Larry Zbyszko created the New World Order.
The NWO is one of wrestling’s most iconic factions. The faction originally consisted of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Eventually, more people would be added to the group and many offsprings came about such as NWO Wolfpac and more. But, did you know that the legendary Larry Zbyszko came up with the New World Order term? Larry was on WCW commentary back in the 1990’s and actually started the day Scott Hall made his WCW debut. While talking about this on the 83 Weeks Podcast, Conrad Thompson made mention that they were watching back some old WCW Nitro episodes where they heard Larry refer to the then Outsiders as the New World Order. Conrad would go on to ask his co-host and WCW leader Eric Bischoff if he credits Larry for coining the term.
Yeah, I mean, there’s no doubt about it and for years, I would tell the story, and it’s the same story I’ll tell today, when I was in the, basically a janitors closet with Hulk Hogan going through Hulks promo, ‘cause I didn’t give Hulk a script, he didn’t like scripts, we just walked and talked through his promo and I’d give him Bullet points and he’d give it back to me then I’d maybe add a little or whatever, we just worked through it. And that’s the way Hulk always worked with Gene Okerlund, it’s the way Hulk liked to work. So, I was in the closet and I’m giving Hulk his promo and in the middle of giving him that promo, I say “and then you say ‘this is the New World Order of professional wrestling’” Now, I’ve told this story before we found out that Larry used it the night before or whatever and people say “well, where did you get that New World Order from?” And I always said “I don’t know. It just rolled off my tongue.” I had no idea where it came from, I sound like I read a book, I’m not a Illuminati guy, none of that shit. It just came out. And it worked. And then whatever it was years later, we’re going back and we’re watching and it was Larry Zbyszko who, the day before or whatever it was, used the term New World Order and then 24 hours later, it rolls off my tongue. And I didn’t consciously steal it from Larry or not give credit to Larry, I just didn’t know where I’d heard it or read it. It just rolled and here we are on 83 weeks going through the show and went “wait a minute, that actually happened before I gave Hulk Hogan the promo.” And yes, Larry, who else are you going to give credit to? Kind of obvious.
– Eric Bischoff via 83 Weeks
So there we have it. Twenty plus years later, credit is given where it’s due. Larry Zbyszko coined “New World Order.” You can always learn something new.
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