Eric Bischoff believes that one change in WCW could have made the nWo even more of a success.
When Scott Hall walked through the crowd and into the ring on the May 27th, 1996 episode of WCW Monday Nitro professional wrestling changed forever. At the time fans believed that Hall was still signed with the WWF and when he promised a war, no one knew quite how true those words would prove to be.
Two weeks later, Hall was joined by another now former WWF star Kevin Nash, and at Bash at the Beach, Hulk Hogan turned his back on WCW, and a “New World Order of professional wrestling” was born.
The nWo went on to dominate WCW and became one of the greatest and most popular factions in wrestling history. However, it’s often claimed that the group’s insane growth, success, and incredible backstage power were also the downfall of not only the faction but WCW as a whole.
At its height, the nWo featured a huge portion of the WCW roster and encompassed multiple splinter factions, and there seemed to be no plan for how to move the forward, something many involved have since admitted.
Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff who was running WCW at the time and even formed part of the nWo at one stage admitted this lack of planning hurt the group. Reflecting on the rise of the nWo, Bischoff suggested that more could have been done to give a definitive plan for the group and control its growth.
“Well, I guess you qualify it as a regret, I try not to regret much in my life,” Bischoff said. “Just learn from it and move on and don’t beat myself up over it. Looking back, again kind of going into the fantasy booking or hypotetical scenario, if the circumstances were different it would’ve been nice to have a more definitive plan. Yes, I wish that there would’ve been a better long-term plan, a more definitive plan. I wish that we would have managed the growth and the success better.”
Recently Eric Bischoff admitted he regrets bringing Bret Hart into WCW.
What Happened When Eric Bischoff Tried To Buy WCW?
By January 2001, WCW was struggling and struggling badly. Fans were leaving in droves, viewing figures had plummeted and the company was losing money seemingly at every turn. However, Eric Bischoff believed he had a solution. The former Executive Vice President headed up an investment group known as Fusient and placed a bid to purchase the company.
In fact, the bid was initially accepted and it appeared that WCW had been saved. Despite this, the new Head of Turner Broadcasting cancelled all WCW programming which essentially closed the company. With no network to broadcast its product, Bischoff and Fusient pulled out of the deal and WCW was instead purchased by WWE.
Bischoff recently claimed that the deal which fell apart is his biggest “what if?” in wrestling.
Bischoff recently admitted he regrets not giving Bret Hart better entrance music.
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