If you have a razor sharp memory, you might recall that about five years ago I did a posting on the nWo (New World Order) wrestling days that I fondly recall from around 1996-1997, and I chronicled my meeting with Kevin “Diesel” Nash, as well as with Booker T. Since those five years have passed, my list of wrestler encounters have blown up exponentially, mostly thanks to three separate visits to WrestleCade in North Carolina. Among those encounters, there were a handful from that delightful era of WCW wrestling, and more specifically to this posting, that had been members of the nWo. You can click that link above to go back and read about my enjoyment of that wrestling era, but for the purposes of this posting, I’ll combine most – but not all – of the nWo encounters I’ve had over those missing years.
We’ll start off rather low-key at the WrestleCade on November 26, 2016, and by that I mean a name that most probably won’t remember: Nick Patrick. He was kind of a double whammy for me, as he not only played a role in the nWo storyline, when he became the first and only referee supposedly employed by this ‘outside’ organization, but his days also stretched all the way back to my first go-around with wrestling when he was a referee for Georgia Championship Wrestling during the early 1980’s. And for me, GCW will trump nWo any day.
That’s why when my Dad and I met him, I had him sign one of my old Ringsider programs rather than any nWo photo he might have. As you might suspect, he was a pretty nice guy, semi-retiring and enjoying the fruits of his labor. I mentioned the other sort-of-well-known referee from those Georgia days, Scrappy McGowan, and he told me that he had retired from wrestling and didn’t care to travel. But it gave me a warm fuzzy to know that Nick at least knew what had happened to good ol’ Scrappy.
I had pre-purchased my autograph ticket for a whopping $10, which included the signature and a photo with him. He also was nice enough to pose for one with my Dad, who shared the fond reminiscence of both wrestling eras as I did.
Moving on the big guns, perhaps the biggest gun outside of Kevin Nash, was his Outsiders partner Scott Hall, who had wrestled under the name Razor Ramon in the WWF, shortly before the ‘hostile takeover’ of the WCW. It was this partnership that fully gripped my attention and put me under the spell of the nWo era for a good year or so. Of course anyone who was watching at the time remembered that they had a big surprise at their first pay-per-view event when Hulk Hogan was revealed to be the third man in this new faux wrestling organization. More on him some other time…
It seemed that I had missed out meeting Scott Hall a couple of times in the past, notably earlier in the Summer when I had foregone the chance to go to the Knoxville Fanboy where he was appearing. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw him on the schedule for this event, and then another one when he actually showed up and I was standing in front of him. I had him sign that same nWo photo that I had gotten from Kevin Nash when I met him at the Chicago Wizard World in 2012 (and who also incidentally was at this event, and has in fact been at a few where I’ve seen him since). For some reason I felt the need to tell him that I had missed him Knoxville, to which he responded “well I was there.”
Scott was significantly more expensive than his cheating referee, four times more to be specific. But it was worth every penny to get his signature added to the photo, and more importantly to get a photo with the very first, original Outsider that would quickly being in Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, and the like to form the nWo. (By the way, I’d be remiss not to mention the 4th and 8th members of the nWo, Ted DiBiase and Vincent – whom you can see my encounter with here.)
One of the greatest things about the nWo was the element of surprise as you watched from afar and chose up sides and stood wide-eyed at the reveals, even knowing full well that it was all fake. And because it was fake, they were able to take it into ridiculous realms, but none was more shocking (perhaps after the big Hulk Hogan) reveal was when it was later revealed that orchestrating this whole hostile takeover was none other than the president of the WCW and chief commentator himself, Eric Bischoff. As long as you didn’t think about it to hard, it made perfect sense. Wait, no… it really didn’t. Wasn’t it Bischoff whom had actually been recently power-bombed through a table by Kevin Nash?
I was pretty stoked that Bischoff was making an appearance at this same 2016 WrestleCade, and although he was sitting a fair distance away from the headliners and didn’t have any line to speak of, I was happy to plunk down the $25 just to get a photo with him. His demeanor was much closer to the mild-mannered true blue Eric Bischoff than he later “Easy E” – or was it “Sleazy E”? – persona.
For the final two wrestlers of the posting, we’ll go back to the 2015 WrestleCade that was held on October 28. The first is Scott Steiner who took on the name “Big Poppa Pump” when he joined the nWo, and left his fellow tag-team champion brother Rick behind. He joined the nWo in February 1998 and was one of the last new recruits (along with The Disciple, otherwise known as Brutus Beefcake and a few others) before the nWo would split into two factions a few months later.
Scott Steiner and his brother Rick were face WCW tag-team champions multiple times, but Steiner’s real notoriety came when he became a villain through the nWo. He’d stay on the villainous side and join the nWo Hollywood faction, and then the nWo Elite, and even the reformed nWo 2000 led by Bret Hart and later Jeff Jarrett.
Scott was an unannounced guest at this WrestleCade, and while I was glad to meet him, his real personality seem to come down more on his villain side than the All-American he seemed during his tag team days with his brother. It was $20 to get a photo with him, and that didn’t include an autograph, small talk, or a smile. Whatever. I’d see him later at a Knoxville Fanboy and he was doing a booming business, so I guess he didn’t need any of those things.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum was our final wrestler of the posting, Marcus “Buff” Bagwell. He was the 11th member of the original nWo, joining right after the Eric Bischoff reveal. He had been wrestling in the WCW for the past five years, mostly as fan-favorite, but slightly boring, tag teams, the most notable being his partnership with The Patriot in the team Stars and Stripes, who held the WCW World Championship Tag Team belts twice. They had disbanded a little before I started watching however.
He didn’t become “Buff” until he joined the nWo and his character was delightfully full of himself, and the large top hat he wore made his impishness all the more hate-able, even if totally laughable. The real guy however was as nice as can be, and the deal he and his handler were offering was one of the best I’d seen anywhere in years. After just having walked away from Scott Steiner and given him $20 to get a photo with him, Mr. Bagwell offered two signed photos, a DVD of his autobiographical documentary The Good, The Bad, and The Buff, and a photo with him for the same amount. Yes, please. Even if I have no idea if I’ll ever watch the DVD, it’s the thought that counts.
This isn’t a complete document of all of the nWo members I’ve met, but it’s a pretty good start. And of course the group went on for quite some time, came back, left, then came back again, with some members barely getting their feet wet in the group. So what I’m saying is that there are a LOT of nWo members in some incarnation or another. But these are the ones I mostly remember for that and only that.
Wrestler encounters from WrestleCade 2015 will continue…
Wrestler encounters from WrestleCade 2016 will continue…
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