Eric BIschoff On The Reality Of WCW Merch Sales Before The NWO

The original NWO (New World Order) stable in World Championship Wrestling consisted of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and the late Scott Hall. The group, which was created during "WCW Nitro's" Monday Night War battle with "WWE Raw," would eventually expand and be remembered as one of the most popular factions in the history of professional wrestling. Former WCW executive Eric Bischoff recently provided some insight into WCW's merchandise sales prior to the NWO forming. 

"WCW never sold merchandise until the NWO," Bischoff said on the "83 Weeks" podcast. "Yes, I should take that back because people hang on every word I say and troll me afterwards. Did WCW sell merchandise at arenas? Yes. It was abysmal. Abysmal. It wasn't worth the time and the expense of loading things onto a truck and then driving 300 miles and setting up at an arena and hoping it would sell. You lost money. You lost money when you had to fill the truck up with gas. That's how successful WCW merchandise was before NWO. 

"It's not that we didn't want it, it's just we didn't have anybody that was over enough to drive it. The NWO changed that. Now, it wasn't driven by — the idea of splitting up NWO into Wolfpac, or LWO, or whatever, was not driven by merchandise considerations. It was driven by story and driven by the fact it was so over. All boats rose with the higher tide that the NWO created. NWO was a tsunami. It wasn't a high tide. It was a fricking tsunami."

Bischoff said he was not surprised that NWO merchandise was still popular today, admitting that he was flattered by it. The former "Raw" General Manager pointed out that the NWO – who received the honor of being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2020 – "changed the entire industry for the better." He went on to say that there was no other storyline that had such a huge impact on the wrestling business. 

Bischoff also discussed NWO merchandise currently being created by WWE. The Stamford-based promotion became owners of the NWO trademark after Vince McMahon purchased WCW in 2001. 

"WWE's doing a great job of redesigning new NWO merchandise without taking away from the original brand," Bischoff said. "They're coming out with some cool stuff, quality merch. So it doesn't surprise me that it's a top seller. It's a powerful brand that represents an amazing period of time during professional wrestling history. I would call it the peak of professional wrestling history. 

"I think Vince McMahon going national, walking right over the graves of the territory system, that was probably the biggest movement in professional wrestling in the last 40 years or so. 50 years. But NWO in the Monday Night Wars that resulted from it [is] probably right behind that."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "83 Weeks", with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.