HORSEMEN NWO SPOOF
One of the biggest topics of discussion the past few weeks has been the on-air treatment and behind the scenes politics surrounding the Horsemen spoof.
The Nash & Syxx skit was timed to elicit exactly the reaction many are voicing — outrage. The fact that Flair and Arn thought Nash and Syxx went too far doesn’t change the fact that everyone, including Flair and Arn, agreed ahead of time that for the angle to have maximum impact, the spoof should take place one week after the emotional retirement speech of Arn. The whole point of the spoof was for viewers to be so disgusted that they would pay to see the Horsemen whip the NWO in the cage. It playing out that way is consistent with the entire NWO storyline. WCW is giving viewers little victories along the way, but they are always short term teases (such as Luger’s short title reign or Sting finally siding with WCW but not wrestling yet) but the NWO continues to dominate WCW so they can retain the heel heat and eventually build to the climax — Sting vs. Hulk Hogan. Once that climax plays out, it can lead to the next stage, which is the NWO breaking up and fighting each other due to their inability to deal with their first major losses.
Another criticism has been that WCW should have let the Horsemen get a win over the NWO at WarGames because as it turned out, the NWO one-upped the Horsemen on Nitro and then beat them again at WarGames, totally deflating the babyface side and not giving the fans a chance to cheer the babyfaces getting revenge. It’s important to note that one key reason the Horsemen were not given a win over the NWO at Fall Brawl was that Flair was taking time off from WCW for cosmetic surgery and won’t be around for a few months. It wouldn’t make sense to give WCW a decisive victory over the NWO if the leader of the winning team wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the momentum because he was taking off a few months.
Another key reason the Horsemen were not given the win was because it would diminish the impact of Hennig’s turn. How could Hennig’s turn have had an impact if it didn’t lead to foiling the Horsemen’s WarGames victory? And how could the Horsemen possibly win when it was five on three without totally killing off the NWO’s credibility? Just because the Horsemen always allowed that to happen to them years ago when they were heels doesn’t mean the NWO should make the same mistake today.
Delaying Hennig’s turn wasn’t an option for a variety of reasons. The storyline was that Hennig was with the NWO all along. Had Hennig remained a Horseman for a few weeks or months, he inevitably would have had to wrestle members of the NWO. Thus when he turned, it wouldn’t make sense that he didn’t turn sooner, at the most opportune time — that being WarGames.
That said, there is sentiment that in the big picture Kevin Nash isn’t willing to sacrifice for the good of the company by doing jobs, the opposite of Ric Flair. There is no doubt Flair set the standard for sacrifice (and because he was a much better worker than Nash in his prime, Flair could more easily get away with doing jobs because he could regain his credibility with a good interview and great in-ring performance the next month). In fact Flair was so willing to do jobs that he was criticized for being spineless or too giving, even during his prime. There is also no doubt that the Wolf Pack often act like prima donnas and have carried their reputation from the WWF with them to WCW. Nash, though, deserves credit for one thing. When he does the job, he doesn’t pop back up after a three count like so many other wrestlers. Nash set a standard for lying on the mat after losing and selling his loss in a huge way going all the way back to the job to Shawn Michaels in his last match in the WWF. When Nash loses, he makes the loss decisive.
While Flair is promoted on television as a legend and deserves the respect long time fans pay him, WCW management see him as a commodity — not to mention, in real life terms, as human and as flawed as everyone else in the locker room. The attitude starting at the top with Bischoff is that Flair is a diminished commodity whose days as a top-tier star are gone. He is seen as a valuable asset, but no longer at the level where they would choose him to be the wrestler who finally beats the NWO. That position, obviously, is being saved for Sting. That said, Hogan is having second thoughts about to doing a job to Sting, fearing that Sting would end up more popular than him when he (Hogan) turns babyface again.
On Raw when Paul Heyman made reference to Jerry Lawler liking his girlfriends young, or when Lawler made reference to Heyman still living at his parents’ house, there wasn’t outrage. Heyman and Lawler agreed to the subject matter ahead of time. Should Nash and Syxx have run the details of their material by Flair and Arn first? Sure they should have. Was there malice in what they said? To a certain extent, yes. But at the same time, Flair and Arn need to be big boys, as do their fans. Syxx hit home with his parody of Flair, who had become a parody of himself. If Syxx and Nash derailed Flair from his lazy, clichéd, unintentional self-parodies, then Flair and his fans should thank Nash and Syxx for the wake-up call, not protest.
