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[1997-09-01-WCW-Nitro] NWO Four Horsemen Parody


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  • 1 month later...

Here it is - one of the most famous segments ever on Nitro. I actually think this was great as a heat builder to the PPV and was entertaining in many ways, and had it ended with either the Horsemen breaking it up or with the Horsemen getting their revenge at War Games, I think I'd like this a lot more. But this was some pretty harsh personal stuff, specifically in mocking Arn's alcoholism. This went from an angle that was supposed to be broken up by the Horsemen to one where they would not only not interrupt the segment, but get destroyed at Fall Brawl, then have Flair disband the group while Hogan strutted around on Nitro with the sleeves cut out of a Nature Boy robe. They put the exclamation point on this burial.

 

Personal stuff aside, Nash is really funny in this and Syxx is a frighteningly accurate Flair. I still laugh at the "average carpentry skills", "Days of our Lives" and "Remember me how I look right now" lines. And of course, the famous "my spot" jokes.

 

Tony Schiavone is great selling this, especially in vowing to use whatever influence he has to make sure this segment never airs again!

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I've heard this a few times, but I'd like to settle my curiosity on it. Was this Terry Taylor's brainchild? I have heard on a few occasions he was involved in this.

 

I thought it was too harsh to find funny, but that's me. Both WWF and WCW were going into very unappealing areas of "satire" around this time, that I feel was just there to appease the lowest common denominator. I'm with Loss, if it was just designed to do that then it would probably be forgotten or considered less controversial. Whenever someone's personal troubles makes it into angles I have mixed feelings, usually negative. I will give them credit for not making it a running gag, like Oklahoma was.

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Yes, this was a Terry Taylor brainchild. Supposedly, he and Arn were longtime friends and Taylor was just booking pro wrestling, but he obviously took this a few steps too far. There are two things I've always heard about this, but I'm not sure where the truth begins and ends:

 

(1) Terry Taylor booked this originally to have the Horsemen interrupt it and run them off, but Nash nixed that.

 

(2) Nash had no idea that Arn had a real history of alcoholism and apologized to Arn repeatedly after he found out.

 

Not sure what is true and what isn't.

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Yes, this was a Terry Taylor brainchild. Supposedly, he and Arn were longtime friends and Taylor was just booking pro wrestling, but he obviously took this a few steps too far. There are two things I've always heard about this, but I'm not sure where the truth begins and ends:

 

(1) Terry Taylor booked this originally to have the Horsemen interrupt it and run them off, but Nash nixed that.

 

(2) Nash had no idea that Arn had a real history of alcoholism and apologized to Arn repeatedly after he found out.

 

Not sure what is true and what isn't.

From what I've heard, Arn has a wicked sense of humor (I heard he does the best Iron Sheik impression of anyone) so Terry could very well have done it to just make Arn and the boys laugh on top of pushing the angle towards War Games into something more personal. The problem lies in the fact that it lends credence to the undeniable truth that Bischoff felt he didn't need Flair and approved things like this to remind people that Arn and Flair represent "rasslin" and that he was angling for something more, ultimately to measures like putting Vince out of business.

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Maybe someone can clear some things up for me. If both Arn and Flair signed off on this then where did the Flair/Bischoff hostility come from ? Was it all about Flair being booked for that episode of thunder and going to see his kid Reid instead or did the nitro parody/burial play into it ? All I know is it ended up producing one of my favorite wrestling moments from the mnw. I would also like to know if the entire horsemen reunion in 98 was scripted or if Flair just went off on Bischoff on his own. Either way great stuff.

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Flair felt that he was being buried because he was no longer in main events despite feeling that the feud with Savage played a part in turning WCW business around. He also still felt like he could work and talk circles around the NWO, and segments featuring Flair were usually drawing the highest quarter hour rating of the night. In January, his pay-per-view match with Bret Hart drew a surprisingly high buyrate and was the key to the show (which didn't feature Hogan). However, Luger vs Savage was put in the main event spot on the card for political reasons.

 

He saw a program with Syxx as beneath him and wanted to work with a bigger name. He was legitimately moved to tears by Arn's retirement speech and took it personally when the NWO mocked it. Most of the WCW top guys hated Flair at this point so it wasn't even just Bischoff. Bischoff said in a locker room meeting around this time that only Hogan, Savage and Piper had ever drawn money for WCW, and he said this in front of Flair. Flair saw Bischoff as intentionally ruining his career and legacy.

 

Make of that what you will, but that's how Flair saw it.

 

The lawsuit happened because Flair was scheduled to reunite the Horsemen on an April episode of Thunder. Flair had asked for the day off to go see Reid wrestle and the details from there depend on who you believe. Flair says he received approval and Bischoff did not. Bischoff declared Flair in breach of contract and sued him. However, Bischoff had also said things in front of other wrestlers like that he wanted to exile Flair permanently to Japan or bankrupt him, which gave a little fuel to Flair's countersuit.

 

During this time, Flair had also not re-signed with WCW. He signed a letter of intent to stay, but not a new contract. I think there was a dispute over pay, number of dates and some other specifics, but I'm not sure of the details.

 

Flair's Nitro promo when he returned in September 1998 was cleared not only by Bischoff, but by attorneys on both sides. The lawsuit still wasn't fully resolved when Flair returned to TV, but it was in the process of being resolved.

