Hogans heel turn in 96

[Hadley 0]

What was your reaction to Hogan's heel turn in 1996? I remember my friend telling me that Hogan was the 3rd man at BATB 96. I couldnt believe it so i tuned into Nitro intently that night (i dont even remember what RAW was offering that night) and they made subtle comments about it during the whole show, before revealing the heel turn at the very end of the show. It did make me a huge wcw fan for most of 96-97 (though i didnt care much for hogan at the time, even when he was with the nWo who i marked for) just to see what was going to happen next. Looking back it was the start of wrestling's loss of "innocence", since throughout the next year we saw the rise of austin, the USA/Canada feud, more and more serious stuff in the big two (i didnt get ecw until 99 so i cant comment on that) which was in sharp contrast to what was going on even a year ago (1995).

 

[cabbageboy 0]

Mostly I was just interested in what they were doing on Nitro. For once someone did a mystery man angle that had a huge payoff to it that shocked people, yet made complete sense from a storyline perspective.

[BUTT 0]

I remember what was on Raw that night. The Warrior's last appearance. That was really a show that proved how dumb it was to tape 4 shows in one night. "The Warrior has been no-showing events, so he's suspended unless he posts a bond before the events...but oh he's here tonight, that's fine, but after that he's suspended." That was sad. I knew he wouldn't be back.

 

My brother had a dream the night before BATB that Hogan would be the third man. I found it unlikely, but it did make sense. So when he walked out an leg-dropped Savage, it wasn't really a "holy shit WHAT" reaction but more of a "wow, they really are going to do this" reaction. Hell of an angle, but it set a bad example for promoters in that it made them think that whenever a huge babyface turned heel it would do big business. Thus you had the ridiculous Goldberg heel turn and later the more entertaining but also more damaging Austin heel turn. But man, did the Hogan thing work. Did it ever.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

A recurring theme at TSM has been "What if we had threads for big moments before our time?" BATB 96 or SS 97, for example. They'd be something.

[haws bah gawd 0]

I remember what was on Raw that night. The Warrior's last appearance. That was really a show that proved how dumb it was to tape 4 shows in one night. "The Warrior has been no-showing events, so he's suspended unless he posts a bond before the events...but oh he's here tonight, that's fine, but after that he's suspended." That was sad. I knew he wouldn't be back.

 

My brother had a dream the night before BATB that Hogan would be the third man. I found it unlikely, but it did make sense. So when he walked out an leg-dropped Savage, it wasn't really a "holy shit WHAT" reaction but more of a "wow, they really are going to do this" reaction. Hell of an angle, but it set a bad example for promoters in that it made them think that whenever a huge babyface turned heel it would do big business. Thus you had the ridiculous Goldberg heel turn and later the more entertaining but also more damaging Austin heel turn. But man, did the Hogan thing work. Did it ever.

 

FWIW, in the book, "The Stone Cold Truth", Austin said if there's one thing he could go back and change, it's that he wouldn't have turned heel. He said if he had to do it over again, he would have had things go the way they did, but as soon as the match ended, call an audible, toast Vince, then immediately drill him with a Stunner.

 

I was in disbelief over Hogan being the 3rd man, but he really set a new standard for heel turns.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Far be it for me to second-guess Austin....it wasn't the turn that was bad, and it wasn't the McMahon-Austin alliance that was bad - it was the needless two-man powertrip, which just tied in with the disgrace that was the summer of '01 in the E.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I froze when Hogan turned heel. The room was spinning.

[Star Ocean 3 0]

"What?"

 

"My name is Stone Cold Steve Austin, and I don't deserve this kind of treatment."

 

"You know what this watch is saying?"

 

Plus the awesome new theme music.

 

Best summer ever.

[ZGangsta 0]

"What?"

 

"My name is Stone Cold Steve Austin, and I don't deserve this kind of treatment."

 

"You know what this watch is saying?"

 

Plus the awesome new theme music.

 

Best summer ever.

The WWF did start to go to crap the instant Wrestlemania X-Seven ended, but that insane Austin comedy heel stuff was pure GOLD. Especially when they had Kurt Angle as his ally when they were playing up that Angle was goofy and lame but yet had taken too many hits to the head and thus liable to snap and go psycho.

And then they had Austin and Angle competing for Vince's affections, which gave awesome stuff like the time Stone Cold gives Vince a cowboy hat as a gift and then Angle's all jealous until Austin gives him cowboy hat too... except its a little kids hat... but Angle loves it anyways... and then Austin takes it away when he gets mad at Angle... and then they get in a shouting match about how Stone Cold is an "Indian Giver" that Vince has to break up.

Surreal, weird, character destroying stuff. I thought it was funny as hell.

 

Also Stone Cold interrogating Rob Van Dam trying to find out who the mole was during the invasion.

 

 

Edit: Wait wait wait wait... I has clips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBGzmkxLu4Q

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I was pretty shocked when Hogan turned heel, but I was marking out too. I mean, the turn did come way out of left field, and I couldn't believe I was seeing Hogan become a bad guy after so many years of playing the superman type of babyface.

[Diamonddust 0]

Since it happened right before I became "christened" into the IWC, I was shocked beyond belief.

[Toxxic 0]

"What?"

 

"My name is Stone Cold Steve Austin, and I don't deserve this kind of treatment."

 

"You know what this watch is saying?"

 

Plus the awesome new theme music.

 

Best summer ever.

The WWF did start to go to crap the instant Wrestlemania X-Seven ended, but that insane Austin comedy heel stuff was pure GOLD. Especially when they had Kurt Angle as his ally when they were playing up that Angle was goofy and lame but yet had taken too many hits to the head and thus liable to snap and go psycho.

