“Eric and I went out there and had cocktails, and he pitched the idea to me,” Nash continued. “He was very animated. … I’m listening to him going, ‘Yeah,’ it worked in Japan.’ He had way more vision and way more expectations than I did.” Nash had some concerns, as he knew the debut of himself and Hall had to be handled carefully, but eventually came to understand Bischoff’s vision. From there, it was just a matter of making sure Hogan was onboard for the debut, which was far from a done deal at the time.

“When we pitched the finish [for Bash at the Beach], … we had no idea if Hulk was going to jump on,” Nash said. “But the ratings started going through the roof, and … we started beating WWE. At that point, especially once we uncovered the ‘Ark of the Covenant’ contract he had, it was like, ‘Wow.’ To me, conceptually at the time, I’m thinking, ‘He’s a smart dude, man. He’s gonna jump on this. He’s gotta have a 50% merchandise deal.’ Little did I know he got everybody’s merchandise money.”

Despite Nash’s memory, or possibly what Bischoff represented to him at the time, it was actually Larry Zbyszko who came up with many of the initial ideas for the NWO, including the name. Bischoff would later come to realize that Zbyszko came up with the term just a few years back.