Ranking Who Was Really The Man In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020
25. 1996 - Hulk Hogan
1996 was the year in which Hulk Hogan turned heel, toppled the monopoly of the company he built, and transformed from the lamest act in all of wrestling to front the coolest.
His work was still heavily reliant on carny schtick - which is a nice way of stating it was athletically appalling - but Hogan rarely gets enough credit for subverting his act in the ring as intelligently as he did outside of it.
Those matches were still emotionally intense affairs - but, where the WWF fans lived and died with him in the ring, it was of incredible importance to WCW fans that he lost.
That they were willing to put themselves through it every week is key to what a phenomenally effective heel he was.