Ranking The Biggest Rivalries In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020

27. 1994 - Hulk Hogan Vs Ric Flair

hulk hogan ric flair bash at the beach
WWE.com

Presenting what Vince McMahon simply hadn't deemed worthy of main eventing WrestleMania with two years earlier, WCW started hot with Hulk Hogan by giving him a WCW Heavyweight Title clash with Ric Flair for his in-ring debut.

'The Hulkster' won, but so too did Eric Bischoff for taking the substantial financial gamble. Their Bash At The Beach headliner drew the highest buyrate in the history of WCW and almost instantly reinvented the company as effective North American opposition to WWE.

The pair ran back the blockbuster to diminished returns throughout the rest of the year, but dragged another monster number from their Halloween Havoc steel cage match.It'd take nearly two years before WCW had anything that approached the box office success of this legitimate dream match.

 
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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