What if #4: Hogan doesnt turn heel in 1996

[Gertner]

The stage was set. Hall and Nash joined WCW and became the talk of wrestling. They threw down a challenge against WCW. 3 on 3. Luger, Sting and Savage quickly stepped up. Nash and Hall refused to announce their third guy. Fast forward to Bash at the Beach 1996. Luger gets taken out early and it becomes a tag match. Hogan eventually comes out, surveys the damage and drops a leg on Savage and turns heel, hotshotting WCW past the WWF and creating one of the greatest stables in history until their downfall.

What if Hogan doesn't turn heel?
How does the angle play out?
Does WCW beat the WWF for 83 straight weeks?
Who would have taken Hogan's place?

Discuss.

[Gertner]

Consider this: Hart he just resigned with the WWF. Luger, Sting and Savage were faces. Giant had no ties to the WWF.

This leaves one man with recent ties to the WWF. A man who was a perennial main event star, but a man who was already a heel.
I truly believe Ric Flair would have been the 3rd guy.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Ric Flair being the third guy wouldn't have had the same effect, I don't think. Flair had been heel about a thousand times before. It wouldn't have been anything shocking or new.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Yeah, it had to be Hogan or Sting. Only 2 guys to be permanent faces during their entire mainstream exposure.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>Yeah, it probably would have been Sting. And as a result we may have never got the epic crow Sting.</font>

[Anybody Thrilla]

Crow Hogan may have been pretty epic, too.

[Gertner]

The problem with Sting is that he was so friggen valuable as a face that they couldn't turn him. Sting was WCW. He never went to the WWF, and they had already tried making Hogan a darker face when Hogan had his mustache shaved off and it was stupid because Hogan can't pull off the role that Sting did.

I agree, without Hogan the angle is still good because of the effect Hall and Nash had, but not revolutionary.

[Gertner]

How do you guys think the angle would have done without Hogan? Does WCW still beat the WWF?

[Gertner]

This is a tough one. What I think WCW would have tried is to load up the brinks truck and try and sign HBK who would have fit in perfectly.

[Aguakate]

I think that the only other wrestler who would've had an impact close to the one Hogan had, WOULD'VE BEEN Sting. And all the "he was too valuable to WCW to turn him", that would've been the PERFECT reason TO TURN HIM.

I think WCW still would've beaten WWF for the time they did, cause if u REALLY look at it, Hogan's impact was momentary, it just helped nWo to get the initial BOOST, and then after that, Bischoff is the reason why WCW beat WWF, with all his antics and things. The Hogan turn was just the initial boost. Bischoff took over after that.

[Gertner]

Here is why Sting wouldn't work storyline wise. This was supposed to be a WWF invasion of WCW, and Sting had no ties. Luger is another possibility.

[Xero]

Sting would work in the sense of him being a turncoat.

[Gertner]

Savage might have done great as well. He had long ties to the WWF, was a main event guy, an awesome heel and believble as a leader.

[Gertner]

Btw I'm really enjoying doing these.

[Xero]

I think a better question is what would have happened had Hall and Nash not come into WCW. Without them, being two high profile WWF stars, the nWo may never have gotten off the ground.

[Swiss Ultimate]

Kane Knight would enjoy him more. He fucking hates heels.

[BollywoodSingh]

I believe WCW was seriously considering having Luger as the top guy in the nWo before deciding to turn Hogan.

[JimmyMess]

I do recall a shoot series with Nash/Hall where I believe they did say that Stinger (I'm not 100% sure, but I think that was it) was going to be the third man... and then during the meetings, Hogan suggested he do it... but thats aside from the point..

What if? Hogan isn't the third man... Monday Night War's are a tenth of what they would have been because lets face it, Hulk Hogan was the ultimate good guy... the biggest name... kayfabe was well alive back then...

Not only that, but nWo moniker doesn't really happen because the name came on the whim of Hogan's speech at Bash at the Beach '96.

And does WCW beat WWF for 83 straight weeks? No. But we would have a very, very different wrestling landscape for the late 1990's and early 2000's.

[bigslimjj]

They would have done the n.w.o. angle anyway with Sting and Hogan fighting against them.I agree with gertner they would have opened up Billionaire Ted's wallet and gotten another WWF guy to lead. If they just got Nash or Hall they could have made it work. It may have not been as affective or game changing but I still think it would have worked well.

[XL]

I watched the Monday Night Wars DVD last night (again) and one thing that always irked me about the Bash At The Beach turn moment was the commentary.

Whoever is commentating goes on about Hogan being there but then Heenan(?) says "Yeah, but who's side is he on?". Kinda gave it away.

[Xero]

That's how Heenan always was, though. He was bound to be right once.

[Anybody Thrilla]

I'm with Xero. It may have seemed like he was spoiling it in restrospect once you already knew what was coming, but at the time, anybody who heard Heenan say that was probably thinking "STFU Brain".

[Loose Cannon]

That's how Heenan always was, though. He was bound to be right once.

exactly. was going to post this.

[Loose Cannon]

On topic, there was already a ton of interest with just Nash and Hall. I think it still would of been hot if you subbed in another big name, but nobody could of compared to a Hogan turn. And it's just because most of the viewers, including myself, had never seen him heel before. That's really the main reason it worked so well.

[Aguakate]

...You know what? Hogan is Hogan...Hogan is to wrestling what the Yankees are to baseball...but if in 1996 WCW had turned Sting heel...Sting being the babyface of WCW, the FACE of the company, the "good guy" who was WCW all the way...If WCW had turned him heel 100%...I think he would've gotten nearly as much heat as Hogan. Because he would've been looked at as a traitor, a guy who turned his back on WCW, on the kids, etc...maybe Hogan saw that, and decided to do it himself, rather than have Sting become the #1 heel in the biz.

By the same token, if Hogan had no turned heel in '96, his career would not have stretched out as much as it did...he would have had to retire sooner, because people would've grown tired of him, and he would've become stale.

[RiX1024]

There would be an nWo and Sting would of been the third guy as Hart resigned with WWE at the time as he was the original choice me thinks. As of Sting being heel it wouldn't be as shocking as Hogan, it would be good if he teased it in the match (well he did Splash on Luger though).

[Gertner]

Hogan as a face though was pretty much played out by then, which is why I don't think the roles being reversed would have worked as well. People were tired of Hogan as a face, weren't tired of Sting as a face.