Where to start, where to start...
The year is 1991. Ted Turner had recently bought the
rights to The Wizard of Oz and a bunch of other old MGM
movies, and it was set to debut on TV soon. So, in one of
the silliest cross-promotional ventures of all time, Turner
decided that World Championship Wrestling, which he owned,
should have an Oz-related character to help advertise the movie.
And so, at SuperBrawl '91, Kevin Nash debuted as "The
Great and Powerful Oz," coming down to ringside with his
manager (The "Great Wizard," played by Kevin
Sullivan) after an exceedingly silly entrance and squashed Tim
Parker in under a minute. And, that was probably his finest
moment in WCW.
After feuds with such "luminaries" as Ron Simmons,
Johnny Rich, and Bill Kazmaier, Nash was moved into an even
dumber gimmick: Vinnie Vegas. The typical Italian stereotype,
good ol' Vinnie dressed in snappy outfits, spoke with an accent,
donned the goofy looking sunglasses--the whole routine. And have
I mentioned that he WRESTLED IN A TUXEDO?! Who does he think he
is, Mick Foley? Then again, this is the same company that
thought up The Shockmaster, the White Castle of Fear, the
Disney Tapings, and Cheetum the Evil Midget ALL IN THE SAME
YEAR. Stinger, STINGER! Come into my WHITE CASTLE OF FEAR!
Suffice it to say that incarnation didn't last long,
as Nash became a glorified jobber and soon left WCW. He was
picked up by the World Wrestling Federation in 1993 as a favor
to WWF star Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), who was (and still is)
good friends with Nash. He became Diesel, Shawn Michaels'
bodyguard. He wore sunglasses and basically stood around acting
menacing.
He gained legitimacy at Royal Rumble '94, tossing out
wrestler after wrestler and making a decent run at it before
being eliminated by about ten wrestlers at once. As Nash, Hall,
Michaels, and Sean Waltman (the 1-2-3 Kid, later X-Pac) began
working together more and more, they all became good friends and
formed The Clique. They'd only sell for each other, having
great matches with other Clique-members and basically refusing to
job to anyone else.
Diesel won the WWF Intercontinental Championship in
mid-1994, and he began to wrestle more and more as a single. He
broke away from Michaels at Survivor Series '94, turning
face in the process. From there he began his rise to
the main event, winning the WWF Championship from Bob
Backlund, beating him in a whopping six seconds (three days
after Backlund won the title from Bret Hart in a grueling
40-minute match).
Nash would hold the title for nearly an entire year, finally
dropping the title to Bret Hart at Survivor Series '95 in a
great match. That would be the beginning of the end, as Nash
would be on jobbing duty for the next five months until
leaving the WWF in April '96 (after a terrific farewell match
with Shawn Michaels at IYH: Good Friends, Better Enemies). He
left after being offered more money by WCW, and is believed to
still be on amicable terms with the WWF.
On the first ever two-hour episode of WCW Nitro, Scott
Hall (who also had recently left the WWF) made a surprise
appearance and said that he was there to "take over."
The next week, Nash appeared with him. They claimed that they
were there from the "big organization up North" and
were there to invade WCW. They get challenged by Sting, Randy
Savage, and Lex Luger to a six-man tag team match at Bash in the Beach '96, which Nash and Hall
accept--saying that their 3rd man will be revealed later.
The match arrives soon enough, and who should show up but
Hulk Hogan, turning heel for the first time since 1982 and
joining Hall and Nash (known together as The Outsiders) in
forming the New World Order. Nash would go on to great
popularity as a result of this angle, although he and Hall were
forced to take somewhat of a backseat to Hogan. The Outsiders
would win the WCW Tag Team Titles on numerous occasions,
winning them for the first time from Harlem Heat at Halloween
Havoc '96 and holding onto them for over a year and for the
better part of the next eighteen months in total.
Nash became involved in the booking of angles a few years into
his WCW stay. He most notably used this power to book himself
into ending Goldberg's undefeated streak at Starrcade '98,
winning the WCW World Title from Goldberg in the process. This was
awful booking, as Goldberg never truly recovered from the
Starrcade loss. (Note to bookers: Do NOT have your #1
babyface lose at the biggest show of the year, especially if that
wrestler is on a months-long undefeated streak!)
Nash would go on to win the WCW World Title 4 more times over
the next few years. He'd disappear from WCW in late 2000, and he
hasn't been seen in the wrestling world since.