In 1995, Kevin Sullivan and the Dungeon of Doom went nuclear in their feud with Hulk Hogan and shaved off his iconic mustache. This drove the longtime babyface to access "the Dark Side of Hulkamania", causing him to dress like the Phantom of the Opera threaten Meng with a sword. It seemed bizarre and incomprehensible at the time, but when Hollywood Hogan appeared only six months later, speculation abounded that this embarrassing footnote in Hulkamania history was a market test to gauge how fans would react to an evil Hogan. In this case, the theory was correct: Hogan was toying with turning heel but didn't think it would work. The fans responded with thunderous apathy, and Hogan panicked and mixed the idea. But the experiment wasn't a total waste; Bischoff knew he wanted a heel Hogan at the helm of the nWo, and now it was clear that if it was going to work, they were going to have to invent a new kind of wrestling heel.
