Kevin Nash on nWo Catchphrases, Great American Bash 96, & nWo’s Impact

Recent episode of The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast show had Kevin Nash as the guest discussing the origins of the nWo’s catchphrases, WCW Great American Bash ’96, nWo’s impact on wrestling, and more.

On the topic of the origins of the nWo’s catchphrases, Nash stated West Coast rap music was the biggest inspiration for the nWo’s style and catchphrases.

“When I met Scott, he was more of a country-western guy and I was born and raised in Detroit so I was always kind of a Motown guy and once West Coast rap got really hot and especially Death Row it was we began listening to Death Row a lot in the car and there was this old Mack 10 song and in this Mack 10 song they rob a McDonald’s and one dude says to the other dude in the car that he’d been wanting to do that for two years and the other guys says that he’d been wanting to do that FOR LIFE, so that is where we got that. Most of our catch phrases and those things we did we got from West Coast rap. Immediately, I remember I put my headband on backwards like 2 Pac. Here is a thirty five year old white guy with his headband on backwards but it worked.”

On the topic of the Great American Bash ’96, Nash stated it was Kevin Sullivan who came up with the idea of The Outsiders to become more aggressive starting that night. He also stated Eric Bischoff came up with the idea for the powerbomb spot involving himself as the victim.

“That is the first night that we became aggressive. Shortly after that I think we were in Charlotte (maybe the next Monday) where we brought out the aluminum baseball bats. That was (Kevin) Sullivan. Sullivan knew that two things sell in wrestling and that is sex and violence.

The three of us (Hall, Bischoff, Nash) were all there at the beginning. He was WCW and we were the invaders and this was before the third man was unveiled so basically he was the foil and we were the invaders and he was representing WCW. He did such a good job and it was his idea and along the way it was tweaked here and there but conceptually he laid it out to me even before I decided to come on over.”

On the topic of the nWo’s impact on the wrestling industry during the 1990s, Nash implied it laid the foundation for WWE’s eventual dominance afterwards.

“I always say that we showed Vince how to build the Saturn V and once we built it he kicked our astronauts out of the castle and said I’ve got it from here, pal.”

Other topics discussed during the interview included Nash’s thoughts on being the first anti-hero in the WWE and the lasting impact of the Kliq in wrestling.