. You can call this, the New World Order of wrestling, brother. These two men right here came from a great big organization up north and everybody was wondering who the third man was. Well who knows more about that organization than me, brother?

Gene: I’ve been there. I’ve done that. You have made the wrong decision, in my opinion.

Hogan: Well, let me tell you something. I made that organization a monster. I made people rich up there. I made the people that ran that organization rich up there, brother. And when it all came to pass, the name Hulk Hogan, the man Hulk Hogan, got bigger than the whole organization, brother. And then billionaire Ted, amigo, he wanted to talk turkey with Hulk Hogan. Well, billionaire Ted promised me movies, brother. Billionaire Ted promised me millions of dollars and billionaire Ted promised me world caliber matches. And as far as Billionaire Ted, Eric Bischoff, and the whole WCW goes, I’m bored, brother. That’s why these two guys here, the so-called Outsiders, these are the men I want as my friends. They’re the new blood of professional wrestling, brother. And not only are we going to take over the whole wrestling business, with Hulk Hogan, and the new blood, the monsters with me. We will destroy everything in our path, Mean Gene.

Gene: Look at all of this crap in this ring. This is what’s in the future for you, if you want to hang around the likes of this man, Hall, and this man, Nash.

Hulk Hogan: As far as I’m concerned, all of this crap in the ring represents these fans out here. For two years, brother, for two years, I held my head high. I did everything for the charities. I did everything for the kids. And the reception I got when I came out here? You fans can stick it, brother. Because…and if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, you people wouldn’t be here. And if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would be still selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis. And if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan, all of these “Johnny-come-lately’s” that you see out here wrestling wouldn’t be here. I was selling out the world, brother, while they were bumming gas to put in their car to get to high school. So the way it is now, brother, with Hulk Hogan and the new world organization of wrestling, brother, me and the new blood by my side. Whatcha gonna do when the new world order runs wild on you? Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do?

And Tony Schiavone closes us out with this: For Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan, for Dusty Rhodes, Gene Okerlund, I don’t know, I’m Tony Schiavone…Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell…we’re out of here…straight to hell.

The third man was rumored to be anybody from Bret Hart, Jeff Jarrett, Lex Luger, Sting, and of all people, Mabel. I don’t say this much, but thank God it was Hulk Hogan.

• Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall & ??? (w/Ted DiBiase) vs. Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson & Sting – Wargames Cage Match (WCW Fall Brawl 1996)
  

On the Nitro prior to Fall Brawl, the nWo had everyone thinking that Sting had joined their crew by having what we thought was him join in on a backstage Lex Luger beatdown. Wild stuff and this was quite the intriguing scenario leading into Fall Brawl where Sting is supposed to be on WCW’s team to compete in Wargames. Onto the match, Scott Hall and perennial Wargames starter Arn Anderson begins the match. If I know anything about Wargames and I’ve seen a good chunk of them, it should have been Arn ripping into Hall like a monkey on a cupcake for five minutes, but instead the action goes back and forth. More Hall than Arn though. When Arn was in control, Bobby Heenan channels the spirit of David Crockett. WHIP HIM! WHIP LIKE A DOG! I love it. Arn hits the Spinebuster and my hometown of Winston-Salem erupts. Arn grabs a half crab and makes a big mistake by turning his back away from the entrance. The nWo naturally wins the coin toss since they’re the heels. Here comes Kevin Nash. Arn decks him real good, but Hall grabs hold of Arn as Nash catches him with a Big Boot. After two minutes of roughhousing, Lex Luger runs down ahead of the two-minute period and starts kicking butt with clotheslines while Arn regroups. Luger doesn’t need the steel cage – he’s got steel-plated forearms! Once the odds overwhelm Lex, Arn makes the save and hits a DDT on Nash! Hollywood Hogan joins the match. While Hall and Nash are down, Luger and AA enjoy a few moments of double-teaming Hogan in the corner. With the odds against Luger and Arn, it’s only a matter of time before the nWo start dishing out the beating again. Ric Flair evens the teams and dares Hogan to join him alone in the other ring! Hogan gets a shot in, but Flair ducks a big right hand and fires back. Out comes the taped knux! Down goes Hogan! Hall and Nash try to save their leader and both receive low blows. YES. Flair grabs a FIGURE-FOUR on Hogan, Hall takes a bunch of atomic drops from Luger, and AA has Nash being choked down in the corner. AWESOME. Well, I believe Cobra is a little off cue here. The Fake Sting finally arrives and he looks like Sting if you don’t, umm, look at him in the face. But then you watch him WRESTLE and it’s clearly not Sting at all. The crowd starts chanting “We want Sting!” Oh, WCW. The nWo foursome continue to destroy Arn, Lex, and Flair until the REAL Sting sprints down the aisle and into the ring. Tony, Bobby, and Dusty all admit they were wrong as Sting lays the smackdown on the entire nWo while Lex, Arn, and Flair stand back in disbelief. Once Sting is done dishing out the Stinger Splashes to everyone, he gives them the universal “up yours” sign to his team and leaves. Well, it’s over now. The Fake Sting and Hogan concentrate on Luger in one ring while Hall and Nash keep Flair and AA in the other ring. Fake Sting grabs a SCORPION DEATHLOCK while Hogan pulls up on Luger’s chin until he passes out to give the nWo the victory. (18:15) After the cage is lifted up, the nWo continue to destroy Luger in the aisleway as he tries to crawl to find Sting. Quite the dramatic moment for a wrestling match. Flair and AA try to save, but it’s Randy Savage who shows up and takes Hogan back into the ring. As Hogan cowers into the corner, the Giant grabs Savage from behind and turns him around for a CHOKESLAM. Not sure what happened to AA and Flair, but Hall, Nash, and DiBiase join Hogan and Giant in the ring to humiliate Savage some more. Elizabeth, who I don’t believe was really on good terms with Savage in storyline terms, comes down to try and stop the nWo. They’re all unimpressed, so while Liz lays on top of Savage, she gets the nWo letters sprayed on the back of her dress. Hogan gets on the mic and berates both of them for not being able to commit to their wedding vows. OUCH. Giant grabs the spray can and does the honors all over Savage’s back. While the booking was a tad off, the final Wargames match that anyone could call *great* in WCW. And because of the booking, I’m going to have to knock this down a peg from **** to ***½.

