The New World Order is one of the most successful factions in the history of wrestling, and even though it ballooned out of control as years went by, its initial formation in 1996 was the jumping off point for WCW to go on their historic 83 week winning streak in the ratings against "WWE Raw." But what would a universe look like had the nWo gone down like a fart at a funeral? During a recent edition of his appropriately named "83 Weeks"podcast, former Senior Vice-President of WCW Eric Bischoff explained that he did have a backup plan if the nWo story didn't work, and it involved an entirely different group of people.
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"By that time, the cruiserweights were really starting to get over," Bischoff began. "I mean, there was enough steam behind these guys that it would have been a lot easier to tell a story with them. Because their performances and their characters were now over because of the product presentation, and whatever booking went into it. They would have been hot enough in that scenario to take a run with. They were the hottest thing on the show, with the exception of the nWo. So, if the nWo wasn't there, by default what are you going to do next, or instead? You're going to do the next best thing, which would have been the cruiserweight division. Those guys possibly could have had those opportunities."
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Some of the cruiserweight stars would get their own version of the nWo in 1998 when Eddie Guerrero led the Latino World Order. Considering Bischoff would have turned to them had the nWo failed, the formation of the LWO happened when Guerrero shot on Bischoff out of frustration for the Mexican wrestlers, and the cruiserweight division by proxy, not getting enough opportunities.
Please credit "83 Weeks"when using quotes from this article, and give aH/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
