Curtain Call: How An Unscripted Goodbye Changed The Course Of Pro Wrestling

by Dan Ryckert

  Nash offered to stay if McMahon could match the offer, but it wasn’t possible. If Nash was suddenly making so much more money, McMahon said that he’d have to match the offer for other top stars like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and the Undertaker. In an uncertain time for the industry (and in a rare moment), the patriarch of the WWF simply couldn’t afford it. Nash went to his home in Destin, Florida and discussed the matter with his wife. When he returned to Vince, he let him know that he’d be leaving with Hall when their contracts expired.

  “I could have stayed,” Nash says. “All they had to do was match Turner’s deal and they wouldn’t do it. I didn't wanna go anywhere. At the same time, I have an eight-month pregnant wife, I didn't know how much money I was gonna make each year, and it's hard to raise kids. I'm a businessman and a family man, but I'm a pro wrestler too. That's what I do. I don't care what anyone said. I was playing for the New York Yankees and I was going down to the fucking Toledo Mud Hens. I might have been getting double the bank, but there was no way on God's green earth that there was a perception that WCW was anything but a second-rate pro wrestling company, period. And I'm giving up Diesel to go back to a place that put me in a fucking green dunce cap."

  Two of the WWF’s top stars were leaving for an organization that was quickly becoming more and more of a threat. All that was left for Hall and Nash was a final night in Madison Square Garden, and a final chance to say goodbye to the Kliq.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE CURTAIN CALL

  With the internet in its infancy on the national level, many wrestling fans were still turning to “dirtsheets” such as Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for inside information regarding the industry. While the looming departure of Hall and Nash was never addressed on WWF programming, hardcore fans knew that the days of Razor Ramon and Diesel were nearing the end.

  May 19, 1996 was the final WWF show for the duo, and it promised to be a memorable one thanks to it occurring at an untelevised event in Madison Square Garden. Like seniors in high school or an employee working during their two-week notice, Hall and Nash headed to the famous arena with a devil-may-care attitude.

  “We’re driving up to the fucking building,” Nash says. “Scott looks at me and goes ‘this is the last time we’re going to be at the Garden. Let’s work this motherfucker stoned.’ I said ‘Man, I haven’t been stoned for three years.’ We pulled one out, he had a little bit of fucking weed, and we smoked one. We walked into Madison Square Garden and the house [attendance revenue] was like a $350,000 house.”

  “In my first match in Madison Square Garden, the arena was half full,” Hall says. “My last match there was sold out. Four close friends in the ring, the place was sold out, and we had made it through a successful run here and nobody got hurt. We knew we were going on to WCW to see what lay in wait for us there, and we felt like we had to say goodbye to the WWF fans.”

  Some fans were unwilling to accept the departure of the two popular stars.

  “At that point, the internet wasn’t such a huge deal,” Hall says. “A lot of the marks [casual fans] didn’t know I was leaving, but about half the arena did know. I really felt good where the company was going. People were chanting ‘please don’t go’ as I walked to the ring.”

  Those chants quickly turned from pleading to antagonistic. After Hall lost to fellow Kliq member Triple H, hardcore fans began chanting “You sold out!” at the departing star.

  “I didn’t have a microphone then, but I remember pointing right at Vince since he was standing right outside the curtain,” Hall says. “I pantomimed ‘You tell him that if he gives me the money, I’ll stay right here.’ Vince just looked down. Now I’m feeling like such a mark for myself, I grab the mic and my standard gimmick was ‘Say hello to the bad guy.’ I said ‘Say goodbye to the bad guy.’ I swear half that crowd said ‘Goodbye to the bad guy.’”

  When Hall walked back through the curtain, McMahon made one last desperate plea for him to reconsider.

  “Vince was mad at me for giving my notice, which I never really figured out,” Hall says. “He acted like I stood him up for prom. He said ‘Darnit, you still work for me, let’s work something out.’ I said ‘Vince, I don’t know. I told Bischoff [the WCW executive that offered Hall and Nash contracts] that I’m coming tomorrow. It’s a little late. Where were you months ago?’”

