WWE Back in Black: NWO New World Order

This is a review of the Back in Black:NWO New World Order DVD as opposed to the video.

The NWO, for those who don't know, were a heel group of wrestlers who caused havoc in WCW from 1996-1998 (their prime years) and WWF/WWE from February 2002. This is a DVD detailing their genesis and some of their greatest moments.

Is the DVD good? Yes and no. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.

Firstly, this is NOT an exhaustive account of the NWO. We are given a bit of history about the founding members of the NWO (Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash)and footage follows of their genesis at WCW Bash at the Beach which took place in July '96. We then see them causing havoc from July '96 until August 1996-then disappointingly, we fast forward to the WWF circa late 2001 where we see the return of Ric Flair and the subsequent return of the NWO at No Way Out 2002 in February. What follows is the feud between The Rock and the NWO. The DVD ends with happenings from WrestleMania X8 where Steve Austin faced Scott Hall and Hollywood Hogan faced The Rock.

I feel this DVD could have done with being much much longer. Several of the NWO's most pivotal moments are missed out such as the feud between Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan, the Sting/Hogan match from Starrcade '97, the splitting up of the NWO and the NWO Wolfpac VS NWO Black and White feud. It would have been interesting to see footage from said periods. They were all integral parts of the NWO era.

However, the good things about this DVD are the highlights of the NWO's career. We see Scott Hall and Kevin Nash's return to WCW in 1996. Also, who can forget the Hulk Hogan heel turn from Bash at the Beach '96? Some pivotal moments are caught on tape and it's good to see them again. It brought the memories of 1996-98 flooding back.

Now to the DVD extras. There is an NWO advert from 1996 and a short NWO music skit. The other extras are matches. We see the Bash at the Beach '96 main event which is essential NWO viewing. There's War Games from Fall Brawl '96 where the NWO fought four top WCW stars and it is a heated match. There's also Kevin Nash VS Bill Goldberg from Starrcade '98-this is a fantastic match. The final match was from the WWF where The Rock & Steve Austin faced Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall. The match was short but sweet. The only complaint I have is that the DVD could have included additional matches. Ones that come to mind include Macho Man VS Hulk Hogan from Halloween Havoc '96, Roddy Piper VS Hulk Hogan from Starrcade '96, Sting VS Hollywood Hogan from Starrcade '97 and a match from the NWO Wolfpac VS NWO Black and White feud.

All in all, a good DVD. It could have been longer and included more matches but overall, it was a good event and essential viewing if you were a fan of the NWO from 1996-98.

It is lamentable to see the opportunity of issuing the complete DVD history of THE storyline in sports entertainment that mattered the most get tarnished by the preoccupations of the moment of one Vinnie Mac. These preoccupations were to promote and make successful the WWE's version of the nWo - and it was fully deserved to see it not live up at all to unrealistic expectations, despite the involvement of Ric Flair and even Arn Anderson. For, make no mistake about it - the nWo success was highly due to the presence of the true defenders of old school wrestling, the true WCW champions and the true tradition that the nWo was only mimicking; and that was The Four Horsemen! The three-way and sometimes four-way war that the arrival of the nWo generated (Horsemen, Dungeon of Doom, nWo and... Sting & his friends, basically) was truly a unique situation that could not be replicated. Neither could the "corporate takeover" angle (though this nWo version 2.0 was just a little bit better than the pathetic "alliance invasion", when a depleted WCW and an equally-shorthanded ECW formed said alliance. What was exactly the highlight of this whole thing again - Stephanie McMahon telling Classie Freddie Blassie that the WWF was dead -or was it already WWE- and so was he? And, shortly thereafter, Mr.Blassie did pass away - but that is another story of course - unscripted this time).

It is understandable that Vince McMahon thought that this would work out wonderfully well. He had seen the phenomenal success of the "nWo vs WCW" angle; and he had also seen - first hand since he was a part of it - that "Stone Cold feuding with the boss" had saved his company from going under (which they very nearly did in the heyday of the nWo saga in WCW). Hence, "Mr. McMahon" was convinced that "Stone Cold vs the nWo" (or his "shot of poison" into the arm of the WWE, as he called it then) was going to work wonders for his sagging ratings and stagnant wrestling story-weaving crew... and it could not get the job done. It was redundant to see the same faces play the same roles all over again - only to accommodate the likes of Stone Cold and the Rock who had not been a part of it the first time around since they were not in WCW. To see Flair align himself with the nWo briefly, out of hatred for Austin, was totally ridiculous and out of character when one remembers the memorable Horsemen-nWo clashes of 1996, 1997 and 1998. Ahh, those were the years...

Ultimately though, I am tempted to say that this entire exercise failed so miserably because LARRY Z wasn't there to comment on it! Larry Zbysko, then of the WCW broadcast team and today of new rival TNA, had added this brilliant bit of color commentary in 1996 in an episode of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT that shortly followed in the wake of the nWo formation. He had likened Hollywood Hogan to the antichrist of wrestling then - complete with three "6s" on the back of his head! This was much in sync with the whole "Novus Ordo Seclorum" mystique that the nWo developed in a hurry - and it did measure up to the aura of greatness of a group that represented excellence, such as The Horsemen did and still do in the memory of connaisseur fandom. Alas, for the nWo, it was only to really last through those three initial years of its existence... Years that are BARELY covered in this DVD...