7 Times Wrestling Should Have Called An Audible
2. Hulk Hogan - WCW Nitro July 6, 1998
Hulk Hogan's WCW main event presence was literally mandated. Creative control was written into his contract, and he exercised the clause whenever he didn't fancy lying on his back - which is ironic, given that years later we learned his favoured sexual position.
The most egregious - and business-decimating - example of his rampant ego torpedoed the storyline with which WCW had established ratings dominance over the beleaguered (but still financially healthy, contrary to revisionist history) WWF. At Starrcade 1997, Hogan decided he didn't fancy capping off an eighteen-month storyline arc and, supposedly dismayed at the shape in which Sting arrived at Washington D.C.'s MCI Center, orchestrated an impromptu finish in which he cleanly and quickly pinned Sting - he instructed Nick Patrick to forego the prearranged slow count, and then flailed in his Scorpion Death Lock after the restart. He purposefully didn't tap; instead, he sort of made Patrick feel awkward enough to just pretend that he did following a protracted staring contest.
Hogan was at his most selfless when he put Goldberg over at the Georgia Dome on free television, when in fact he should have repeated his old trick. WCW lost millions in potential pay-per-view revenue over the short-sighted desperation ratings grab. Had Hogan screwed Goldberg, the near-riot would have been worth it. The heat could have been siphoned into a redemptive and lucrative PPV climax.
It's not as if the company itself was high on clean finishes.