Eric Bischoff Recalls The Downfall Of The nWo
On the latest episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff reflected on the downfall of the nWo which was originally formed in 1996 with Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Kevin Sullivan’s belief that the nWo never made a babyface: “I love Kevin Sullivan, he’s a very good friend. Nothing but respect for Kevin, but I disagree with him on that. And I think Diamond Dallas Page would disagree with that. I think Goldberg would disagree with that. I think Sting would disagree with that. I think there are a number of people that could argue that point, and justifiably so.”
On whether the nWo was bad for WCW and if he has any regrets with it: “Well there’s — I guess you could qualify it as a regret. I try not to regret much in my life. Just learn from it, move on, and don’t beat myself up. But you know, looking back again, kind of going into the fantasy booking or hypothetical scenario. If the circumstances were different, it would’ve been nice to have a more definitive plan. Especially, you know — yes. I wish that there would’ve been a better long-term plan, a more definitive plan. I wish we would have managed the growth and the success better. Because the nWo — look, and again, I’m gonna try real hard not to be redundant and say things that I’ve said before. But anybody that’s listened to me for any length knows that I have said many times, it’s easier to create momentum than sustain it. And the nWo era and experience probably make me feel that way more than any other.
“I put so much time, effort, and thought creatively into launching what became the nWo. The premise, the storyline for the first three, four, five, six months. And not to make excuses ’cause this is not an excuse, it’s just a reality for me anyway. I didn’t anticipate success. I didn’t anticipate how big and how powerful the nWo as a storyline would eventually become. And as a result, at least partially, I think once we got into it any thought of putting an end to it or coming to a conclusion in that storyline. A final act if you will. It was the farthest thing from my mind. It was more like, ‘Oh, holy smokes. We’ve created this monster. How do we leverage it? How do we make it bigger? How do we make it stronger? What do we do with the success that we did not anticipate?’ Had it been any other type of storyline or angle, whatever you want to call it? We probably would’ve immediately, or almost immediately, been thinking, ‘Okay, let’s play this thing out. Let’s see where this goes. How do we want it to end? What’s the conclusion? What’s the goal?’ But because of the rapid — it was meteoric, it wasn’t just rapid success. It was an explosion that nobody saw coming. And I think that kind of took me off track, a lot of us. So yeah, I would’ve loved to have a more definitive plan. I would’ve liked to have a better third act, the final scene if you will. That’s not a regret, but that’s something I definitely learned.”
On the glory period of nWo: “I think the weeks leading up to the Hulk Hogan turn, the anticipation that we built, the ‘Who’s the third man?’ The fact that we definitively, in a very successful and powerful way, created questions with the ‘Who’s the third man’ angle. That was an exciting time. And again, it was early on. We didn’t know, we had no idea how successful it would become. But that period of time from say, April of ’96 when things started really coming together in my head. And then bringing Scott Hall in, and then shortly thereafter, bringing Kevin Nian and creating the, ‘Who’s the third man’ story? That’s pretty freaking cool. Pretty cool. It’s a tie though. It’s a close one, because the period of time going into Nitro was equally as exciting. There was a lot of pressure; there was a lot of unknown. We had no idea if we would be embarrassed going head-to-head with WWE, or if we’d really be competitive and launch a primetime show to go head-to-head with the monster. That’s the kind of pressure I dig. That was pretty cool too. So, I don’t know. I guess it would depend on what mood I’m in at any particular moment.”
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