Eric Bischoff Details Why The NWO Was DOA In WWE

While they remain one of, if not the, most impactful factions in wrestling history, the nWo's stamp on WWE never came close to being felt anywhere near as heavily as it was in WCW. In fact, an argument can be made that it didn't have much of an impact whatsoever when Vince McMahon brought Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash as the "lethal dose of poison" needed to "kill his creation" in 2002. Founding father of the nWo, former WCW Senior Vice President Eric Bischoff takes this argument to the next level, offering that the group was "dead on arrival" in WWE.

On his "83 Weeks" podcast, Bischoff was asked for the top five reasons the nWo failed in WWE and he cited a poor strategy from the onset as the main reason. "It wasn't set up properly," he explained, likening it to a very recent WWE storyline that fell flat in short order for similar reason. "It's a little bit like the Cena/Rock situation," he added, a reference to the short-lived and ill-fated John Cena heel turn during his current retirement tour. "It just started off wrong."

Even during McMahon's infamous introductory tease for the group's arrival, the crowd can be heard half-booing and half-confused, and Bischoff thinks that might have been the angle's biggest problem. "The way it was introduced," he said, "it was dead on arrival, to be honest with you. The audience [was confused]. That's the worst thing you can do to an audience is to confuse them."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "83 Weeks" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.