World Championship Wrestling

:There was also a World Championship Wrestling circuit in Australia from 1964 to 1978. This article is about the U.S. promotion.

WCW vs. nWo

Everything changed in 1996, when WCW became the hottest promotion in North America. It did this with the groundbreaking WCW vs. nWo storyline that was masterminded by Bischoff. It was based on an idea of two warring promotions that he had seen in Japan. The storyline kicked off with Scott Hall, who was recently seen on WWF TV as Razor Ramon, walking into the ring unexpectedly during the middle of a match, 'declaring war' on WCW. At the end of a Nitro episode a few weeks later, he was joined by Kevin Nash, another former WWF wrestler who was recently seen on WWF TV as Diesel. The two wrestlers named themselves "The Outsiders" and sent out a challenge to any three wrestlers on the WCW roster, against them, and their mystery partner. Many wrestling fans were confused, thinking that Hall and Nash were still WWF wrestlers. McMahon himself took notice and said during a Raw telecast that they were no longer WWF wrestlers. Hall and Nash's attitude and similarities to their WWF characters also sparked a copyright infringement lawsuit against WCW by the WWF.

Related Topics:
NWo - Scott Hall - Kevin Nash

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At Bash At The Beach '96, Sting, Lex Luger, and "Macho Man" Randy Savage took on The Outsiders but the third man never showed up for the Outsider team. When Hall and Nash began to get the upper hand, Hulk Hogan ran in to seemingly make the save for Team WCW. Hogan threatened The Outsiders but turned around and dropped his patented legdrop finishing move on Savage instead. The fans and the announcers went crazy wondering what was going on. Hogan had shockingly "defected" from WCW to The Outsiders. In his post-match speech, Hogan revealed that he, Hall and Nash were the "New World Order of professional wrestling." The crowd was so incensed by Hogan's turn that many of them threw garbage at the ring, and within minutes it was literally covered with refuse. Bischoff was ecstatic, knowing that this meant the crowd was truly shocked by Hogan finally turning heel after years as a babyface.

Related Topics:
Post-match speech - Turn - Heel - Babyface

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Hogan, as a bad guy, leading the (fictional) nWo (or New World Order) faction in their attempt to "take over" WCW and run the WWF out of business was a compelling and original storyline. Fueled by this new scenario, WCW Monday Nitro managed a string of wins against WWF Raw that lasted from June 10, 1996 to April 1998, and included a popular feud between nWo leader Hulk Hogan and WCW leader Sting.

Related Topics:
Faction - June 10 - 1996 - April - 1998

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In late 1997, Bischoff even went as far as attempting to rebrand Nitro as nWo Nitro one week before their flagship PPV StarrCade.

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