How Good Was Kevin Nash Actually?

Kevin Nash's run as Diesel in WWE is something that's held against him to this day. After debuting in June 1993, he skyrocketed into the big leagues during a blockbuster 1994 in which he won the Intercontinental Championship, the Tag Team Titles, and finally the WWE Championship after breaking away from Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1994. It's from here on out that his matches, rivalries, and overall run with the WWE Title are used as a stick to beat him with.

Despite their friendship, Shawn Michaels seemed determined to make an ass of Nash in their WrestleMania 11 match. Michaels fully went into business for himself and made Diesel look sluggish in their match, taking one of the worst Jackknife Powerbombs of Nash's career, and turning himself babyface in the process. Diesel retained his championship, but Michaels' selfish actions did nothing to help his friend or WWE's faltering business. Subsequent feuds with Sycho Sid and King Mabel were uninspiring, and Nash's failure to create great drama or money around his feuds and the WWE Title is often cited as one of the leading reasons the WWE's New Generation failed.

Diesel's last big feud and match with The Undertaker around WrestleMania 12 fared much better, but it was in WCW that Kevin Nash would prove that he was much better at creating stories than his time as WWE Champion suggested. He waged war on WCW itself, and the nWo vs. WCW as a concept was as great as history suggests.

After Nash and Hall recruited Hulk Hogan for their hostile takeover of WCW, The Outsiders went on to have a brilliant feud with The Steiner Brothers for the company's Tag Team Titles. The Steiners are an all-time great tag team who were cornerstones of WCW. Their matches were thrilling, and it really helped the perception that the nWo were here to divide and conquer at the highest level when they were sticking it to a pair of WCW legends.

As was so often the case, WCW's booking must take the fall for dropping the ball on potentially great feuds.  The feud Nash had with Goldberg leading into Starrcade '98 was blurred by Bam Bam Bigelow's involvement. Nash had won the World War 3 Battle Royale and was at the height of his WCW popularity. Throwing Bam Bam into the mix as a third party, when Goldberg's undefeated streak and Nash's legacy had all the ingredients to make this feel enormous, was a misfire that diluted a potentially era-defining feud.

The biggest travesty is that we never got to see a big PPV match between Nash and Hollywood Hogan when the red and black and nWo Hollywood went to war. Kevin Nash started The Wolfpac due to backstage problems with Hulk Hogan and turned it into gold. His squad was red hot, Nash was their fearless leader, and Hollywood was the company's ever-looming big bad. Hogan's backstage politicking and creative control contract probably got in the way, but Hogan and Nash had created a whirlwind of intrigue, and to not build to a pay-off match was a crime. The reason this didn't happen was because of one of wrestling's biggest disasters (as we're about to cover).

Kevin Nash feuded with Triple H in his only significant rivalry when returning to WWE, and that was a bit of a dud. Couple this with his feud with CM Punk being best remembered for a line about how the public thought he was dead (lol), and Nash's history with rivalries is a real mixed bag.

5/10