The Last Days Of Hulkamania
How Hulk Hogan nearly killed WCW before the New World Order even had the chance...
The late, great(est) Bobby Heenan was unfairly maligned for years over supposedly spoiling Hulk Hogan's iconic Bash At The Beach 1996 heel turn.
You remember the call. Hogan's marching to the ring, ostensibly to save his mates Sting and Randy Savage from invading Outsiders Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, as Heenan queries out-loud which side he's on.
Bobby Heenan - the man that held a decade-long distrust for Hogan - was calling it as he saw it. And it took a real piece of sh*t to see it that way, which is what Heenan always was. Hogan hadn't been on WCW Nitro since Hall and Nash had started turning it upside down, so while the world saw a saviour, Bobby so desperately wanted to be right, just this once, about somebody committing the ultimate sin. Dusty Rhodes was so appalled by the very notion that 'The Hulkster' could side with evil that he chastised 'The Brain' on the spot for his cynicism.
'The Dream' was the one living a nightmare just seconds later when Hogan dropped his leg across Randy Savage's throat. Ever the browbeaten b*stard, Heenan couldn't even relish in finally being right - his job with WCW appeared on the line and/or gone by virtue of the New World Order's hostile takeover.
He'd failed so many times to end Hulkamania that this moment should have been a milestone for him, let alone Hogan. Instead, and like all good villains at the end of the story, he looked at the lights. In kayfabe, he couldn't toast it. In reality, he simply couldn't claim it - the phenomenon died an ugly, protracted death months before Hogan put it out of its misery.
CONT'D...