10 WWE Mega-Pushes Fans Hated BEFORE Roman Reigns & John Cena

2. The Megamaniacs

The Megamaniacs
WWE

One of the bigger moments from Raw's earliest days saw Hulk Hogan return to gobble up an undeservedly large chunk of WrestleMania IX's smaller pay-per-view pie, but his WWE Championship win on the show was the consequence of his trojan horse Tag Team Title shot with Brutus Beefcake.

Outside of a shocked and stunned Las Vegas car park crowd on the night itself, it was hard to find anybody asking for this turn of events other than Hogan himself.

It began not-that-innocently with the 'The Barber's return to in-ring competition some three years removed from a near-fatal parasailing accident and divorce one-two punch that understandably sent his physical and mental health into a spiral.

With all the sympathy of a Twitter troll, a Manhattan Center fan picked a silent moment between breaths to yell 'KILL YOURSELF' at the maligned babyface. This was beyond the pale but the pop for 'The Hulkster' himself a fortnight later was pallid compared to the pandemonium he was once capable of.

The pair felt like spare parts in this nascent New Generation, and would be absent without explanation save for Hogan's one and only defence of the WWE Championship at King Of The Ring two months later.

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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