The New World Order became the hottest act in the wrestling business from 1996 to 1998. WCW surpassed WWE in the Monday Night Wars to develop a strong ratings lead thanks to the faction. Hulk Hogan turned heel for the first time since becoming a top star to join Kevin Nash and Scott Hall as the original three members. WCW eventually added too many members to water everything down.

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We will look back at the names that were rumored to join without ever making it happen. The wrestlers or the creative changed plans to prevent it from happening. Most wrestlers in WCW wanted to join the nWo since it was such an important act that everyone watched. It just never happened for some names that came close. These are ten wrestlers who were rumored to join the New World Order.

10 Sid Vicious

The return of Sid Vicious to WCW in 1999 saw the WCW Hotline teasing it months ahead of his debut. Sid was initially rumored to become part of the New World Order since the faction rebranded in early 1999 to become the top heels again.

Unfortunately, fans lost interest and the company quit on the nWo concept altogether. Sid returned when the company was trying to return to form with normal singles feuds between big names. WCW pushed Sid with an undefeated streak to eventually feud with Goldberg.

9 Diamond Dallas Page

A recent episode of Talk is Jericho featured multiple former WCW stars on the Jericho Cruise breaking down their memories of the New World Order. Diamond Dallas Page revealed he was pitching to be the fourth person to join the group since he was close friends with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

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Everyone assumed Page would eventually join since he was already playing a cool heel character when they recruited him. The speculation made it a great moment when DDP tricked them before attacking the heels. Page revealed he didn’t want to join the group after a few WCW names jumped ship as he’d get lost in the shuffle.

8 Rick Steiner

Scott Steiner betraying his brother Rick Steiner to join the New World Order saw the tag team end. However, the character of Rick struggled on his own without having his brother by his side. Rick eventually turned heel and had an alliance with his brother.

WCW ended the nWo shortly into this and it prevented Rick from officially joining the group. Both Steiner Brothers teaming up as nWo members would have felt wrong given how much they had to fight the heels in the early years of the faction.

7 Chris Kanyon

WCW found slight success with Chris Kanyon playing the masked Mortis character. Fans wanted to see the man behind the mask when Kanyon finally showed his face. The expectations of the audience was for a familiar star, but no one really knew much about Kanyon.

There was speculation of him joining the New World Order since unmasking gave him a real identity for the first time. WCW instead opted to push Kanyon on his own in the mid-card picture so fans could learn more about him. A role in the nWo would have seen him fade away in the background.

6 Meng

Meng

Many of the new members of the New World Order were tag team wrestlers making a career change. Scott Norton, Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner all turned on former partners to join the group. Meng is one name that was considered according to Eric Bischoff on his podcast.

The toughness of Meng would have added another strong enforcer to the group. Meng didn’t show much interest in the idea and WCW feared it would lose the intimidation factor if he was controlled by a faction.

5 Sting

Surfer Sting

Eric Bischoff was struggling to commit to an idea of the third man to join Kevin Nash and Scott Hall in the New World Order. Hulk Hogan was his first choice, but Hogan didn’t seem ready to turn heel when it was first pitched to him.

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Sting was the shocking name in question to join Hall and Nash. The thinking was that the heart of the company stabbing WCW in the back would have made for a huge start to the faction. Rumors ran wild all summer in 1996 about Sting turning heel until Hogan decided he wanted to go with the original idea.

4 Goldberg

WCW tried to bring back the New World Order one more time with the 2000 faction of Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Jeff Jarrett, and Scott Steiner. It was a huge flop with the group now using silver paint and coming off like a weak reunion tour of a washed act.

There were rumors of either Goldberg or Bret becoming the new leader since Hulk Hogan was already gone. Hart was the name selected as WCW kept him around as a name to build around. Unfortunately, multiple injuries prevented nWo 2000 from finding success.

3 Eddie Guerrero

The formation of the Latino World Order saw Eddie Guerrero leading a faction of the cruiserweights from Mexico. Eddie’s group had no association to the New World Order, but there were reports from the Wrestling Observer that WCW considered having Guerrero jump ship.

The selfish act of Eddie would have seen him get pushed in the nWo after abandoning his former friends. This plan never worked out and Guerrero’s WCW run never hit the potential he hoped to achieve. WWE used him significantly better to create an iconic legacy.

2 Triple H

The WWE version of the New World Order fell apart when fans started cheering Hulk Hogan since he was the company’s top face of the 80s and early 90s. Scott Hall was also removed from the group when fired for personal issues.

Kevin Nash was tasked to lead the new version of the group with Big Show, X-Pac and a returning Shawn Michaels. There were a few segments of the nWo extending help to a face Triple H. Rumors indicated Triple H would have become the next leader of the group, but an injury to Nash saw WWE end the nWo in its last incarnation.

1 Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho revealed on his podcast that he asked to join the New World Order in early 1998. The heel character of Jericho clearly had great potential once he started showing it, but there was zero desire to join the faction.

Jericho knew the group was already too big with the mid-card and lower card names gaining little since they’d never move up the card. The desire to get pushed on his own saw Jericho take less money to leave WCW for WWE the following year. If Jericho joined the nWo and stayed in WCW in the long term, it’s hard to envision him having such a legendary career.

NEXT: 5 Reasons The nWo Was WCW's Best Faction (& 5 Why It's The Four Horsemen)