Steve Carrier on July 20, 2025
Eric Bischoff just shut down one of wrestling’s biggest what-if scenarios—and he didn’t sugarcoat a single word.
Speaking on Inside The Ropes, the former WCW president revealed that even when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash tried to float the idea of Shawn Michaels joining the nWo in 1997, he shot it down fast.
When asked if Michaels ever showed real interest in jumping ship after his infamous backstage brawl with Bret Hart, Bischoff admitted the conversations were more backchannel than direct—but his answer never changed.
“I would have never brought him in. And Shawn was someone that—like Scott Hall would kind of hint around the edge a little bit—‘Hey, what do you think about our buddy Shawn? You know, he’d be nWo sweet for life.’ You know, he wouldn’t come out and ask me or suggest it, but he, you know, he would do things like that. Kevin [Nash] would kind of do the same. And I was like this: Not a chance.”
He made it clear Shawn’s reputation at the time was a total dealbreaker.
“Because Shawn Michaels was a basket case at that point. Shawn Michaels made Scott Hall look like an honor student. And I was like, why would I do that to myself? My liver is already deteriorating, my hair is turning gray, I only sleep about an hour and 45 minutes a night because I’m so stressed out—and I’m gonna bring Shawn Michaels in? No. That never happened.”
The host then pushed the hypothetical—what if Bischoff had brought him in? Would Shawn have succeeded? Bischoff didn’t hesitate.
“By the way, I get along great with Shawn Michaels now. We’ve become friends. Shawn has absolutely turned his life around. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t do drugs, he’s found his faith, he’s a very, very solid citizen now.”
“He wouldn’t have lasted 20 minutes in WCW in 1997. Just—it wouldn’t have worked. He was too much. He was too out of control.”
Bischoff explained that WCW’s divided locker room would’ve eaten Michaels alive, especially the OGs who didn’t tolerate WWE-style antics.
“I couldn’t have worked with him. And there was—at the time in WCW—there were like two or three camps or categories of people, talent-wise. There were your original WCW talent—guys that had been there since Crockett or early WCW. They had never worked in WWE. Then there was the WWE camp—guys like Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, who had worked in both places. And then there was the just-WWE former talent.”
“The former WWE talent, I think, would have tolerated Shawn better because they knew him and probably could look past his flaws a little more easily. The group in the middle—they probably would’ve taken a chance. But the original WCW group would not have let Shawn pull the kind of sht he pulled in WWE and got away with it. It just wouldn’t have worked.”
Bischoff respects the version of Shawn Michaels we know today—but 1997? That guy wouldn’t have survived five minutes under the WCW roof.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
Was Bischoff right to block Shawn Michaels from WCW, or could HBK have thrived under the right creative? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
July 20, 2025 4:47 pm
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