Ric Flair recalls wrestling the New World Order alongside Kevin Greene and Roddy Piper at Slamboree 1997.
This year at the WWE Hall of Fame, the New World Order will be honored for their contributions to professional wrestling.
Arguably, the pivotal faction and storyline of WCW’s entire run as a promotion, the New World Order changed the perception of good guys and bad guys in wrestling and helped create the boom period in professional wrestling that existed in the 1990s.
Because of their reliance on a new school vs old school mentality, the New World Order typically fought with Ric Flair and other legends signed on to WCW at the time.
At WCW Slamboree in 1997, Ric Flair teamed with Roddy Piper and NFL player Kevin Greene to take on the NWO Wolfpac trio of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Sean “Syxx” Waltman.
During a conversation with Ric Flair on Sean Waltman's new podcast, Pro Wrestling 4 Life, Ric Flair recalled what it was like to team with Kevin Greene and Kevin Greene having real animosity towards Scott Hall.
One element of the night that sticks out in Ric Flair's mind is his payday for the match being left than Kevin Greene’s.
"Here's the deal. I know you don't remember this, but the funny thing about this -- and these are the things that got major heat with me with Eric [Bischoff]. He paid Kevin Greene, who just passed away but a very close friend of mine, more for that [match at Slamboree 1997] and the TV's leading into it than he paid me in a year. Okay, that's heat. Okay, and then number two, he and Piper -- Kevin stayed there [in Charlotte, NC], Piper went home, I go to Asheville [for Nitro] with you guys and all three I take your finishes. Boom-lick in the middle of the ring. Which is fine, but why is it just me? I look back on it now and say, 'of course I get why it was me, but you know Eric -- it was cool when we won in Charlotte, okay."
Regarding Kevin Greene having an issue with Scott Hall, Hall, Nash, and Waltman were notoriously seen as difficult to deal with back in those days and the former NFL player wanted to take matters into his own hands after Scott Hall continuously ribbed him.
“Do you remember Lakeland TV? I came and told you, or I told Kevin [Nash], I said, 'Man, you got to have Scotty [Hall] ease off of Kevin [Greene]. He was ribbing him. I told Kevin, I thought I told you, I said, 'Kevin called me, pulled me in the locker room, little Lakeland, Florida, right, that building, right. Said, 'I'm going to kill Scott Hall.'' Said, 'Is he making fun of me?' I said, 'No, no, he does that to everybody,' but I mean he wasn't dumb, he's ready to -- oh yeah, it was really intense with him, man... Kevin's one of those guys, he's like an MMA fighter almost. It's hard to slow him down, so intense, but that's the way he lived his life and that's why the guy ended up in the hall of fame."
This year, Sean Waltman, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall take their place alongside Ric Flair as two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductees. The ceremony, which will encompass both the 2020 and 2021 classes of the Hall of Fame, will air on Peacock, the new home of WWE Network in the United States.
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