Eric Bischoff doesn’t believe Vince McMahon could have ever created the New World Order, arguing that the revolutionary faction was built on a creative philosophy that was completely foreign to the longtime WWE Chairman.
Speaking on 83 Weeks, Bischoff was asked how long he thinks the nWo would have lasted had the concept originated in WWE under McMahon’s leadership. While Bischoff praised McMahon’s overall success in the wrestling business, he said the idea itself never would have made it past the pitch stage.
“He would have never come up with it. And I say this not because I think I was a better creative person than he was. Obviously he’s got a much better track record than I do and the billions of dollars to prove it, so that’s not even a question here.”
Bischoff explained that McMahon simply approached wrestling from a completely different creative perspective.
“There’s a sensibility, there’s a perception, there’s a perspective… it’s not Vince. Vince could not have conceived of it. It would have been alien to him.”
According to Bischoff, many of the ideas that helped WCW overtake WWE during the Monday Night Wars would have been immediately rejected if they had been presented to McMahon.
“Everything I did would have been alien to him. His head would have f****** exploded if somebody would have suggested some of the stuff that I did in a meeting with Vince prior to me actually doing it and kicking his ass.”
Bischoff believes the biggest obstacle would have been McMahon’s unwillingness to allow an outside force to dominate WWE television for an extended period of time, which became one of the defining elements of the nWo storyline.
“It was the kind of creative that was totally alien to Vince McMahon at the time, and probably still is.”
Co-host Conrad Thompson agreed, pointing out that one of the reasons the nWo became so successful was because the faction consistently got the better of WCW for nearly two years.
“The biggest piece we all know for sure is what made the nWo so successful is they kicked WCW’s ass for a long time. And we know Vince McMahon was not going to let any other outside company look stronger than WWE on WWE programming. Not for one month, much less 18 months… two years.”
More than 30 years after the faction’s debut, the nWo remains one of the most influential storylines in wrestling history, with Bischoff maintaining that its success came from a creative approach that simply wasn’t compatible with McMahon’s vision for WWE.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit 83 Weeks, with a h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.
