By Michael Moore, PWTorch collectibles specialist

In Brief: Figures, shirts, and other NWO memorabilia are favorites among many wrestling collectors.

Fifteen years ago, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall were the hottest thing in wrestling. For a few years, the New World Order made World Championship Wrestling the top wrestling promotion in North America. During this time, NWO merchandise was everywhere: t-shirts, toys, toy cars, posters, and trading cards.

Today, NWO memorabilia is extremely popular with wrestling collectors. Visit any toy or trading card forum, and you are bound to find a collector showing off his NWO collection or looking to pick up something new.

In 1996, NWO t-shirts became the coolest wrestling merchandise since the yellow Hulkamania shirts of the mid-1980s. The plain black shirts with a white logo looked more like heavy metal t-shirts than wrestling shirts; longtime fans weren’t embarrassed to wear these shirts, and new fans were putting them on as well.




If you’re looking for an NWO shirt today, they aren’t hard to find. WWE is offering classic shirts at wweshop.com for $24.99. If you want an authentic NWO shirt from WCW, there are dozens being sold online at sites like eBay and Amazon at any given time for $10-15.

The popularity of the NWO is a big reason the 1998 and 1999 Topps WCW sets are among the most widely collected and valuable wrestling trading cards ever produced. Those sets contain the first – and most valuable – certified autograph cards of Hogan, Nash, and Hall. They’re tough to find and still command big bucks: Hall typically sells for $100-150, Hogan sometimes as much as $200. In fact, this remains the only certified autograph of Scott Hall ever produced.




There are much more affordable autographs from Nash and Hogan, thanks to the abundance of TNA cards made by TRISTAR. Nash’s signature is especially affordable; you can probably find one for $5-10 if you’re patient. Hogan’s autograph isn’t cheap, but is still considerably more affordable than it once was. A Hogan signature from one of the TNA products can probably be found for $75-100.

WWE also made NWO memorabilia cards when the group reunited in 2002. Cards containing pieces of black t-shirts worn by Hall, Nash, and Sean Waltman were produced by Fleer in 2002 and 2003 and can still be found today for just a couple dollars.

The earliest NWO action figures weren’t particular popular with fans in the 1990s, and time has not done much to increase demand for these figures. The WCW figures by Toy Biz were often considered among the worst wrestling figures ever made among kids and adult collectors alike; WCW figures of Nash, Hogan, and Hall were often poorly made and broke easily. You can still find most of these figures fairly cheaply online.

The one vintage NWO figures that continues to be in demand is a black and red Sting figure from his days with the NWO Wolfpac. The figure includes a removable trench coat and red Wolfpac t-shirt. This figure was included in an “Evolution of Sting” boxed set, which contained six figures of Sting during various points in his career. The set was unloaded to discount toy stores in 2001 for around $19.99; today, that set sells online for $70-80; the loose Wolfpac figure sometimes sells for $15-20. Even the tiny red shirt that came with Sting is a popular item: collectors looking to customize their own figures sometimes pay $5-10 for this small item.

Collectors of wrestling figures seem to prefer the various NWO figures of Hall, Nash, and Hogan that were produced by Jakks Pacific as a part of its Classic WWE Superstars line. The Classic Superstars Series 8 figure of Hogan was voted by collectors at wrestlingfigs.com as the best WWE figure ever made by Jakks Pacific.

Collectors loved the attention to detail in this figure; Hogan had his NWO beard, black tights, and weight belt. He also came complete with a do-rag, black and white feathered boa, and WCW World title belt with “NWO” in big black letters on the front. This figure remains one of the most popular and sought after figures ever made by Jakks. Figures still in the package regularly sell for around $50, while loose figures usually fetch $20-25.




Jakks also made plenty of Nash and Hall – and Diesel and Razor Ramon – figures as well. Ringsidecollectibles.com offered an exclusive two-pack of the Outsiders a few years ago, which had Nash and Hall in red and black outfits and came with an NWO World title belt as well. That site still has some of these figures left, and regularly offers them for sale for as low as $15.99; check ringsidecollectibles.com this weekend, as the package may be included in Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals.

Since taking over the WWE line of figures in 2010, Mattel has yet to produce any NWO figures. With Kevin Nash back in WWE – not to mention using the old NWO theme music – there’s a good chance that at least Nash will be included in Mattel’s WWE Legends line.

Question of the Week: What wrestling item would you most like to receive as a gift during the holidays this year? Send your response to michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com. Selected answers will be included in next Tuesday’s collectibles column.

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