The WCW Conspiracy Iceberg EXPLAINED!

Former WWE and AEW World Champion Chris Jericho told a very funny and very Hulk Hogan story in both his first autobiography in 2007 and again, in 2020, on the Major Wrestling Figure podcast. 

He said that he was buzzing when WCW first created an action figure for his character, as part of a two-wrestler set alongside then-rival Dean Malenko. His girlfriend at the time excitedly visited a nearby toy store to pick one up - but was confused to discover that the receipt instead listed that she had purchased the set with Hulk Hogan and Sting’s action figures. Jericho believed that Hulk Hogan had essentially stolen his merchandise royalties, alongside every other midcard wrestler, as part of his infamously generous company-killer of a WCW contract. 

Eric Bischoff has disputed Jericho’s claims, reasoning that this would have been an error on the part of the retailer. If you scour Reddit, you’ll find the perspective of those with experience in the retail industry stateside. They will tell you that the store itself, and not the merchandise producer, is responsible for assigning the unique Store Keeping Unit (SKU) barcode. 

Jericho has counter-argued that he once received a royalty cheque for the princely sum of zero dollars and zero cents, adamant that somewhere down the line, he got screwed out of money - but WCW could barely operate a wrestling promotion, much less coordinate a money laundering scheme with every toy store chain in the United States. This feels like another story attributed to Hogan driven purely by his reputation. Hogan cried wizzolf his entire life, so it’s not exactly unfair - but it’s probably not true, either.