Breaking Down The Myth: The NWO Saved The Wrestling Business

6. Cool Heels And Neutered Babyfaces

nWo Kevin Nash Hollywood Hogan Scott Hall
WWE.com

When looking at the landscape of wrestling here in 2020, it's often said how it's hard to be a genuinely adored babyface or a routinely booed heel. Part of this is obviously down to the wrestling business having well and truly pulled the curtain back on its inner workings, but another part of the reason for the problematic heel/babyface dynamic of today can also be traced back to the nWo.

For better or for worse, the New World Order - much like early D-Generation X - made it cool to be a bad guy.

Granted, wrestling fans may have been looking for something different, something counter-culture, and something that had a badass edge to it, but in the New World Order we got a supposed heel group that did all of this in an effortless manner which completely neutered the babyfaces they went up against.

If fans are clamouring to cheer for the antics of the nWo, why would they cheer the babyfaces that the nWo were targeting? They wouldn't, and they didn't. That in itself took the legs out from under any and all babyfaces who ran up against the initial incarnation of the nWo - so much so that, as an example, Sting had to undergo a complete character overhaul.

Randy Savage and Lex Luger were two babyfaces who fans turned on during those early nWo years, in turn seeing both Savage and Luger join the villainous faction. Likewise, Sting himself would eventually end up donning the nWo letters, as would so many others.

The only thorough babyface who didn't see his star fade thanks to the nWo, was DDP - and that was because his lone wolf 'man of the people' act was in full force by the time audiences had grown tired of the nWo.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.