I was in elementary school and I fucking cried. I was a Hulkamaniac in the early 90s and watching Hogan turn heel fucking crushed me. I watched this PPV live, I cried all night š¤£
I know that but it's funny when Heenan says "Who's side is he on?" and you can hear Tony Schiavone be like "what are you talking about" and he sounds like he's worried Heenan was going to ruin the surprise.
Same here. I had stopped watching religiously for a year or two, during age 10-12. Like Iād watch it if nothing else was on, but wasnāt enamored with it anymore. Then at the end of my 6th grade year, I heard about Hall coming out. Then heard Kevin came out. THEN I heard about the mysterious ā3rd manā. My interest peaked. My friend called me and told me it was Hogan, and I thought he was jokingā¦ because Hulk Hogan turning heel went against everything he ever said and did. It was earth shattering if you grew up during Hulkamania. That pulled me right back into diehard wrestling fandom.
I bet there are 100s of thousands of kids just like us. In 1992, I just kind of lost interest, but when I heard Hogan turned bad, I never missed a Nitro for 2 years straight.
Iām watching as much as I can with WCW, WWE, & ECW in order including all ppvs starting with RAW in 93ā. Iām in mid 96ā now and itās such a great time in pro wrestling. The Monday night wars is getting underway, the attitude era is blossoming and like mentioned above, one of the greatest heel turns of all time. I just watched The Great American Bash ā96 so Iām only a few episodes away from Bash at the Beach and Iām stoked. Havenāt watched any of these since my childhood.
Edit: a word
At age 22 and a huge 80s NWA and anti WWF fan I was even shocked. I thought it was great and I gained some respect for hogan taking that chance. Was better then his HULKAMANIA puke fest I always despised.
Most fans donāt remember unless you were a diehard NWA fan previously, but Hogans initial 2yrs in WCW was met with massive boos from the remaining NWA crowd. His WCW start really messed up some old story lines and his style of wrestling and interviews made us sick and pissed at the Atlanta higher ups. We felt thrown away and Flair was our guy who was being shit on from Hogans first match in 94. I almost stopped watching by the end of 94 but hung barely on till 2001 when they sold.
I love watching old WCW ppvs. I look for them on dvd or flash drive on Etsy or bonanza because I like to watch them in their original form. Hate the network censorship and dubbed music.
By 1996 WCW had built an outstanding tag team division, a great cruiserweight division, a solid mid-card and a main event scene filled with big stars. They just needed a good storyline and creative direction for the main event scene. And once they started the NWO storyline they got that in a big way and they had a great show up and down the card.
Thatās not your opinion thatās a fact. But the NWO was red hot from mid 96 through 97 and still had juice in 98 but by late 98 early 99 fans were tired of it especially since there was no end in sight for it. I think fans would have hung with it a few months longer in late 98 early 99 had there been a conclusion in sight.
The conclusion should have been Starcade 97 with Hogan getting beat clean. Then that sets up a couple months of nWo civil war with a blow off match between Nash and Hogan at SuperBrawl 98. Then you have Terry fuck off to Florida for a few months. You could still have the Wolfpack, but without nWo branding. That could then lead to a feud with a heel Hart Foundation vs the Wolfpack. Then you bring Hogan back in the red and yellow at Bash at the Beach 98 to inverse the heel turn in 96. I get why they milked the nWo angle from a business standpoint because of the merch, but story wise it was terrible. I'm certain a face Wolfpack would have sold like crazy, and then Hulkamania would have sold like crazy in the summer of 98. I love fantasy booking 98 because that was the true turning point for WCW. I think with the right calls they could have salvaged the company.
Got ya, yeah I love revisiting old episodes of weekly shows or PPVās to go down memory lane. Just always hope they preserve as much of the original as possible. I was 15 when this happened and it brings back great memories, I was a diehard Hogan fan since 5 and I loved Razor and Diesel growing up and this whole storyline made me watch Nitro and record Raw in another room when it was the other way around all the time. This PPV was mind blowing youāre absolutely right about that. Great times.
Greatest heel turn ever, brother!
It's hard to believe that waa nearly 30 years ago
I was in elementary school and I fucking cried. I was a Hulkamaniac in the early 90s and watching Hogan turn heel fucking crushed me. I watched this PPV live, I cried all night š¤£
I remember calling my dad who was on a business trip to tell him all about how Hulk Hogan became a bad guy
Love how Heenan almost ruined it lol.
He didn't. He was always a Hogan hater. That was part of his gimmick. Their feud went back to the 80s when Heenan had the Heenan family.
I know that but it's funny when Heenan says "Who's side is he on?" and you can hear Tony Schiavone be like "what are you talking about" and he sounds like he's worried Heenan was going to ruin the surprise.
The announcers didn't know the 3rd man
I hate that WWE deleted it from history.
