The nWo has long been hailed as Eric Bischoff’s brainchild and something that truly changed the business forever. However, Bischoff has been accused of ripping off the idea of the nWo and he has now addressed the accusations.
While speaking on Podcast Heat Wrestling, Eric Bischoff responded to Greg Gagne’s claim that he stole the idea for the nWo by saying the story isn’t true and Greg has no credibility. He explained that people like Greg and Vince Russo as well, often take a real event, twist the truth just enough to make themselves look smart and add a small fact to make it sound believable. Bischoff said with Greg Gagne, it’s hard to even find that small piece of truth.
Bischoff said that during his time in WCW, no one from Turner Broadcasting was in the creative meetings, it was just him. He also said he didn’t see any value in Greg’s creative ideas. He admitted that Greg Gagne was good at helping wrestlers understand match psychology and how to tell a story in the ring, but said others were better.
For example, he said Terry Taylor was one of the best when he was focused, and Jeff Jarrett was great at working with younger talent and teaching them how to tell the story from the script inside the ring.
“’Cause he kept that little secret to himself. First of all, a couple things, just from a credibility perspective. And that’s why I love doing these things—because you hear these little bits and pieces, how people, much like Russo did in the beginning, just take a real fact, twist it just enough so they come out looking smart, but still talk about an actual incident. That way, there’s a grain of truth in there somewhere. You’ve really got to dig.
With Greg Gagne, it’s even harder to find that grain of truth. It’s really amazing. First of all, I was the f****** TV people. There was nobody from Turner Broadcasting that would sit in on WCW meetings. That was me. And I didn’t place any value in Greg’s creative ideas. None.
Greg was good at teaching psychology, laying out a match, working with talent. I’ll give him that. In terms of psychology, there were only a handful of people I’ve worked with who were as good as Greg. Let me take that back—there were a handful who were as good, but there were several who were much better. Terry Taylor, for example—if you got him focused, he was one of the best. Jeff Jarrett—of all the people I’ve worked with, Jeff’s at the top when it comes to working with younger talent and helping them understand the story on paper and how to tell that story in the ring.“
Bischoff said that Greg and his father Verne Gagne made a lot of mistakes and ruined many chances. He learned more from them about what not to do than what to do, especially when it came to TV and creative ideas. He also said it made sense that they wanted to sell the old AWA footage since it wasn’t worth much anymore and they needed the money, but that had nothing to do with creating the nWo.
Easy E criticized people who claimed he stole the nWo idea from Japan, saying Japan never had a storyline like nWo. He said both Greg Gagne and Dave Meltzer tried to take credit for the idea, but they were both wrong.
“Greg was really good at that. And that was his only role. I watched Greg and Verne unfortunately f*** up more good opportunities than I can count. Talk about learning from mistakes—I learned more about what not to do from Greg than I ever learned what to do, especially when it came to the TV business or anything creative.
Of course, he wanted to sell the AWA library. It wasn’t worth anything at that point, and Verne needed the money. I get that. I don’t hold that against him or Greg. That’s logical. But to take all of that and spin it into this idea that I stole the nWo from Greg? Give me a break.
The dirt sheet world thinks I stole it from New Japan, even though New Japan never had anything even close to the nWo storyline. But that’s how the narrative started. So, Dave Meltzer and Greg were basically fighting over who I supposedly stole it from—when the truth is, they’re both full of s***. Neither one of them has a f****** clue.”
Bischoff said he actually feels sorry for Greg Gagne. He called him a good guy who could be fun and a decent storyteller, but said that whenever Greg tried to make himself look good, the story fell apart. Just like he couldn’t succeed as a wrestler, he couldn’t make himself look good in his stories either. Bischoff believes Greg only got to where he was in the business because of his father and that it hurt the AWA.
Bischoff finished by saying he doesn’t feel sorry for Greg enough to talk to him again. He compared Greg to an injured animal on the side of the road, still alive, but suffering. He said he learned not to interfere and just let people like Greg and Vince Russo fail on their own. To him, this situation is just another example of that happening.
“So Greg, you’re a loser. You’ve been a loser most of your life. You only got to the spot you were in because your dad let it happen—and it hurt him. It hurt the AWA business. Greg Gagne had no credibility then, and he still doesn’t now.
I feel bad for you, Greg. Not bad enough to grab a beer with you or anything. It’s kind of like here in Wyoming—sometimes you’re driving down the highway and you see what looks like roadkill, but it’s not quite dead yet. And you feel sorry for it. You want to put it out of its misery, but you can’t—because that’s actually illegal. And that’s kind of how I’ve felt about Greg for a long time. You want to put him out of his misery, but you know you can’t—’cause there’s jail time, lawyers, all kinds of other s***.
So I just learned to let guys like Greg and Vince Russo put themselves out of their own misery. Eventually, it all catches up with them. And this? This is just one more example.”
No matter what people think of Bischoff, it’s clear that his ideas for the nWo changed pro wrestling in a massive way. By strongly denying what Greg Gagne and others have claimed, Bischoff is once again making it clear that he sees himself as the one who created one of wrestling’s most famous storylines and that’s obviously not going to change in this lifetime.
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Do you believe the n Wo was entirely Eric Bischoff’s creation, or do you think there’s more to the story? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.