Hulk Hogan's return to WWE after a nine-year absence was surprisingly low-key -- he came back in his evil "Hollywood" persona as part of the nWo, charged by Vince McMahon with destroying the company. Alongside Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, Hogan began to antagonize the top babyfaces in the company, but it wasn't until he was officially matched up with The Rock at WrestleMania XVIII that the gravitas of the situation became apparent. While the match -- fittingly billed as "Icon versus Legend" -- was a decent back-and-forth encounter, it was the Toronto crowd that really made it a historic moment. Elated to see Hogan's first major WWE match in almost a decade, the fans at the Skydome cheered every bit of offense the Hulkster got in -- and, by extension, made The Rock the heel of the match. Though Rock won, the two men stood side by side as they faced a post-match attack from Hall and Nash. It was official -- Hulk Hogan lived again. The above picture, taken seconds into the match, perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere which surrounded it -- and which surrounds every truly legendary moment in WWE history. There's an electricity in the air that's bigger than the men in the ring, and even legends like Hulk Hogan and The Rock can only stand back and experience it with the rest of us.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