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This segment perfectly represented what the NWO stood for. Nash is a guy I can't stand usually, but he was absolute gold in this. Hell I'll say it was the most entertaining thing he ever did. The prosthetics were hilarious, not least because Nash and Arn were actually the same age. There were some awesome lines, the "Days of Our Lives" one made me laugh most. I watched the retirement promo right before this and the parody was almost spot on recreating the promo. Syxx was great back up too with his Flair. I wish Mongo was as quiet as Konnan. Bagwell was fine but should've come out with 20 pieces of gum in his mouth and spewed them throughout the performance.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Buff is useless as Curt. Syxx is pretty funny and too bad him and Flair didn’t continue their feud. Personal comments aside, Nash delivered some really hilarious lines. Sucks that had to parody a real emotional interview by Arn but this could have led up to the Horsemen getting their revenge at WarGames. And well that didn’t happen. But most of all it was an attack on Arn who was retired and couldn't get his revenge that I disliked about it.

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  • 1 month later...

Hadn't seen this in a long time, but my reaction was similar to a lot of what's already been said here. It was a highly amusing segment that fit the NWO style of heeling perfectly. Nash, Waltman and Schiavone were all great in their roles. And yes, it feels more mean-spirited in retrospect because they didn't pay it off with the subsequent booking. But for a real-time viewer without the ability to see into the future, it didn't seem to cross any uncrossable lines.

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  • 2 months later...

I love this segment so much and find it hilarious. The aftermath at Fall Brawl ruins it and I will cross that bridge when I get there.

 

Konnan as Mongo - C+ : He had the least to work with but did a pretty good job overall. He had the Bears jacket and football prominent. The fingers were taped like Mongo. He does get knocked some points for being in the way of key camera angles like Syxx doing the water works for the first time.

Buff as Hennig - C- : My least favorite performance. he does have the towel and the polo and ponytail but he doesn't really seem to replicate Curt's mannerisms very well and didn't have any fun bits like the gum thing he could have done that was mentioned above. he does nail the "it would be an honor" handshake.

Nash as Arn - A-: Amazing performance here for a seven footer to transform into Arn. The lines and cooler stuff had me rolling.

Syxx as Flair - A: I think this is some of the best stuff ever on tv and showed how big a fan Waltman really was. Him yelling Wooooo throughout his segment with Buff, the dancing, the tears, the wig, MEANNNN GENE. Everything was pitch perfect here.

 

Schiavone as mentioned is awesome trying to talk about his pull on the weekend programming and getting over the disgust.

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  • 6 months later...

Classic segment. Although it's not as hilarious as it supposed to be because Nash simply isn't funny as he thinks he is, as always. He delivers quite a bit of really good lines here though. Syxx was the best, his impersonnation of Flair, complete with the dancing, is right on the spot (pun intended). Bagwell is totally useless, and doing the Mr. Perfect towel bit only accentuate the fact Hennig just has no identity as himself at this point. Really, Buff looks more like a buffed up Bill Alfonso who would have swallowed his whistle. Konnan is okay I guess. I wonder why they didn't even bother to impersonnate Benoit. Vanilly midget mentality maybe, but that is odd.

 

As far as being mean spirited, well, Arn's reputation as a hilarious, sharp tongue-in-cheek guy makes me think this has been blown out of proportion, as Syxx is obviously a huge Flair fan. As far as what part of bullshit came from Nash and Terry Taylor (whom, from several accounts, seems to be an office stooge and a weasel), who knows. Still, this was terrific to build heat for Wargames, and exactly what the nWo was about : total disrespect for tradition. This of course gave us the infamous DX parodies for better or for worse, but also Oklahoma and this kind of crap, so it sure had a bad influence on the product long term. Plus the fact Bischoff really used it to effectively kill Flair and the Horsemen while it was designed for them to get a big time revenge on the nWo also sucks. So yeah, some good and some bad here. One last thing, yeah, Schiavone was terrific selling it.

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  • 1 year later...

There was also supposed to be a cardboard cutout or mannequin here to represent Benoit, which would have been pretty funny in its own right, but for whatever reason that didn't happen.

 

Nash's Arn is so good that the first time I saw this, I actually thought it was Randy Savage playing the role until he got into the ring. He makes me laugh again right off the bat by talking about going into labor. I normally hate Clique humor and I've never liked any incarnation of DX at all, but I found this hilarious at the time and I think it works now. But it did need to end with the Horsemen either clearing house or at least precipitating a brawl--having security "hold them back" in the locker room was total weak-sauce considering how chaotic this show was every single week. Still, overall as a standalone segment, leaving the ugliness of the aftermath aside, this still works great.

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  • 1 year later...

The bad taste in my mouth was that it mocked his very serious injuries that went almost beyond ending his in-ring career. He said the pain after one of his operations was so bad he wanted to kill himself. What gets me is that Kevin Nash, obviously no stranger to major injury himself, didn't balk at it. Hard as it is to imagine after what I've said before and am here, but I don't put as much of the blame on the people who performed the skit anymore than I do someone like Bischoff who took much more glee in doing asinine things like giving away the competition's results and almost depleting ECW of their whole roster. In light of the friction he would have with Flair the following year, it's no surprise that he let this go to air with the full knowledge the NWO would go over at War Games, and putting the final nail in the coffin of that gimmick match.

 

But of course, it doesn't really matter now because it didn't erase Arn's stature or anyone else this supposedly buried. His legacy, in large part to the integral role he plays in WWE now, is set in stone. And when I hear stories like about how Nash offered to drive Flair home once after a show, and someone like Schiavone (who I guess has a neck injury himself?) who thinks of it as he does, It makes me realize what do I know, since I don't know the people center to this. The bottom line is that I never really go for humor that makes light of those who can't defend themselves, and I may take it to a highly sensitive degree.

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