10 Biggest Promotion Killers In Wrestling History
6. Hulk Hogan
It was Hogan who hoisted WCW above the WWF in June 1996 - but a year and a half later, his notorious politicking put the first nail in its coffin.
The Hollywood Hogan heel character was a sensation. Hogan was thoroughly detestable in himself, and the fans were desperate to jeer him. Hogan, for the second time in his career, had captured the zeitgeist to an industry-shaking extent.
But a heel is only as good as the catharsis he doles out - and, with the exception of a rewarding loss to Lex Luger (itself but a fleeting departure from the status quo) - Hogan used the creative control clause in his contract to cling to the big gold belt with a tyrannical grip. In the literal shadows lurked Sting - a lone wolf anti-nWo renegade, who had stalked Hogan and his stablemates in a gripping one-versus-all rivalry.
It was set for resolution at StarrCade 1997 - over a year of teases, beatdowns and plot twists were to culminate at the company's biggest event of the year. It was one of the few occasions on which predicability was entirely welcome.
Hogan, however, didn't fancy doing a proper job for Sting, who he perceived to be unmotivated and out of shape. While not strictly untrue, it's not as if Hogan was Mitsuharu Misawa between the ropes. Hogan instructed referee Nick Patrick to forego the planned fast count chicanery and the protection it would have afforded Sting. When he was trapped in Sting's scorpion death lock, he writhed around in pretend agony for so long, without explicitly giving up, that Patrick eventually called for the bell out of presumed awkwardness.
Sting's aura was diminished irrevocably. WCW did, however, have one last babyface hope, waiting in the wings...