The Complete History Of The New World Order | Wrestling Timelines
January 8, 1996 - This Is Horsemen Country
Nitro, WCW’s prime-time weekly TV show, goes head-to-head with WWF Monday Night Raw in the Monday Night Wars ratings battle.
This episode - headlined by Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage Vs. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson - emanates from the North Charleston Coliseum in South Carolina.
This is Horsemen Country.
A fan - an aggressive outward redneck with a mean snarl - is stationed front row. As the wrestlers are introduced for the match, the fan turns and faces the hard camera. He holds up some Hogan merch, symbolically rips it in half, and throws up his fingers to show his endorsement of Flair’s legendary Four Horsemen stable.
This fan, GIFs of whom circulate on Reddit and X to this day, memorably embodies the anti-Hogan sentiment evident in many an arena. Yes, Hogan drew record business for WCW on pay-per-view - but he’s not their guy. He draws a casual crowd, albeit not one large enough to spark another boom, but the diehards?
They loathe him and his hokey, cartoonish routine. It used to be magic, it isn’t anymore, and the WCW ultras didn’t even care for it back when it was big time.
The savvy thing to do would be to turn Hogan heel, but this just isn’t going to happen.
Hogan has a creative control clause glowing in his contract that allows him total governance of his own career - and as embarrassed WCW fans will soon discover, the man is hell-bent on convincing them of the power of Hulkamania…