Eric Bischoff Thinks Hulk Hogan’s 80s Boom Was Bigger Than nWo

On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff was asked whether Hulk Hogan’s NWO heel turn at Bash at the Beach 1996 was the most significant moment of Hogan’s career. Bischoff argued the early-’80s WWF boom mattered more, and explained why he believes no one will ever replicate what the nWo did. You can check out his comments below:

On the nWo:

“As much as I’m proud of what we accomplished with the nWo — going live, changing the entire format for the televised wrestling industry by going live every week, we were the first ones to do that, and it’s the very reason the business is as successful as it is today — it wasn’t the most significant thing that happened to the industry.”

On the early moments:

“The most significant thing were the moments early on in Hulk’s career, early on in the WWF’s explosion into national television. The cover of Sports Illustrated — pick your moment in that era. Any one of the big ones could arguably be the most important moment in the long-term history of the business. The nWo heel turn is maybe a close second, but it’s not even that close, in my opinion.”

On Current WWE Star Not Bridging the Gap

“There are tentpole moments in the evolution of the industry. When Vince took the WWF national and blew up the territory model, that was a tentpole moment. The nWo making the switch to prime-time live weekly television, bringing reality into the format, not leaning as heavily on the kid stuff, consciously targeting an 18-to-34-year-old audience instead of a children’s audience — that was a big moment. But the situation that created all those things will never happen again. Nobody’s ever going to achieve what the nWo achieved. I don’t care who you are or how good you are. Those conditions no longer exist.”

On No One Being There To Do What the nWo Did:

“That’s why we don’t see anybody we can plug into that spot right now. None of them have hit the cultural nerve. They’ve hit the visibility nerve and the entertainment nerve. People go, ‘Yeah, look at the crowds for Roman Reigns or whoever’ — and that’s true, they’ve hit that entertainment pinnacle, but they haven’t transcended into cultural yet. Hulk was cultural. The nWo was cultural. Early-’80s WWF had a cultural impact. There is nobody right now, but there will be. I’m mostly curious how we’re going to get there, because that’s the interesting part.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.