There are good tag teams, there are legendary tag teams, and there are tag teams that legitimately change the world of professional wrestling for all history. The Outsiders, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, are of the third variety, in part due to having become big stars on their own before they ever teamed up in the ring. That doesn’t mean they never locked up, though, and in fact the two had been friends for a solid five years prior to The Outsiders debut as a team.

Hall and Nash first met when both were solo acts in WCW and they went on to work together either as opponents or a team in WWE, NJPW, Zero-1 Wrestling, TNA, JCW, and dozens of other smaller companies throughout the world. Whether friend or foe onscreen, their friendship grew no matter what country they were in or which company they were working for, always finding new ways to bond, mostly by rising above the typical B.S. they appear to find highly prevalent in the industry.

Because they’ve grown older and their abilities have started to wane, Hall and Nash haven’t been appearing on screen much lately. It looks like they’re still hanging out and growing as friends, though, and that probably won’t stop anytime soon. Keep reading to learn 15 things you never knew about the friendship of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.

15 15. They Met At The First SuperBrawl

1991 was not a good year for WCW. Technically speaking, it was also the first year of the company’s existence, with Ric Flair officially recognized as WCW and not NWA World Champion for the first time in January. They also held the first SuperBrawl Pay-Per-View in May, with so few viable top challengers for Flair they needed to call in an outside ringer, NJPW star Tatsumi Fujinami. More relevant to our discussion, the undercard also featured Oz versus Tim Parker, a meaningless squash that indirectly made history. Oz was of course a bizarre L. Frank Baum-inspired wizard portrayed by Kevin Nash, and that evening, Nash encountered a young new hire named Scott Hall backstage. Hall would debut as The Diamond Studd the next month and soon begin traveling with Nash, fast forging a friendship that would follow the two throughout the rest of their lives.

14 14. They Bonded Over Green Interests

Nothing causes friendships to form quite like sharing similar interests and depending on what that interest is, the friendship might cement itself pretty quick. Considering how close they became, Hall and Nash probably found countless such shared interests between them, but one in particular was particularly important when they initially crossed paths. According to Nash, both he and Hall were big fans of marijuana at that point in their lives and part of the reason they traveled together was so they could be nearby a fellow smoker. The two also loved drinking together, something that spiraled out of control for Hall leading to him going through rehab dozens of times. Given that fact, hopefully Hall has cut marijuana out of his life. Nash on the other hand has been outspoken about his belief athletes especially should experiment with medical marijuana for pain relief amongst other reasons.

13 13. They Were Both In The Diamond Exchange

While the New World Order was understandably the group that sent The Outsiders to the history books, it actually wasn’t the first stable in which the two were members. During their first runs in WCW, both Hall and Nash were clients of “Diamond” Dallas Page and thus members of his Diamond Exchange. Hall was then known as The Diamond Studd, as mentioned, and Nash transitioned from Oz to Vinnie Vegas when he became DDP’s bodyguard. Granted, the reason so few fans are aware of this likely stems from the fact Hall and Nash weren’t technically members at the same time. If anything, Nash joined because Hall made the jump to WWE, leaving Page without any wrestlers to support him. Nash wasn’t alone in replacing Hall, also joined by Scotty Flamingo, aka Raven. Although Hall and Nash weren’t in the group at the same time, it would later become hugely important that they were involved with Page at all, a fact we’ll get to soon as this list continues.

12 12. They Had Power In The WWE

Far more important than The Diamond Exchange, and arguably even bigger than the nWo, Hall and Nash were also members of the infamous backstage group The Kliq. Formed on the onset of Nash jumping from WCW to WWE, The Kliq started as a union between Hall, Nash, and Shawn Michaels, with Sean Waltman and Triple H joining soon after. In addition to simply being close friends, The Kliq was known for using their relationships with Vince McMahon to influence WWE storylines, especially insofar as they pertained to the Kliq members themselves. Nash in particular was accused of using his pull to earn a nearly yearlong WWE Championship reign, while Hall flirted with the main event his entire time in the company, as well. This same sense of camaraderie followed The Outsiders to the nWo, though they never quite became as close with any of their WCW co-workers in a similar degree to Michaels, HHH, and Waltman.

11 11. They Treated Triple H Like A Newbie

Triple H was the last member of The Kliq to join and he had the least experience in WWE and pro wrestling in general at the time The Kliq was at their most powerful. According to The Outsiders, when Triple H initially joined the group, he was basically treated as a permanent designated driver who they repeatedly reminded hadn’t earned the right to hang out with them otherwise. In one instance, the three were driving with The 1-2-3 Kid, and The Kid took so many pills he passed out. Nash and Hall took turns slapping The Kid to try and wake him up, and as soon as HHH started doing the same, they grabbed him and told him he hadn’t earned the right to do so. Eventually, Hunter proved he was more than a mere DD, become a genuine friend to all three men in the story and especially his BFF, Shawn Michaels.

