10 Best WWE Moments That Have Ever Happened In Chicago
4. The Rock-Hogan Staredown - Monday Night Raw, February 8, 2002
It may not seem like a big deal now, but back in 2002, when Hulk Hogan returned to the WWE for the first time in nearly nine years, it was monumental. At first, Hogan appeared on-screen with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash -- themselves making their first appearance in six years -- as the nWo. The Chicago crowd gave the moment its deserved reverence. When Rock issued the challenge for Wrestlemania, they exploded. When Hogan accepted the challenge after some reluctance, the roar got louder. The image of Rock and Hogan looking at opposite sides of the arena and slowly turning their heads from one side to the other is frozen in time, and the crowd provided the soundtrack by chanting Rocky! Rocky! and having the Rocky chant slowly die as a Hogan! Hogan! chant picked up. At that moment, the nuances of good guy vs. bad guy had melted away and the crowd was rooting for a dream match they thought theyd never see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZNc7DX8NV0 When the storyline kicked back in after the promo, and Hall and Nash attacked Rock, leading to Hogan hitting Rock in the back of the head with a hammer, the crowd went back to booing the despicable nWo. The subsequent running down of The Rock by Hogan in a mack truck tends to be forgotten considering how the two kissed and made up at Wrestlemania, but it was a fairly shocking moment at the time, one that was felt by the entire WWE roster the rest of the night. Having other wrestlers in later segments react to something that happened earlier to somebody else is a rare thing these days.
