Ranking Every Major Monday Night Wars Jump From WORST To BEST
1. The Outsiders
The jump, the arrival of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall illustrated—and defined—the shift in the North American landscape.
The WWF was the cartoonish, over-gimmicked, unfashionable company; WCW in contrast was the more realistic, dangerous, unmissable promotion. Re-debuting under their real names, as part of an irresistible and mysterious storyline, Nash and Hall were the hottest properties in wrestling. Hall, a vastly underrated promo man, both acknowledged the in-the-know crowd and left them hanging: “You people know who I am, but you don’t know why I’m here,” he said. It was a killer line that made changing the channel impossible. Referencing the Billionaire Ted skits without speaking in the pejorative, Hall framed himself as an interloper and spoke of a “We”. Again: changing the channel was impossible.
Nash didn’t know what an adjective was, but he knew how to win a war, unlike Adolf Hitler, whom he referenced quite bizarrely. Nitro took the lead the next week, and didn’t look back for 83 weeks.
And, in response, the WWF somehow contrived to reinforce its perception as the fake, uncool company by introducing New Razor Ramon and Diesel characters.