Former WCW President Eric Bischoff believes many modern wrestling factions struggle to connect with audiences because they lack one of the most important elements that made the nWo successful: a clearly defined purpose.
Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast with Conrad Thompson, Bischoff discussed what separates legendary wrestling groups such as the nWo and D-Generation X from factions that fail to establish themselves as major attractions.
The conversation began with Thompson highlighting how the nWo’s pursuit of championships formed part of its larger storyline objective of taking control of WCW.
Bischoff explained that the group’s success was not simply the result of bringing popular wrestlers together. Instead, he believes the nWo benefited from having a central mission that audiences could immediately understand and follow. “I think about this from time to time whenever I see a new faction being presented on television. … I don’t want to pretend that I’ve watched all of them closely, but I think the one common denominator, well, there’s several. One is none of them come close to the nWo or DX. They just don’t.”
Bischoff acknowledged that WWE’s Bloodline storyline deserves to be considered separately because its family-driven narrative differs from the type of faction built around a company takeover.
His broader criticism focused on groups that share a presentation, attitude, or visual identity without establishing why they came together or what they hope to accomplish. “None of these factions ever have a purpose. They have a look. They have an attitude. They don’t have a … purpose. What are they there to do? Why did they form this faction? What’s their goals? And if those goals, if that identity, if that purpose, if that intent, whatever word you feel you need to use, if it isn’t clear right from the beginning and kind of become a part of the faction’s personality, because the faction has to have a personality, not just the people in it, if you don’t have that, then what do you have?”
According to Bischoff, establishing a clear objective gives viewers a reason to remain invested in a faction’s storyline from week to week. Without that direction, he argued, interference in matches and group promos can quickly become repetitive because the audience has no larger goal to follow. “You’ve got three, four, five people that are all hanging out together and cut promos together and running in each other’s matches, but there’s no real mission. And if there is, it’s never clear. … Well, if they don’t have a stated goal, why do I care? It’s just another faction.”
Bischoff pointed to the nWo’s original storyline as an example of how a straightforward premise can provide the foundation for an entire faction’s identity.
When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash arrived in WCW in 1996, their characters were presented as former WCW performers who had achieved major success in the WWF before returning with a desire to take revenge and seize control of the company.
That objective gave meaning to the group’s attacks, disruptions, championship pursuits, and attempts to undermine WCW management. Bischoff argued that even seemingly chaotic moments served the larger narrative of the nWo attempting to take over the promotion. “They became huge stars in WWF and now they were coming back to take revenge. That’s the fundamental premise of that story. They were coming in to take over because they felt they were wronged. Now, you can debate whether that was a good premise or a bad premise, but at least it was a premise, and it was something that the audience did get a hold of because they felt that it kind of felt real. Taking over the set, spray painting the truck, doing all that … the nWo did, they did because they wanted to take over the company. That’s the thing that I think is missing the most in all of these attempts to create these factions that never go anywhere, because we don’t know where they were going to start with.”
The nWo became one of professional wrestling’s most influential factions during the Monday Night Wars, helping transform WCW’s presentation and contributing to the company’s success against WWE in the television ratings.
For Bischoff, however, the lesson from that success goes beyond the wrestlers involved or the group’s recognizable black-and-white branding.
He believes a faction must have its own identity, motivation, and direction rather than simply serving as a collection of wrestlers who appear together on television. Without those elements, even a group featuring talented performers may struggle to give audiences a compelling reason to care about its future.