  The final match on the card was Shawn Michaels versus Kevin Nash for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, and the Kliq knew that they wanted to do something special for their last night at the Garden together (Waltman wasn't working the show that night). After the main event, the Kliq wanted to all meet in the ring for one last goodbye to their friends and the WWF fans.

  "We had discussed it," Michaels says. "We're at the last day and it's a match between me and Kevin. The Garden is sold out for the first time in we don't know how long. Hunter comes up and goes 'Are we doing it?' I was like 'I don't know...ask Vince if we can do it."

  As the champion and current face of the company, Michaels was untouchable. Hall and Nash would be out the door soon, so the group feared repercussions falling upon Hunter.

  "We didn't want to get Hunter any heat," Nash says. "Shawn walked in [McMahon's office] along with myself and Scott. We said to Vince, 'Hey, this is gonna be the last time we're gonna be in the Garden. At the end of this thing, do you mind if we come out as The Kliq and kinda hug, do a little curtain call?' Vince didn't have a problem with it"

  With permission seemingly granted, Shawn and Nash wrestled in front of the sold-out Madison Square Garden within the confines of a steel cage. In an ending that any wrestling fan could have seen coming, Shawn Michaels defeated the departing Nash. After hitting his Sweet Chin Music superkick finisher on his former bodyguard, Shawn began celebrating with the title as his music blared and pyrotechnics erupted out of the scoreboard above the ring.

  After about two minutes of theatrics from Shawn (while Nash laid flat on the ring, selling the effects of the superkick), his former rival appeared in the aisleway.

  "I go strolling down this aisleway," Scott Hall says. "I’ve got a good history with Shawn, particularly in Madison Square Garden. I go stepping through that cage and the people are rumbling. I’m looking at Shawn like ‘I might jump your little ass.’ He just runs over and hugs me, which kinda kills the whole story I was telling."

  Casual fans may not have found anything odd at this point, as Michaels and Hall were both fan favorites at the time. Fans that paid attention to the inner workings of the industry knew that there was more significance to this scene than two good guys sharing a hug, however.

  Michaels and Hall exchanged the trademark Kliq hand signal (the middle two fingers pressed against the thumb, with the index finger and pinky finger extended upwards) and embraced, followed by Hall raising the WWF Champion's arm in the air.

  It was time to rouse Nash, who was still lying motionless on the mat. Michaels bent down over his real-life friend and on-screen enemy, and encouraged him to get to his feet. If the sequence of events had ended here, large portions of wrestling history would have been drastically changed. One additional element changed the landscape, however.

  As Nash rose to his feet, the villainous Triple H entered the ring and immediately embraced the babyface Michaels. Everything up to this point had made sense from a kayfabe perspective, but an embrace between a babyface and a heel that had shared minimal storyline interaction shattered the fourth wall for the New York crowd in attendance.

  Hunter raised Shawn's arm in the air and the duo walked over to the corner to meet Hall and Nash. All four men displayed the Kliq hand signal and then embraced in a group hug. When they separated, all four men raised each other's hands in the air and exchanged several more hugs.

  While this was occurring inside of the ring, several of the WWF wrestlers backstage looked on in shock.

  “These days, everybody’s kinda smart as to what’s going on," Steve Austin says. "Back then, even after all the exposes and 20/20s and all t
he bullshit, the business was still somewhat protected. Damn sure it was protected in Madison Square Garden in a steel cage. All of a sudden The Kliq goes out there and hugs and I’m thinking ‘what in the fuck is going on?’ from behind the curtain. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Madison Square Garden is hallowed ground. You don’t break kayfabe back in the day at Madison Square Garden.”

  The men involved in the Curtain Call seemed less concerned about kayfabe and more interested in saying goodbye to their friends, however.

  "It was four guys that had been fucking through hell and back," Nash says. "Through so many years, a thousand days at least on the road together. Man, we hugged and we went to the corners, I looked out in the crowd and there were people crying because everybody knew we were leaving. In retrospect, was it the right thing to do? Probably not, but it was never done with any kind of malice. It was asked for and it was done out of respect for the guys. What we had talked about in the car was that this isn’t the end of The Kliq, man...this is just divide and conquer. We were going to go down south and take over the other fucking company while you guys still fucking run this one. We basically looked at it like The Kliq is going to run the wrestling world. Take this shit global."

