It has been almost 30 years since World Championship Wrestling struck gold when Hulk Hogan joined the dark side, becoming “Hollywood” Hogan and aligning with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. The formation of this group of villainous renegades helped put the company on the map. altering the future of the business forever. Its impact inside and outside the ring is explored through Marc Raimondi’s book “Say Hello To The Bad Guys: How Professional Wrestling’s New World Order Changed America.”
The historical deep dive into the nWo sees the ESPN reporter take readers from the nWo’s black and white roots to evolving into a global pop culture phenomenon. One that created a ratings and box office bonanza, causing WWE to change course in order to survive. This trip down memory lane peels back the curtain to provide an inside look at what went on with the major players, ego power trips, creative clashes, courtroom battles between WWE and WCW, and everything in between.
“Wrestling fans I think will dig the book, but I really want non wrestling fans to read this book,” Raimondi said. “I’m excited about the possibility and potential of nonfans or lapsed fans reading this book and having a different view of wrestling. Viewing wrestling in a different perspective instead of just the stigma that it’s fake or just for kids or why are you watching that. It’s art. It’s an artform.
“I’ve always said it is the greatest art America has given to the world, and I do believe that. I feel very grateful to not only write about a group in a time period very near and dear to me. Also, try to indoctrinate into this weird space we’re in. I think wrestling is for everyone, and I would love for people to pick up this book who maybe are not fans and say, ‘Let me figure out this happened. How did wrestling become so important to American culture?’ That’s kind of the hope.”
One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is examining the legal wars between WWE and WCW. Titan Sports Inc. v. Turner Broadcasting, which was spurred by Scott Hall’s arrival from one company to the other. It almost didn’t make the book as Raimondi explained there was talk it deviated from the flowing narrative of the chronology. However, the importance of the story outweighed all that. The questions of what constitutes intellectual property in wrestling? Where does the character begin and the real person end? What made Razor Ramon, Razor Ramon? The lines are blurred on many levels.
“I was able to get around 4,000 pages from the lawsuit that nobody ever has gotten before. I was proud in that sense from a journalistic standpoint that I was able to uncover stuff nobody had seen before,” Raimondi said. “These depositions for Scott Hall and Eric Bischoff. These are statements given in the ‘90s that nobody has ever seen before. I thought that was really cool. Getting to interview the lawyers from both sides Jerry McDevitt from WWE and David Dunn from WCW and to hear their perspective of it.
“Jerry McDevitt has worked with it for a very long time. David Dunn has not. They are not necessarily in the wrestling business per say, but they are in the legal business. The way they were able to explain to me that case was so interesting. The book is about how the nWo and pro wrestling changed America. This is another way I think the nWo affected America because this was a really important legal case as far as trademark law and intellectual property. Even the side case with Mark Madden as someone who is dispensing information. Wrestling in the ‘90s helped shape the precedent of what constitutes a journalist in the eyes of the legal system. That is mindblowing to me.”
At the core for much of the story is the dynamic between Hall, Hogan and Nash. The three Hall of Famers went through it all, for better or worse. Hall, who died at age 63 in 2022, was clearly an important thread. His contributions can’t be denied.
“I love the Hall and Nash friendship and that relationship because it really was a special friendship from everyone that I spoke to,” Raimondi’ said. “Nash really looked out for Hall. Several people told me how Nash was a big brother to Scott Hall. I can definitely see that from all the stories and anecdotes. It was tough on him because Scott was really struggling a lot in the ‘90s. It was such a fast moving time. Scott’s demons were getting the better of him. He was in rehab a few times and struggling and flipping rental cars in 1998 and not getting injured somehow. He was drunk driving and flipping cars. Kevin Nash always stood by his side. When the times called for when Scott was in rehab they were trying to do an angle with Nahs in the storyline and were going to crap on Hall for not being there. He wouldn’t do it because that friendship is there. The same for Sean Waltman when he got fired from WCW. Those guys were really upset. You could almost trace the end of the really good creative of the nWo to that moment because they pretty much stopped contributing from a creative standpoint with their best stuff. Hall is a creative genius.
“They shut down because they were really pissed off. Bischoff fired Waltman. That friendship is very special; they never turned on each other. You never heard one say a bad thing about the other. That was really a tight knit friendship. Best friends. For life is the saying, btu they really were going back to the Kliq and the nWo. As far as Hogan, at one point in the beginning it was rocky, then they got close, and it got rocky again. I think now 30 years or so later, there is that great bond between a Nash and Hogan and a Hogan and Bischolff and Nash and Bischoff because there is an awareness they did something special together. I don’t think they are best friends. I don’t think Nash and Hogan are talking every week. Maybe not every month, but where is that feeling that if I need him as a friend, he’ll be there for me. And vice-versa. I ended the book that way. I find that to be very special. They really ended up something special for them as human beings and not just a wrestling gimmick or business. Those guys were all about business, but it did end up giving them lifelong friends as well.”
“Say Hello To The Bad Guys: How Professional Wrestling’s New World Order Changed America” is out wherever books are sold June 24.