10 Kayfabe Wrestling Moments That Became Real

5. Vince McMahon Fires Hulk Hogan On TV... Before Firing Him For Real

Bret Hart Vince McMahon Cage
WWE.com/WWE.com

Take two. Sort of.

In 2003, Hulk Hogan worked a huge feud with Vince McMahon that included an underrated 'Street Fight' at WrestleMania XIX. Afterwards, WWE blatantly started to run out of ideas. That's why someone suggested putting Hulk under a hood as "Mr. America" and peddling the preposterous notion that nobody could prove his identity.

The storyline was still in full swing when Hogan's friendship with McMahon started breaking down behind the curtain. Reportedly, Hulk was unhappy with recent WWE payoffs, and that raised the ire of his boss. Never one to hesitate, McMahon decreed that Hogan's contract with the company be terminated.

Strangely, he had already started to put a line through the masked man angle right before dismissing his old pal. Hogan being outed on TV as America would've led to a kayfabe firing anyway, meaning that (despite a break already being discussed in creative meetings) real life actually jumped the gun on fiction here.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.