  "A lot of guys were really angry like we were trying to hurt the business," Hall says. "I wanna go on the record and say that was nobody’s intention. It just kind of morphed into this big thing. I felt like I was never gonna see these fans in Madison Square Garden again, and I wanted to say goodbye to them and thanks for their support. The four of us have never been together one time since that night."

  "It became a lot more than what people thought it was going to be," Nash says. "I remember Davey Boy (a wrestler that worked under the name British Bulldog) was one of the guys that went right to Vince and said 'What the fuck is that? You're gonna let these guys break kayfabe? These two sons of a bitch are going down south and you're gonna let them kill the Garden off?' It just steamrolled from there. By the time we got through the curtain, Vince was standing there. As we walked by, I looked at him and he didn't turn his back on me but he turned just enough to feel kinda like 'Fuck you, Nash.'"

  “It wasn’t my idea," Vince McMahon said years later. "It’s not what I would do, but maybe it was the right thing to do. Then again, maybe it was the wrong thing to do because it broke the mold of the way someone leaves. Nonetheless, when the Curtain Call took place, it was something extemporaneous. It was something the audience enjoyed, by the way."

  Others within the company weren't as cordial with their thoughts.

  “I felt like it was a slap in the face to the business," former WWF writer Bruce Prichard says. "I felt it was a slap in the face to Vince McMahon, to Vince’s father, and to his whole family.”

  Reactions in the locker room ranged from passive aggressive to openly hostile, but Nash and Hall left without hard feelings of their own.

  "I thanked Vince for everything he did for me, because he made me," Nash says. "I came in there and I was nobody, and Vince was the first guy that saw something in me. Vince McMahon made me, and I owed Vince. But I also owed myself and my family, and it's not like I didn't work my ass off."

  When they exited Madison Square Garden that night, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall left the World Wrestling Federation for Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling. With wrestlers, writers, and members of management stunned at the blatant shattering of kayfabe, somebody would have to take the fall for it. What would up happening kicked off a series of events that greatly changed the entire landscape of professional wrestling for the duration of its most popular boom period and beyond.

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE FALLOUT

  Eight days after the Curtain Call, Scott Hall immediately made an impact on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro. Entering through the crowd in street clothes, the former Razor Ramon hopped the guardrail and grabbed a microphone. As announcer Tony Schiavone sold shock, Hall announced to the world that change was coming to Turner's organization.

  "You know who I am," Hall said. "But you don't know why I'm here." After mocking Turner, Eric Bischoff, and Randy Savage, he ended the promo by saying "You wanna go to war? You're gonna get one."

  Hall continued interrupting WCW broadcasts for two weeks, and was eventually joined by Nash on June 10th. The two were portrayed as outsiders from the "other company," and challenged WCW stars Sting, Randy Savage, and Lex Luger to a match at the upcoming Bash at the Beach pay-per-view. Nash and Hall promised that a "third man" would be joining them for the six-man tag match, and the early days of the internet went wild with speculation regarding his identity (WWE stars such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker were all rumored).

  The match began without the third man present, and Hall and Nash used heel tactics to gain the upper hand throughout. With Randy Savage on the mat, Hulk Hogan entered the arena, presumably to defend his friend from the villainous outsiders. Instead of coming to Savage's defense, however, he shocked the Daytona Beach crowd by performing his signature leg drop on the Macho Man. A chorus of boos erupted from the Ocean Center crowd, with many tossing garbage into the ring at the three former WWF stars.

  Hogan, Hall, and Nash began referring to themselves as the New World Order, and the storyline was an immediate success. Eric Bischoff came up with the original plan after witnessing a similar invasion angle during a visit to Japan, and he wasn't shy about repeatedly referencing McMahon's company. He'd directly ask the men "Do you work for the WWF?," and many fans weren't quite sure of where the line between fantasy and reality was drawn.

