Because some people need a little education:

Pollock Editorial: THE MYTH OF THE POP: A HISTORY OF HOGAN COMEBACKS

 

by John Pollock

 

I, like many of you was shocked to see Hulk Hogan walk out onto “Smackdown” this week in Albany as an effort once again for the WWE to build for the future by using the past. I know Hogan, in his day was a draw, but why have companies repeatedly turned to this guy when looking for a business spark? Did WWE even look at the history of when WCW looked to Hogan for help? They got more bad than good when they turned to the Hulkster.

 

Hulk Hogan is a smart guy. I will never discredit him on that accord. The guy has made a living out of political manipulations (case in point, getting back in the WWE). You cannot fault a guy for capitalizing and becoming a very rich man in the process, at this stage of the game; the blame is on World Wrestling Entertainment for thinking, that in 2003, Hulk Hogan is the answer.

 

Let’s trace this back to 1995, when Hulk Hogan left New Japan Pro Wrestling to ink a huge deal with World Championship Wrestling. The deal included 25% of all PPV revenue for PPV’s he appeared on and allowed him to make six digits for his first pay-per view, “Bash at the Beach” where he defeated World Champion Ric Flair on his first night in. The show did a significant buy rate but the legs of Hogan as the flagship was more questionable as house show attendance only increased by an average of 300 people after Hogan arrived, although shows that he did actually appear on did draw above their average. House show attendance did not really pick up until 1996 when Ric Flair and Randy Savage were headlining house shows. Ratings for the television actually dropped with the addition of Hogan by .10, so he meant absolutely nothing to the ratings. In Hogan’s defense, his run from 1995-1998 gave WCW the mainstream buzz that they had never had and were the dominant company in North America. Without Hogan it can be argued that Bischoff never would have been given the Turner checkbook, nor the Monday night slot on TNT. Hogan was able to bring in big names like Dennis Rodman, Jay Leno, and George Foreman and appealed to the business people because no matter how much of a “non fan” someone is, they know the name Hulk Hogan and it did open doors for WCW.

 

It was when WCW business was really down that Hogan’s lack of drawing came through. His first big hiatus from WCW came in November of 1998 when he and Bischoff orchestrated that ridiculous gimmick that he would run for President as a spoof on Jesse Ventura (both who do not see eye to eye at all). Hogan worked a supposed retirement on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. The backstage story on all of this was that Nash and Hogan conspired to work the boys with Nash being the only one willing to stand up to Hogan backstage, in turn for going with this angle, Nash would get the book and the first pin on Bill Goldberg and Hogan would return at the January 4th “Monday Nitro” to win the title from Nash in front of 34,000 paid at the Georgia Dome in WCW’s home camp. Therefore Nash got the book and Goldberg win, and Hogan got the title and Nash didn’t have to do a real job for Hogan as that was the infamous “one finger touch” match that for all intents and purposes killed the Atlanta territory for WCW as they never fully recovered from the damage to the title of that match and only drew significantly in Atlanta one more time (July of 1999 for the return of Goldberg, but that show was partially papered unlike the January show). Many look at this night as the night WCW officially headed towards disaster and two years later were out of business.

 

The next big hiatus for Hogan came in October of 1999 when Vince Russo first joined the company. Rumors were flying of the status of Hogan in the new regime in WCW. It was during the “Halloween Havoc” PPV on October 24th that Hogan was scheduled to take on WCW Champ, Sting. Hogan arrived to the ring in street clothes and lay down for Sting, who looked confused and pinned him (more damage to the title). Hogan waited until Russo got swerved out of power and then made his return on February 14th 2000 (conveniently, the same night that Raw was pre-empted for the annual Westminster Dog Show and was guaranteed to have a higher audience than usual and he could take credit for it). The result was a rise due to the pre-emption, but the truth came out a week later on February 20th at the “SuperBrawl” PPV where Hogan squared off with Lex Luger and did a horrible buy rate, followed by an equally horrible buy rate the following month at “Uncensored” with Hogan against Ric Flair. Number tailed off even further and in April of 2000, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo were put back in power and Hogan changed his image into a Steve Austin knockoff and was put into his not so memorable feud with Billy Kidman.

