When news broke that Chicago Bulls Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman was going to be appearing at Starrcast VI in Chicago before All Out 2023, fans wondered whether or not the NWO member would return to the ring for the first time since 2000 on Dynamite, Collision, or even at the Sunday night Pay-Per-View.
Well, as it turns out, Tony Khan did what Effy couldn't, marking out like a true WCW fanboy to book the NWO member for the first episode of AEW Collision of the month of September.
But how did the booking come together? Well, as it turns out, Khan credits none other than Conrad Thompson for helping to facilitate the pairing, as since he was already booked for Starrcast VI, the idea of bringing the Bulls forward back to the house that Michael Jordan built, the United Center, simply became too sweet to pass up.
“Tony Khan says Conrad bringing in Dennis Rodman for Starrcast is why it was possible for Dennis to appear this weekend on AEW television,” JJ Williams from The Wrestling Observer wrote.
While TK doesn't technically have unlimited money, as his family is only worth $4.5 billion, he can easily match whatever fee Thompson shelled out for Rodman to bring him into AEW and make him #AllElite. Will Rodman actually do something when he arrives, maybe getting involved with The Acclaimed's match with Daniel Garcia and 2.0 or just hitting fellow WCW star Jeff Jarrett in the head with a guitar? Only time will tell, but if you're a massive fan of WCW, the NWO, or the Chicago Bulls, the segment may be worth peeling away from Payback to watch.
Tony Khan says Conrad bringing in Dennis Rodman for Starrcast is why it was possible for Dennis to appear this weekend on AEW television.
"Thank you, Conrad!"@TonyKhan@HeyHeyItsConrad#STARRCAST #STARRCASTVI pic.twitter.com/DxZqKTWIo3
— JJ Williams (@JJWilliamsWON) September 2, 2023
Eric Bischoff explains how Dennis Rodman became a member of the NWO.
How, you may wonder, did Dennis Rodman get interested in professional wrestling in the first place? Well, according to the man who signed his checks back in the day, Eric Bischoff, the idea had to do with Rodman's fandom of both professional wrestling and the Hulkamaniac himself, Hulk Hogan.
“Dennis was a wrestling fan. He is a Hulk Hogan fan. And I fact that he just liked Hulk Hogan; I mean, they got along,” Eric Bischoff shared on his 83 Weeks podcast via Wrestling Headlines. “They were friends, legitimate friends, not just, you know. Friendship as a result of an opportunity. And that was the factor. It wasn’t the money. It was the fact that Dennis, as you pointed out, got a chance to work with Hulk Hogan, and the little kid came out. And Dennis, at that point, you know, the little kid who grew up as a wrestling fan of Texas, came out and wanted to be there with Hulk. Not anybody else. Nothing about it has nothing to do with Dustin. Just everybody else wasn’t Hulk Hogan.”
Asked whose decision it was for Rodman to join the NWO, Bischoff didn't recall but noted that the idea was downright brilliant, as it drew in extra eyes and built up the brand.
“Oh, I don’t; I don’t know who was the single individual behind that. I think that pretty much evolved organically. I mean, Dennis was NWO before NWO in many respects. I mean, he was a renegade. You know, he was his own man. He had a lot of issues with the NBA as a result of it, with his teams due to his kind of rebellious attitude that fit into the NWA. So I don’t think it was any one person’s idea. I think it just evolved organically. Certainly, Hulk Hogan was an advocate because Hulk is intelligent as f**k and realized that, with the amount of press and attention that Dennis gets, there’s nothing wrong with getting a little piece of that rub. So it just happened. It wasn’t one person that said, Hey, I got an idea. Let’s put it this way. Let’s put Dennis Rodman in the NWA. Brilliant idea. It wasn’t that. It was organic as hell. Not sure for sure. It also was, you know, I did the ROI on my head. You know you get $1 million. You look at the impact that it had on television ratings, the impact on the advertising community, the impact on the perception of the WCW brand, and all of the above. Made that million dollars look like chump change. Absolutely.”
What is the closest analog to the NWO in AEW? Probably Bullet Club Gold, as Bullet Club is basically a mixture of NWO and DX, with a little bit of The Kliq thrown in for good measure. And the best part? Rodman wouldn't even have to learn a new hand gesture, as “Switchblade” Jay White, “Rockhard” Juice Robinson, and The Gunns, Austin and Colten, already utilize the Too Sweet in addition to their Guns Up celebration.
Follow Us
Subscribe