WWE Hall Of Famer Behind NWO Angle In WCW
A WWE Hall of Famer has claimed responsibility for coming up with the NWO in WCW.
The NWO was born in 1996 when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash made the decision to jump ship from WWE to WCW kickstarting the Monday Night Wars into life. The pair were eventually joined by Hulk Hogan who turned his back on the fans and the New World Order was born.
Speaking on a Q&A on AdFreeShows, former WCW announcer Larry Zbyszko claimed he was the one who pitched the idea of the NWO in WCW and even had a hand in naming the group:
“Well, to be honest with you, I’m the one that programmed the whole angle. They had a meeting in the back one day and I found out what was going on with Scott Hall coming in and they had some ideas. Then Eric looked around and said, ‘Anybody got anything to say’, and I raised my hand and he went, ‘Oh God, what?’ and I laid out a different idea.
“I programmed the whole beginning how Scott Hall came in, and then Nash and Syxx-Pac. Eric goes, ‘Oh God, your ideas are so good and I thought about mine for months, eh.’ He listened to me and I’m the one that programmed the whole beginning of the NWO and even in promos, right before it happened, they came out and I went, ‘Oh my God. There’s gonna be a New World Order in wrestling.’
“Eric heard that and it stuck in his head and said, ‘That’s a perfect name for this.’ So, you know, inadvertently I named the NWO and I programmed the whole beginning of that scenario that got to be the hottest, biggest thing in wrestling. So I really was responsible for some good sh*t in the wrestling business.”
When did the NWO join WWE?
Although the group ballooned in numbers in WCW, the original trio made their way back to WWE in February 2002, almost one year after WCW closed for good.
Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall donned the black and white together heading into WrestleMania 18 for their respective matches but the reception received by Hogan meant his time as a villain was over and the next night he left the group before returning to his classic red and yellow colour scheme.
The group limped along in WWE and at different times welcomed back X-Pac and Big Show into the fold as well as recruiting Shawn Michaels and Booker T. On July 15th, 2002, Vince McMahon officially disbanded the group before Eric Bischoff made his debut as Raw General Manager later that same night.