5 NWO Mistakes WWE Should Avoid With Balor Club
These mistakes killed the nWo, and they could do the same to Balor Club.
With Finn Balor dropping the NXT Championship to Samoa Joe, it seems ever likely that WWE printed all of those Balor Club shirts for good reason. Finn Balor has been tweeting and instagramming hints in that direction for months now, but it wasn't until Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows left New Japan Pro Wrestling that rumours really began to grow.
Anderson and Gallows arrived on WWE TV last week by attacking the Usos, and then followed that up this week with a sneak attack on none other than WWE World Champion Roman Reigns. Reigns defends against former Bullet Club member AJ Styles at Payback, and all and sundry are no fantasy booking the formation of the Balor Club.
Let's do a bit of that ourselves, and assume the Balor Club forms next weekend. How does WWE guarantee it is a success?
One way of doing so could be by learning from history. One of the most successful factions of all time was WCW's New World Order (nWo), but that group was also largely responsible for driving Monday Nitro down the toilet.
What must WWE do to avoid the potholes that the nWo lurched to and from with gay abandon?
Here are 5 things the nWo got wrong that WWE must avoid with Balor and co...
5. Keep Their Alignment Clear
This is harder and harder to achieve in the modern day, but Balor Club must be clear in which side they stand on. The New World Order was supposed to be the heels throughout their story in WCW, but the fact that they were consistently booked to be super cool meant that people wanted to cheer them rather than the good guys they were quashing.
In 2016 this may be harder to achieve, but if Balor Club are supposed to be heels then they must be heels. This was one of the best things about The Shield during that faction's tenure. Until they took on the Wyatt Family in February 2013 it was clear that The Shield were the heels in their business. They were very cool yes, but they wore the black hat and everyone benefited in the process.
Even today, wrestling is built on good guys fighting bad guys. Balor Club needs to be clear which side they are on.