  With WWF losing many of their top stars and WCW striking gold with the NWO angle, things weren't looking good for Vince McMahon. The famed Monday Night Wars (referring to the battle between WWF Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro for ratings dominance) began with Turner's organization as the clear top dog. For 84 consecutive weeks, they defeated Raw in the weekly Nielsen ratings.

  “It was pretty clever, quite frankly, on the part of Bischoff or whoever’s idea it was to position them as invading WCW," McMahon says. "I thought ‘uh oh, now I’m really in trouble.’”

  One of the main factors that eventually put McMahon back on top was the popularity of Stone Cold Steve Austin, and his career path would have been decidedly different if not for the events of the Curtain Call.

  While Nash and Hall were stirring up trouble down south, Vince McMahon was left cleaning up the mess left behind by their departure. Breaking kayfabe so brazenly warranted punishment, but McMahon had few options. Shawn Michaels was the WWF champion and arguably the biggest star in company at that point, so downgrading him made little sense. Nash and Hall were gone, and Waltman wasn't involved with the incident. There was only one place for the hammer to fall.

  “Vince kind of had his back to the wall and somebody had to pay the price for it," Hunter says. "I took it all, I took the brunt of it.”

  Prior to the Curtain Call, McMahon had plans to put Hunter on track to become a future top star. An annual event called King of the Ring had traditionally been used as a launching pad for similar pushes, and Hunter was scheduled to win its 1996 edition in June. Because of his involvement in the Madison Square Garden incident, however, plans were reworked.

  Hunter's spot was given to Steve Austin, who came into the company as a generic grappler named The Ringmaster, but began gaining steam after being repackaged as Stone Cold Steve Austin. This ruthless heel persona grabbed the attention of fans, but he hadn't yet been given a big stage to showcase his natural in-ring ability and remarkable skills on the microphone.

  That moment came at the 1996 King of the Ring tournament. 1980s star Jake "the Snake" Roberts attempted a comeback at the same time as a short-lived sobriety stint, and his promos frequently utilized religious themes.

  Steve Austin faced Jake Roberts in the finals of the King of the Ring tournament, but Austin had missed Roberts' promo thanks to an accident that occurred in the semi-finals. There, Austin's lip was busted open by Marc Mero thanks to an
errant kick, and required 14 stitches. He was rushed to a Milwaukee hospital for the procedure and then taken back to the arena in time for his match.

  Upon Austin's return, creative team member Michael "P.S." Hayes informed him that Roberts' promo was religious in nature, saying "You might want to remember that." Austin had always been a fan of football, and remembered seeing "John 3:16" signs in the crowd during field goals and extra points. On the spot, he came up with one of the most famous promos of all time. When Hayes interviewed him after his defeat of Roberts, a fired-up Austin glared at the camera and made everyone take notice of a future legend.

  “You ain’t got what it takes anymore," Austin barked as Roberts was being escorted backstage. "You sit there and you thump your Bible and you say your prayers and it didn’t get you anywhere. Talk about your psalms, talk about John 3:16...Austin 3:16 says ‘I just whipped your ass.’ Steve Austin’s time has come. When I get the shot, you’re looking at the next WWF Champion and that’s the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so.”

  One night later at Monday Night Raw, the crowd was a sea of "Austin 3:16" signs. WWF's marketing team wasted no time in creating a shirt emblazoned with the slogan, and this became one of the most successful and iconic pieces of merchandise in the history of the wrestling industry. On top of the instant phenomenon of "Austin 3:16," Stone Cold had also birthed a second catchphrase with "That's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so."

  If there was one wrestler that was more responsible for WWF besting WCW in the late 1990s than any other, it was Steve Austin. While Austin certainly had the skills and motivation to become a top star, it was King of the Ring 1996 that strapped a rocketship to his back. Without the Curtain Call, however, it's entirely possible that the Austin phenomenon would have taken much longer to occur. Considering the state WWF was in before Austin's ascension, taking more time for a superstar to emerge might not have been an option.