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The WWF Years: 1983-1993
So let's start from Ground Zero: Hogan's famous WWF run from 1983-1993. Amazingly, in that ten year span, he was only pinned a total of four times, and all four were title losses:
-The first occurred on the 2/5/88 edition of The Main Event when he was defeated for the WWF World Title by Andre The Giant. Hogan had been WWF Champion for over four years by that point, and Hogan losing came as a big shock to say the least, and even then it was only accomplished through chicanery by evil referee Earl Hebner. The story went that Ted Dibiase, a newcomer to the WWF at the time, wanted to buy the WWF Title and, after being turned down by Hogan, instead paid Andre to win it for him. To help Andre's odds, Dibiase hired Earl Hebner (twin brother of Dave Hebner, the referee of record for the match) to make a bogus call in favor of Andre. Indeed, Hogan's shoulder was clearly up well before the three count, but Earl counted the fall anyway and awarded the match and the WWF Title to Andre. The outcome of the match was totally bogus, but the official result of the match was that Hogan was pinned by Andre, so it counts.
-Unlike his loss to Andre, Hogan's second loss was 100% clean, as Hogan was pinned by the Ultimate Warrior right in the middle of the ring in the main event of Wrestlemania 6. Hogan, the WWF Champion again, and Intercontinental Champion Warrior were facing off in a title vs title match where the winner would get both straps. The match was played up as if Hogan had finally met his match, somebody with every bit as much power and heart as he did. Indeed, the match (which legend says was scripted out move by move and practiced for weeks beforehand by Hogan and Warrior, with Pat Patterson directing) was completely even, but when Hogan went for the big leg, Warrior rolled out of the way and caught the stunned Hogan with a big splash for the win. Even rarer than a Hogan loss was what happened after the match, as Hogan presented the WWF Title belt to the better man and raised the new champion's hand. This would be the only clean loss Hogan would suffer for many years.
-Despite the loss to Warrior, Hogan would have the WWF Title back around his waist a year later, and after a reasonably easy eight months of almost exclusively defending the WWF Title against Sgt Slaughter, Hogan was faced with a major, major player in the making: the Undertaker. The WWF had a history of building up big tough monsters who would steamroll over everyone before finally losing to Hogan, but the Undertaker was different. They made a conscious effort to go in a different direction with the Undertaker, booking him to not only be impossible to beat, but even to hurt. Undertaker dominated their match at Survivor Series 91, but Hogan made his usual comeback. However, this time around he was distracted by Ric Flair, who came to ringside late in the match to show off the Real World's Title. Flair, as Bobby Heenan on commentary pointed out, was just hanging out at ringside minding his own business when Hogan came out of the ring and attacked him. The distraction allowed the Undertaker to get Hogan up for the Tombstone, and Flair gave Hogan his receipt by sliding a chair in the ring, allowing Undertaker to piledrive Hogan on it for the win. This particular match is a very fond memory of me because this is the first PPV I ever watched live on TV, and I remember pulling for the Undertaker even though Hogan was supposed to be the good guy. Smart mark in the making!
As an aside, a rematch between Hogan and Undertaker took place a week later for the experimental This Tuesday In Texas PPV, and Hogan regained the title when Hogan opened up the Undertaker's urn and threw the ashes in Undertaker's face, then rolled him up for the win. Due to the controversial nature of these two title changes, WWF President Jack Tunney vacated the WWF Title and put it on the line in the 1992 Royal Rumble, which was the stage on which Ric Flair would put on one of his greatest performances ever by going over 60 minutes en route to winning. But as far as Hogan was concerned, his fourth title reign ended without him ever actually losing!
-His final WWF loss from this long period came at King Of The Ring 1993 to Yokozuna. Hogan had just returned to the WWF at Wrestlemania 9 after a year long layoff, and ended up winning the WWF Title despite not even being advertised as challenging for the title. Yokozuna had just defeated Bret Hart to win the title, and Hogan came to the ring under the pretext of protesting the decision. Yokozuna's manager Mr Fuji issued an impromptu challenge to Hogan, who of course came in and beat Yokozuna in about thirty seconds. This was the rematch, and depending on who you ask, Hogan may have actually been originally booked to win this match and was then to go on to Summerslam to drop the title back to Hart. What ended up happening was that Hogan shot down the idea of dropping the title to Hart, so instead they had him lose here. This being Hogan, of course, the loss couldn't be clean, so as Hogan was about to put Yokozuna away for the second time, a photographer (explained as being one of the members of the Japanese media in attendance to document Yokozuna's certain victory) jumped on the apron, but instead of snapping a photo of Hogan, the photographer's camera shot a fireball in the face of Hogan. The blinded Hogan was easy prey for Yokozuna, who knocked Hogan down and beat him with his own legdrop.
