WWE announced back on Dec. 9 that the headliners for the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2020 would be the New World Order, comprised of Hollywood (Hulk) Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. Many fans of the classic WCW faction were surprised by the names from the group that weren’t be inducted in, including one of its longest-tenured members and the brains behind the group’s storyline, Eric Bischoff. Tony Schiavone, who worked as WCW’s play-by-play commentator throughout the NWO’s tenure, saw Bischoff’s snub as just another insult from Vince McMahon. Schiavone, who now works for All Elite Wrestling, then added that Bischoff was hired by the WWE earlier this year just so they could fire him again.
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“Eric got fucked over once by Vince this year, why wouldn’t Vince fuck him over again?” Schiavone said during an episode of the What Happened When? podcast (h/t Fightful for transcript). “I’m pissed off because Eric is not part of the NWO and into the Hall. I’m pissed off because Eric got fucked over by Vince McMahon. Everybody knows that Eric was brought in just so he could get fired. That fuckin sucks. The fact that he wasn’t put in the Hall of Fame with the NWO confirms it.”
Bischoff was originally hired by the WWE back in June to work as the executive director of SmackDown opposite Paul Heyman on Raw. He was fired and replaced by Bruce Prichard in mid-October.
The former WCW President has stated since the announcement that he’s not frustrated about not being included in the induction.
“…The NWO, the angle, the moment that storyline was conceived and as it became executed was probably one of the most important periods in professional wrestling in this industry in the last 30 years. Look, the Monday Night Wars had already started, that fuse was already lit,” Bischoff said on an episode of After 83 Weeks. “But when the NWO evolved and came to be, that fuse that was already lit hit nitroglycerin and it exploded the business in a way that, other than what Vince McMahon and WWF did by launching WrestleMania and bringing a lot of mainstream attention to the industry when they did. But other than that period of time there is nothing that has been more significant to the wrestling industry than the NWO storyline. I’m not saying that because that was something I created and was a part of. I’m saying it because it’s true.”
