WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff recently took to his "the 83 Weeks" Podcast, where he talked about this infamous night in wrestling history where the nWo was first formed and how Hulk Hogan’s manager and close friend Peter Young always had Hogan's best interest at heart, which is why he didn't want anything negative to happen to The Hulkster.
Eric Bischoff said:
“Peter Young has a deep affection for Hulk Hogan and still does.” “Peter Young has been Hulks manager probably since early WWF and the bond between those two is very real and very close and I respect that. I will say that Peter Young truly has Hulk’s best interest at heart so I don’t want to make it sound like Peter was selfish or concerned about himself or anything like that.”
“But, Peter Young is one of those guys that’s always afraid that the sky is going to fall. In my experience with him, Peter was one of those guys that was always so fearful that something negative was going to happen based on something Hulk was going to do that I was pretty sure that he was that voice in Hulk’s ear. He didn’t mean to do it but because of his affection for Hulk and his role as Hulk’s manager, I was pretty sure that Peter was in Hulk’s ear on a pretty consistent basis, trying to talk him out of this in his own way.”
Bischoff also talked about two major factors in Hulk's wife at the time and children trying to change his mind in turning heel as they felt it would affect his merchandise sales.
Eric Bischoff said:
“Linda was all about the money, she didn’t give a s--t.” “She was obviously a strong influence, she could wear you down, she had a strong personality and if Linda thought that this would be a bad financial move for Hulk, because let’s face it, heels don’t sell merchandise. Generally speaking, clearly not the case with the nWo because they’re still making money as we heard from Scott Hall a couple weeks ago. But at the time, we didn’t know that, Hulk didn’t know that, Linda didn’t know that, Peter Young wouldn’t have known that. Typically in the wrestling business, once you turn heel, your merchandise sales go down dramatically.”
“I would imagine from Linda’s perspective that was a concern but even though the kids were very young, that was one of Hulk’s primary concerns. When I went down to Hulk’s house to talk to him about the idea of turning Hulk, his primary concern was the effect it would have on his kids, the first thing that he brought up. ‘Man, I’ve got young kids that are in school. I live in a community where people are into the Hulk Hogan character. I’m a positive influence and I do a lot of positive things for charities.’ At the time, I think he had made more Make-A-Wish appearances than anybody in history.”
“Hulk was really aware that a lot of those opportunities to work within the community and to sell merchandise, he was venturing into the unknown.” “Even though Hulk’s merchandising and things like that weren’t as popular as it was in the mid 80s, early 90s, it was still significant. He was still getting a lot of commercial opportunities and endorsement opportunities. He knew that turning heel would be waving goodbye to all of that. There was a lot of genuine concern about a lot of issues but the kids were a big part of it even though they were very young, Hulk was very concerned that turning heel would have some kind of adverse effect on his kids. Kids are kids, it is what it is.”
Bischoff then talked about not really telling anyone about Hulk's heel turn and only people who truly needed to know at the time knew about it. Bischoff also said that he would love to go back during the time Ted Turner was running Turner Broadcasting and work for them.
Eric Bischoff said:
“I didn’t even want to tell someone in passing what I was doing because I didn’t want it to get out.” “I just didn’t want to. I only told the people that absolutely needed to know when they absolutely needed to know it.”
“I would cut off a body part, I would give up a finger to have an opportunity to go back to work for Turner Broadcasting when Ted was running Turner Broadcasting.”
You can check out Eric Bischoff's comments in the video below:
