How Good Was 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan Actually?

5. Rivalries

This is the point where Bollea gets in Hollywood Hogan's way. As is universally known, Hulk had creative control in his WCW contract, and he would exercise that privilege to the detriment of his feuds, WCW as a whole and ultimately his own legacy.

There's no better example of this than the main event of Starrcade 1997. After building up Sting for a whole year, and WCW creating an entire movement behind his 'Crow' persona to build towards the biggest match in WCW history, all Hogan had to do was play his part in finishing the story. The timing, lead-up and opponent were perfect. The stage was set for him to do the job and give everyone the fairytale ending to their story, but he instead put his ego first and sullied the end of the match in a way that began to make fans lose faith in WCW. 

Even when Sting won the title against Hogan at SuperBrawl in February 1998, it had come after so many caveats and delays that it totally killed the momentum of their feud.

This had been preceded earlier that year in the summer of '97, when Lex Luger won the WCW strap from Hollywood on Nitro in a rare moment of not only beating Hogan cleanly but making him submit in the Torture Rack. The crowd went wild, but they may as well have not bothered. Luger held the title for all of 5 days until Hulk won the belt back at Hog Wild in a finish that featured a fake Sting costing the 'Total Package' his belt and restoring Hulk to the top of the mountain. Fans felt cheated in a way that was counterproductive and detrimental to the product.

This was always the problem with Hollywood. When knowing he would always have the last laugh, he made feuds redundant. Even if everyone played their part perfectly, Hulk's ego would make sure the whole thing became nonsense in the name of protecting himself. 

3/10