In 1996, World Championship Wrestling delivered one of wrestling’s most shocking plot twists when top star Hulk Hogan turned heel and banded with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to form a faction called the New World Order. From there, a massive invasion storyline ensued, with the nWo staging a hostile takeover of WCW, bolstered by an ever-increasing roster of ex-WWE stars and WCW defectors, a cool, edgy sensibility, and an iconic T-shirt.
The group was a massive success — and it’s been imitated countless times ever since. Let’s take a look at the various rip-offs of the nWo that have been attempted over the years, some of which actually feature former members of the stable.
11 The Band
In 2010, Impact Wrestling attempted to compete with WWE by airing Impact on Monday nights at the same time as Raw. One of the many stunts Impact staged to steal viewership from WWE included the formation of The Band — as in, “getting the band back together” — an nWo reunion group featuring Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Sean Waltman (a.k.a. Syxx or X-Pac), and later Eric Young. Despite the membership, the group seemed like a tired and ultimately forgettable rehash with some aging stars, lasting about nine months.
10 Aloha World Order
DDT Pro-Wrestling is no stranger to parody gimmicks, as the long-running Japanese promotion relishes in playing off of and poking fun at WWE’s “sports entertainment” approach to wrestling. In the late 2000s, the company had a nWo parody faction called the Aloha World Order. Featuring rising comedy wrestler Antonio Honda — who prior to this was part of a faction called the Four Italian Horsemen — the aWo lineup included the veteran Dick Togo and future KO-D Openweight Champion Shuji Ishikawa. However, the Aloha World Order was a short-lived and now-forgotten gimmick, and Honda has done much more since.
9 Juggalo World Order
Avid wrestling fans, the Insane Clown Posse — Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J — competed in both WCW and WWE in the late 1990s/early 2000s and have been running their own promotion, Juggalo Championship Wrestling, since 1999. In 2007, on JCW’s short-lived weekly show SlamTV! the promotion introduced an nWo rip-off of its own in the Juggalo World Order, with membership that included not just ICP, but also 2 Tuff Tony and Scott Hall, among others. While it’s easy to look down on Juggalo activity, to JWO’s credit the group actually staged a real invasion of Impact Wrestling, buying tickets to sit in the front row of Turning Point in 2008.
8 Immortal
More high-profile and memorable than the above-mentioned New World Order rip-offs, Immortal formed in the final moments of Bound for Glory 2010, with Jeff Hardy turning heel and banding with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, who’d reveal themselves as kayfabe owners of Impact.
Unfortunately, the group felt in many ways like self-parody as Immortal amassed way too many members including the entirety of the Fortune Faction and feuded with Sting. Eventually, Immortal devolved from a villainous regime into a rivalry between Eric Bischoff and his own son, Garett.
7 The Nexus
Composed of the entire cast of NXT Season 1 — including Daniel Bryan, Darren Young, future Ryback Skip Sheffield, and season winner Wade Barrett — the Nexus boasts one of the greatest faction introductions of all time, as the group invaded during a John Cena match and basically dismantled the entire Raw set. The Nexus offered a unique twist on the nWo, featuring hungry young wrestlers rather than established stars, but their storyline ran out of steam as soon as Cena beat them at SummerSlam 2010. Even a hostile takeover by CM Punk and an awesome T-shirt couldn’t save the group.
6 J.O.B. Squad
While he was never a top star, Al Snow doesn’t get enough credit for coming up with some clever and pretty fun gimmicks. Noticing that the WWE locker room was full of cliques like the Bone Street Krew and the Kliq, Snow came up with the concept of the J.O.B. Squad, a faction entirely composed of jobbers, complete with an nWo parody T-shirt. The lineup included Snow, 2 Cold Scorpio, Bob Holly, the Blue Meanie, and Duane Gill, and proved to be a fun bunch of loveable losers.
5 Blue World Order
Speaking of the Blue Meanie, he was part of his own nWo parody group, and is arguably one of the most popular comedic versions of the bunch. Formed in ECW, the Blue World Order was supposed to be a one-off gag in a long line of parodies Meanie was doing with Stevie Richards and Nova, but somehow ended up becoming incredibly popular with the fans, who loved when ECW would trash the competition. The BWO ended up lasting far longer than anyone could have expected, and even reformed in WWE in the mid-2000s.
4 Aces & Eights
Despite the low rankings above, not all New World Order rip-offs in Impact Wrestling were irredeemable. The best of the bunch was arguably Aces & Eights — which featured Bully Ray, Devon, and a host of minor ex-WWE talent — which isn’t the most well-regarded faction in Impact history, but deserves way more credit than it gets.
While it could be easily written off as yet another nWo rehash, the group had a strong Sons of Anarchy biker aesthetic that distinguished it from being a simple rip-off. And, to the group’s credit, their storyline actually ended in a conclusive manner.
3 Latino World Order
In 1998, real-life tension between WCW boss Eric Bischoff and future legend Eddie Guerrero resulted in Guerrero forming his own heel faction with the majority of the company’s Mexican performers, the Latino World Order. Complete with its own parody shirt, the LWO feuded with cruiserweight babyfaces Rey Mysterio Jr. and Billy Kidman. While some fans considered it a dilution of the nWo brand, the underrated LWO was a distinct entity separate from the original group, and put a much-needed spotlight on WCW’s cruiserweight division.
2 D-Generation X
One of the defining groups of WWE’s Attitude Era, D-Generation X was an obvious New World Order rip-off, being a destabilizing heel group with a top star as its leader and matching T-shirts. But DX’s rude and crude antics not only set them apart from the nWo, but also helped define the overall vibe of the Attitude Era. While the initial Shawn Michaels-led configuration brought some very fun shenanigans, the group hit its stride under Triple H’s leadership, resulting in the group’s most iconic lineup and some extremely memorable moments.
1 Bullet Club
On paper, there isn’t much about New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Bullet Club that isn’t an nWo rip-off — formed out of a shocking heel turn, the BC are a bunch of villainous, cheating outsiders with matching T-shirts who like to form hand gestures that look like dogs and then make the dogs kiss. But the Bullet Club somehow transcended that to be one of the hottest acts in wrestling, bolstered by some of the top wrestlers outside of WWE like The Young Bucks, AJ Styles, and Kenny Omega. In true nWo fashion, they produced an iconic shirt that has already been parodied to death.