Top 5 Best NWo Wrestlers of the 1990s

The nWo. Just the mention of those three little letters takes you back to a time of pure, unadulterated, anything goes wrestling. They captured the minds of wrestling fans in a way similar to pirates capturing a civilian cruise ship. They burst onto the scene at a time when professional wrestling was mired in a malaise of mediocrity. Not only had writing had grown stale, but wrestling was highly deficient in the area of the heel – the bad guy. Every great hero needs a great villain.

Enter the nWo. Their induction into the WCW was a Hiroshima-esque end game to the stagnation that had taken hold. Never before, and most likely never again, has an organization meant so much and become so powerful. They were wrestling. Here are the five best members of the nWo (in reverse order).

5) Scott Steiner. Big Poppa Pump. The Big Bad Booty Daddy. He had more monikers than anybody this side of Bret Hart. A little egotistical? Nah, not Steiner. His full on egotism reached unparalleled levels that haven’t been matched since Adrian Adonis had the mirror or Rick Rude told all the fat, lazy, out of shape men of the crowd to sit down so their women could see what a real man looked like (may they both rest in peace). Steiner looked like a buffer version of The Ultimate Warrior; if that is possible. His arms looked like Popeye on spinach. With his chainmail head armor, shades, and terrifying ring attitude, he was one part KISS army and one part Roman Gladiator. And he could wrestle. His Michigan background in real wrestling served him well. He was the muscle in an organization where muscle was a requirement.

4) Kevin Nash. One half of The Outsiders, the man formally known as Diesel was the intimidation factor. He was also the brains behind the brawn (other than Eric Bischoff). He wasn’t particularly fast, speed was not a friend of his, but he made up for it by scaring wrestlers with his Jedi mind trick manipulation power that froze his deer-in-the-headlights opponents into his oncoming beat down. When you saw him coming at you you were helpless.

3) Macho Man Randy Savage. Always the coolest wrestler in any ring he graced, Savage was given a new platform to elevate his coolness to James Dean levels. He didn’t disappoint. Savage, one of the few who could be equally impressive as a good guy or a bad guy, took the creative ball and sent it rolling at full speed. When it stopped he was King of the nWo.

2) Scott Hall. Mr. Razor Ramon himself. His iconic appearance on Nitro, where he was sitting in the front row, is emblazoned into the forever eyes of all wrestling fans everywhere. He gave us the first glimpse of what to come. Thank you Mr. Hall, thank you. Without him, there would be no nWo.

1) Hollywood Hulk Hogan. Who else could it be? Hogan pulled off the ultimate con. He went from being the greatest ‘good guy’ of all-time to being the greatest ‘bad guy’ of all-time. Everything that the ‘training, say your prayers, and eat you vitamins’ 80s Hogan symbolized was destroyed in a simple blink. He was even more convincible as a heel as he was as the face of wrestling. He could do no wrong. He is the King Midas of the sport. He’s the end all and the be all and that’s exactly how he wrote it. Long live the great one.


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