Coming off the 30th anniversary of Hulk Hogan’s iconic heel turn at WCW Bash at the Beach to form the NWO, the company’s former promoter, Eric Bischoff, had some harsh words for the villains of WWE today, and of the last three decades.
While reflecting on the reaction from the audience and the shock in the WCW locker room following Hogan’s explosive heel turn, Bischoff claimed on “83 Weeks” that WWE has failed to generate similar heat from any of the talent on its roster since the 1990s.
“I had never experienced anything like that. Guess what? 90% of that locker room had never experienced it either. They’re WCW guys. The only guys that experienced the kind of thing that we saw there were people that came from WWE that had wrestled in front of sellouts … even they didn’t experience anything like the Hulk Hogan turn because that was real legitimate heat. And real legitimate heat is something that WWE is not known for. They’re formulaic heat, but it’s not real heat in my opinion. Name me one real good heel in WWE in the last 30 years. Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Bischoff continued to argue that many WWE stars do an adequate job as a heel and gave them credit for effectively helping the babyface grow in popularity, but maintained that the company has always lacked talent with real heat. That said, Bischoff almost didn’t have one of the greatest heel turns in wrestling history to talk about 30 years later, as Hogan was famously unimpressed with the initial idea to play a villain on TV.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “83 Weeks” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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