[FanSince88]

He was at WM8 in April, but was nowhere to be found during SummerSlam-survivor series.

Was he still with the company?

He resurfaced during WM9 season buildup, and then left again for good a few months later.


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[Luchini]

He took a break due to a steroid scandal I believe.

 

[11Shareef]

Should be in classics, but yeah the Steroid Scandal pushed him into retirement until WCW lured him in.

 

[Jupiter Jack Daniels]

As far as 1992 goes, it was known prior to the Rumble that Hogan was leaving after WM 8 until Summerslam. He was going to shoot a movie, Mr. Nanny. Good reason why Hogan/Flair didn't happen at WM. Again, he was only supposed to be gone until Summerslam but in his absence, the steroid scandal took off and his name was dragged all through the mud. So, obviously he decided not to come back and many in the business thought he was gone for good and was a movie star now.

The reason he came back in '93 was because Warrior fucked up again and Bret wasn't making anything happen at the gate. So, they convinced Hogan to come back and promised him the title. Problem is, Hogan wasn't drawing, either.



His departure in '93 is because of a variety of things. It's said that Hogan didn't like the direction the company was going in. That can be tied into the fact that Hogan's idea for his return was to win the belt, "lose" it at KOTR to Yokozuna due to a heel, Japanese referee and he would win it back at Summerslam. IIRC, this was the initial plan from Hogan because he shot the pilot for Thunder in Paradise and if it was picked up for a full season, he needed a few weeks to film. And it did get picked up. Obviously, WWE did away with the heel referee concept. And supposedly, Hogan didn't like that.

Another reason given was that wrestling, as a whole, saw a decline in business. And for Hogan, who's just starting to branch out in Hollywood, if he's no longer seen as a draw in wrestling, Hollywood might look at him like he can't draw people into the theaters.

And along with that, the steroid scandal. Vince pretty much cut ties with anybody that could land him in hot water (Savage & Piper were different because both admitted use, whereas Hogan denied despite so many people accusing him, including Savage and possibly Piper).


So, as a result of all of this, Hogan pulled himself, Jimmy Hart and Beefcake from Summerslam (where it was to be Hogan/Yokozuna for the title) and all committed house shows (Bret replaced Hogan vs. Yokozuna) EXCEPT for upcoming shows in Boston, Chicago and a European tour in July/August because of there being such a large advance to see Hogan. And his last match was about 3 weeks before Summerslam.

And from there, he kept it in Hollywood. Shot Thunder in Paradise, Mr. Nanny was just released and he made a few tours with NJPW. So, it seems like his whole departure was to get away from the (at that time) possible sinking ship that was Titan Sports.

 

[11Shareef]

His '93 run slipped my mind lmao.

 

[Jupiter Jack Daniels]

And for good reason.


Despite being in the company from January to August, he only wrestled on TV or PPV twice. And his last PPV match wasn't even the main event or the selling point of the PPV, which I bet made him furious.

 

[The Great Gatsby]

And for good reason.


Despite being in the company from January to August, he only wrestled on TV or PPV twice. And his last PPV match wasn't even the main event or the selling point of the PPV, which I bet made him furious.

So what happened with his title match with Bret at Summerslam?

 

[Jupiter Jack Daniels]

So what happened with his title match with Bret at Summerslam?

Depends on who you believe.


To you, me, possibly every fan in the world and more importantly, to Bret, it made sense to have that match, under the assumption that Hogan was finished after Summerslam.


But, to Hogan, he wasn't going to be finished at Summerslam. His plan was to win the title for a 5th time at Summerslam and go from there.


IIRC, WWE had already sent posters to Japan, hyping Bret/Hogan at Summerslam. Again, under the assumption Hogan was going to be finished. And that, technically, would have been right.



Problem is, in order for that to happen, Hogan had to be champion from April to August, while he was on hiatus shooting his TV show. And even worse, he didn't want to drop the title at Summerslam. And more importantly, probably didn't want to put Bret over.



Regardless, Hogan's plan was to "drop" the title at KOTR. He didn't want to put Yokozuna over clean. Vince's retort and in a way to please Hogan, was to do away with the controversial finish, drop the title at KOTR, go back to Hollywood, come back in August, likely win the belt and possibly, put Bret over in the end in his "farewell" match. That would have still made sense because he's still "passing the torch".



But for whatever reason, Hogan didn't want to do none of that and decided to stay off TV and leave in August, which kind of makes you think that since Hogan worked FEW house shows and still left in August, the plan actually was for him to drop the belt to Bret at Summerslam, doing away with the KOTR match with Yokozuna. But since he didn't want to do business, drop the belt to Yokozuna and a still rather controversial finish and kick rocks.



I understand Bret's frustration over that but I also understand Hogan not going for any of it because it was their way of phasing him out of a company that, as of December 1992, he had no intention of returning to in the first place.

