Eric Bischoff spoke about a backstage incident in WCW between Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash on the latest episode of his 83 weeks podcast. The former SmackDown executive director reveals that Hogan nearly pulled out a knife during the confrontation, something he states is uncharacteristic for the Immortal One. Highlights are below.
Says the incident occurred right before Nitro went on the air:
It was probably as bad as it had ever gotten at that point. There’s a lot of details I just don’t remember because some of them were childish, or silly, or bad communication, much more so than actual intent,” said Bischoff. “Nevertheless, there was a moment that must have been about 5:00 – I think we had an hour before [Nitro] was supposed to go live, as we were Rocky Mountain time and went live at 8:00 eastern. I remember where we were standing backstage. Where the entrance is, we were standing back there. It was me Hulk, Scott, and Kevin. Of course, I’m all 5’10” 190 pounds and surrounded by these guys, so I didn’t have a lot of success mediating. I did the best I could as the boss, but it got really, really intense. Hulk is not a violent guy and Hulk will avoid conflict usually. He’s a hippie deep down in his heart. He’s not aggressive and doesn’t threaten to kick anybody’s ass. He’s the opposite of all of that and avoids conflict, but I had never seen him as pissed off as he was that afternoon. I don’t know what the issue was and I don’t think anybody knew what the issues was. Everybody was just pissed off at each other.
How he saw Hogan have a knife in his fanny pack:
I looked down and Hulk’s fanny pack is open and I see a knife in there. I’m thinking, ‘What the f***,'” Bischoff said while laughing. “I’ve heard of this thing happening and I’ve heard of these kinds of stories, but this can’t possibly be happening, and of all people not Hulk Hogan. There was enough tension, anxiety, and nuanced threats that Hogan came half-expecting there to be sh*t go down.
I saw a Hulk Hogan who was uncharacteristically aggressive and appearing to me he was ready to throw down in a real way. Not in a wrestling way, not in a showmanship way, not in a bar when you’re trying to impress everybody with how tough you are – in a real way. In that moment, I was standing next to a guy who was ready to go because he believed he didn’t have a choice. When I looked down and saw his fanny pack, I saw a blade in there and went, ‘Oh f***, this is gonna be bad. This can’t possibly be getting to this level.’ Can I tell you what was going through Hulk’s mind? No. Can I tell you he had never carried a knife before until that night? No, I can’t say that either. He may have and it may have been a coincidence, but it didn’t feel like one at the moment.
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.
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