A new season of Biography: WWE Legends will debut Sunday, beginning with an episode exploring one of wrestling’s most successful story lines: the New World Order.
The NWO was formed long before that famed night at Bash at the Beach in July 1996 when Hulk Hogan joined forces with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. The foundation for the industry-changing group was laid on backroads, diners and highways across the United States in car rides that featured Nash, Hall and Sean Waltman during their time together in the World Wrestling Federation.
“We were a unit,” says Waltman, who joined the iconic group as its sixth member in September 1996. “The NWO wasn’t blind faith in one another. We knew each other very well. It was all based off our friendship.”
Speaking with Sports Illustrated, Waltman discussed a myriad of NWO-related topics, including the elements that made Hall and Nash so distinct and special, as well as the influence they had on his career.
Sports Illustrated: Kevin Nash and Scott Hall bestowed so much trust and faith upon you. To me, so much the NWO is a story of brotherhood.
Sean Waltman: Justin, you’ve been with us in person and you’ve seen how we work. Scott and Kevin were the heart and soul. It doesn’t work without Hulk, obviously, not to the level that it did, but Scott and Kevin were so different. They were the heart and soul of our unit, too. We’d spent so much time together leading up to that point when we were all together in the NWO. The NWO still lasts because it was real. And it was based off our friendship, which was all real.
SI: The NWO took place right as the industry was changing to a more reality-based product. That differed greatly from the characters you all played—and, tremendously well—in the WWF as the 1-2-3 Kid, Razor Ramon and Diesel. You were given the chance to make it real and bring an entirely different edge to WCW.
SW: That was the fuel I used. We could be real. We wanted so badly that opportunity to be as real as we could be. We got that in WCW. It was wild there. There was no Vince McMahon telling you what you could do. There weren’t those rules.
When we ran the Steiners off the road, remember that? That was so real people were complaining and scared and calling the police. There was a realness in everything we did, right up until the time it was the red-and-black versus the white-and-black. Then it wasn’t real. In no situation in real life would you ever put Kevin against Scott or Scott against Kevin. It wasn’t going to happen. I think people knew that.
SI: What made Kevin and Scott’s friendship so unique?
SW: It’s not like they’d never disagree. But they were brothers. No, that’s not right. They were stronger than brothers. I’ve never seen a friendship like that. They always, always looked out for one another. Even if they’d argue, you’d never see a crack between them. I get emotional thinking about it. Their friendship, it was epic.
SI: Scott Hall will never get the credit he deserves. Scott changed the way wrestling operated inside and out of it—and saw the business in ways no one else could.
SW: In my career, my journey, the most brilliant mind I’ve ever met in wrestling was Scott Hall. His mindset, his attitude about his job, the way he could see things in a different light, it was incredible. Back when I was the 1-2-3 Kid and I beat Razor Ramon on Monday Night Raw [in 1993], I remember The Godfather, who I think had just finished up as Papa Shango, said to Scott after the match, “Did you just fail a drug test?” He wasn’t alone in thinking that. People thought Scott was being punished. But Scott was excited by it. He was making somebody. He made me that night. That was the most important night in my career. None of the great stuff that happened after that would have happened if not for that. He was just real unselfish, and he did things like that. I remember when he put Chris Jericho over on live television [on Nitro in November ’97].
SI: Incredibly, he did the same for a young Hiroshi Tanahashi, too, in Japan in 2001.
SW: That was Scott. He had a vision unlike anybody else.
SI: It’s interesting that two of the wrestling’s most brilliant minds, Scott Hall and Bret Hart, often shared such contrasting views on the business. But they both knew how to make magic on-screen.
SW: They’re two of my favorite people, ever, on this planet. I love them both.
SI: The Kliq, which you, Hall and Nash were all part of, is known for its strong inclination to party. But I’m still drawn to the story of affinity between you, that brotherhood.
SW: People know there were drugs. I remember specifically waking up, not knowing how I got there, and Kev was sitting there, looking over me, not getting any sleep to watch over me and make sure I was safe. You need to love somebody to do that. We loved one another. We were all in with each other.
SI: Years ago, I did a story at Dallas Page’s new yoga studio in Georgia. Scott Hall came for an interview, and I remember him complaining that it was too early in the morning to talk. But once we hit record, Scott came alive. He is one of the greatest performers of all time, regardless of the fact he was never world champion. If he were still alive, this A&E special would have brought the best out of him.
SW: When the red light came on, he was on a different level. Kev saw him after this, but the last time I saw Scott, it was in Stockton, Calif., at a Comic-Con type of thing. Scott was in rough shape, as bad of shape as I’d ever seen him. So bad that I was afraid that would be the last time I’d ever see him, which ended up being the case. But we were doing a question-and-answer panel. As soon as someone asked Scott a question, it triggered something in his brain. Scott just lit up. Even as sad I was about seeing him in that shape, it was an amazing moment to see him like that again. He was still here.
SI: When you think back on the NWO, what do you remember most?
Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.
