9 Old-Timers That Won Wrestling Gold (And Shouldn't Have)

He's a legend. He's an icon. He's probably the most well-known performer the industry has ever seen, and may have single-handedly saved professional wrestling from going under in the 80s. So it's tough to argue against Hulk Hogan being recognized by WWE as the World Champion once more in 2002, especially since the fans seemed to be into it.

But in hindsight, The Hulkster didn't need another championship run when he returned to the WWE. Yes, the wave of nostalgia Hulk was riding was certainly large enough to put him into the main event of WrestleMania 18 against The Rock, but that dream match should have been the end of it.

The decision to put the belt around Hulk again was almost certainly a combination of backstage politics and the white hot crowd responses Hogan was getting at the time, but it effectively killed a lot of the momentum Triple H was getting from his own spectacular return earlier that year. Hunter won the belt at WrestleMania 18, but had to cough it up a month later because Vince wanted to ride with Hogan as the ultimate babyface once again.

This also halted the rebooted nWo storyline, which promptly went straight downhill following Hogan's exit from the group.

It was one thing to have Hulk capture the Tag Team titles for the first time in his career with Edge, but the World Championship reign was a prime example of WWE letting nostalgia cloud their foresight.