25 years after the fact, Eric Bischoff wishes he'd thought of pitting the nWo against a rebooted Heenan Family.
On a recent episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, the former WCW President was asked by a listener if there would have been money in a babyface Bobby Heenan leading a faction against Hulk Hogan and the nWo in 1996. Bischoff agreed that it would have been a really cool idea and would have been better than just having Bobby express his hatred for Hogan while at the commentary desk.
"It's an awesome idea," Bischoff said. "The big hurdle there is if Heenan would have been up for it. He might have been. I'm not suggesting, just off the top of my head, that he would have said no or he wouldn't have been into it, but man, that's a compelling idea. It's one that makes me drift off and think -- As you were saying it to me, I was like, 'Wow, that picture's starting to' -- I can actually see that in my own head. I can see it. That would have been pretty f**king cool. Really f**king cool. The more I think about it the more excited I get about it."
Throughout the mid-to-late '80s, Heenan and his family spearheaded the crusade to end Hulkamania. Bischoff notes that the backstory was already in place and kicks himself for not having thought of the idea.
"The backstory was there. To the listener's point, or to yours, the backstory was there. The anti-Hogan sentiment was there from day one when Hogan came in. That was the role that Bobby played and it had existed prior to Heenan or Hulk Hogan coming to WCW. God damn, I wish I would have thought of that," Eric said.
Finally, Eric pontificated about the ways in which he would have built the group, noting that it would have been important to keep them serious and not make it a complete regurgitation of what the WWF had done. He also took the opportunity to take a shot at the uber-goofy Dungeon of Doom faction. Here is what he said:
"Yeah, without the goofiness and keep it serious. It would have been in line with the nWo story and not some goofy shit like The Dungeon of Doom was. This is the kind of sh*t that gets me really excited because that's a 'what if' that's so beautiful that I can see it in my head actually playing out. But if you had Bobby -- I would be careful not to populate it with too many that were from The Heenan Family previously so it didn't look like a complete regurgitation. But the premise is -- it's a built-in premise and built-in backstory. Be a little more selective of how you -- like, The Giant would have made sense. Could have made sense as long as we didn't try to make him look like Andre the Giant. But kind of update those characters within The Heenan Family to be a little more current and relevant would have been badass. Could you imagine Ric Flair and Bobby Heenan doing promos together?"
Heenan began managing wrestlers in the mid-70s and did so into the 90s. He joined WCW in 1994 and served as one of the voices for the company for over half a decade. The Brain was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.
Bischoff and the nWo were both inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this past year as members of the 2021 and 2020 classes, respectively.
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