Well, I think the NWO served more as an enemy to be defeated, rather than the revolutionary body it was hoping to be. I think it caused an upset in the company that the good guys had to make up for by making some of its members whipping boys.
It started with the first Nitro I watched back in June 1997. It started off with Ric Flair taking on Scott Hall and the match consisted mostly of Ric Flair using Scott Hall as his punching bag. After Scott flicked his toothpick in Flair´s face, Flair laid into him with a barrage of punches to his body and face, none of which Hall blocked or countered and ended up flooring him. Hall fought back, but Ric Flair low blowed him with a heel kick and then got him in the figure four, Sean Waltman, who was at ringside during the match, had to interfere to cause a DQ.
Another time, Randy Savage was beaten up by Sting and I still remember Savage standing there, taking the punches, before going down. The other NWO members at the scene recieved the same treatment or worse.
Want another example? Kevin Nash threw a punch at Bret Hart after Bret interfered in one of his matches, Bret blocked it and laid into Kevin Nash with a number of punches that floored him and Bret was about to put Nash in the sharpshooter.
If the NWO had never happened, I believe WCW would´ve been so much better off. They wouldn´t have had to make the fan favs hand the heels their asses in a way that made it painfully obvious the bad guys had to be punished for becoming too powerful. I feel that it was just such an awkward period in WCW´s otherwise endearing era.
