10 Craziest Things That Ever Happened After WWE SmackDown Went Off The Air
5. An Immortal Unmasking
Hulk Hogan's Mr. America gimmick was born after Vince McMahon "fired" The Hulkster following his loss to him at WrestleMania XIX. To get around this, Hogan just put on a star-spangled mask, but made no effort to change his mannerisms or moves.
The joke had one level to it - Vince trying and failing to prove that Mr. America was really the Hulkster - but it was a really fun joke and produced some excellent segments, such as Hogan and McMahon's lie detector test on SmackDown.
Sadly (or mercifully, depending on your preference), the character died a premature death during a dark segment on 26 June 2003 edition of the Blue show.
After losing in a six-man tag team match - which featured the utterly insane combination of Hogan, Kurt Angle, and Brock Lesnar all on the same side - Mr. America unmasked in front of the live crowd, signalling with his hand that they should keep quiet about his identity.
Not that this really mattered as, the very next week, Hogan quit the company over creative differences. Classic Hogan!
This makes Hulk's unmasking his final appearance for the WWE until 2005 and it happened in front of a live crowd only.