 

[Berkajr]

The Steroind scandal started to make things though for WWF and its posterboy Hogan. Add the fact that Hogan lied about using steroids during an interview.
This lead to McMahon getting scared of facing a trial, which caused him to get rid of most muscle heads. Furthermore Hogan's popularity started to disapear. Just look at the PPV live version of the This Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble. People where cheering for Undertaker when he won the title when Sid eliminated him from the Rumble.

According to Hogan it was a mutual decision to leave WWF after WM 8. Which is probably one of the main reasons Flair did not get to Wrestle Hogan at the event.

WWF started to Push different guys, and since things where heating up in the steriod scandal, McMahon also fired Warrior and Bulldog in order to cover his own ass. The Push of Bret Hard failed. It was obvious that, despite being a fairly good draw, Bret was no Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior in terms of merchendise and drawing. Since Hogan had stopped with steroids, it was green for him to come back. This time it was an obvious change in apperance since Hogan had dropped lots of that muscle mass.

Hogan agreed to come back and help out boosting the business. Hogan also admits suggesting to Vinc, that he should win the title at WM from Yoko and then drop the title back to him. McMahon agreed since he wanted fans to go home happy from WM and took a gamble. However, Hogan did not boost business the way McMahon had hoped.

Ther has been many reports of Hogan refusing to drop the title Bret. But if one read both Hogans and Brets respective autobiographies, They clearly kind of agree that Vince played them both against each other.

Hogan dropped the belt to Yoko, despite not clean, Hogan did a massive job in terms of letting Yoko destroying him afterwards the match even Banzai splashing him a few times.

Furthermore, there is another interesting aspect that most Hogan-bashers fail to thing of. There is always two sides to the story. In 1993, Hogan was a global household name, and had sold out arenas all over the world. Bret had been in the same lockerooms as Hogan since 1984, and had always been a mid card tag team wrestler up until late 1991. Also Hogan, along with Vince and almost every other wrestler and promotor up to that point had the mindset that bigger is better. That is how it was in the 1970's and 1980's. So me personally can understand why Hogan might have been reluctant to drop the belt to Bret, who only had been a singles wrestler for less than two years of his 9 year stint. And since Bret was not THE next big thing, Hogan was reluctant and protective of his character since he did not want to do the same mistake he had done with Warrior.

But in all it is too bad that Hogan and Bret did not wrestle in 1993-1994 at some point. If done correctly, we might not just have the Hogan Warrior match to talk about with two faces wrestling each other like they did.

It was obious that Vince had Bret as champion since he had no better guy, but still wanted the next Hogan. Just look at how he tried to push so many stars for the top spot but failed and almost always went back to Bret. Wrestlers like Lex Luger, Diesel and Shawn Michaels were pushed but all failed in terms of becoming the next Hogan. It was not until Austin arrived and rose to insane popularity in 1997, when business took off again like it had done in 1984...

Another contributing factor that business was down in 1991-1996, was not just because fans were sick of Hogan. IT was also due to the financial global cricis which made people attend less to shows due to monetary issues.

 

[Eduard Khil]

In a vid during WM8 Hogan said "I'll be training with my little son Nicolas, with Brooke watching, and then we're gonna go for the WWF title".

 

[cablegeddon]

The other side of the story is that Bret vs Hogan @ Summerslam was never supposed to happen. Details are sketchy....but many people claim that Vince never wanted the match to happen and that it was never even brought up.

Of course when Bret claims he has photos from a photoshoot with Hogan that in his opinion prove that the match was planned to happen.

 

[Showstopper]

The other side of the story is that Bret vs Hogan @ Summerslam was never supposed to happen. Details are sketchy....but many people claim that Vince never wanted the match to happen and that it was never even brought up.

Of course when Bret claims he has photos from a photoshoot with Hogan that in his opinion prove that the match was planned to happen.

Jupiter Jack nailed what happened. Only thing I wanted to ad in regards to the bolded part of your post, is not only did they do a photoshoot together. But supposedly, according to Bret, the photoshoot included a bunch of photos of Bret and Hogan enacting a 'tug of war' style photo with the WWF Title.

 

[SpocksEvilClone]

I've often wondered what the WWF would have been like had Hogan never returned to the WWF after one of his movies. Or what things would have been like if he and Bret had their match at Summerslam.

I do understand why Hogan would not have wanted to put Bret over: Bret was a smaller guy & yes, crowds were turning against him starting with the Undertaker match at Survivor Series 91. It was the idea of him losing his spot. However he & Vince ran the Hulkamania train for far too long.

 

[FanSince88]

I've often wondered what the WWF would have been like had Hogan never returned to the WWF after one of his movies. Or what things would have been like if he and Bret had their match at Summerslam.

I do understand why Hogan would not have wanted to put Bret over: Bret was a smaller guy & yes, crowds were turning against him starting with the Undertaker match at Survivor Series 91. It was the idea of him losing his spot. However he & Vince ran the Hulkamania train for far too long.