And then they had Austin and Angle competing for Vince's affections, which gave awesome stuff like the time Stone Cold gives Vince a cowboy hat as a gift and then Angle's all jealous until Austin gives him cowboy hat too... except its a little kids hat... but Angle loves it anyways... and then Austin takes it away when he gets mad at Angle... and then they get in a shouting match about how Stone Cold is an "Indian Giver" that Vince has to break up.

Surreal, weird, character destroying stuff. I thought it was funny as hell.

 

Also Stone Cold interrogating Rob Van Dam trying to find out who the mole was during the invasion.

 

 

Edit: Wait wait wait wait... I has clips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBGzmkxLu4Q

 

"I've never heard that watch say anything..."

[BruiserKC 0]

I remember what was on Raw that night. The Warrior's last appearance. That was really a show that proved how dumb it was to tape 4 shows in one night. "The Warrior has been no-showing events, so he's suspended unless he posts a bond before the events...but oh he's here tonight, that's fine, but after that he's suspended." That was sad. I knew he wouldn't be back.

 

My brother had a dream the night before BATB that Hogan would be the third man. I found it unlikely, but it did make sense. So when he walked out an leg-dropped Savage, it wasn't really a "holy shit WHAT" reaction but more of a "wow, they really are going to do this" reaction. Hell of an angle, but it set a bad example for promoters in that it made them think that whenever a huge babyface turned heel it would do big business. Thus you had the ridiculous Goldberg heel turn and later the more entertaining but also more damaging Austin heel turn. But man, did the Hogan thing work. Did it ever.

 

FWIW, in the book, "The Stone Cold Truth", Austin said if there's one thing he could go back and change, it's that he wouldn't have turned heel. He said if he had to do it over again, he would have had things go the way they did, but as soon as the match ended, call an audible, toast Vince, then immediately drill him with a Stunner.

 

I was in disbelief over Hogan being the 3rd man, but he really set a new standard for heel turns.

 

 

The Hogan heel turn worked because of the fact he was THE big hero at the time. All those years of training, prayers, and vitamins, believing in yourself, and children worshipping the ground he walked on made it that much harder to swallow when he told the fans to stick it. The fact is no one expected it, that's what gave it the oomph to work.

 

[Enigma 0]

The Austin stuff is funny to go back and watch now, but honestly, at that point no one wanted to see him being McMahon's willful bitch or being Kurt Angle's comedy partner.

[The Truthiness 0]

I don't give a fuck what anybody thinks, the Austin/Angle/Vince alliance was pure genius.

[CBright7831 0]

BADGES? WE DONT NEED TO NO STINKIN' BADGES!

[RepoMan 0]

I was really interested when Hogan turned, but I was such a big WWF mark that I never paid real close attenion to WCW, even when it was close to putting Vince out of buisness. This was also about the time I discovered those old backstage news phonelines in the Yellow Pages.

[fazzle 0]

I marked out like a little bitch. I was loving it.

[cabbageboy 0]

Here is the key difference in all of the more recent turns: Austin was still mega over in 2001. He had just come back from serious neck surgery and was being cheered by the fans. If anything it was The Rock that was getting stale and HE needed the heel turn, not Austin. It didn't help matters that Rock basically vanished to film Scorpion King around that time and when he got back started feuding with Booker and the whole Austin/Vince angle never really paid off. And no, Survivor Series 01 was not the payoff to that feud.

 

Speaking of which, I'm still waiting for that Austin/RVD blowoff. Though that wasn't exactly a feud per se. Anyone who remembers the SD from 2001 where Austin got pissed and challenged anyone to a fight only to have RVD walk through the door knows that era produced some magnificent shows.

 

Ditto Goldberg, he had just returned from putting his arm through the window and was over with the crowd. Turning him was stupid.

 

Hogan in 1996? Good grief he was stale and needed the heel turn. He hadn't been a heel for 15 years, longer than nearly everyone who was watching wrestling.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Actually, reading old stories from the Observer around that time, it sounds like Hogan might have actually left WCW soon, if not for the heel turn re-igniting his career. People forget that he was getting booed quite a bit before taking a hiatus prior to GAB '96.

[hyperchord24 0]

I was shocked, but I was more shocked to learn that Hogan went to WCW in the first place.

[NoCalMike 0]

The best part of that entire match was when Hogan comes out, and the fans are cheering like crazy cause their hero has come to save the day......and we get the following color commentary

 

Tony Schivone: "Here he comes, Hogan is here"

Bobby Heenan: "BUT WHO's SIDE IS HE ON" ?

Tony Schivone: "Ack, erm...whaaat are you talking about" ?

*dead air*

 

Bobby Heenan basically gave away the heel turn to the TV audience. It was hilarious.

[ZGangsta 0]

I was shocked, but I was more shocked to learn that Hogan went to WCW in the first place.

Yeah me too, I hadn't payed attention at all to wrestling for years, so my reaction was "what's a WCW?"

[Boner Kawanger 0]

The best part of that entire match was when Hogan comes out, and the fans are cheering like crazy cause their hero has come to save the day......and we get the following color commentary

 

Tony Schivone: "Here he comes, Hogan is here"

Bobby Heenan: "BUT WHO's SIDE IS HE ON" ?

Tony Schivone: "Ack, erm...whaaat are you talking about" ?

*dead air*

 

Bobby Heenan basically gave away the heel turn to the TV audience. It was hilarious.

And anyone who had been watching for more than one day had heard Bobby Heenan say something disparaging about Hogan every time he came out. Hindsight's made that one out to be a lot worse than it was.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Yeah, I thought it was just Heenan being his usual anti-Hulk self. Nothing more.