• WCW World Heavyweight Champion Bill Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash – No DQ Match (WCW Starrcade 1998)
  

And like all good things, it must come to an end. Both guys take turns showing off how popular they are. By crowd reaction alone, Goldberg wins by a long shot. Strong tie-up finds Nash in the corner. Goldberg manages a back suplex to escape a headlock and Nash rolls out. Back in, Nash pounds Goldberg into the corner and delivers his famous knees and elbows. Goldberg pushes the BOOT CHOKE away and grabs a kneebar, but Nash makes the ropes. Nash gets knocked on his butt and pulls Goldberg into the corner. Goldberg ducks the Big Boot and comes back around to hit Nash with the Spear! He grabs Nash for the Jackhammer, but he uppercuts the balls. Nash gets the Side Slam for two. He follows up with the Bossman Straddle for another nearfall. Short-arm clotheslines gets two. Goldberg counters the suplex with a spinning neckbreaker. Double-arm suplex sets up a reverse kick. Powerslam off the shoulder gets two. Here comes Disco Inferno. Spear to Disco. Bam Bam Bigelow runs in and attacks Goldberg, but he takes a clothesline out to the floor. As Goldberg sets up for a Spear on Nash, Scott Hall dressed in a security shirt jabs a cattle prod in Goldberg’s chest! See ya later, Scott. With Goldberg “stunned”, Nash easily delivers the JACKKNIFE POWERBOMB for the 1-2-3. (11:20) The streak is over and Nash wins his first WCW world title. **½

nWo 4 Life: Apocalyptic-style promo to hype the new World order entering the WWF at the No Way Out 2002 PPV.

nWo Poison: Another new World order promo video made up of mostly Hog Wild 1996 clips when Hollywood Hogan won and spray painted ‘nWo’ on the WCW world title.

• The Rock & Steve Austin vs. Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall & Kevin Nash – (WWF Raw, 3/11/02)
  

This is just three weeks after Rock was literally plowed by a semi-truck while he was injured inside of an ambulance. What resilience! It’s got to be supplements or something. I need to get on some of that. Obviously, Rock is a HOUSE OF FIRE to start. Nash nails him from the apron though and that causes Rock to go down. Nash tags in and hits a Side Slam for two. Snake Eyes follows and now that Rock’s down, Hogan wants a tag. He wears out Rock with a running clothesline and a barrage of punches. Tag to Hall, Rock fights out of the corner and tags Austin. He takes out everybody and hits the Lou Thesz Press on Nash. Spinebuster to Hall and Austin whips him into Nash to set up a staggering double-clothesline. Nash fights back with a Big Boot and tags in Austin’s WrestleMania x8 adversary. Hall hits the Fallaway Slam for two. Back to Nash, Austin stops his silly hotdog moves in the corner with right hands. Knee to the gut stops Austin though. Hogan gets a tag and now we have witnessed WWF history as the two biggest draws ever collide for just a few moments. Hall and Nash go back to doing the work. RAZOR’S EDGE attempt, but Austin backdrops him away and goes for the STONE COLD STUNNER. Hall shoves him off into Nash, but still manages to cut off Austin with a clothesline. HOT TAG TO ROCK! He lays the smackdown on Nash and hits a DDT on Hall. Still being outnumbered, Nash nails Rock with a clothesline. Tag to Hogan! He’s super confident with Rock laid out on his back, but Rock KIPS UP! Nash decks him from behind before he can get any payback on Hogan. Rock attempts another comeback, but this time Hall stops him with a forearm. That brings Austin in as the match breaks down. Hall and Nash double-team Austin on the floor while inside the ring, Hollywood delivers the Big Boot and the LEGDROP to Rock for the 1-2-3! (9:13) After the match, Hall and Nash save Hogan from an Austin beating by giving Austin a beating. Hall with the Stunner! Can’t believe this was a Raw main event. After WrestleMania, it could have never happened afterwards, so it had to happen when it did. It’s a huge star-studded markout affair no matter how you look at it, so the in-ring work can be pretty forgivable. Certainly not quite the atmosphere or the scale of what Rock v. Hogan meant to WrestleMania x8, but there is something really cool about this match. **

Final Thoughts: The documentary is pretty basic. As typical with WCW documentaries made by the WWE, they mention the first three months of the nWo angle and then skip ahead to the end as if there were no time between 1997 and 2000. Half of it was spent on the genesis of the nWo angle, half of the documentary was given to the 2002 run in WWE. The late 1999 nWo aren’t even mentioned, but maybe that’s for the best. If that bugs you, you might want to pass on this DVD. As for the matches, they give us the essential matches that the nWo were involved in. It’s not a challenging DVD where they really THOUGHT about the choices, but it doesn’t really have to be since this is the first WWE-produced DVD made for WCW fans and they didn’t have to worry about repeating anything. If you want all the best stuff from the nWo in place, get this one, but find it cheap! Thumbs up for nWo: Back in Black.