That's Vince's problem. He milks everything waaaaaay past the point of dry


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[the modern myth]

I remember him retiring (or hinting at retiring) in the build to Wrestlemania 8 (or at least around the same time). The real question should be: where was Hogan in 1993, when he was supposedly the WWF Champion? He wasn't on TV. He wasn't even in the country. He was in Japan, trashing the WWF title in press conferences. Why they gave him the title in '93 is beyond me. It's like saying to the entire WWF roster: "We'd rather have NO champion than any of you guys!", because he didn't defend that title once between Wrestlemania IX and KOTR 1993.

The other side of the story is that Bret vs Hogan @ Summerslam was never supposed to happen. Details are sketchy....but many people claim that Vince never wanted the match to happen and that it was never even brought up.

Of course when Bret claims he has photos from a photoshoot with Hogan that in his opinion prove that the match was planned to happen.

Jupiter Jack nailed what happened. Only thing I wanted to ad in regards to the bolded part of your post, is not only did they do a photoshoot together. But supposedly, according to Bret, the photoshoot included a bunch of photos of Bret and Hogan enacting a 'tug of war' style photo with the WWF Title.

I remember reading this article as a kid, and assumed that it would Hogan/Hart for the title at Summerslam. Looking at the way it was booked at Wrestlemania, it seemed the natural follow up match.

 

[Berkajr]

Yeah I remember getting this Magazine as well, as a 15 year old fan, I really wanted this match to happen.

With that said, I must say that since Hogan had dropped a lot of muscle mass and was nowhere near his psyche from 1982-1990, a body which made him feel like a super hero larger than life, would have taken away a lot from the Hart-Hogan match.

I remember thinking, if this match was would have happened and Hart would have won, I thought that is was because it was "not the same Hogan" The Ultimate Warrior defeated, this was tuned down version, so by defeating him would not do as much for Hart.

I still would have very much liked a Hart-Hogan match at WM 10, the only fitting PPV to hold such a match of that caliber. Furhter more, with the right mind set of both wrestlers, this could have been one of Hogans greatest matches in terms of wrestling, while it would have been Bret's biggest match ever.

Too bad Hogan was way too protective of his character and had his mind in to making TV series at the time.

Ultimately it was us the fans which was snubbed of a great match and a great piece wrestling history

 

[SpocksEvilClone]

Too bad Hogan was way too protective of his character and had his mind in to making TV series at the time.
Ultimately it was us the fans which was snubbed of a great match and a great piece wrestling history

This is really my biggest complaint about Hogan. Just too protective of his character without realizing the damage he did to the business. Hogan vs. Hart, Hogan vs. Flair (in their primes), chasing Dibiase for the title, we fans missed what could have been great matches, great feuds.
I feel that we fans never got a proper end to the Hogan vs. Andre feud because Savage and Dibiase were tied into the feud and the blow off never really happened, because Vince just had to have Hogan in the spotlight. And with Vince never taking Hogan out of the spotlight lead to Hogan's increased protection.

 

[Berkajr]

This is really my biggest complaint about Hogan. Just too protective of his character without realizing the damage he did to the business. Hogan vs. Hart, Hogan vs. Flair (in their primes), chasing Dibiase for the title, we fans missed what could have been great matches, great feuds.
I feel that we fans never got a proper end to the Hogan vs. Andre feud because Savage and Dibiase were tied into the feud and the blow off never really happened, because Vince just had to have Hogan in the spotlight. And with Vince never taking Hogan out of the spotlight lead to Hogan's increased protection.

I never knew Hogan nixed an idea of chasing DiBiase for the title? Me, personally as it turned out, with Hogan chasing Savage was much better IMO

Also as far as I know, both Hogan, Flair, Patterson, Jim Ross and several other former and current wwe employees were shocked that VINCE nixed the idea of having them wrestle at WM 8. Never heard this before, so before trying to blast Hogan with the normal -Hogan-hating stuff, can you please get your facts ready first. Just read Flairs book, Hogans as well or see the WWE round table series. But then again, since Hogan and wrestlers are a bunch of liars, I probably would chose to trust Hogan-hater threads on the internet instead of guys who were directly involved fpalm

What do you mean Vince just HAD to have Hogan in the spotlight. That comment there must be the most ignorant or clueless I've seen in a long time. In 1988-1990, whether you like it or not, Hulk Hogan was THE guy in wrestling, no one drew more than him, he was the cash cow in wrestling, the golden goose, Hulk Hogan was the one who made million of dollars for other just by apperaring on the same card as him. A very few line of wrestlers comes close to the drawing power of Hogan, Ted DiBiase was never near Hogans level. Sure more talented in the ring, but that is just ONE component to make it. Hogan had most components along with a decent moveset. That was just smart (or should I say obvious) business toHave Hogan as the main guy and run with it as long as he could.