Kevin Sullivan tried to get as much heat on the nWo as he could, even if that meant disobeying orders from the top.
WrestleZone recently spoke with Kevin Sullivan, former booker of WCW. Sullivan talked about how he booked the nWo and recalled the infamous “lawn dart” angle with Rey Mysterio. Sullivan said that certain procedures were in place due to working under the Turner umbrella.
He noted how one executive told him they couldn’t use baseball bats as weapons and tried to nix that part of the angle. Sullivan joked that he verbalized his directions to Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, but nodded his head in contrast, giving the go-ahead — and giving himself deniability too.
“Well, I think that I was there when the nWo came in; that was Eric’s idea. He did a magnificent job. And you gotta remember, at this time, he was learning on the job much like Tony Khan. The thing I go with is heat. So, the nWo, I gave them all the heat I possibly can. One day, the day we did the thing with the [throw into the trailer] with Rey,” Sullivan explained. “You remember they had ball bats? Well, that’s when we had procedures.
“There was a guy from the north tower,” Sullivan continued. “He would ask me what I was doing. And he said you can’t use bats, those are weapons. So I went and got Kevin and Scott. And I said, ‘Whatever you do, do not use the ball bats.’ [while I nodded my head ‘yes’ to do it anyway.] ‘I want to make that perfectly clear. I told you don’t use the ball bat, you got it?’ They said, ‘Yes, we got it [and nodded ‘yes’ with me]; we will not use the ball bats.’”
Sullivan says he believed Hall and Nash needed as much heat as they could get, noting how WCW fans would remember past gimmicks like Vinny Vegas (Nash) and “The Diamond Studd” (Hall).
“I thought you have two guys that came over. The more vicious they were — and the thing they had in common was people remember the shit gimmicks they had when they were with WCW, so it fit in perfectly. And then when Hulk [Hogan] turned — the people were turning Hulk anyway by that time. At minimum, he was half-heel and wouldn’t take much but a little shove,” Sullivan noted. “That was the biggest turn in the history of the wrestling business. So, I went with as much heat as I possibly could.”
Watch our full interview with Kevin Sullivan below:
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