Hogan left the WWF again shortly after this match and was rarely mentioned on WWF TV for almost ten years afterward.
The Early WCW Years: 1994-1995
Hulk Hogan came to WCW in 1994 and was portrayed as even more indestructible than he had been during the 80s. He defeated Ric Flair for the WCW World Title at Bash At The Beach 1994, and did not suffer a loss for over a year and a half. He didn’t even have to job when he lost the WCW Title: inistead, they ran a convoluted angle where Hogan's manager Jimmy Hart, to whom Hogan had given power of attorney, put a clause into the contract for his Halloween Havoc 95 match with the Giant that Hogan would lose the title if he got disqualified. If you guessed that this would lead to Jimmy Hart turning on Hogan and causing him to get disqualified, you win the grand prize! But now the former champion, Hogan would finally get around to doing some jobs:
-In a strange bit of irony, Hulk Hogan actually suffered his first pinfall loss in WCW to Ric Flair, on the 1/29/96 episode of Nitro. This was during the “women’s shoes and hot coffee†era in WCW where they came up with the stupidest foreign objects imaginable and expected people to take them seriously. Shockingly, this didn’t work and the whole thing was dropped after a few months, but it was enough to get Hogan to lie down for Flair, so at least it amounted to something.
-Hogan’s second loss came a mere two weeks later when he was pinned by Arn Anderson of all people. Again, this involved either a woman’s shoe or hot coffee (I forget exactly which, though I’m sure some reader with better memory than I will fill me in), and I remember thinking even at the time that Hogan jobbing to Arn was a stretch. Hogan then lost a second match to Arn the next week (by DQ or countout or something) before coming back and pinning him in a third match, but for a three or four week period, Arn Anderson was booked as The Man That Hogan Couldn’t Beat.
The NWO Years: 1996-1999
After taking a few months off in early 1996, Hogan made his return at Bash At The Beach 96 and, as we all know, turned heel and became the centerpiece of the New World Order. He regained the WCW World Title from the Big Show at Hog Wild, and most of the remainder of the original NWO run centered around Hogan's feuds with three guys:
-Hogan's first major challenger was his old WWF nemesis Roddy Piper. After defeating Randy Savage at Halloween Havoc 96, Hogan declared himself the one true icon of professional wrestling. The words were barely out of Hogan's mouth when Piper made his surprise appearance, pointing out that Hogan would never have been as successful if it weren't for him. Neither man was able to score a decisive victory over the other during their WWF feud in the mid 80s, but that changed when they met in the main event of Starrcade 96. The Giant's interference backfired, allowing Piper to put Hogan out with a sleeper hold. Though Piper had finally defeated Hogan, the WCW World Title was not on the line, but the win was enough to earn Piper a title match at Superbrawl VII. This time Hogan got the win when Savage turned on Piper and joined the nWo. Now with Piper out of the way, he was able to move on to his next challenger...
-Actually, before he got to the next challenger, Hogan did a clean pinfall job to Jacques Rougeau at a non-televised house show in Montreal. This is obviously something that was never acknowledged on TV, but it did happen. My understanding is that Hogan wanted to do Jacques and/or the rest of the Rougeau family a favor, but I’m not 100% sure about that. But it did happen.
-Often painted to be a choke artist (mostly by Pro Wrestling Illustrated), Lex Luger scored several wins over Hogan in 1997. Luger first defeated Hogan by submission to the torture rack on the 6/9/97 edition of Monday Nitro, and then again in the tag team main event of Bash At The Beach 97. These wins earned Luger a title shot on the 8/4/97 episode of Nitro, and Luger defeated Hogan for his long sought after second World Title despite nWo interference. The celebration lasted less than a week, however, as Hogan regained the title just days later at Road Wild.
-After regaining the title from Luger, Hogan and Piper had their tiebreaker match in a steel cage at Halloween Havoc 97. Piper won the match and the series, but the title was again not on the line.
-The entire nWo angle built to a match between Hogan and Sting at Starrcade 97, a match which by that point had been 15 months in the making. A lot has been written about this match, mostly negative, and I can't say I disagree with any of it. Sting hadn't wrestled in 15 months, and after hanging out in the rafters glaring at Hogan for all that time, this was Sting's first match back, and the fans couldn't wait to see it happen. The match should have seen Sting come in, dominate Hogan, and cleanly defeat him in the middle of the ring to win the title. Instead, the match saw Hogan pound the crap out of Sting, who got in (and I sat there and counted) less than five offensive moves before being pinned clean by Hogan. Now, referee Nick Patrick was supposed to do a fast count, but counted the fall at normal speed, screwing the whole thing up and making it look like the big hero had just had his ass handed to him. The match was restarted and Sting came back to beat Hogan with the Scorpion Deathlock, but the damage had been done: he had been made to look like an idiot during what should have been the crowning moment in his career. Sting never recovered from the incident, and I point to this single match as the reason he never fulfilled his potential.
