On this date in history: War Games at Fall Brawl 1996 -- WCW vs. nWo

The New World Order (nWo) started taking over World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in May of 1996 when Scott Hall first showed up on Monday Nitro as an invading force from up north. He was joined two weeks later by Kevin Nash and they created The Outsiders. Once Hulk Hogan switched sides and coined the nWo name at Bash at the Beach in July, it was really on.

The first major battle to take place between the two sides went down on this date in history (Sept. 15, 1996) when four members of the nWo (Hogan, Hall, Nash, Sting) took on four members of WCW (Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Sting) in a War Games match at the Fall Brawl pay-per-view (PPV) in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Wait ... what?

Yes, this was the start of the dramatic character change for Sting, who went from a charismatic California surfer type to a much darker, more sinister gimmick known as "The Crow," named as such after the movie of the same name that was the obvious inspiration for the character.

It started when the nWo debuted a fake Sting (played by Jeff Farmer) and fooled everyone into thinking the real Sting had defected from WCW, including those he called friends, most notably Lex Luger. It came to a head in the match itself when the fake Sting came out in favor of the nWo but was revealed to be fake when the real Sting was the final member to hit the ring for WCW.

Sting cleaned house, running wild over everyone. When he was done silencing the doubters, the Stinger looked at Luger and said, "Is that good enough for you?!?" He then left the ring amidst a cloud of shock and confusion, leaving his team to lose to the nWo.

The next night on Nitro, he took it once step further. But that's for tomorrow.

After the jump, watch the match itself, which was awesome and augmented by a really hot crowd in Winston Salem.

Also on this date in history: The Bella Twins make their pro wrestling debut in FCW