New World Order (conspiracy theory)

As a conspiracy theory, the term New World Order or NWO refers to the emergence of a totalitarian world government.

The common theme in conspiracy theories about a New World Order is that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government—which will replace sovereign nation-states—and an all-encompassing propaganda whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history's progress. Many influential historical and present figures have been purported to be part of a cabal that operates through many front organizations to orchestrate significant political and financial occurrences as well as significant world events as steps in an ongoing plot to achieve world domination through secret political gatherings and decision-making processes.

Before the early 1990s, New World Order conspiracism was limited to two American countercultures, primarily the militantly anti-government right and secondarily that part of fundamentalist Christianity concerned with the end-time emergence of the Antichrist. Skeptics such as Michael Barkun and Chip Berlet observed that right-wing populist conspiracy theories about a New World Order had not only been embraced by many seekers of stigmatized knowledge but had seeped into popular culture, thereby inaugurating a period during the late 20th and early 21st centuries in the United States where people were actively preparing for apocalyptic millenarian scenarios. Those political scientists were concerned that mass hysteria could have what they judged to be devastating effects on American political life, ranging from widespread political alienation to escalating lone-wolf terrorism.

New World Order (professional wrestling)

The New World Order (commonly abbreviated NWO, in logo stylized as nWo) was a professional wrestling stable that originally consisted of Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. They are best known for their appearances in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The stable originated in WCW with the gimmick of a group of unsanctioned wrestlers aiming to "take over" and control WCW in the manner of a street gang. The group later appeared in the WWF (now known as WWE) after the purchase of WCW by the WWF. A similar group, known as The Band (which would later become interchangeable with the alias "The Wolfpac", a division of the nWo in WCW), appeared on Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2010; although a resurrection of the nWo was implied, this group was never billed as such, since WWE owns the rights to this trademark.

The nWo angle became one of the most influential forces in the mid-to-late 1990s success of WCW and was instrumental in turning mainstream North American professional wrestling back into a more mature, adult-oriented product. Based on the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) invasion angle in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and fueled initially by the unexpected heel turn of Hulk Hogan, the nWo storyline is generally considered one of the most successful angles in the history of modern-day professional wrestling, spawning several imitations and parodies (including groups such as bWo, lWo and oWn). It dominated WCW programming throughout the late-1990s and almost until the dissolution of WCW in 2001, during which time there were several, sometimes rival incarnations of the group.