But still, a win was a win, and Sting was now the WCW World Champion. His first title defense came one night later and Sting won again, but it was another controversial finish, so the title was held up. They met for the third time at Superbrawl 8 and Sting won again, but even after three wins over Hogan, the damage was done and Sting was never able to overcome what had happened to him.
-As if the screwy nature of the Hogan series hadn't hurt Sting enough, his title reign only lasted about a month before losing to Randy Savage, who then dropped the title back to Hogan one night later. Whatever you want to believe about the politics behind this, the fact was that Hogan was back on top of WCW after less than three months and Sting had been damaged beyond the point of repair in the process. Thankfully, Hogan's next conqueror wouldn’t be buried so badly. Bill Goldberg had come to WCW in September of 1997 and, thanks to being booked to roll over everyone in his path in under two minutes, was the most over guy in WCW, and is probably one of WCW's few true successes in creating a homegrown superstar. The ratings war between Raw and Nitro heated up around this time, and WCW tried to turn things back in WCW's favor by booking Hogan vs Goldberg for the 7/6/98 edition of Nitro, a match which saw Goldberg, already the US Champion, defeat Hogan to become the WCW World Champion.
Much like the Sting match, a lot has been written about this match. Most people believe that WCW sacrificed a match that could have drawn a lot of money on PPV for the sake of popping a one week ratings victory. A lot of other people believe that the quick success of Goldberg went to his head and turned him into the prima donna we all know and love. Again, I can't argue, and I think it speaks to the inept, shortsighted management of WCW that whenever they were handed money on a silver platter like the Sting Starrcade match or the first Hogan-Goldberg match, they always botched it somehow.
-Now, I do know that Hogan suffered a clean pinfall loss to the Giant at some point in this time period. I clearly remember seeing it on Nitro or Thunder, but I don’t have an exact date for the match, so again, any readers who feel like lending a helping hand can feel free to pass along what they know.
-After winning the title, Goldberg's reign was similar to Sting's in that he was given second rate challengers and was often working second from the top on PPVs, usually to Hogan. His reign (and undefeated streak) ended at the hands of Kevin Nash, and thanks to the Fingerpoke Of Doom incident (email me if you don't know what THAT one is about), Hogan had the WCW Title back on the first Nitro of 1999. Instead of a rematch with Goldberg, Hogan found himself back in a feud with Ric Flair, who was now fighting for the honor of his family, whom Hogan had been insulting and terrorizing for months. Flair lost to Hogan at Superbrawl 9 when his own son David turned on him and joined the nWo, but Flair got a rematch, this time in a steel cage, at Uncensored 99 and finally, finally finally finally, defeated Hulk Hogan to win the WCW World Title. Of course, he lost the title a month later and then spent the rest of 1999 being sent to an insane asylum and being buried in the desert, but at least Flair had his glory back for one night.
The Late WCW Years: 1999-2000
Shortly after the loss to Flair, Hogan reverted to the yellow and red babyface that all us 80s children grew up on. Unlike the 1980s, Hogan would end up on his back a lot more than we were used to seeing.
-After converting back to the Forces of Good, Hogan again regained the WCW World Title, but this reign would be short-lived, as he was defeated by Sting at Fall Brawl 99. This was Sting’s infamous, yet ill-advised heel turn where he used a baseball bat to knock Hogan out and set him up for the pin. They were supposed to have a rematch at Halloween Havoc, but that was the first of the infamous “laying down†incidents Hulk Hogan was involved in, where he came out in street clothes, laid down, and allowed Sting to pin him without an actual match. Still, he was pinned, so it counts.
-Hogan disappeared from WCW after that, and returned for the reset in April of 2000, immediately entering a feud with Billy Kidman (who you might remember as the poster child at the time for young up-and-comers who were being held down in favor of older stars like Hogan) and his new cohort Mike Awesome. Hogan faced both Kidman and Awesome in a handicap match on the 4/24/00 episode of Monday Nitro, and Hogan was pinned by Kidman after being put through a table. He was then pinned by Awesome a week later in a singles match.
