So this is how I would have ended the NWO…
It needed to end back in WCW, not years later in the WWE. And it should have ended long before Vince Russo ever showed up to ruin everything in WCW. The group was created by Eric Bischoff so he should have been the one to give the group their proper ending.
The overall power dynamic of the group seemed to have a natural progression that never got fully developed in my opinion. With a group that strong, it could only ever be destroyed from within, by its own members, since no other wrestlers in WCW would have ever actually been able to destroy this group. Now with the obvious exceptions of some huge moments, Sting defeating Hogan at Starcade, and Goldberg defeating Hogan on Nitro. Those moments should have been huge blows against the NWO as a whole, causing friction and blame amongst its members. However, neither should have brought an end to the group as a whole.
The natural power struggle within the group should have come from its founding members: Hogan, Hall, and Nash. When Sting finally defeated Hogan, he could have blamed his sidekicks for not defending him better against Sting, for not running in to save him. This could have led to an eventual split within the group, as they eventually had anyways, with the forming of the red and black NWO Wolfpac. What I never understood about this split was that Nash left but Hall remained in the black and white with Hogan. That was the stupidest idea in my opinion. Hall and Nash should have been inseparable. They should have left Hogan behind to form their own group when he failed to defeat Sting. Or if the time was too soon, then when he failed to defeat Goldberg. This would have further been proven effective when Nash stepped up in Hogan’s place to defeat Goldberg, ending his undefeated streak, and returning the WCW Championship back to the NWO, however, in their own version, the red and black Wolfpac.
I didn’t like that WCW wrestlers began joining the Wolfpac, especially Sting because they should have always remained on the WCW side of things. This power struggle should have just split the NWO in half, taking half of its members to the Wolfpac side. This did all seem to be happening and building to an epic feud when Hogan returned and challenged Nash for the WCW Championship, however, what we got was the epic failure known as the ‘finger poke of doom’ when Nash laid down and let Hogan pin him to win back the title. What a joke. This should have been the new year long feud between the two leaders of the NWO in the ultimate power struggle. That is what the fans wanted to see.
On a sidenote… I think another thing I would have really liked to have seen would have been a WCW Championship reign for Scott Hall. I think it's one of the worst mistakes in wrestling history that Scott Hall was never a world champion. He also never competed in a Royal Rumble match in the WWF. That is shocking. I think then Diesel was the WWF Champion, Razor Ramon should have won the Royal Rumble and challenged Diesel in the main event of WrestleMania XI which would have been amazing!
Meanwhile, I think an overlooked dynamic that should have been built up in WCW at the time should have been the idea of a successor to Hogan’s throne. It was as if Hollywood Hogan was the evil king of WCW and the Darth Vader of the NWO. But there needed to be an obvious heir to the throne, and I think this would have led to the demise of the NWO itself as Hogan would have overlooked both other founding members Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, in favour of a new member like Scott Steiner. Once he joined the NWO, Hogan should have been his biggest fan, hyping him for having the new largest arms in wrestling and being the future of the NWO, upsetting Hall and Nash.
By this point, both Hall and Nash would have won every title in WCW and been the most dominant tag team of course. Prior to his joining the NWO their greatest tag team rival would have always been the Steiner brothers, so there always would have been friction there. Now they would have friction with Scott and his new partner Buff Bagwell. They would start following in Hall and Nash’s footsteps by winning every title in WCW. Scott would start by winning the TV Championship, and together they would win the Tag Team Championships. Then Scott would win the United States Championship and pass the TV Championship down to Buff. Hogan would continuously praise them on TV as the future and biggest stars of the NWO now. So when Hall and Nash left to form the Wolfpac, they would start to feud against them.
Sidenote: If the NWO would become all consuming forcing every wrestler in WCW to join sides, Sting would most likely join the Wolfpac being against Hogan, however, I think in a surprising twist, Goldberg would join Hogan’s side because he would want revenge against Hall and Nash for ending his streak. This could have been an interesting storyline and plot twist.
Sidenote: I always thought the Wolfpac should have just dropped the letters NWO from their name and been only known as the Wolfpac, further distancing them from the group.
In the end, the feud could have naturally come to an end by having Hogan defeat Nash to win back the WCW Championship instead of the ‘finger poke of doom’ then Hall could have stepped up and challenged Hogan defeating him to later win back the WCW Championship finally giving him his world title run. Obviously Hall would have won with the help of his partner Nash, but the stipulation of the match would have been that the winner was ultimately named the new leader of the NWO. So with this win, Scott Hall would have taken the throne giving himself and Nash total control of the NWO, putting Hogan and the others out. This would have been the ultimate end of the NWO. Proving only Hall and Nash could destroy what they built and put an end to Hogan’s reign of terror.
Now this would have still led to many other feuds to follow. Mainly, Hogan in the corner of Scott Steiner who would step up to challenge Scott Hall for his WCW Championship. When Steiner won the WCW Championship he would have passed his United States Championship down to Buff like he had done in the past with his TV Championship. They would be dominating WCW at this point winning all the gold.
At this point their egos would get too big for their own good and they would feel like they didn’t need a washed up old hasbeen like Hogan anymore and they would turn on him and throw him away. This could bring things full circle with Hall and Nash coming to Hogan’s defense, eventually reuniting the old NWO originals in the end.
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