10 Surprise WWE Returns That Immediately Transformed Title Matches

6. Hulk Hogan

Sasha Banks Alexa Blis Bayley
WWE.com

How dare he. How dare he.

Hulk Hogan had barely been back a month and had seemingly accepted a gentle transition down the card thanks to a newly-formed tag unit with Brutus Beefcake ahead of his WrestleMania 9 return. He'd kept his departure intentionally ambiguous in the run-up to WrestleMania 8, with the man and company believing it best he disappeared until the heat from his 1990 steroid lies and various other scandals engulfing WWE in general had died down.

Returning just in time to claim a Caeser's Palace payday, Hogan's night was supposed to be over after the failed attempt alongside Beefcake to dethrone Money Inc of their doubles straps. Little did fans know how shrewd an operator Hogan was.

Planting a seed shortly before the main event by challenging the winner and referring to Yokozuna as 'the J*p', 'The Hulkster' had managed to place himself back in the conversation before the evening's closing controversy. Running out ostensibly to fight Bret's corner after Mr Fuji had thrown powder and rendered him defenceless to the challenger's almighty leg drop, Hulk got bored of fighting someone else's fight and instead commandeered a title shot there and then.

With Bret literally out of the picture, Hulk won his fifth title just like that, then didn't wrestle once on television with the title before shipping it back to the sumo star at June's King Of The Ring.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett