20 More Surprising WWE Facts You Probably Didn't Know

Ever since Hulk Hogan turned heel at the Bash At The Beach event and transformed not only WCW’s fortunes but also the professional wrestling industry, he’s been pretty vocal about how it was his foresight and creative acumen that were responsible for the decision.

In one of his memoirs, he even claims that he came up with the idea to capitalise on the negative publicity occasioned by the notorious steroid trial in which he horrified his fans by admitting he’d lied about never using them to inflate his physique.

Of course, that trial, and Hogan’s witness evidence, had made a liar out of him two years earlier. According to Eric Bischoff, Hogan had been distinctly lukewarm on the prospect of turning heel when the idea was first presented to him… naturally so, given that he owed his career and name in the business to presenting the most wholesome of baby faces to the pro wrestling audience.

In fact, Bischoff says that one of only two times that Hulk Hogan exercised the creative control clause enshrined in his WCW contract was to veto the idea of a heel turn - some six months to a year before the heel turn that changed the business.