Former Executive Producer and Senior Vice President of WCW, Eric Bischoff, has many accomplishments to be proud of in pro wrestling. One of those successes had to do with the New World Order (nWo), and who would be their voice of reason and power during their initial formation. Enter the “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. Commending his talent and his authoritative voice, Bischoff additionally describes why DiBiase was his pick to become the fourth member of nWo during its rise, despite previous opposition.
“At this time, I didn’t want to be that guy. I didn’t want to be the mouthpiece for nWo, didn’t occur to me,” Bischoff said on his “83 Weeks” podcast. “But I knew we needed somebody to be that kind of narrative anchor that wasn’t necessarily a wrestler, a manager, if you will, for the group, because we couldn’t always have the group together in a promo. We had to have somebody that was consistent, that we could have…every time we needed the nWo, we had somebody that could…be the mouthpiece. So, I thought Ted. It really had nothing to do with this WWE thing…Nothing at all to do with it. It had everything to do with his voice.”
Starting on August 26, 1996, DiBiase on-screen leadership was a must-see part of WCW’s weekly televised lineup. After carrying belts and standing at ringside with no creative direction, DiBiase decided to change his heel stripes for good, and go on to manage The Steiner Brothers. His storyline departure from nWo occurred nearly one year later, on August 4, 1997. The WWE Hall of Famer would eventually leave the promotion in 1999.
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