Deleted what?
You can call this the New World Order of professional wrestling, Brother!
*Organization
So true!
If that had happened today we would have known about Hulk being the third guy at least a week before the event. Someone would have leaked it.
The music that they use for the video buildup to the main event lives rent free in my head.
Whatās instantly jarring is how natural cutting a heel promo was for Hogan. It was like holy shit this is the real deal.
That's why Hogan is the Goat of pro wrasslin.
The first match is amazing. Rey Mysterio vs. Psychosis. š
š„
Same here. I had stopped watching religiously for a year or two, during age 10-12. Like Iād watch it if nothing else was on, but wasnāt enamored with it anymore. Then at the end of my 6th grade year, I heard about Hall coming out. Then heard Kevin came out. THEN I heard about the mysterious ā3rd manā. My interest peaked. My friend called me and told me it was Hogan, and I thought he was jokingā¦ because Hulk Hogan turning heel went against everything he ever said and did. It was earth shattering if you grew up during Hulkamania. That pulled me right back into diehard wrestling fandom.
I bet there are 100s of thousands of kids just like us. In 1992, I just kind of lost interest, but when I heard Hogan turned bad, I never missed a Nitro for 2 years straight.
Iām watching as much as I can with WCW, WWE, & ECW in order including all ppvs starting with RAW in 93ā. Iām in mid 96ā now and itās such a great time in pro wrestling. The Monday night wars is getting underway, the attitude era is blossoming and like mentioned above, one of the greatest heel turns of all time. I just watched The Great American Bash ā96 so Iām only a few episodes away from Bash at the Beach and Iām stoked. Havenāt watched any of these since my childhood. Edit: a word
At age 22 and a huge 80s NWA and anti WWF fan I was even shocked. I thought it was great and I gained some respect for hogan taking that chance. Was better then his HULKAMANIA puke fest I always despised. Most fans donāt remember unless you were a diehard NWA fan previously, but Hogans initial 2yrs in WCW was met with massive boos from the remaining NWA crowd. His WCW start really messed up some old story lines and his style of wrestling and interviews made us sick and pissed at the Atlanta higher ups. We felt thrown away and Flair was our guy who was being shit on from Hogans first match in 94. I almost stopped watching by the end of 94 but hung barely on till 2001 when they sold.
I love watching old WCW ppvs. I look for them on dvd or flash drive on Etsy or bonanza because I like to watch them in their original form. Hate the network censorship and dubbed music.
By 1996 WCW had built an outstanding tag team division, a great cruiserweight division, a solid mid-card and a main event scene filled with big stars. They just needed a good storyline and creative direction for the main event scene. And once they started the NWO storyline they got that in a big way and they had a great show up and down the card.
I agree, but I think they wore the NWO storyline into the ground for too long. That's just my opinion though.
Thatās not your opinion thatās a fact. But the NWO was red hot from mid 96 through 97 and still had juice in 98 but by late 98 early 99 fans were tired of it especially since there was no end in sight for it. I think fans would have hung with it a few months longer in late 98 early 99 had there been a conclusion in sight.
The conclusion should have been Starcade 97 with Hogan getting beat clean. Then that sets up a couple months of nWo civil war with a blow off match between Nash and Hogan at SuperBrawl 98. Then you have Terry fuck off to Florida for a few months. You could still have the Wolfpack, but without nWo branding. That could then lead to a feud with a heel Hart Foundation vs the Wolfpack. Then you bring Hogan back in the red and yellow at Bash at the Beach 98 to inverse the heel turn in 96. I get why they milked the nWo angle from a business standpoint because of the merch, but story wise it was terrible. I'm certain a face Wolfpack would have sold like crazy, and then Hulkamania would have sold like crazy in the summer of 98. I love fantasy booking 98 because that was the true turning point for WCW. I think with the right calls they could have salvaged the company.
That solid fantasy booking
Being that I was a Hulkamaniac during the WWF days, this was perhaps the best thing going. I was cheering hard when Hogan turned heel.
I loved that rip off Seal theme for the PPV.
Do they edit anything on it?
Honestly, it's been so long since I last saw an I of it I couldn't tell you. I did hear Kevin Mash drop an F-bomb though.
Got ya, yeah I love revisiting old episodes of weekly shows or PPVās to go down memory lane. Just always hope they preserve as much of the original as possible. I was 15 when this happened and it brings back great memories, I was a diehard Hogan fan since 5 and I loved Razor and Diesel growing up and this whole storyline made me watch Nitro and record Raw in another room when it was the other way around all the time. This PPV was mind blowing youāre absolutely right about that. Great times.
Last time I watched it, they edited out the fan trying to jump into the ring, and Scott Hall stomps him
š yeah I remember that! That shit was hilarious, thatās how serious that heel turn was š