Eric Bischoff details influences that almost stopped Hulk Hogan from joining nWo. The legendary faction was formed at Bash at the Beach 1996.
There have been several factions that have managed to capture the imaginations of wrestling fans. None perhaps however, have done it the way nWo did. The legendary faction made it cool to cheer for the bad guys and helped WCW overtake WWE in the ratings for 83 straight weeks.
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All of this began at Bash of the beach 1996. Hulk Hogan aligned himself with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and history was made. On the latest episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast, former WCW President Eric Bischoff detailed every influence that almost prevented this iconic turn.
Eric Bischoff details influences that almost stopped Hulk Hogan from joining nWo
Bischoff spoke about Hulk Hogan’s manager and friend Peter Young. He stated that Young had Hogan’s best interest at heart and tried to talk him out of turning heel.
“I will say that Peter Young truly has Hulk’s best interest at heart so I don’t want to make it sound like Peter was selfish or concerned about himself or anything like that. But, Peter Young is one of those guys that’s always afraid that the sky is going to fall.
“I was pretty sure that he was that voice in Hulk’s ear. He didn’t mean to do it but because of his affection for Hulk and his role as Hulk’s manager, I was pretty sure that Peter was in Hulk’s ear on a pretty consistent basis, trying to talk him out of this in his own way.”
Bischoff also listed Hogan’s then wife Linda as a major influnce. He claimed that she was purely motivated by the money. Bischoff also added that Hogan’s main concern was how it would impact their children.
“Linda was all about the money, she didn’t give a s—t. She was obviously a strong influence. She could wear you down, she had a strong personality and if Linda thought that this would be a bad financial move for Hulk, because let’s face it, heels don’t sell merchandise.
“Generally speaking. Clearly not the case with the nWo because they’re still making money as we heard from Scott Hall a couple weeks ago. But at the time, we didn’t know that. Hulk didn’t know that. Linda didn’t know that. Peter Young wouldn’t have known that. Typically in the wrestling business, once you turn heel, your merchandise sales go down dramatically.
“I would imagine from Linda’s perspective that was a concern but even though the kids were very young, that was one of Hulk’s primary concerns. When I went down to Hulk’s house to talk to him about the idea of turning Hulk, his primary concern was the effect it would have on his kids. The first thing that he brought up. ‘Man, I’ve got young kids that are in school. I live in a community where people are into the Hulk Hogan character. I’m a positive influence and I do a lot of positive things for charities.’
“Hulk was really aware that a lot of those opportunities to work within the community and to sell merchandise. He was venturing into the unknown. Even though Hulk’s merchandising and things like that weren’t as popular as it was in the mid 80s, early 90s, it was still significant. He was still getting a lot of commercial opportunities and endorsement opportunities. He knew that turning heel would be waving goodbye to all of that.
“There was a lot of genuine concern about a lot of issues but the kids were a big part of it even though they were very young, Hulk was very concerned that turning heel would have some kind of adverse effect on his kids. Kids are kids, it is what it is.”
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