Former WCW President Eric Bischoff recently talked to Sports Illustrated about the wrestling business, and shed some light on Hulk Hogan’s infamous heel turn in 1996 to join the nWo.

Bischoff said that it was very difficult for Hogan to abandon his good-guy character, but he eventually got comfortable in the heel role.

“He was so unsure how the fans would react after being so familiar seeing him as a babyface for so long,” Bischoff recalled. “There was a big part of Hulk Hogan that loved being a heel, and once he connected to that character, and once the audience connected to that character, he thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Eric feels that Hogan’s experience working against the top heels in the business for nearly 15 years primed him for becoming a heel himself.

“He saw a lot of things that he filed into his ‘heel folder’, and that included drawing from ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham, Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura, and Roddy Piper,” Bischoff said of Hogan’s inspirations for his heel character. “He’d had the opportunity to work with some of the best heels in the business, and he filed a lot of that away. There was also a part of Terry Bollea’s real personality that he brought to the table that allowed him to let loose.”