Would WCW Have Been Successful Without Hulk Hogan?
In early 1994 WCW had developed a very good product. Spring Stampede and Slamboree that year were 2 very strong pay per views. Flair had 2 very good matches with Ricky Steamboat, Sting had a good feud going with Vader and Ravishing Rick Rude, Steve Austin was the U.S. champion and having good matches, and Cactus Jack was doing some crazy hardcore things with Kevin Sullivan and the Nasty Boys.
Then that Summer Hulk Hogan arrived and now guys like Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake, and the Honkey Tonk Man were getting pushes while Steve Austin and Cactus Jack soon found themselves, further down the card and out of the company.
Now other than popping a better than normal buy rate or two I would have to say Hulk Hogan's WCW run was a failure until the N.W.O. angle. I mean we went from Flair and Steamboat main eventing pay per views to Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake. That sucks.
Now while the N.W.O. angle was hot and made WCW must see TV, it was also the thing that killed the company's momentum due to the ego's involved.
So my question is would WCW been successful without Hulk Hogan?
I think so, based on early 1994 WCW was going in the right direction and some of their Pay Per Views topped WWE's in terms of quality that year.
Would WCW have ever gotten super huge, maybe not but I think WCW could have been profittable and with the lack of quality programming at WWE at the time maybe WCW could have built up some kind of buzz among wrestling fans.
What do you guys think?
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