Kevin Nash knew right away that WCW's reign over WWE would only be temporary.
The two-time WWE Hall of Famer was the most recent guest on Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions and chronicled his career over a glass of red wine. One of the main talking points was Nash's move to WCW in June 1996. In particular, he discussed the June 24, 1996, episode of Nitro, just two weeks before the nWo would form at Bash at the Beach, and how he told Eric Bischoff that he wouldn't be able to put Vince McMahon out of business. He said the following:
"I remember one night we went to the ring and they were going to send the whole company down. I said, 'We gotta have something.' I said, 'Can you get us some aluminum baseball bats?' So Ellis rigged a working one quick, then we had the real one. So I went down to the ring, I hit the steps with the real one, crowd heard the noise. Scott hit the first guy coming in with a gimmick one through the ropes, he went down. Are you gonna go through the ropes with two guys back to back with aluminum baseball bats, knowing you got to bend over? No.
So we go off the air with the Charlotte police undoing their guns, it's real. It's on. So we're flying back that night, and Bischoff's just, we're in the private, and he goes, 'We're gonna put Vince out of business. We're gonna put Vince out of business.' I said, 'Dude, do you realize what happened tonight?' I said, 'The perception that two guys from the WWE jumped ship and are gonna take over your company, the people believe that. They think two guys can beat 100.' I said, 'No, you're not gonna put him out of business.' I said, 'He'll sit back and watch it.' Hogan said the same thing. That's what Vince did. Vince sat back and watched."
Nash also calls WrestleMania 14 a turning point in which he and everyone else knew that it was only a matter of time before Vince and the WWE overtook WCW for good.
"I won't forget the day in my life when Tyson came to that WrestleMania," Nash began. "Every WrestleMania match had a movie-quality trailer in front of it, in case you hadn't been watching, you were caught up. This is when Kane was shooting fire, everybody, it was amazing! The next day I go to TV and I just knew. You know, man, I mean, you watch something, you're smart to the business. I walked by Sullivan, he said, 'You feel that, Nash? Water got a little cold last night. Hit an iceberg called WrestleMania.' He knew, he knew, I knew, anybody who was smart knew that. All of a sudden it was 4.2 versus 4.6, 4.6 versus 4.2. All of a sudden it was back and forth. All of a sudden it was just like, and the lakers have won 33 straight."
Nitro defeated Raw in the ratings for the final time on October 26, 1998. On January 15, 2001, WCW held the final edition of Nitro before closing its doors.
Nash was recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Class of 2020, as part of the nWo alongside Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan, and Sean Waltman. Bischoff was also inducted at the same ceremony but as part of the Class of 2021.
The full episode of Broken Skull Sessions with Kevin Nash is available to watch now on the WWE Network.
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