10 Wrestlers Who Came Crawling Back To WWE

8. Hulk Hogan

Stardust Spider
WWE Network

Hulk Hogan refused to commit to exactly where he was going, what he was doing, or indeed why he was going away in and around the time of WrestleMania VIII in 1992.

This wasn't because he had offers from the industry at large flooding in, that he was the subject of a bidding war between wrestling and Hollywood, or because after eight years at the top he wanted to step aside and let the next ones throgh.

This was because doing so would have involved yet more speaking about an area he'd already proven rather weak at.

A 1990 appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show was an exercise in media spin gone horribly wrong - by fibbing about the amount of steroids he'd taken in his career up to that point, 'The Hulkster' inadvertently opened up a pandora's box that had been bursting at the seams for years. Two years on, and WWE was further engulfed in scandal extending to lawsuits surrounding drugs, death and sexual assault claims.

As the front-facing company representative when times were extremely good, it was looking like he'd have to eat sh*t during the dark timeline too. That didn't work for him brother, and off he popped until some of the dust had settled in early 1993.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, 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