Throughout the history of professional wrestling, there have been moments where power shifted and companies went bankrupt, and this day in wrestling history did more than that — it helped drive professional wrestling to new heights.
Hulk Hogan is a name everyone knows as he rose to prominence during the 1980s in Vince McMahon’s WWE, then the WWF, after he brought Hulkamania with him from the AWA.
For most of the decade, the Hulkster was a huge reason the WWE saw new heights of popularity but that started to fade in the 1990s.
Part of it was McMahon reportedly looked to replace him numerous times as he felt Hogan at the top was running stale, and Hogan eventually left to go into acting.
New home
It was during this time Hogan was reportedly looking for another change, as he talked about in his Hollywood Hulk Hogan book. Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the excerpt.
“After we had put about a year and a half into Thunder in Paradise, a guy named Keith Samples came to me from Rysher Entertainment and said, ‘Look, Terry, we want (it) to keep going, but we need to break up this little family business.’
“Keith didn’t like some of the deals that were being made and he wanted some people in there who might actually at least ask questions. His suggestion was that we bring in a producer from Robocop and hold off on new deals until the guy got there. I told him that was fine with me.
“I said, ‘We’ll send Michael Berk and Greg Bonann back to L.A., and I’ll just run the show with Doug Schwartz. And I promise you, we won’t make any more deals until the guy from Robocop shows up.’
“Money still kept getting spent on questionable stuff. Keith told me the only way we could keep going with Thunder in Paradise was if I took full responsibility. But by then, I had enough. I was beat up, burned out, and tired of Hollywood. All I wanted was to go home.
“I said, ‘The hell with it. Pull the plug. I don’t care.’ So the show was cancelled. Word spread like wildfire.
“All of a sudden, I had these Turner people all over me, asking me to get involved with WCW. I said if I was going to talk about this, I wanted to do it with Ted Turner. So I went up and met with Ted and a guy named Bill Shaw, who was the president of WCW and Ted’s right-hand man. I came out of that meeting feeling good about what I was getting into. I decided WCW would be a good move for me.
“Hell, I was getting back into the wrestling business, the thing I did best. What could possibly go wrong?”
The rest, as they say, is history as he had a prominent role in WCW and helped ignite the Monday Night Wars that saw professional wrestling take off into the stratosphere like a rocket.
It wasn’t just the start of something new, but this day in wrestling history helped send shockwaves throughout the sport and created memories we’ll all cherish.
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