The New World Order took WCW by storm as the hottest act in the wrestling industry for over a year. Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall changed the landscape when starting their hostile takeover of WCW. Fans loved watching the chaos unfold as Nitro become more of a must-watch product live than WWE provided with Raw.

RELATED: Every Version of The nWo, Ranked

WCW took a huge risk by splitting the nWo into separate factions. Kevin Nash formed a face version of the Wolfpac that was meant to play to the fans wanting to cheer the cool wrestlers. Hulk Hogan remained a heel leading the Hollywood chapter of the nWo on his own. The feud provided mixed results for WCW. Find out what exactly went into the thinking of the nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood storyline.

Updated on October 31st, 2021 by Akshay Thimmaya: The Monday Night Wars didn't truly kick off until the New World Order was formed. Almost overnight, WCW went from being a great promotion, to a potential WWE killer. The faction's popularity skyrocketed, leading to WCW turning a lot of its focus on its members. More and more wrestlers became members and it was only a matter of time before spin-offs of the original group were created. WCW leaned into the popularity of the group by creating clear face and heel divisions amongst these spin-offs. Pretty soon, nWo Wolfpac and nWo Hollywood were born. A civil war of sorts dominated WCW programming, ending with the birth of nWo Elite.

10 Split Started With Randy Savage vs Hulk Hogan

Randy Savage Macho Man and Hulk Hogan

The leadership roles of Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan made fans forget that Randy Savage played the biggest role in the New World Order split. Hogan was jealous of Savage being the one to beat Sting for the WCW Championship and ended his reign one night later on Nitro.

RELATED: nWo Hollywood: The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Members

Nash was livid at the actions and selfishness of Hogan to start the split. Both Savage and Nash formed the Wolfpac and wore the black-and-red shirts before recruiting the others to join them. Nash ended up passing Savage as the leader a few weeks into the new project starting.

9 WCW Wanted Three Feuding Brands for Thunder

Eric Bischoff in WCW

The launch of WCW Thunder as a second show was originally meant to be a program solely for the New World Order. WCW changed plans when the first WCW PPV Souled Out completely flopped to ruin the momentum.

Thunder started with WCW now having to fill another two hours of television every week. Eric Bischoff revealed that the Wolfpac forming was done to have three deep brands feuding of the Wolfpac, Hollywood, and WCW adding more depth for a second program.

8 Scott Hall Turning on Kevin Nash Was To Be The Biggest Feud

Kevin Nash vs Scott Hall

Scott Hall returning from some time away from WCW led to the shocking moment of him turning on his best friend Kevin Nash to join the Hollywood version of the New World Order. Nash was getting over as a top face, so WCW wanted to have a big singles feud against his former partner.

The expectations saw WCW hoping Nash vs Hall would be the top Wolfpac vs Hollywood feud when Hulk Hogan entered programs with Diamond Dallas Page and Ultimate Warrior. Unfortunately, Hall’s personal issues limited his work success as the feud with Nash dropped the ball.

7 Wolfpac Was the Top Face Act

NWO Wolfpac trio

Goldberg’s success as the dominant WCW Champion with an undefeated streak saw the New World Order face group of the Wolfpac passing him for a short time. Fans loved the idea of the Wolfpac having all the top faces to make them must-watch television.

The reactions for the Wolfpac entrances and promos showed just how much the audience loved them. Everyone thought the nWo was cool and this provided the ideal scenario of a face group of the popular stars getting a new spotlight together.

6 WCW Ran Huge Sting Storyline for Weeks

Lex Luger, Sting, Konnan and Kevin Nash as NWO Wolfpac

The biggest chapter of the Wolfpac vs Hollywood rivalry featured both stables trying to recruit Sting. Each week would see both versions of the New World Order claiming they had the best situation for Sting who seemed interested in ending the WCW loyalty.

Sting joining the Wolfpac put them over the top as the most popular act in WCW. The red face paint allowed him to change his look and completely rebrand after the era of The Crow character was put on hold to push other stars.

5 Lex Luger and Sting's Friendship Was Used Heavily

Sting and Lex Luger WCW Tag Team Champions

Lex Luger joining the Wolfpac was a huge moment that made fans realize it was more than okay to cheer for the faces. Instead of having to deal with potential New World Order heel swerves, Luger added a beloved face to the mix in the early stages.

RELATED: nWo Wolfpac: The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Members

The addition of Luger was what convinced Sting to join the Wolfpac. WCW utilized the real-life best friend relationship of Sting and Luger in the storyline. Sting joining the Wolfpac allowed him to team up with Luger again in high profile matches.

4 Bret Hart Joined Hollywood to Provide More Star Power

Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan Nitro

Bret Hart is still upset with how WCW used him when he joined the company after his hottest run in WWE. The importance of the New World Order made Bret a secondary part of the show. Hart eventually joined the Hollywood chapter of the nWo to add more star power.

The Wolfpac had four former and future world champions to put them highly above Hollywood in the depth chart. Bret joining added a respected legend of the industry with Hulk Hogan leading the way. However, the portrayal of Hart hurt his career by getting booked as the sidekick of Hogan.

3 Curt Hennig Double Crossed Wolfpac for Hollywood

Curt Hennig WCW

Curt Hennig and Rick Rude pulled off one of the more elaborate double-cross in the feud between the two New World Order factions. The Wolfpac added Hennig at the start with Rude joining as his manager and bodyguard.

Hennig betrayed Konnan by attacking him to cost the Wolfpac a match. The backstabbing moment landed Hennig in Hollywood with Rude remaining at his side. Hennig was always a better heel and WCW didn’t want to force the face turn as he didn’t fit in with the others.

2 Injuries Hurt The Storyline's Ending

Randy Savage in WCW

The Wolfpac witnessing injuries to two of their top stars hurt the ending of the storyline when they merged with Hollywood. Randy Savage left for surgery and didn’t return until the summer of 1999 when the New World Order completely ended.

Sting was the bigger injury since he would have had a huge role in the aftermath. Lex Luger turning heel to join the nWo Elite would have likely seen him feuding with Sting who WCW wanted to remain face. Sting returned shortly after the nWo Elite flopped and was starting to disband.

1 Hogan Still Won in the End

NWO after fingerpoke of doom

The creative control and influence of Hulk Hogan saw him often winning out in the end at the expense of others. Kevin Nash ending Goldberg’s undefeated streak to win the WCW Championship only saw him holding the belt for eight days.

Hogan defeated Nash to become the new champ with the infamous Finger Poke of Doom causing the Wolfpac and Hollywood to merge into one New World Order as the Elite. The payoff was viewed as one of the worst moments in WCW and ratings started to trend down afterwards in a way they never rebounded from.