Kevin Nash: "No one cares about the young guys"

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SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — Kevin Nash had one of the most-decorated careers in professional wrestling history.

He's a former WWE intercontinental and tag-team champion, having held the WWE title for nearly one year from Nov. 26, 1994 until Nov. 19, 1995. He then went on to WCW in June 1996 and formed one of the greatest factions in pro wrestling history — the NWO — one month later with good buddy Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan at the Bash at the Beach pay-per-view event.

During his stint with WCW, Nash was a four-time heavyweight champion and nine-time tag-team champ as well. Later this month, he'll rejoin Hall and Hogan for a special NWO reunion.

Recently, Sporting News caught up with the WWE Hall of Famer at Starrcast in conjuction with the All In show. Here, the wrestling legend talks about the NWO getting back together, comparisons between them and The Bullet Club and this Saturday's match between The Undertaker and Triple H at WWE Super Showdown in Melbourne, Australia.

(Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Sporting News: Hulk Hogan announced that the Original NWO, comprised of him, yourself and Scott Hall, will be doing a speaking engagement called “2Sweet The NWO Reunion” on Oct. 27 in Orlando. The NWO 22 years later is seemingly just as popular now as it was back then. Does that surprise you?

Kevin Nash: I mean, two guys who were on top had never left Vince [McMahon] at the same time. Scott and I were six days apart contractually and Hulk was coming back from a movie. We went the “Whose the third man?” angle. The stars aligned perfectly for that thing to happen with Hulk turning heel. We had good chemistry. [Kevin] Sullivan (head of creative in WCW during that period) wanted us to be violent. One of the biggest things was Sullivan letting us be violent and using baseball bats on TV.

SN: What would have happened if Sullivan wouldn’t have allowed you guys to run amok? Would the NWO have gotten over as well as it did?

Nash: Absolutely not. Wrestling was dead. What was over at that point basically was West Coast Rap. We could have imitated something that was close to thug life was going to hit pop culture. 2Pac had a bandana going backwards and so was a 36-year-old white man (laughs).

SN: These days you have the Bullet Club led by Kenny Omega, Cody and The Young Bucks. Fans saw this as the “new school” version of the NWO. Do you see a lot of you guys in them?

Nash: In the outlying aspect, they are. They don’t give a f— and that’s important. They are doing their own thing and not bowing down to the man.

SN: You recently appeared on Monday Night Raw to promote a really good friend of yours, Triple H, facing The Undertaker at the WWE Super Showdown event in Australia. There is a lot of criticism about the match, considering their Wrestlemania 28 match was promoted as the "end of an era," with the legends never to face each other ever again. Yet, here we are again and people are wondering why isn’t The Undertaker facing a younger guy? Why isn’t Triple H facing a younger talent when they can use that rub on a big show like that? What do you think about that feedback?

Nash: No one cares about the young guys. When I watched Summerslam that (Undertaker and Tripe H) package caught my eye and made me want to see that match. I don’t know if I want to see Roman Reigns versus Undertaker again. What more of a rub can you give than that? He’s [been] given rubs before and they just aren’t getting over.

SN: Why aren’t the young guys getting over to get fans to want to see matches like that?

Nash: Who would you put in those positions? You going to put Finn [Balor] in there versus The Undertaker? [Seth] Rollins? Who are you going to put?

SN: Who do you blame for that? Is it the talent or the front office? Or a combination of both?

Nash: I just don’t think there’s going to be guys like that anymore. Those guys aren’t going to have 30 years in the business. This style won’t allow these guys to last 30 years. Rollins already had a couple knee operations, but he’s a great worker. I just don’t see these guys even lasting 20 years because of their bodies and the concussion syndrome. Now, they (WWE) are doing concussion testing and everything else.

SN Exclusive: Kevin Nash on NWO reunion tour, Bullet Club and criticism of The Undertaker-Triple H match
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While I think creative has more to do about stale characters/storylines, he does have a point about how careers are shorter due to the in-ring style of some.
 
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Kevin_Nash said:
In hindsight, I guess I was right in the sense of them killing something.
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It comes down to storylines as much as anything. A lot of these guys have barely had storylines beyond trying to win a belt.

dh86 said:
He said Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit we’re going to kill the business dead 15 years ago. Now guys are making more than he ever did. What gives?
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He was definetely right that those guys weren't real top guy main eventers. Putting them in actual WCW main events in 98 would've ended the ratings war earlier.
 
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People don't care about newer wrestlers because they aren't developing characters, and shytty booking/creative.

Finn Balor is cool and all, but I don't want to watch him trade wins with Baron Corbin for four months.

Roman Reigns is alright as a wrestler, but what's his character other than "I'm Roman Reigns"?

So either you don't have a character, or if you do, you're busy in infinite repeat 50/50 booking.
 
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Starboy52

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He's not wrong, but the burden of making the fans care about them is just as much on Creative and Booking as it is them.

Hate or love dudes outside of the WWE, but through either their own attempts to connect with the fans or through whoever is booking them, they do try to give SOME reason to care about whether or not they succeed. People were legit HEATED that Naito didn't get his due when he faced Okada. People cared whether or not All In would be a success. People cared about Pentagon Jr's run in LU and his run in TNA. Meanwhile, acts like Balor, Sasha Banks, The Usos, etc. can be MIA and the WWE will not bat an eye at it and to some extent, the fans too because it's par for the course.
 
dh86

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CM_Burns said:
It comes down to storylines as much as anything. A lot of these guys have barely had storylines beyond trying to win a belt.



He was definetely right that those guys weren't real top guy main eventers. Putting them in actual WCW main events in 98 would've ended the ratings war earlier.
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WWE did it though, and the company didn’t die. They put Chris Jericho on top on multiple occasions and didn’t adversely affect them either.

WCW putting the same guys in the main event did end the ratings war. Perhaps working Benoit, Guerrero and Jericho in earlier would have warded off WWF’s catching up. The events that sank WCW for good was the finger poke of doom going back to Hogan as champ, and the Hogan Flair double turn that spring. Hell WWE put the belt on Rey Mysterio at a wrestlemania and gave him big money to bring him back. Nash is wrong, unless we’re going with the idea Vince don’t know how to make $.
 
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MushroomX

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There are some truths.

People will care for young guys, if the Company manages them right; WWE fails that by focusing on one main star with not allowing them to become big stars.

Nash is right also, but it blurs with injury. Many stars are not slow or muscular. They are Light Heavyweights. Those bodies aren't built for 30 years. But back in the old days most wrestlers got paid like shyt, where now most have college degrees and can make money aside from Wrestling.
 
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