10 Worst Ever Wrestling Retirements

5. Hulk Hogan (WCW Bash At The Beach 2000)

matt hardy lita
WWE.com

So toxic that it became the subject of a lawsuit, the all-too-real war of words between Hulk Hogan and Vince Russo during July 2000's Bash at the Beach pay-per-view came to embody the enormous failure the former WWE head writer had been in Atlanta.

The story began as yet another of his insipid 'worked shoot' angles, but morphed into something much worse as the night progressed.

Set to do battle over the WCW World Heavyweight Title, Hulk Hogan and Jeff Jarrett instead commenced the supposedly big angle, with 'Double J' laying down in the ring for Hogan to defeat him at Russo's behest.

Hulk did so, but lambasted his boss on the microphone, suggesting that WCW was 'the shape it was in because of bullsh*t like this'.

As commentators talked about 'going off script', Hogan took the World Title and left.

Russo returned later in the night to explain how he'd spent all day trying to deal with Hogan's politics and was pushed to breaking point. He ended his scathing diatribe with a final message to Hulk - 'You big bald son of a b*tch, kiss my ass'.

According to Hulk (and his defamation lawsuit), Russo went way beyond the pale in his promo. Ironically, he did promise fans that they'd 'never see that piece of sh*t (Hogan) again'. It ended up being true.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 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 over 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 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana 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