On July 7, 1996, time to come ii-fourth dimension WWE Hall of Famer Blob Hogan pulled off the greatest heel plough in the history of professional wrestling by joining upwardly with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to form the New Earth Order. Now, that's a sentence where I'd usually apply the give-and-take "arguably," just in that location'due south simply no denying the fact that the biggest babyface of all time transforming into the greatest heel of all time (yeah, I went there) isn't the biggest plough of all fourth dimension. Lamentable, it just is.

Later on more than a dozen years of being the ultimate adept guy/hero, Hogan and his scarlet and yellow attire — actually just "Hulkamania" in general — was getting stale and it was time for a change. Sure, he was still popular and selling enough of trade, but pro wrestling was starting to go in a new direction at that time and the gimmick was losing its luster.

Cartoonish characters were slowly becoming a thing of the by and things were getting a picayune bit edgier. And with WCW needing to shake things up to compete with Vince McMahon and WWE (so the WWF), where Hogan became an icon, Eric Bischoff went to Hogan to pitch him the thought of turning heel, an idea Hulk and those around him were very concerned about for numerous reasons.

Apparently, however, i specific concern Hogan had near turning outweighed the others.

'Hulkamania' had run its course by the mid-90s

In that location's no question that "Hulkamania" is 1 of the biggest phenomenons in professional wrestling history. Essentially start when Hogan defeated The Iron Sheik to win his first WWE championship in January 1984, information technology became a worldwide craze and was undoubtedly the biggest affair in wrestling for years. Headlining just about every major event WWE put on for the next 7 to viii years, including massive WrestleMania main events against the likes of Andre the Giant, "Manlike Man" Randy Savage, and The Ultimate Warrior, Hogan was a global icon.

But as McMahon was looking to have WWE in a younger direction in the early 1990s, Hogan left the company in 1993, seemingly retiring (yeah, right). In 1994, he resurfaced and shocked the world by signing with WCW, winning their heavyweight title in his start bout with the company in a dream friction match with Ric Flair (the two never matched upward on the big stage during Flair's early-90s run in WWE).

The next couple of years played out as they had in WWE, although on a much smaller scale and with much less support from the audience, as Hogan remained champion for a tape 469 days, finally dropping it to The Giant, who would later go The Large Show in WWE, in October 1995. In early 1996, Hogan reformed his "MegaPowers" partnership with Barbarous, which led to a couple of decent-plenty tag matches, but when he would cut promos or give interviews, he'd become booed out of the building. "Hulkamania" had run its course and everyone knew information technology but Hogan himself.

Blob Hogan was very reluctant to turn heel to join the nWo for a number of reasons, nigh importantly his children

Hulk Hogan, in nWo colors, at WWE WrestleMania 18
Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18 | George Pimentel/WireImage

On a contempo episode of his highly-acclaimed 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff recounted going to Hogan'south house to pitch him the idea of turning heel to bring together the nWo.

He noted how Hulk'south longtime manager, Peter Young, expressed his concern virtually the drop in merchandise sales, which would touch on Hogan'due south paychecks. At that time, heels merely didn't sell a lot of merch, which certainly isn't the instance today. Bischoff too stated that was a business of Hogan'due south then-wife, Linda, who he says was "all about the money."

As for Hulk, Bischoff stated he had a number of concerns himself but that his children, Brooke and Nick, who were eight and 5 at the time, respectively, were the primary issue on whether or not to become through with the turn.

"His principal business was the effect information technology would have on his kids, the first affair that he brought upwardly. 'Man, I've got young kids that are in school. I alive in a customs where people are into the Hulk Hogan character. I'm a positive influence and I do a lot of positive things for charities.'

"There was a lot of 18-carat concern well-nigh a lot of problems but the kids were a big part of information technology even though they were very young, Hulk was very concerned that turning heel would have some kind of adverse issue on his kids."

Eric Bischoff

Of course, Hogan did ultimately go through with it, and any worries he or his inner circle had almost losing money went away pretty quickly.

The move to the nWo saved Hogan's career

The much-needed heel plow finally came to fruition on July vii, 1996, at WCW's "Bash at the Beach" event in Daytona Embankment, Florida.

Hall and Nash, who had left WWE a few months earlier and had essentially "invaded" WCW as The Outsiders, and a mysterious "third man" were set to take on Cruel, Sting, and Lex Luger in a half-dozen-man tag in the principal event. But as the match was about to start, the "third man" wasn't there (at least in the band) and the activity began as a 2-on-3 handicap match. Luger was somewhen knocked out of the match and taken to the dorsum, leaving Sting and Savage to battle Hall and Nash, who got the upper hand as the match came to a shut.

And and then it happened.

Equally the babyfaces were getting stomped, Hogan hit the aisle to seemingly salvage the day like he had countless times earlier. Hall and Nash fled the ring, leaving Hulk in the ring with Cruel, who was lying on the basis. As he does, Hogan ripped off his shirt but and then shoved the referee out of the mode and striking the "Macho Man" with the famous Leg Drop, stunning the live crowd. He gave The Outsiders a thumbs up and history was made.

Hogan then proceeded to cut a scathing promo on the fans every bit all sorts of droppings hitting the ring, an obvious sign that the program had worked. And the nWo just exploded from in that location. The merchandise was everywhere (cha-ching) and the turn truly saved Hogan'due south career, and possibly pro wrestling as a whole as WWE moved into the "Attitude Era" just to keep up. And it'south likely that Brooke and Nick didn't take issue with the actress money Dad was bringing in.

Of course, equally WCW did, they ran the angle into the ground and the company was bought out by McMahon in 2001. Vince tried to revive the angle in WWE but it was short-lived as it just didn't have the same appeal. Nevertheless, it was a truly historic day in professional wrestling history and will live on every bit such as the next 25 years get by. Hogan, inducted on his ain to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, was inducted a second time as a fellow member of the nWo this past April.

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