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On a recent episode of Eric Bischoff’s podcast, “Bischoff on Wrestling” the former WCW Vice President and Raw General Manager got a chance to talk to the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels in a rather long and extensive interview.
During the interview, Eric breached one of the subjects that has captivated fans for over a decade: “Did WCW try to convinve HBK to make a jump over to Nitro during the Monday Night Wars?” Shawn had the following to say on the matter:
“We can put this to rest. [Eric Bischoff] absolutely never reached out to me in any way, shape, or form. All of that stuff, me going to WCW, all of that kinda stuff was always generated when Kevin [Nash] and I would talk or Kevin and Scott [Hall] and I would would talk or whatever. It would just be, ‘Hey, whenever you…dude, if you wanna do it.’ They could go to [Bischoff] and let [him] know. You know, but I would imagine and you know better than me because you were the guy. I don’t think legally you were allowed to do that stuff. And I don’t know, but I mean, but no. They were always just sorta of, you know – they were going to be the ones that if it was something that I was ever interested in, they were going to go to you and you know, try to set it up. I guess, help open those lines of communication and it’s one of the things I always told people.”
“It only happened one time. I was just miserable and I was like ‘let me leave, please’ and Vince said ‘no I can’t let you do that.’ He said ‘I know you think you’ll be happier there, and you won’t. I don’t think they’ll creatively let you do what you need to do. I know you, and I don’t think creatively they’re going to give you the freedom creatively that you need.'”
“And that was the end of it, honestly. Everything else was always – as you know, one thing the Kliq did was always… and you know from a business standpoint if you make the story bigger than it is, you know what I mean? And we were always good at that. It helps with negotiations, right or wrong? […] Sometimes the easiest people to work with are the people in the dressing room. I mean, all it takes is a little something out there that people hear, and it’s true and it becomes folklore and before you know it man, it’s got a life of its own.”
Therefore if you’ve ever heard those rumors about WCW trying to snipe HBK back in the day, you weren’t the only one. But, as it turns out the entire story was merely generated as a negotiating tactic from Shawn to get a better deal from McMahon. You gotta love them, and there is no question that the Kliq still rules.
