One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every Year Of WWE History
35. 1990 - The Two Failed Tryouts That Would Have Changed Wrestling History
The professional wrestling landscape of the 1990s was transformed entirely and irrevocably by Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman.
Bischoff, a magpie, drew inspiration from the NJPW Vs. UWF-i inter-promotional rivalry to create the nWo, an “interloping” cool heel act so effective that the WWF was forced into its survival. Vince McMahon didn’t merely survive; the WWF entered a second boom period in no small part as a result of subsuming Heyman’s counter-culture philosophy. If ECW was the self-styled Nirvana of the scene, by 1998, the WWF was every plaid shirt imitator with a more glossy sound that sold more records. In an alternate timeline, if Bischoff and Heyman don’t exist, pro wrestling in the United States is unrecognisable.
This actually almost happened: in 1990, Bischoff was handed a WWF tryout as an announcer. He didn’t get the gig. In his own book, he acknowledges that he didn’t deserve it and was nowhere near ready. He projected unreal smugness as a heel, which didn’t scan well at all in the impartial, welcoming role.
It’s also rumoured that the WWF took a look at Heyman in or around that same year.
Without Stone Cold Steve Austin, who discovered himself in WCW - or even the template for that character (the Sandman) - the WWF is potentially in serious trouble.