The nWo was one of the most important factions in pro wrestling history. Alongside Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mr. McMahon, and D-Generation X, the New World Order stands out as one of the most important acts in wrestling’s late 1990s boom period. The intrigue of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash defecting from WWE to WCW, the mysteries associated with the invasion angle, and Hulk Hogan’s heel turn captured the imagination of fans. The stable was the single biggest contributor to making WCW competitive with WWE for a period of years.

Related: Did The Monday Night Wars Actually Hurt Wrestling In The Long Term?However, the nWo certainly overstayed its welcome and was subject to more than a few creative fumbles. From over two decades of hindsight, there’s a lot fans tend to get wrong when they look back at the super group.

10 The Introduction Of The Wolfpac Was A Sign Of WCW Overdoing The NWO

It’s not secret that the New World Order ultimately took on too many members, ran for too long, and got a little too complicated in its storylines. However, a lot of fans today mistake the nWo Wolfpac’s role in this overexposure, suggesting that splintering into two factions was a big mistake.

However, the development of the red and black nWo was actually a master stroke of booking. The original black and white version of the faction offered a bit of a conundrum because they were obviously heels but also super popular with fans. The Wolfpac solved that issue, breaking off some of the coolest members of the group like Kevin Nash and Konnan, adding Sting to their midsts, and breathing new life into the nWo concept for a period of months as they warred with the nWo Hollywood.

9 The NWO 2000 Came Across Terribly From The Start

When a lot of fans look back at the nWo 2000, they think of it as a tired retread—WCW trying to recapture the magic of an idea they’d already run into the ground. They forget, however, that the version of the group with Bret Hart at the helm and The Outsiders offering continuity and credibility had some real buzz when they first took shape.

Indeed, the biggest problem for the nWo 2000 is that the group was snake-bit with injuries.Their top rival Goldberg badly injuring himself punching out a limousine window, taking him out of their storylines, in addition to Bret Hart suffering a career-ending injury at Goldberg’s hands at Starrcade 1999. Kevin Nash took the mantle of leader only to suffer an ankle injury shortly after, and Jarrett struggled with concussion issues during this run as well, all making the nWo 2000’s run terribly disjointed compared with its promising start.

8 Kevin Nash Only Looked Out For Himself As Booker

Kevin Nash has a bit of an infamous reputation for politicking behind the scenes, largely attributed to his time as both a top on-air talent and the head booker for WCW. The narrative tends to be that he booked himself into all kinds of successes he hadn’t earned and the fans didn’t want to see.

Related: 10 Backstage Stories About Kevin Nash We Can't BelieveWhat this version of events gets wrong is that Nash one of the most popular stars WCW had. With his size, the credibility of his past as a WWE World Champion, and the cool heel personality he unleashed as part of the nWo he was one of the most credible and beloved talents in the business, regardless of his limitations, and not an unreasonable choice at all to feature on top.

7 Dusty Rhodes Joining The NWO Made No Sense

There are core New World Order members like Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Syxx, whom no one can question fit the group. A number of fans look back, though, and suggest the addition of Dusty Rhodes signaled the gross over-expansion of the nWo and a sense of incoherence.

While The American Dream certainly wasn’t the best or most important contributor to the nWo, the choice to add him to the mix did make sense given the story WCW was telling about how destabilizing the faction was, subverting tradition and showing no one could be trusted. Rhodes was the essence of a WCW babyface, and him defecting underscored that anything was possible.

6 As Soon As Scott Steiner Joined The NWO, Rick Steiner Became Irrelevant

It’s no secret Scott Steiner’s career took off after he turned heel to join the nWo. In his Big Poppa Pump persona he reached new heights, including reigning as the last dominant heel champ in company history. Amidst that progression, a lot of fans tend to think of his brother Rick as the “Marty Jannetty” of their team who got left in the dust.

While The Dog-Faced Gremlin didn’t enjoy the same singles success as his little brother, he had his successes. Rick remained a fixture in the tag title picture, including oddball reigns with Kenny Kaos and Judy Bagwell. Additionally, he actually got the best of Scott one-on-one at Halloween Havoc 1998. Steiner had a respectable heel run, too, later on.

5 Eric Bischoff’s Role In The NWO Was Pure Vanity

In late 1996, Eric Bischoff himself turned heel and joined the nWo. A lot of fans laughed off this choice as indicative of the real-life executive just wanting in on the hottest act in the company. However, there was much more to the decision than that.

On 83 Weeks Bischoff has justified his involvement with the nWo as starting with him wanting to be a heel Mean Gene Okerlund to hold the mic for their promos. Additionally, fans tend to forget that Bischoff leaned into the heel authority figure role well before Vince McMahon. While Mr. McMahon pulled off this character-type better, Bischoff both did it quite well and earlier.

4 The NWO Flopped Immediately In WWE

The nWo didn’t work out all that well in WWE, between its aging core members, injuries and Scott Hall’s real-life substance issues, and the resultant erratic booking.

Related: 10 Things You Forgot About The nWo's Time In WWEHowever, fans are wrong to think that nWo was DOA in WWE. On the contrary, there was real electricity around Vince McMahon’s initial announcement he was injecting this poison into WWE, and the stable facilitated the Rock vs. Hulk Hogan classic at WrestleMania 18. WWE probably should have wrapped up the nWo run in WWE at or shortly after ‘Mania, though, rather than extending it into the summer.

3 Lex Luger Beating Hollywood Hogan Was No Big Deal

Nowadays, there’s a large portion of wrestling fans who dismiss Lex Luger as nothing but a guy with a killer physique who got unearned opportunities in the 1990s without much wrestling talent.

While it’s true that The Total Package was never an in-ring virtuoso, it’s not fair to suggest he wasn’t over with the audience. One need only watch back a series of Nitros from 1997 to recognize he was incredibly popular and the fans were absolutely electric for him beating Hollywood Hogan for the WCW Championship on the 100th episode of Nitro. Yes, the reign only lasted a week, but the victory itself was nonetheless one of the biggest moments in Nitro history.

2 The NWO Didn’t Elevate Any Stars Who Weren’t Part Of The Group

One of the stories surrounding the nWo is that they buried everyone else around them. It's true the group’s main event dominance may have put a glass ceiling over talented performers like Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero. However, it’s also worth noting that a lot of the biggest babyfaces WCW produced in the Monday Night War rose up via their rivalries with the nWo.

Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg are the two strongest examples of guys who were not main eventers at the start of their WCW runs, but who fully emerged in that spot by virtue of getting the better of Randy Savage and Hollywood Hogan from the nWo, respectively. To lesser degrees, Sting, Lex Luger, The Giant and others arguably benefited from feuds with the nWo.

1 Hulk Hogan Immediately Clicked With The Outsiders

Hulk Hogan turning heel to launch the nWo at Bash at the Beach 1996 marked arguably the single most iconic moment in WCW history. Playing the villain breathed new life into Hogan as a top star and strapped a rocket to the already hot nWo angle that The Outsiders had set in motion.

Fans tend to think of the nWo as an instant success story, but from the accounts of Eric Bischoff and all three original members of the group, they struggled early on. Hogan was set in his ways about cutting promos and wasn’t capturing the cool vibe Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had established. Bischoff cited skilled editing with making their first black-and-white pre-taped promos work, and Hogan credited Hall and Nash with teaching him how to play the heel character that became so memorable.