10 10. Did Vince Know About The Curtain Call?

In 1996, both Nash and Hall’s WWE contracts were coming to an end, and they made the decision to leave WWE when Vince McMahon couldn’t pay as much as Ted Turner’s WCW. Before they left, however, they wanted to have one last huge moment together, and with all of their friends, as well. In what has since been dubbed The Curtain Call, Hall and HHH joined Nash and Shawn Michaels in the ring after a steel cage match for the WWE Championship at the conclusion of a May house show in Madison Square Garden, and the four engaged in a group hug. Nowadays, feuding wrestlers shake hands and pat each other on the back in the middle of WrestleMania, but at the time, it was seen as a huge breach of kayfabe for the heel Diesel and HHH to hug the face Michaels and Ramon. While this did in fact ruffle a few feathers backstage, the incident has been hugely overblown in retrospectives and many claim Vince knew about it (and approved it). Aside from Triple H having the 1996 King of the Ring taken away from him, a loss he obviously recovered from, the wrestling world at large was generally unaffected and everyone was quick to forgive and forget when the people involved all became huge stars.

9 9. Dispute With Hogan Over Wolfpac Name

As mentioned, the impetus for The Curtain Call was that Hall and Nash made the jump from WWE to WCW, and they all wanted to say goodbye to one another. Once that was out of the way, they were clear to dominate WCW on an even higher level than they ever came near in WWE, by way of creating the New World Order. Only a couple weeks after the Curtain Call, Scott Hall made his debut on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro, with Nash following two weeks later. The next month, Hulk Hogan shocked the world by turning heel and completing the triumvirate and changing wrestling forever. Hogan may have been the leader of the group, but Hall and Nash defined the nWo style and swagger with their humorous personalities, something they would occasionally call out Hogan for attempting to co-opt. They were specifically peeved when Hogan started calling the three of them “The Hollywood Wolfpac,” noting the real Wolfpac was Nash, Hall, and X-Pac. Of course, WCW would change the meaning yet again, but that’s an entirely different story.

8 8. DDP Played A Big Role In Them Getting Hired

This list has already covered that Hall and Nash were both friends with “Diamond” Dallas Page during their first stints in WCW, with the promise DDP would come up again when they made their return to the company. Said promise referred to the fact DDP has recently been claiming he played a pretty significant role in getting Eric Bischoff interested in The Outsiders to begin with. Page has actually gone back and forth on the issue, previously having said he had no idea they were coming until Hall showed up on Nitro. That might have been kayfabe, as now Page is arguing the whole thing started in his garage, during a conversation with Eric Bischoff. Bischoff made an offhand remark somewhat confirming the story in one of the many nWo related DVDs WWE has produced over the years. Neither explained what exactly was said by Page to inspire Bischoff to hire The Outsiders and come up with the idea, and to be completely fair, tons of people have taken credit for so many pieces of the story there’s no point in quibbling over it anymore. Point is, Page was friends with both Nash and Hall, and he says that had something to do with Bischoff wanting to hire them.

7 7. They Got In A Shoot Fight With The Nasty Boys

By wielding considerable backstage influence wherever they went, it was only a matter of time before The Outsiders started making enemies. In WWE, there were people like Bam Bam Bigelow and Shane Douglas arguing their careers were held down, while two of their real-life foes in WCW decided to take things to a more physical level. The Outsiders were instantly the most talked about team in wrestling when they formed and as such they won the Tag Team Championships almost immediately, holding them almost a full year, with only a few days worth of gaps throughout. During this time, they feuded with a number of teams considerably beneath their pay range, most notably The Nasty Boys. The feud wasn’t necessarily any better than the one with, say, The Faces of Fear, but it did have a far more memorable moment when a match at a house show turned into a shoot fight after Kevin Nash accidentally(?) aggravated Nasty Boy Sags’s neck injury. Sags knocked out Hall, but The Outsiders ultimately survived the fight, won the match, and got the hell out of there. The Nastys were later punished by way of Sags getting fired.

