The Return of the nWo

After the bombing of the InVasion angle resulting from WWE's purchase of World Championship Wrestling, Ric Flair was brought in as the storyline co-owner of the World Wrestling Federation. Vince McMahon, unable to cope with having an outsider running the promotion, he built, vowed to inject his company with a "lethal dose of poison". McMahon screamed that he was going to kill his creation. He then spun around, revealing an nWo logo painted on the back of his chair.

Flair pleaded with McMahon not to bring the nWo in, but it was to no avail. Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash returned to World Wrestling Entertainment at the No Way Out pay-per-view event in February of 2002, costing Stone Cold Steve Austin his shot at Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho. The next night, Hogan had a confrontation with The Rock, wherein Rocky challenged the Hulkster to a match at WrestleMania X8. Hogan accepted, but took a Rock Bottom afterwards. Hall and Nash appeared and attacked The Rock, and Hogan used a hammer on the back of Rocky's head. Then, commandeering an 18 Wheeler, Hogan repeatedly rammed the ambulance holding Rock.

Meanwhile, Scott Hall segued into a feud with Austin, culminating in a match between the two at WrestleMania. Austin won despite repeated interference from Nash. Then came the showedown between Rock and Hogan.

The match, given Hogan's age and limitations, was quite good. The Rock won after kicking out of Hogan's famous legdrop, and hitting him with two Rock Bottoms and The People's Elbow. Afterwards, Hogan and Rock shook hands and posed, leading Hall and Nash to attack Hogan. Rock saved him, and Hogan was again a babyface.

The next week on WWF SmackDown, X-Pac returned and joined his buddies Hall and Nash in the nWo. Hall was fired soon after, and his spot in the nWo was given to The Big Show. Booker T joined several weeks later, but, around this time, Flair turned heel and nonsensically sided with the nWo. He had Big Show lost a handicap match to Stone Cold at the Judgement Day event in May of 2002.

Realizing the nWo was floundering, Nash announced on WWF Raw soon after that his old friend, Shawn Michaels, was the newest member of the nWo. Michaels wasted no time in making an impact, kicking Booker T out of the nWo. Then, he and Nash announced they would attempt to recruit Triple H to Raw from Smackdown, in order to join his friends in the nWo.

The next week, Nash, Big Show, and X-Pac, along with Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit, teamed up to for a match against Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Goldust, and the Dudley Boyz. During the match, Nash tore his quadricep, putting him out of action for months. The next week, Vince McMahon announced that, finally, the nWo was dead. Of course, Kevin Nash is set to return soon, so we shall see if this is permanent.