10 Times WWE Couldn't Repeat Success
6. Hulk Hogan
Before Vince McMahon stumbled into his second major success - that is to say, himself - he was ardently faithful to his original money-spinning method, that of the muscle-bound Real American hero. Hulk Hogan, in other words.
The first time McMahon failed to repeat the Hulkster's glory years was with Hulk Hogan himself. By 1993, Hogan's tan had been tarnished by the steroid scandal, and what's more a maturing crowd had started to reject the simplistic worldview of righteous good vs. absolute (nearly always foreign) evil. To say the Immortal One's WrestleMania IX gazumping of latest international bogeyman Yokozuna was unpopular outside a group of clueless Las Vegas day trippers would be an understatement.
By summer, he was gone, and McMahon was left with two 24 inch gaps to fill. Failing to recognise his own failing popularity was one of the reasons Hogan had shrewdly engineered his exit, a grasping McMahon sought to directly replace him. With one huge bodyslam aboard a boat, a Narcissist became a nationalist, as Lex Luger was sent on the ultimate coach trip across America to prove his babyface bona fides.
It didn't work. WWE fans already had their next hero, and ironically, he was a Canadian: Bret Hart. Luger's push was hardly helped by McMahon, despite the initial zeal, only putting one foot in the water with a useless SummerSlam '93 countout victory over big Yoko. Come WrestleMania X, the Lex Express had already broken down, and the Hitman was installed as the leader of the New Generation.