Bruce Prichard recently covered the nWo’s time in the WWE on his podcast and went into great detail about their run with the company.
Bruce says that WWE officials were terrified about bringing Hulk Hogan back in as a heel because he was so famous for being a babyface in the old WWF. He says that when the three members of the nWo first appeared on WWE television and there was an enormous reaction, it was very relieving to know that fans were going to accept them back into the fold.
Bruce says that there were some concerns about bringing all three of them back, mainly Hall and Nash for the fear that they would be disruptive in the locker room. He said that any animosity that the boys might have had with Hogan was water under the bridge at that point, but some of those wounds caused by Hall and Nash had yet to be totally healed.
Bruce says that once the pieces were in place, then the plan all along was to bring the nWo in as Vince McMahon’s henchmen.
Prichard says that creative asked Vince whether or not he would be seen in an “Eric Bischoff” position in the new WWE incarnation of the nWo, to which McMahon replied, “What?! Good God no!”
Bruce explains that Vince has a weird thing about him where he doesn’t want to do something that’s too similar to what another person has done, but he still decided to bring back the same people to do almost the same thing. He said that Vince didn’t want to recreate too much of it, but he tried to toe the line in his own way using his own reasoning.
Conrad mentions that WWE officials had a meeting backstage with the talent where they were told that the three nWo members were coming in, but they would have no political power whatsoever. Scott Hall allegedly went to a bar and got very drunk that day and came back inebriated to receive no recourse for this action. The boys were actually shocked that Hall wasn’t reprimanded.
Bruce says that this meeting was a Vince idea. He said that Vince wanted to get everyone together at the same time and address this issue to get it out of the way. Prichard also says that he doesn’t know that Scott Hall wasn’t reprimanded for these drunken actions.
There was also a story told where Scott Hall walked up the Dudley Boyz and said, “I like your finisher, what’s it called?” to which the Dudleys replied, “It’s the 3D, Dudley Death Drop.” Scott allegedly replied, “Oh yeah, I can’t wait to kick out of it.”
Bruce says that he can’t confirm if this ever really happened but does say that he has heard that story before. Prichard goes on to explain that it might have been a rib on Hall’s part, but it was poorly timed to say the least considering the backstage tension surrounding bringing the nWo guys when they returned to the company.
