In 1996, the wrestling world changed forever when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash jumped ship from WWE to WCW. Hall appeared on the May 27, 1996 episode of WCW Nitro and Nash would follow, making his first appearance on the June 10, 1996 episode of Nitro.
Hall and Nash would be joined by a turning Hulk Hogan at WCW Bash at the Beach, leading to the formation of the New World Order.
Wrestling agent Barry Bloom was behind the scenes of the deal that brought Hall to WCW, and it all started in January 1996 and a meeting with Sean Waltman.
"I get a call from a friend, Rich Minzer, who works a Gold's Gym. He says, 'I've got this kid here who would love to talk to you, just in general, his name is Sean Waltman. He can be there in 15-20 minutes, you think you can talk to him? He's going to leave and go back to Minnesota.' I had watched him and liked him a lot. He shows up, comes in, we're talking, and he had his own problems with WWF. He started talking to me about the fact that he maybe wanted to jump to WCW. I talked to him back and forth about contracts and what he was making, it was very little, it wasn't even worth a guarantee of any kind at WWF. I said, 'interesting.' We talked through it. He said, 'I have another friend who is interested in leaving as well.' 'Who is that?' 'Scott Hall. He plays Razor Ramon.' I thought I was going to fall off my chair," Bloom recalled on Talk Is Jericho with Chris Jericho.
He continued, "Eric (Bischoff) had said to me earlier in the month that Ted (Turner) was looking to hire some mainstream talent, he was going to pay to hire mainstream talent with nice guarantees. There were no guarantees at this time. I thought Scott was making so much more. The reason Sean couldn't leave is his contract had too far to go, but Scott's was up in May. Sean says, 'why don't we call him now.' We got him on the phone and Sean says, 'I'm with a guy here who thinks he can get you a really good deal and a really nice guarantee.' Scott, who has heard everything, is skeptical. He's very smart. I explained that they were looking to hire key talent and he was one of them. 'Yeah, I can be in.' Sure enough, I called Eric that night or the next morning. 'I think I found somebody who might fit the need that you're looking at.' 'Who?' 'Scott Hall.' That was the beginning and we made a deal. At the time, the WWF contracts were renewable if you didn't cancel within so many days, if you didn't stop it. I got a copy of the dates that were relevant to Scott and said, 'You have to sign something that says, I do not choose to be automatically renewed.' 'Send me something.' Took the fax, wrote his name huge, big enough so Vince could see it. We sent it in. It didn't mean he was quitting, just that he didn't want to renegotiate."
When asked if Vince McMahon wanted to talk to Barry or Scott about renegotiating his deal, Barry said, "He didn't want to talk to me. He wasn't open to it. It wasn't even about a bidding war. He wasn't going to be dictated to. That was his right."
Barry said that WCW's offer was more than Scott was making in WWE and that they had a "date cap" on Scott's deal that said he only had to work a certain number of dates. To Barry and Chris' knowledge, it was the first time a "date cap" had been part of a wrestler contract.
When asked if he was part of the negotiations to bring Kevin Nash to WCW, Barry said, "I didn't represent Kevin initially. One of the smartest guys in wrestling. He always talks about details, and he's right, details make a difference. It was fascinating because we made the deal, and I got Scott something else in the deal, that if anybody, except for Hogan; I listed The Undertaker, Kevin Nash, Bret Hart, a list of people that, if they came in, WCW would have to match salary. I covered the bases for whoever could possibly come in."
Barry would go on to represent Nash when his initial contract with WCW was set to expire and was up for renegotiation.
Though Waltman made first contact with Bloom, he didn't end up joining WCW and the NWO until September 1996.
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