10 Most INSANE Promises Wrestling Promoters Made To Wrestlers

Bruce Prichard has admitted on his long-running podcast that the WWF wanted to bring Hulk Hogan back in 1998 due to his popularity as the leader of the nWo. So, ever the smart cookie, Hogan went back to WCW and reworked his already-staggering contract to include some tasty extras weighted in his favour.

One of them was that he’d get a bonus $20,000 every single time he wore nWo merch on television. Stop to think about that for a minute: Hulk was already being paid a healthy salary and other bonuses as it was, and he'd been playing the leader of the New World Order since the summer of 1996. Now, all because of some suspected interest from Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner were willing to heap on yet another add-on.

All Hogan had to do was rock an nWo bandana, t-shirt, tights or drape that bespoke, spray painted WCW World Title over his shoulder on Nitro and Thunder. Do that, and he netted a cool 20 grand. This was just the tip of the iceberg for 'MoneyMania', brother.

He’d also be paid 25% of the live gate whether it was Nitro, Thunder or pay-per-view, and probably even if he wasn’t necessarily on the card. That's outrageous, but fair play to Hogan for having it rubber stamped into his contract from '98 onwards.

The nWo merch thing stands out. It'd be like Roman Reigns being paid to wear Roman Reigns shirts on episodes of Raw today. Surely he's already paid a cut of those sales, so advertising new items is a freebie? Not for Hulk in WCW, it wasn't.