6 6. 1998 Was A Tough Year For Hall

In addition to their many successful years together as a tag team, Hall and Nash have almost been famous for their numerous feuds against one another, both in WWE and WCW. In WWE, the two feuded over the Intercontinental Championship, engaging in their first high profile match against one another at SummerSlam 1994. Their next Pay-Per-View match was a significantly bigger deal, coming two years after their dominance of WCW began. Throughout the summer of 1998, Hall and Nash remained integral pieces of the nWo, but Hall’s role in the group started to diminish thanks to his personal problems and Nash started his schism with Hogan that ultimately lead to the creation of the onscreen Wolfpac. The times Hall actually showed up to work, he sided with the Black & White, officially turning on Nash at Slamboree 1998 and leading to The Outsiders exploding and wrestling one another at Halloween Havoc. Their problems didn’t last long, and they were back together less than two months after the match.

5 5. Their Last Reign In WCW Ended When Hall Was Injured

The most dominant tag team in WCW history wrestled their last match together for that company in 1999, going out with a bang as the Tag Team Champions. The duo were defending the belts on Thunder against Bret Hart and Goldberg, whom they had just defeated on Nitro two days prior to win them. Hall was also the United States Champion at the time, and could have been a triple champion if not for the fact he threw away the WCW Television Championship a few weeks earlier when neither he nor Nash wanted it. Unfortunately, what was looking like the peak of Hall’s career came crashing to a halt when he was injured and stripped of both belts, leaving Nash without a partner in doing so. Hall returned only two months later, but at that point Nash was taking four months off himself, and Hall would get fired before Nash made his return.

4 4. They Wrestled As The Outsiders In WWE

The Outsiders might have been done as a tag team in 1999, but that hardly meant they stopped hanging out or even working together. Less than three years later, WCW was out of business and WWE came calling with an opportunity for them to reunite the band, with Hogan once again along for the ride. The trio mostly wrestled either in singles matches of six-man tag matches where they could all participate. They did at least get to wrestle one match as The Outsiders, though, against the super team of The Rock and Hulk Hogan, which is forgotten by many nowadays. The match occurred the night after WrestleMania X8, the same night Hogan officially branched away from the nWo and brought Hulkamania back to the masses. Not long after the match, Hall was fired for his continued substance abuse issues,and Nash suffered a devastating quadriceps injury that looked to put an end to The Outsiders once and for all. It turned out, however, they still had one more big time run left in them…well, kind of.

3 3. They Won Their Last Championships Together In TNA

It would probably go without argument that Scott Hall was the better worker between him and Kevin Nash during their time as a team (and in general), but he also suffered a considerably steeper decline in his skills over time due to his severe substance abuse issues. This didn’t create any problems during their first stint in TNA as The Kings of Wrestling with Jeff Jarrett, but they also never teamed as a duo during this run, only once competing together in a 6-man tag with Jarrett as their third partner. The Outsiders reunited as a tag unit in 2010, taking advantage of Nash’s Feast or Fired title shot after the former champion Matt Morgan (individuals can apparently hold the tag titles in TNA) had been attacked by Samoa Joe. Hall and Nash would only actually wrestle two matches together for the company, once in a loss to Team 3D prior to winning the belts, and once defending them against Ink Inc. Hall’s legal troubles caused TNA to vacate the belts and The Outsiders have yet to wrestle for a major American promotion since.

2 2. The Real Third Man Was X-Pac

In relation to The Outsiders, all discussions of “the third man” refer to Hulk Hogan’s status as the final member to join the nWo. In reality, the third man in their friendship has always been Sean Waltman. Whether known as The 1-2-3 Kid, Syxx-Pac, X-Pac, or simply The Kid, Hall and Nash have many times explained that the real Wolfpac was the two of them and their little buddy, who also served as their dual closest friend outside of one other. Hall and Nash were so defensive of Waltman they both were furious to discover Eric Bischoff fired him in 1997, though neither had many options when it came to conveying that anger, considering their contracts were too good to walk away from. Regardless of their inability to save Waltman’s job, the friendship between the three never faded and now, it’s rare to see Hall and Nash’s relationship mentioned without Waltman sneaking his way into the story, as well.

1 1. Nash Has Always Had Hall's Back During His Substance Issues

As this list has proved, it’s near impossible to talk about Scott Hall without repeatedly referring to the many substance abuse issues he’s suffered throughout his life. Being Hall’s best friend, Nash has always supported him in the quest at bettering himself and staying away from drugs in the future. Regardless of the role marijuana and pills may have played in the early days of their friendship, nowadays Nash tries as hard as anyone else if not harder to ensure his friend stays clean. Kevin once claimed he’s closer with Scott than he is even with his own wife, showing just how deep the bond between the two is and making it clear how important it is to Nash that Hall stay healthy and away from drugs. The battle of an addict never ends, but with friends like Nash and the wrestling community supporting him, hopefully Hall will overcome his demons. Until then, The Outsiders can at least look back on a career and friendship that was just…too…sweet.