 

His last leave from WCW took place on July 9th of 2000 when Hogan was set to challenge Jeff Jarrett for the World Title in Daytona Beach, Florida. Once again WCW did the angle of Hogan coming in street clothes and Jarrett lay down for Hogan this time. Hogan then told Russo that it was stuff like this that kept WCW in the state it was. This was all a storyline and Hogan was to leave with one title and Jarrett be crowned later in the evening the new champ and Hogan would come back months later and they would have two champions, one with the new blood and one with the older guys and that would create a new feud (in fact a deal with Fox was being negotiated to have separate shows, but that never came to be). Where it got tricky was after Hogan left, Russo came out and cut a promo where he tore into Hogan and bad mouthed him. Hogan felt he had been defamed and filed a real like lawsuit that his drawing power would be hurt by Russo’s comments of him being unprofessional, old and untalented. Hogan never appeared in WCW again as Russo was basically gone by October and the company was sold to Vince McMahon in March of 2001 for $2.5 million dollars. Although he wasn’t there for the bitter end, Hogan was one of the guys most responsible for the demise of WCW.

 

Then came January of 2002 and Vince McMahon needed something to spark TV ratings, so when in doubt whom did Vince turn to? Hulk Hogan. McMahon went out and signed Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall to contracts in January and promoted their return for the February 17th Pay-Per View, “No Way Out” in Milwaukee. The show did an above average buy rate and can definitely be attributed to the curiosity.

 

Although the New World Order return sparked a mild interest in the product, the ratings for the most part remained stagnant, you could say they did 3 big ratings (the night after “No Way Out” they did a 4.7 on “Raw” up from the 4.4-4.5 range of the previous weeks and followed up with a 4.5 on that week’s “Smackdown” up from the 3.9 level’s of the previous week and another 4.7 on the February 25th “Raw”, after the 25th ratings returned to normal levels). Hulk Hogan would prove to be valuable in sparking the buy rate for “WrestleMania X8” for his match with the Rock as the show did over 800,000 buys. Hogan did put over Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar but as far as ratings went, that was a different story. Due to the massive pops that Hogan received at all of the arena’s Vince was thinking Hogan could draw once again and April 21st 2002, the day of “Backlash”, Vince changed the finish of Triple H Vs Hogan title match and put the strap on Hogan. The result was ratings bottoming out on both “Raw” and “Smackdown” (the night after “Backlash” the show did a 4.8 and the next week dropped to a 4.4 and the show has never done a 4.8 since and 3 weeks after Hogan got the title the show went from a 4.8 to a 3.9, which is scary, “Smackdown” dropped to a 3.4 the week Hogan won from a 3.8 the previous week when HHH was champ and then one week later “Smackdown” did the lowest rating ever with a 2.9 for an advertised Hogan title defense against Jericho). The company decided to have Hogan drop the title the following month at the May 20th “Judgment Day” PPV in Nashville. For the rumored $3 million a year, Hogan produced one buy rate and some big pops at the arena’s and do not be fooled as much as the fans got into cheering Hogan at the arena’s, it is the classic nostalgic pop that fans will get when seeing a legend (and he is a legend) in person and those pops failed to correlate to business and make fans at home want to go out of their way to purchase tickets and buy the next Pay-Per View with Hogan headlining.

 

As the WWE approaches WrestleMania time, they have once again turned to Hogan to help the “Smackdown” show. First off, to have him on the “wrestling” show with guys like Angle, Guerrero, and Benoit is beyond me as I see no one he can work with the exception of Brock, whom was the big stumbling block is bringing Hogan back in November as Vince wanted Hogan to put Brock over a second time at “Survivor Series” and Hogan turned down that idea and that resulted in the stalemate between Vince and Hogan. The likely scenario is to build to a Vince Vs Hogan program at “WrestleMania 19” and from there I have no clue where they go. Originally they planned to have Hogan face Vince at “SummerSlam” but that never occurred as you can see.

 

(With files from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter)