WCW Fall Brawl 1997 saw a traditional WarGames match pitting the Four Horsemen against representatives of the New World Order. The pairing made sense with the Horsemen traditional masters of the gimmick against the faction that was in many ways their successors as main event heels and WarGames fixtures (they’d feature in WarGames scenarios from 1996 until the company stopped running these specialty matches).
The main point fans remember from this match, though, was that newly minted Horseman Curt Hennig turned on his allies to join the nWo, costing them the match and arguably putting the last nail in the coffin of The Horsemen as a legitimate threat. What if Hennig hadn’t turned heel at all, but rather remained a Horseman?
WarGames Itself Might Have Been Great
The 1997 edition of WarGames wasn’t bad—certainly not as poor as the more experimental editions in the years to come that were really only WarGames in name. Nonetheless, it didn’t stand out and most fans only remember it for Curt Hennig promptly turning on his team and setting up a nasty finish with him threatening to slam Ric Flair’s head in the cage door to get his teammates to surrender.
While Hennig was no longer in his prime, he was still an elite worker. His efforts, combined with Flair’s, and with Syxx on the opposing side could have made for one of the last great WarGames matches in WCW, whether or not the Horsemen won in the end.
Curt Hennig Might Have Been A WCW Main Eventer
Curt Hennig is often considered one of the great missed opportunities as it pertained to all-around talents whom WWE never pushed to full-fledged main event status. WCW could have made good, minting their own new top guy with a babyface Hennig, backed by The Horsemen, a credible challenger to Hulk Hogan’s WCW title, and perhaps even a world champion.
Hennig was the kind of performer who might have singlehandedly elevated the WCW main event picture, including headlining opposite fellow stars who could go in the ring like Randy Savage or Scott Hall, besides still working feuds with Bret Hart or Diamond Dallas Page with more stakes attached.
The nWo Vs. The Four Horsemen Might Have Been A Great Faction Feud
Looking back, on paper, fans might think of the New World Order vs. The Four Horsemen as a great rivalry between iconic stables. The reality is that the Hollywood Hogan and company mostly dominated the feud, outsmarting The Horsemen when it mattered and prevailing in most major match scenarios.
Part of the problem was that The Horsemen were hamstrung with outstanding talents like Dean Malenko, who nonetheless weren’t over with fans at the main event level, leaving Ric Flair as their only star with the credibility to hang with the top five or so stars of the nWo.
Curt Hennig could have bridged that gap, pushed as a top-level babyface who re-legitimized the group, rather than getting lost in the shuffle as just another guy in the nWo. Like the very best faction feuds, this one might have run across multiple team scenarios and different one-on-one matches between the two lineups.
In the end, we’ll never know quite what would have been if Curt Hennig had stuck with The Four Horsemen rather than joining the nWo. Just the same, Hennig did feel like a squandered talent there for his forgettable work with the nWo after the original turn and getting wedged into The West Texas Rednecks faction, which he made the most of but was a bit beneath his talents. Working alongside Ric Flair as the top Horsemen—and perhaps even still feuding with him in time—could have been special.
