Those that have been Loyal Readers and/or Listeners of HLS for some time know that I love professional wrestling. Hilarious true fact: it was banned while I was growing up.
However, like any good, rebellious teenager, I broke the rules. One day, while flipping through the channels, I saw Hulk Hogan on my TV. Even though I wasn’t allowed to watch wrestling, I knew who this all-American hero was–except fans were booing him and throwing trash at him. Before I could sort out my confusion, some guy with his face painted like the Crow dropped from the rafters and beat the hell out of everyone.
I was hooked.
And now, Hogan’s heel faction, the nWo, that hooked me into pro wrestling has so many hilarious parallels to Notre Dame’s pseudo-membership in the ACC. I just had to make some new merch for this occasion and, like all new merch, it’s 35% for 72 hours in our store.
It’s not even stretching a comparison or joke at this point: a group banded together, many coming from outside the company and had themselves a hostile takeover of an established brand. Not only that, when Hulk captured the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, he spray-painted it and called it the nWo Championship (hop to 6:30 for the actual act):
While the nWo eventually lost the title and, like all things in pro wrestling, the group ended, Notre Dame has an opportunity to do what no one else has done or can (probably) ever do again: win a conference title and leave with the gold, remaining champion…FOR LIFE.
- Epilogue - January 3, 2022
- HLS Podcast Finale - January 2, 2022
- The Final Fiesta: Notre Dame vs Oklahoma State NCAA ’14 Sim - December 31, 2021