Eric Bischoff has confirmed a fascinating wrinkle in the origin of one of wrestling’s most iconic names, the New World Order, revealing that Larry Zbyszko may have said it first.
Speaking on 83 Weeks around the 30th anniversary of the faction, Bischoff addressed the discovery that Zbyszko uttered the phrase “new world order” on the July 1, 1996 episode of Nitro, six days before Hulk Hogan’s legendary heel turn at Bash at the Beach. Bischoff, who wrote the promo that Hogan delivered, said he’d long assumed the term had simply surfaced from his own subconscious.
“New World Order is something that’s a reference to New World. Old order is as old as time, and you can find all kinds of references across politics and religion,” Bischoff said. “I just assumed I must have heard it somewhere, read it somewhere, didn’t know where to attribute it to.”
As it turns out, the source may have been sitting right there on his own broadcast. “Little did I know I could have attributed it to, and should have, and have attributed it to Larry Zbyszko,” Bischoff said, noting that Zbyszko referenced a coming “new world order” days before Hogan’s turn. “I, of course, just wove that right into my work with Hulk, and the rest is history. So, it started with Larry.”
Bischoff also reflected on how surreal it feels that three decades have passed. “Time has become this really warped concept for me,” he said. He added that had the group not landed on the NWO name, it likely would have simply defaulted to “The Outsiders,” but he’s glad it didn’t. “Thank God, because I think the NWO is way stronger.”
