What if the nWo works WrestleMania 35?

Not long ago, Hulk Hogan was welcomed back into the WWE fold. He was formally reinstated to the company’s Hall of Fame, and welcomed back into the family to do ambassador work and open the door to on air appearances. It was a big, but not totally unpredictable development. Yes, there was shock and severe backlash against him after a tape came out of him using racist epithets. Hogan is part of the bedrock of WWE, though, and given the tapes were from years back, it made reasonable sense WWE would bring back The Hulkster after tensions had cooled off a bit.

Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash have recently been promoting a reunion tour that includes question and answer sessions and autograph signings for fans. With all three men in WWE’s good graces and working together, it raises the question, could we see the New World Order on WWE television again? Moreover, is it possible the original trio could work a match at WrestleMania? This article looks at five potential outcomes if WWE booked it.

#5 Interaction with The Shield

A segment or two may feature two of wrestling's most iconic trios.

Since the New World Order launched its reunion tour, they have made it a talking point on social media to ask fans who they think would win a match between the nWo and The Shield. It’s a bit of a silly question as they’re from different generation and worked different styles. Nonetheless, the query makes a degree of sense in comparing the hottest trio from the 1996 to the hottest trio from today.

Actually staging a match between the nWo and The Shield would probably be the wrong call. Hogan, Hall, and Nash aren’t in any shape to work a full-fledged, full contact bout nowadays, and it would be squandering three of WWE’s biggest stars for them to work a quick squash or a softer match to protect the legends at the biggest show of the year. It would be a missed opportunity not to have the factions interact, though, be it in a shmozz match on Raw, or just in promo segments either backing each other up or engaging in a war of words.

#4 Working DX

DX vs. nWo may come later than fans wanted, but still be intriguing.

If the original New World Order were to work a match at WrestleMania, one angle would be to involve newer talents either as their opponents or as an additional, honorary member in the group to give that younger talent the rub. Another approach, though, would be to pit legends against legends.

WWE teased an nWo vs. DX war at WrestleMania 31, when Hogan, Hall, and Nash backed up Sting against Triple H, who had X-Pac and The New Age Outlaws come to his defense. A match between these two sides would be a bit of a tough sell given the collective age of everyone involved. The two teams do involve a lot of real life friends with tremendous mutual respect between them, though. Moreover, Triple H has proven himself still capable of going in the ring, rumors are intensifying that Shawn Michaels will work a series of matches, and Sean Waltman has still kept up a fairly regular schedule on the indie circuit.

In short, having this match—if kept short and heavy on the sports entertainment shenanigans—really could work. WWE is probably running out of time on it, as Hogan in particular is physically past the point he really ought to be working matches. Returning to the New York metro region for the thirty-fifth WrestleMania would be a fitting enough occasion for him to hit the ring for one last match.

#3 An Eric Bischoff cameo

Bringing Eric Bischoff into the mix could make a lot of sense for another nWo run.

By all accounts, WWE has been pleasantly surprised by the warm reception Eric Bischoff has drawn from fans in one-off appearances, Network specials, and occasions like inducting Diamond Dallas Page into the WWE Hall of Fame. While it probably doesn’t make sense to bring him back full time in any capacity at this stage, he’s nonetheless a draw for limited time engagements. He would be an ideal fit to bring in for a final New World Order angle.

Returning to work with the nWo, either for an isolated appearance, or as their manager straight through a comeback angle, would be perfectly fitting. Bischoff headed up WCW, is credited with masterminding the original nWoinvasion angle, and was a kayfabe part of the group. It makes all the sense in the world to involve Bischoff, and for this to be a poetic way to tie a bow on Bischoff’s involvement with WWE, and more broadly the mainstream wrestling world.

#2 A Kliq reunion

An nWo match at WrestleMania all but invites a Kliq reunion moment.

The Kliq is the real life group of friends that included Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Triple H, and Sean Waltman, whom ran roughshod over the WWE locker room in the mid-1990s. For all the suggestions that they had major heat from the boys and could be a pain to work with for management, they’re nonetheless celebrated today. The group gets lauded for their collective on screen success, and the acknowledgment of how instrumental their thoughts were in shaping the Attitude Era and some of the best elements of the Monday Night War, from both sides.

The Kliq members have gotten back together to celebrate at Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and other special occasions. They even went so far as to already have an unofficial reunion mid-WrestleMania in 2015, after the nWo and DX came to blows. Having the nWo actually featured as participants in a proper match would all the more point the way toward a Kliq reunion in New Jersey.

#1 A Hall of Fame induction

The original nWo may all join Ric Flair as two-time Hall of Fame inductees.

One last hurrah for The New World Order at WrestleMania may be something like Sting working WrestleMania 31 and Goldberg working a comeback angle that culminated at WrestleMania 33. It’s the kind of angle that cashes in on nostalgia and pays tribute to well established legends of the industry, while also cashing in on those last scraps of interest from old WCW fans who didn’t all come over to WWE—or at least stick with it—after the Monday Night War.

A year after Sting’s WrestleMania match, he headlined the Hall of Fame induction class. Goldberg did the same two years later. It follows that the original now members would get a similar treatment. Like The Four Horsemen, they had a high volume of members over time, and not all of them created equally. Similar to that group, it would make sense for WWE to limit it to a select, identifiable group, and the trio of Hogan, Hall, and Nash would be the most recognizable, sensible choice.

There is the matter of double induction, as all three of the men in question are already inducted. Hogan is certainly the magnitude of star to justify going in twice, like only Ric Flair has before. Hall and Nash are a bit tougher sell in terms of historical magnitude, but the importance of the group may well justify it, besides which it doesn’t hurt that they’re tight with Triple H—one of WWE’s biggest power brokers.