The Complete History Of The New World Order | Wrestling Timelines
November 18, 1996 - Dimming The Rose-Tinted View
The prevailing narrative, in the years to come, is that the nWo was a great time for two years - but even in 1996, this is questioned.
In a letter to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, subscriber Lance LeVine writes the following:
“Week after week we see Hogan and his cronies laying to waste the faces as well as the heels for that matter. Nobody could possibly believe that anybody in WCW stands a chance against the nWo at this point. The original concept is a solid one. The interpromotional feud. But in typical WCW fashion, its execution has been completely botched.”
Does the one-sided nature of the WCW Vs. nWo feud explain the imminent disaster of January 1997?
December 29, 1996 - The Roddy Piper Business
Roddy Piper has a run in WCW that can only be described as drastically uneven, ranging from the very best (realistic) version of itself to some of the worst pro wrestling TV and action ever.
Piper’s delivery is incredible, the contents of the promos inscrutable. He is broken-down to a bleak extent, but it so charismatic that, early on, the fans go banana for him anyway.
He beats Hogan at Starrcade in a great, albeit arthritic, spectacle. The title isn’t on the line, which is beyond nonsensical, but alas. The fans cheer Piper over the nWo - emphatically. The build is great; Piper is effectively promoted as a living legend via brilliant, ardent endorsements from Ric Flair and Arn Anderson.
The Piper run will get downright weird and embarrassing.
Ahead of Uncensored ‘97, at which Piper and Hogan renew hostilities, Piper visits Alcatraz prison to train in an infamously lame vignette. Then, before abandoning them for the Four Horsemen in less than a week, Piper tests and fights a strange cadre of wrestlers to join his very quickly estranged ‘Family’ - which is the least relevant word for that non-stable imaginable.
At Halloween Havoc ‘97, as WCW opts to rehash Hogan Vs. Piper yet again, they participate in what becomes known as ‘Age In The Cage’. The men are just 44 and 43, respectively, but this is ancient for the era, and the characters have hung around forever.
The action is awful, the WrestleMania 1 novelty is dead, and the match highlights the year-on-year decline in the quality of creative.