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In retrospect, you’d be foolish to conclude that anyone besides Hogan benefited from his WCW run. Sure, he was (and is) wrestling’s most recognizable character. But creatively, his selfishness ruined anything he was connected to. Financially, he took out so much money the company could never make it back.
That was OK as long as TNT and TBS saw wrestling as a loss leader. Eventually, they didn’t. When they began to see wrestling as lowbrow, as unnecessary, as replaceable, all that red ink turned to blood.
But it was great while it lasted. I was fortunate enough to be employed by WCW during the nWo angle. The buzz backstage was as big as the buzz in the stands. Everyone knew something very special was going on.
What if – within a few months of Hogan joining forces with the Outsiders – Hall and Nash had turned on him, relegating him to the scrap heap, driving home the point that this was truly a NEW World Order? Face it, within a few months of Hogan joining the nWo, it was apparent that this was merely a new alignment of wrestling’s same old world order, the one with him wielding an iron fist.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Don’t get fooled again. The fans weren’t. For WCW to go from the red-hot nWo invasion angle in 1996 to out of business by 2001 seems, in retrospect, impossible. Unless you were there.
