10 Wrestlers Who Hulk Hogan Refused To Lose Against

10. Jake €œThe Snake€ Roberts

During the late €˜80s and early €˜90s, Jake Roberts was an absolute master of his craft. Sure, he€™d done well before then, but this was the period where Jake was at his peak. Back in 1986, Roberts had established himself as a master manipulator and a conniving heel. He€™d been feuding with the likes of Junkyard Dog and Ricky Steamboat, whilst Hulk Hogan had been continuing his feud with Paul Orndorff. Such a good heel was Jake, the decision was made to put into motion a feud with the Hulkster. A November 1986 Snake Pit segment aired on WWF Wrestling Challenge, although all was not as originally intentioned. When the segment was actually shot, the pair ended up in a scripted argument that resulted in Jake dropping Hogan with his patented DDT. The stage was set for the two to feud over Hogan€™s WWF Title. Apart from that they didn€™t. At all. The dastardly heel Roberts attacking the mega babyface Hogan ended up actually getting a far different response to what the WWF expected. Jake actually got cheered for his actions when the item was filmed, which led the Snake Pit segment to be cut short when it finally aired on TV and completely omitted the attack. It€™s said that Hogan wasn€™t happy with Roberts getting cheered for attacking him, with the Hulkster worried that Roberts would become a legitimate challenger to his top babyface position. In an interview with the Wrestling Observer years later, Hogan added that at the time he didn€™t think that the feud would draw money, although he admitted in hindsight he was wrong on that idea. The general consensus and the word from other wrestlers (because wrestlers always speak the truth, right?) is that Hogan was worried that Roberts feuding with him over the WWF Title would cause him to lose his spot at the top of the tree. After getting cheered when up against Randy Savage (also a heel at the time), the decision was finally made to turn Jake babyface and have him feud with the Honky Tonk Man. Hogan would go on to have a brief feud with Kamala€ yet another generic monster heel for him to battle with and ultimately defeat.
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.