Eric Bischoff's new '83 Weeks' podcast with Conrad Thompson launches this week, and the first episode chronicles the NWO's third man. You can find more information at this link, and check out a quote they submitted to us below.
Did the NWO angle come from the UWFI/New Japan invasion angle?
“The answer to that is a definitive ‘no.’ What I was studying when I was over in Japan, and what I was influenced by was just the general presentation of the product in Japan versus the general presentation of the product here in the United States. I was spending a lot more time over in Japan. I was there a couple times a year for extended periods of time. I was doing a lot of business with the business side of New Japan, and studying the way they operated. One of the things I noticed was that the product was treated with much more respect by media, by wrestling fans in general. That was due in large part because the way it was presented. It was more of a reality-based product, from the action you saw in the ring to the characters themselves, the performers themselves, and the way they carried themselves. At every level, it was a much more respected business. I kind of boiled the meat off the bone, and what became apparent to me is, it was treated with that kind of respect because the product was more real. It was more believable. That was the genesis. That’s where I was influenced. Not by an invasion angle, and quite frankly I wasn’t aware of an invasion angle, or if there was one going on over there. I know that’s the urban narrative, and that’s what people want to believe, and people want to take shots at me, or the NWO or WCW, whatever. I know that’s where they derive a lot of that perspective from. But the truth is, I studied the New Japan way of doing business. I took away it was more reality based, and that’s what I was most influenced by. Basically, that led to me, trying to create in my own mind, that transition. How do I take this very cartoony, animated product, which WWF was at the time and frankly so was WCW; how do I take this product, here in the United States and replicate the formula that was working so well in New Japan?
