The nWo may nonetheless be one of the crucial iconic factions in professional wrestling historical past, however its mastermind, Eric Bischoff, isn’t seeing a dime from its continued merch success. Even in 2025, nWo shirts are amongst WWE’s high sellers—however Bischoff says he’s left fully out of the payday.
On a current episode of 83 Weeks, Bischoff opened up in regards to the irony of making the nWo and watching others money in whereas he stays empty-handed. He defined that as a Turner Broadcasting govt, he by no means had possession rights to the faction’s mental property. Setting the file straight, Bischoff defined why he doesn’t earn royalties from nWo merchandise:
“Yeah, that’s, you already know, when the unique concept—after I got here up with it—and was concerned in it, I used to be an worker of Turner Broadcasting. As an worker, particularly as an officer, as President, I didn’t get royalties on something. I received a wage. It was a very good wage. I received inventory choices. I received loads of different cool s** that expertise didn’t get. However I didn’t get royalties.”*
Whereas Scott Corridor, Hulk Hogan, and Kevin Nash all scored profitable WWE offers that included cuts of merch gross sales, Bischoff stayed behind the scenes. That call could have value him long-term.
“And I didn’t go over with Scott and Kevin and Hulk to WWE through the time interval we’re speaking about. Had I been part of that group, I might be getting royalties as a result of I might have gone on board and gotten a minimize of the nWo merch identical to they did. However I wasn’t. I wasn’t part of it.”
Bischoff added that Kevin Nash isn’t shy about sharing simply how a lot the nWo model nonetheless pays off:
“So I get to sit down again and have Kevin inform me each time he will get a six-figure test for his nWo merch.”
Regardless of being the person behind the scenes who launched the revolutionary faction that helped change wrestling within the late ‘90s, Bischoff stays minimize off from its monetary legacy. In the meantime, Nash and others proceed to revenue from a model that wouldn’t exist with out Bischoff’s imaginative and prescient.
Wrestling followers may put on the black and white proudly, however the man who created it? He’s nonetheless watching from the sidelines—and not using a royalty test.
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September 28, 2025 8:37 am