Former WCW President Eric Bischoff has set the record straight on when he decided that Hulk Hogan would be the third man in nWo.
Bischoff, during a recent interaction with the “No-Contest Wrestling” podcast, disputed Hogan’s claim that it was his idea to turn heel in WCW. He recalled the instance when he came up with the radical idea to make Hogan a bad guy in the promotion, which Hogan rejected at first.
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“About eight months before Hulk Hogan turned heel, I went down to Florida during the middle of the week because I wanted to talk to Hulk about the possibility of him turning heel, because the red and yellow thing wasn’t working as well as it used to by that time. He wasn’t getting the reactions that he was used to, we were all seeing it nobody wanted to say anything, but it was kind of not working,” said Bischoff. “So I thought, well I’m just going to go down and put my salesman hat on, you know, pretend I’m selling pop-out caps door to door and I’m going to try to convince Hulk Hogan into turning heel.”
The WWE Hall of Famer stated that he met Hogan at his house in Florida, where he was offered a beer and pitched his idea to Hogan. However, “The Hulkster” appeared unimpressed by the pitch and politely asked Bischoff to leave, on the pretext of picking up his children from school.
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Bischoff on when Hogan agreed to be the third man
Eric Bischoff then narrated how Hogan asked to meet him to discuss future plans in WCW when he was filming a movie. During the conversation, Hogan asked Bischoff about the third man in the nWo. The former WCW President had earmarked Sting for the role, which the legendary wrestler was initially hesitant about, but agreed to be a part of. Bischoff, though, didn’t reveal that piece of information to Hogan.
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“I didn’t want to tell him [who the third man was] not because I didn’t trust him … Hulk is like a child sometimes. When he gets really excited, he cannot keep a secret,” said Bischoff. “I said, ‘Hulk, I don’t know. Who do you think it should be?’ And he went [makes a motion of stroking a beard] curls his lips up like that, looks like a big fish, [and Hogan replied], ‘You’re looking at him, brother.’ Oh, wow, and I got all [excited] because I knew that was big.”
The WWE Hall of Famer, while elated about Hogan being the third man, had the task of telling Sting that he would no longer be the third man, after previously trying hard to make him agree to do it. Bischoff recalls telling Sting that he was unsure Hogan would go through with it, so asked him to be ready to take up the role if “The Hulkster” declined to do it.
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If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “No-Contest Wrestling” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
