What was the original purpose of the nWo?
Few people would know the answer to this better than Eric Bischoff.
On the latest installment of his 83 Weeks podcast, the former WCW Executive Vice President spoke about the original purpose for the nWo, the lack of success for the WCW Sold Out pay-per-view and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the episode where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On the lack of success for Sold Out PPV: “I don’t think that Sold Out gets a lot, a lot of heat. The kind of narrative over the years because it didn’t perform well financially, but there were a lot of reasons for that. There was more I wouldn’t wanna say a lot. There was more than one reason for that. Any time of the year, you know, is a tough time of year for any pay-per-view. Yes. You’re in WrestleMania proximity that time of year. That’s where all the focus and attention is. So there were a number of reasons why. So that didn’t perform up to expectations, hopes, I should say. But I don’t look at Sold Out as a failure. I liked the idea of Sold Out. I still do. Yeah. When I think about the rationale behind presenting the show the way that I did, I still like the idea conceptually. Could it have been executed better? Of course, anything we watch can be better the next day. There are always ways to make things better. But conceit the idea. I still think was a good one. It was strategic, but it was also creatively so different from anything else we were doing on pay-per-view. And I still believe to this day that if you’re driving 12 pay-per-views a year, you better be really good at figuring out how to give each of them a personality. And Sold Out had a personality; it was different. It kind of shattered the norm of what pay-per-view is supposed to look like. And that was my goal, you know, and you said it, you know, a lot of everything. The NWO turned a goal, and it was working. But you can’t sit back and just go, okay, we’re here. We’re just gonna keep doing this. You’ve gotta push the envelope, and you’re going to, you’re, I don’t know anybody that pushes the envelope that doesn’t stumble and hit a couple of roadblocks along the way or speed bumps. In this case, it was a big speed bump for different reasons. But to this day, I disagree with the idea that NWO was a failure, or excuse me, sold out was a failure. I don’t agree with that.”
On the original purpose of the NWO: “One thing I think people that have never really tried to, who’ve never created anything or been in a position to, you know, your job is to come up with ideas and strategy, right? Your job is a creative job. It’s easy for people who have never been in that position to make assessments or have opinions that aren’t based on reality. You know, do I, as a part of what the concept for the NWO was, which is taking over WCW, that was the personality of the NWO we’re here to take over. It was anarchy meets professional wrestling. That’s what the NWO was. So the fact that the NWO took over the show was sloppy, or there were lulls, or it wasn’t as tight or executed as well, or as intense necessarily. I get all that criticism, and it’s valid criticism. But it also served its purpose that that night wasn’t about getting the highest rating we could get. That night was about continuing to build the theme, the personality, the brand of the NWO and brand building. And help get a lot of people over baby faces. But it didn’t happen over a two-week, three-week, or 12-minute match. The idea was that we were going to crush WCW. We were gonna put WCW at the point where it didn’t look like WCW was going to be able to survive and then make their comeback. So if you look at the NWO and where the NWO is positioned at WCW, you look at the baby faces, and WCW as a whole, in this case, is the baby fa. If you look at the NWOs, the heel and WCW is the baby face. Yes. The idea, if you look at that 12 or 18-month window, where it was really on fire, was like a 12-minute match where the heel had control of the match for 10 of those 12 minutes. That was the idea. So I’m not sure if that answered your question or not. ’cause I actually forgot the question.”
Check out the complete episode via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to WrestlingHeadlines.com for transcribing the above quotes.
