May-June 1997: Newly-crowned WWF World Tag Team Champion Shawn Michaels is still sad about his friends Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman having left for WCW a year earlier. He's sick of Bret Hart, sick of the fans, and just sick of the WWF in general. Finally, he goes to Vince McMahon's office and demands his release. They go through the paperwork and Shawn is free.
Setting: WCW Monday Nitro, Fleet Center, Boston, MA, June 9, 1997
The NWO (WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, WCW World Tag Team Champions The Outsiders [Scott Hall and Kevin Nash], Eric Bischoff, WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Syxx, Buff Bagwell, Vincent, Scott Norton, Randy Savage and Elizabeth) all walk to the ring with their usual smug smiles.
HOGAN: "Well you know something Eric Bischoff, as great as everything has been going for the NWO, we have something to announce that will make things even better. Brother Nash, will you do the honors."
NASH: "It is an honor. Please welcome the newest member of the NWO!"
The NWO music hits, and, yes, it's Shawn Michaels. He struts to the ring, embraces his friends first, then Hogan and the rest of the group.
Meanwhile, over at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, CT, newly-crowned King of the Ring Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna are running around with HHH in a panic when he finds that Shawn isn't there. He's pleading to Vince to get Shawn to come back but Vince says that Shawn has jumped to a valid contract with WCW and there's nothing he can do. HHH is terrified, since he realizes that, without Shawn Michaels, he is doomed to be stuck in the elitist blueblood snob gimmick for the rest of his career.