Eric Bischoff reveals Hulk Hogan's initial reaction to heel turn pitch
On a special 'Rise and Fall of nWo' edition on Talk is Jericho aboard the Jericho cruise, Eric Bischoff, Booker T, DDP and Scott Hall sat down with Chris Jericho to discuss various stories about how the nWo came to be.
At the center of all that was Hulk Hogan's heel turn. At the time, it was unthinkable for The Hulkster to even turn heel considering that for several years, he had built his reputation as the man who ate his vitamins and said his prayers and was wrestling's ultimate good guy.
Bischoff said that when Hogan was pitched a heel turn a year before the nWo formation, he was not keen on it and practically threw Bischoff out of the house once he heard the idea.
Bischoff said that Hogan and he both knew that the red and yellow thing wasn't working any more. He also said: (H/T Wrestling Inc)
"A year before all this went down, I went down to Tampa [Florida] to meet with Hulk because the red and yellow thing, the babyface thing, the Hulkamania thing, wasn't working. He knew it wasn't working. I knew it wasn't working. The fans knew it wasn't working. Everybody knew it wasn't working, so I flew down there and said, 'okay, I'm going to go down there and take my best shot at convincing Hulk to turn heel.
"I'm selling my guts out and I see him doing this, it's this funky thing he does with his lips. It looks like a fish. And he's stroking his Fu Manchu and I'm thinking he's either really loving this or he's going to f--king punch me. He's doing this and he goes, 'brother, I have to pick the kids up from school. Thanks for coming. Bye. You'll obviously never know what it's like to walk a mile in these boots. Thanks for coming by.' He basically threw me out of his house, but he did it very elegantly. Like, I didn't feel bad, but I was on the way out the door."
Bischoff said that it was decided that Sting would be the eventual 'third man' in the new nWo stable and it is then that Hogan eventually told Bischoff that he wanted to turn heel instead. Hogan knew that there was something special going on with the nWo storyline and probably realized that it was going to be big.
Bischoff said that Hogan threw his hat in the ring, but still wasn't sure whether he would follow through. Considering the end result, it was the right move. And the rest is WWE history.