Kevin Nash On How The Early Days Of The NWO Came Together In WCW

The professional wrestling industry memorably underwent a boom period in the mid- to late-1990s. A huge part of kicking off that uptick in business was the rise of the NWO in WCW. Speaking on his podcast, "Kliq This," NWO founding member Kevin Nash described how the group first came together.

"We had like eight or nine weeks, whatever it was, that Scott [Hall] and I were showing up," Nash said. "[For] Bash at the Beach, we made the match — the three-on-three — and from there, we had a couple of weeks where we teased who was the third man, which was huge, you know? And of course anybody but Hulk wouldn't have been as special." Nash also talked about how incredible it was that the timing had worked out that allowed himself and Hall to leave WWE for WCW at the same time Hogan was available to return. The WWE Hall of Famer then recalled Bischoff pitching the NWO idea for the first time.

"He came to my house and he stayed like a day or two," Nash stated. The former WWE star recalled having Bischoff over for dinner at his home one night, while the next night the two went out to a "gentleman's club" to have some drinks and discuss Bischoff's idea for Nash and Hall's WCW introduction.

"Eric and I went out there and had cocktails, and he pitched the idea to me," Nash continued. "He was very animated. ... I'm listening to him going, 'Yeah,' it worked in Japan.' He had way more vision and way more expectations than I did." Nash had some concerns, as he knew the debut of himself and Hall had to be handled carefully, but eventually came to understand Bischoff's vision. From there, it was just a matter of making sure Hogan was onboard for the debut, which was far from a done deal at the time.

"When we pitched the finish [for Bash at the Beach], ... we had no idea if Hulk was going to jump on," Nash said. "But the ratings started going through the roof, and ... we started beating WWE. At that point, especially once we uncovered the 'Ark of the Covenant' contract he had, it was like, 'Wow.' To me, conceptually at the time, I'm thinking, 'He's a smart dude, man. He's gonna jump on this. He's gotta have a 50% merchandise deal.' Little did I know he got everybody's merchandise money."

Despite Nash's memory, or possibly what Bischoff represented to him at the time, it was actually Larry Zbyszko who came up with many of the initial ideas for the NWO, including the name. Bischoff would later come to realize that Zbyszko came up with the term just a few years back.