-Hogan then had a whopping two job-free weeks before putting over his nephew Horace (remember him?) on the 5/15/00 Nitro, and then was defeated yet again a week later by Vampiro.
The Vampiro loss was the last one Hogan suffered before leaving WCW after Bash At The Beach 2000 following the Jarrett-Russo incident in which Jarrett laid down for Hogan (basically a reversal of the Sting incident from the year earlier) and Russo then buried Hogan later in the night, prompting a lawsuit against WCW by Hogan. With his WCW adventure behind him, Hogan decided it was time to return home.
The Second WWF Run: 2002-2006
Hogan returned to the WWF at No Way Out 2002 as a member of the newly reformed NWO with original members Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Though Hogan screwed Steve Austin out of the WWF World Title that night, we didn't end up getting a Hogan-Austin match, and for that matter probably never will.
-Instead, Hogan wound up in a feud with the Rock, with Hogan wanting to prove that he was a bigger star than the Rock ever would be. Though the build up was a little silly (and featured Hogan ramming a truck into Rock's car with Rock inside), Hogan did pin Rock on Raw a week or so before their match at Wrestlemania 18, showing that Hogan could beat Rock. At Wrestlemania, the crowd unexpectedly turned on the mega-popular Rock and instead cheered Hogan, who had been one of the most hated men in wrestling for years. Hogan did the clean job to the Rock, but the match singlehandedly restored Hogan to a level of popularity he hadn't seen in years. The WWF wisely decided to capitalize on that popularity while it lasted, putting him over Triple H for the WWF Title, Hogan's sixth overall, at Backlash 2002.
-Hogan ended up losing the title about a month later at Judgment Day 2002 to his old nemesis, the Undertaker. If you thought Hogan ramming into Rock's car with a truck was lame, this was even worse, and featured Undertaker tying Hogan to the back of his motorcycle and dragging him through the garage and out of the building. I forget exactly the circumstances and what chicanery (if any) was involved, but Hogan did the job and dropped the title to the Undertaker for the second time, which I believe makes the Undertaker and Sting the only people to defeat Hogan for a World Title more than once.
-A new #1 contender to the title was needed, and was determined in a battle royal on the 6/6/02 episode of Smackdown, with the final two participants remaining meeting later in the night. It came down to Triple H and Hogan, and H got his win back by pinning Hogan with the Pedigree in the show's main event.
-Hogan's shocking string of clean jobs continued with perhaps the most shocking of them all, as he not only put over Kurt Angle clean at King Of The Ring 2002, but did so by submission to the ankle lock.
-Hogan followed that up with a loss in what turned out to be his final match of 2002 by putting over “The Next Big Thing†Brock Lesnar, passing out in Lesnar's bearhug. Even though Lesnar eventually burned out and quite, he was in the midst of a monster push at this time, and rode it to his first WWE Title victory at Summerslam 2002.
-Hogan took about six months off before coming back to put over the Rock a second time at No Way Out 2003. This time, Hogan appeared to have the match well in hand before interference by Vince McMahon cost Hogan the match. This set up the Hogan vs McMahon match that was the REAL main event of Wrestlemania 19, no matter what they told people.
-Just as a quick aside, even though Hogan did beat McMahon at Wrestlemania, I could swear I remember McMahon beating Hogan later on, but couldn't find any concrete evidence of it. If you can tell me for sure one way or the other, by all means send me an email to give me the 411.
-Hogan's final loss that I know of happened when he wasn't even wrestling as Hulk Hogan. Instead, this was during the period after Hogan was “fired†by Vince McMahon, so Hogan began wrestling under a mask as Mr America. Hogan (or should I say Mr America) teamed with Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar to take on the Big Show, Charlie Haas, and Shelton Benjamin in a six man tag on the 6/26/03 episode of Smackdown, and Big Show pinned Hogan/America following a chokeslam. Yes, you read that right: Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin were part of a six man team that defeated the team of Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, and Brock Lesnar. I'm surprised they didn't have t-shirts made up afterward, but maybe that's just me being uncharitable.
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So there you have it, Hulk Hogan has suffered a grand total of 30 pinfall/submission losses in 25 years (32 if I'm right about the Giant and McMahon losses), which is pretty impressive. Say what you will about Hogan’s unwillingness to job, but with a record like this, a win over Hogan really means something. Compare that to Ric Flair, who for all the respect he gets from smart fans, often did that many jobs inside of a few months later in his career, and was putting over guys like Kenny Dykstra and Carlito every week to the point that nobody cared anymore.
I hope you enjoyed this look back at Hogan’s short record of losses. All feedback can be sent to stupwinsider@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading, and see you all soon!
