Kevin Nash On Not Drawing As WWE Champion, Eric Bischoff Saying He Would Put WWE Out Of Business
Recently on Legends With JBL, 'The Outsiders' Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were interviewed. Among other things, Nash addressed the common criticism that he did not draw as WWE Champion. Also, Nash discussed Eric Bischoff and Hall talked about the differences between working for WWE and WCW.
According to Nash, the criticism that he did not draw as WWE's top guy is unwarranted because nobody drew at that time, even though WWE had the likes of Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, and many other top stars of the Attitude Era all under the WWE umbrella at the same time. Nash divulged that he probably did not even have 100 matches under his belt at the time he held WWE's top championship.
"I always get the quotation of 'I didn't draw'. Nobody drew. I look at it like people don't realize, when they made me the champion, I probably hadn't had 100 matches. I mean, I just never worked. I came in with the mohawk as Steel. My partner [in the Master Blasters tag team] and I had eight, ten matches. We go to a Christmas television taping. He doesn't want to do a job to the Steiners, they fire him, and tell me to grow my hair out. I sat home for a year and a half. I come back, they put a dunce cap on me. That works for about a week. I go home and sit out for that. I become Vinnie Vegas. I work a little bit. Then, I come in, the first 12 months at the WWE, I'm a bodyguard. And finally, I worked some tags here and there with Shawn, but nothing [extensive]."
In Nash's view, people can say what they want about Eric Bischoff, but nobody else can say they beat Vince McMahon for any stretch of time. Also, Nash recalled hearing that Bischoff wanted to put McMahon out of business for the first time.
"People can say whatever they want to say about Eric Bischoff, but the one thing I always say is there's only one person on this planet that can say that they beat Vince McMahon for any period of time. When you realize also that a private company is going against a Fortune 500 company, I mean, when he signed us, it was just like, when he thought we were leaving, it was no problem to add another three or four million dollars to the mix because Ted Turner is used to paying baseball players. I remember one time we were sitting in the back of a [Learjet]. We were leaving Nitro and Hulk [Hogan] was sitting next to me. I think [Hall] was there and Bischoff was there. It was the Florida crew flying back home. Bischoff looked up and everybody was putting ourselves over. He said, 'I'm going to put him out of business.' It was that [record needle scratch moment]. We all went, 'no!' Hulk was the first one [who spoke up], 'brother,' he said, 'you can drive a stake through his heart. You won't beat him.'"
Hall described two major differences between working at WWE and WCW. For one, Hall always viewed McMahon as an authority figure and he never saw Bischoff in that way. Also, there is a huge difference between being a professional wrestling company making a television program and a television company making a professional wrestling show.
"For me, I always perceived Vince as the boss and Eric was like a guy. I could talk to Eric because I've had 'FU! FU!' conversations with him in the back. We'd go out to the ring and it worked because I'm one of them guys, I'm going to lobby really hard for what I think we should do and it ain't always about me. Sometimes, it is. Sometimes, it's about somebody else. But I'll lobby my issue. And then, I'll do whatever the consensus says, whatever the boss says." Hall professed, "WCW is a television company that produces a wrestling show. The WWE is a wrestling company that produces a television show. Now, guys like us are going to understand that. To some people, they may not get the difference. It's a huge difference."
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