A man dressed in plain clothes emerges from the crowd to taunt Sting. Fans recognize him as the WWF’s Razor Ramon. But what was he doing in WCW? Two weeks later, the WWF’s Diesel joined him in taunting the WCW wrestlers.

To most wrestling fans, it seemed like Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) and Diesel (Kevin Nash) were actually crashing Nitro. The announcers played it up that they were still under contract to the WWF, and can’t be on WCW TV. It seemed like a dream come true: Finally a WWF vs. WCW dreamcard could be possible.

Internet fans knew of the departures months ahead of time. In a shocking development, the WWF actually announced the signing of Kevin Nash to WCW on their AOL site as early as February. And Scott Hall’s problems were well documented.

WCW was always known as the southern wrestling promotion, a federation from the south, and for southerners. It changed slightly with the appearances of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, but it wasn’t until the Outsiders came to WCW that the promotion had a street credibility with fans all across the country, and most notably in the Northeast, which had traditionally been WWF territory.

The appearance of Hall and then Nash changed everything. It made fans everywhere sit up and take notice. It energized a Nitro show, which had been growing stale. It cost the WWF two of the cornerstones of its “New Generation.” But most importantly, it signaled the beginning of a movement which would come to a momentous climax a few months later.