The Need For A Hostile Takeover: The Build-Up To Bash At The Beach 1996

Last week, I wrote about the historic Hell in a Cell confrontation between Mankind and The Undertaker from the 1998 King of the Ring event. Even seventeen years later, the match is still worthy to talk about, mainly due to the incredible risks that Mick Foley took with his body. It’s brutality set a standard for violence in wrestling matches that can be argued has yet to be matched to this day. Sticking with idea, I want to talk about another hugely important moment in wrestling history.

When you talk about historic moments in wrestling history, it can just as easily be said that the turn of Hulk Hogan and the formation of wrestling’s New World Order is something that almost two decades later is still light years ahead of any sports entertainment stable since. Today, July 7th, marks nineteen years since that fateful night in Daytona Beach, Florida, where the ultimate hero turned his back on millions of fans around the world. His transformation into “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, along with his alliance with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash would forever alter the business, and play a large part in shifting pro wrestling into the “Attitude Era” of the late 90’s.

If you rewind to before Bash at the Beach 1996, you could see that Hulkamania wasn’t exactly getting over in mid-90’s WCW. I mean, even if you go as far back as the early 90’s WWF, the fans were turning on The Hulkster even back then. Go back and watch the footage of when Hogan lost the WWF Championship to The Undertaker at the Survivor Series 1991. Once the three count goes down, the crowd explodes with excitement for ‘Taker. Two months later, at the 1992 Royal Rumble pay per view in Albany, New York, Sid Justice dumps Hogan over the top rope, ending his chance at regaining the vacant WWF Championship. If you have the live version, you can hear the very audible eruption of cheers, with commentator Gorilla Monsoon commenting that it’s only fair, as it’s every man for himself (the cheers were edited out and Monsoon over dubbed his commentary in the home video release, making it seem as though Sid had done something wrong in eliminating Hogan).

Yes, when Hogan arrived for his debut match in Wold Championship Wrestling against Ric Flair at Bash at the Beach 1994, WCW did it’s highest buy rate for a pay per view at that time, an estimated 225,000 buys. And yes, following Hogan’s debut and World Heavyweight Championship win, his return to PPV three months later, in a steel cage “Retirement Match” against Flair at Halloween Havoc, garnered a similar high buy rate of 210,000 buys. Throughout 1995, the buy rate fluctuated with Hulk on top, but numbers were largely similar to what they were before Hogan was brought into the company with his large contract. Bigger than the numbers was the consistent reaction that Hulk was receiving from the live crowds. If it wasn’t chants of “WE WANT FLAIR,” it was a chorus of boos. Hogan’s decade long schtick of training, saying prayers and eating ones vitamins no longer resonated with wrestling fans like it had in the past.

It probably didn’t help matters that Hulk Hogan was a different breed of main eventer than fans of WCW were accustomed to. Dating back to their time as part of the National Wrestling Alliance, NWA/WCW’s fanbase were used to seeing 45 minute classics between the likes of Sting and Flair, or Flair and Steamboat. They were used to the realism and brutality in matches between Cactus Jack and Vader– or Vader versus anybody, really. Hogan’s wrestling style, as far as a wrestling purist was concerned, was borderline cartoony, and once he settled into his role as WCW Champion, he really cranked the cartoony knob to eleven.

Hulk Hogan entering the lair of Dungeon of Doom and being surprised by the fact the water was “not hot!”

The Dark Side of Hulkamania, which consisted of Hulk having no mustache, wearing all black, including a a black neck brace , and cutting promos in a ridiculous Phantom of the Opera costume.

The sumo monster truck battle on top of Cobo Hall, where Hulk Hogan pushed The Giant off a building, and yet somehow he returned unscathed, defeated him for the WCW Title, and still managed to hump him, with the help of an eight foot tall mummy.

Nobody wanted to see Hulk Hogan anymore, and something had to change quickly. Lucky for WCW, they had just signed two of the World Wrestling Federation’s biggest stars:

…enter Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.

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-Greg