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Tim Lloyd

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WHY THE NEW NWO WILL FAIL

'You can't repeat the past'
'Of course you can'

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I may not have got that quote exactly right, I couldn't find my old copy of Gatsby. Oh well, on with the show.

Unlike so many other web writers I am not going to proclaim the reformation of the NWO as a sign that the 'powers that be' have run out of ideas and that their demise is imminent (although hindsight may indeed show us that this is the beginning of the end). No, my point in this article is that the new NWO has almost no chance of success because the fans have already had their fill of the characters that are in the group. If they wanted to create a true NWO2k then perhaps including someone under 35 would have been a start. Once the novelty wears off we will be left with the same characters with all the same deficiencies that they had a month ago. The exact same problem occurred with the return of Hulkamania a few months back. It was a novelty for a couple weeks as those out there who were either too young or too stupid to remember being subjected to 10+ years of the same stuff cheered for Hogan changing his underwear. That wore off extremely quickly and I predict exactly the same thing happening here. This is not so much because fans are sick of the concept of the NWO its just that after a few weeks they will realize why they were sick of the members before. I'll take a quick look at each of the members to show what I am talking about.

Kevin Nash
I still can't believe I marked out for this big piece of trash in 1994-5. I guess Shawn Michaels must have done a better job of hiding his deficiencies than we even knew at the time. Nash hasn't had a passable match since this time. He is either unable (bad knees) or unwilling (extremely lazy) to do anything much worthwhile these days. You can almost call his matches without watching them - stall, weak punches, framed elbows in corner, stall, sidewalk slam, powerdrop - any actual contact between the participants is purely incidental. Reforming the NWO has at least forced him to act a bit heelish and (gasp) get booed but he is way, way past his use-by-date and unless Shawn Michaels makes a miraculous recovery from injury and signs with WCW there is no-one capable of carrying him to anything worth watching. His amazing ability to get injuries (jobberitis) that seem to get him out of big feud ending matches is also frustrating. The fans will remember why they were so sick of him again very soon and once again cease to care. But don't worry Big Kev I'm sure your massive guaranteed contract lasts for at least a couple more years.

Scott Hall
This one is even worse than Nash because I believe Hall is still capable of having a decent match. But his habits and his attitude have trashed (yes I picked that word deliberately) that as a possibility. He apparently refuses to be put in a situation where the crowd might boo him and hasn't been a true heel since he wrestled Bret Hart for the title (Rumble 93?) and attacked Owen in the locker room. He has shown no interest in altering his habits or his character for the good of the company despite being given any number of chances. His frequent absences from TV kill his heat and the fans don't care about him anymore.

Bret Hart
This is the saddest one of all. I am a 100% mark for the Hitman and I have been for his whole career and that is why I feel so terrible about the garbage he has been put through over the last couple of years. I hate to say it but I don't think the mainstream fans buy him or the Hitman character anymore. The fact that he is the world champ but in the eyes of the fans (and evidently the bookers) he is not even the leader of his own faction is the most damning evidence of all. It would be like Billy Gunn being the driving force of DX while HHH is the champ - it is totally ridiculous. Unfortunately Bret has no real connection with today's fans and does not have the legacy in WCW that Flair has to fall back on because his was built in the WWF. The worst thing of all is that Bret recently has followed the lead of the other WCW main eventers and opted for bump-free matches. The psychology of his matches is still excellent but they are almost totally devoid of highspots or bumps. The novelty of Bret in the NWO (ooh look Bret is wrestling in an NWO shirt) will wear off and the fans will just see it as Bret's 100th turn since joining WCW and lose interest in him even more. It makes me very sad but unfortunately it is the truth.

Jeff Jarrett
Anyone who has read my old columns knows the utter contempt I have for Jarrett. To steal one of Hyatte's old lines - this is phase IV in the great push Jarrett experiment. Lets have a quick run through everything that has been tried to get Jarrett over. He has had Tennessee Lee, Roadie, Debra, Miss Kitty, a horse, released a phony record (reportedly sung by the Road Dog anyway), become the first rumored signee to not join the NWO, been a horsemen, beaten up Cindy Margoiles, destroyed about 1 000 000 guitars, lip-synched a performance with some country music jabronie (sorry can't remember his name), has won 6 Intercontinental titles and 3(I think) US Titles and now is part of the elite NWO. And guess what he still is not over to any significant degree. With this non-stop push he should be the biggest star in the history of wrestling. Austin, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels never received half of these advantages and they became number one in the industry. My prediction is that this phase of the great push Jarrett experiment will be about as effective as all the others. The fact remains that Jarrett is a non-descript wrestler who neither does or says anything noteworthy and he is incapable of getting over.

Scott Steiner
Hey Remember when the Steiners were a good tag team. 1000 swerves later we are left with Rick - the most uncharismatic wrestler in the history of our sport and Scott - so pumped up he can hardly move anymore. Same story as the others - the reformation of the NWO plus his extended absence has temporarily hidden his flaws. How many lackluster 'kick, punch and jaw with the fans' matches or 'big bad booty daddy' interviews will it take before the fans lose interest again?

Conclusion
Before everyone flames me as being anti-Russo and anti-WCW keep in mind that I don't think that NWO2k is a bad idea per se. My problem is with who it is being used to get over. Why use it to try to reinvent guys who have been central to Nitro's ratings demise over the past year. The fans have spoken - they are sick of Nash, Hall, Hart (sniff) and Steiner and they have been switching to Raw for over a year now. If Hogan is brought back as the lead babyface to feud with the NWO then it is truly over for WCW.

WCW should have used the recognition of the name NWO to elevate other wrestlers. Have maybe Nash or Hart or Steiner as a link to the old NWO but fill the rest of the group with talented midcarders to truly make it an NWO for the new millennium. Why not use it to elevate Vampiro or Eddie Guerrero or Saturn or even turn Booker T heel. As it stands right now the new NWO is nothing more than a circle jerk for the same tired old faces that no-one wants to see anymore but who still think they are huge draws and NWO2k just keeps them on top of the fed.

Tim Lloyd
[slash] wrestling

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