Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: President Hogan? — WCW, 1998-1999
History
On the November 9, 1998 Nitro the show opened with a startling announcement. Apparently the President would be there later.
Sure enough, Hail to the Chief started playing and out walked”¦ Hollywood Hogan, with a saluting Eric Bischoff right beside him. Hogan congratulated Jesse Ventura (who’d become the governor of Minnesota), and then said that he was announcing his third-party candidacy for President. His campaign manager, of course, would be Eric Bischoff.
The next week Hogan had just finished an absurd promo involving his new “intern” when he called Scott Hall out. Hall argued with Bischoff that he’d lost his focus, a charge Bischoff denied. Hogan tried to break up the argument, but Hall wasn’t letting it go. Finally Hogan dropped Hall, which brought out Kevin Nash to make the save without laying a finger on Hogan.
The next week’s Nitro started with an announcement — Hogan would explain his absence from the previous night’s World War III pay-per-view in an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Thursday night.
Hogan’s big announcement? He was retiring to focus on his Presidential run.
Despite all this, however, Hogan’s name kept coming up on Nitro.
The January 4, 1999 Nitro opened with the promise that Hogan would be there. Things picked up as Kevin Nash talked to Ric Flair, who had gained control of WCW. Nash demanded a world title match against Hogan later in the night.
Hogan finally came out for an interview. He explained that he’d been planning to announce his Vice-Presidential candidate, but then he’d learned of Goldberg’s arrest for allegedly (read as: not) sexually harassing Miss Elizabeth. Hogan then said that he owed his fans one last match and accepted Nash’s challenge.
After stalling and teasing dissidence, Hogan finally poked Nash with one finger. Nash fell down and Hogan pinned him to once again win the world title. Nash popped back up and celebrated with Hogan, Hall, and Scott Steiner. Goldberg hit the ring and speared Hogan, only for Lex Luger to come out and put him in the Torture Rack. They handcuffed Goldberg to the bottom rope and Hall hit him with a stun gun. The NWO then spray-painted both him and the belt as they continued their celebration (now joined by Miss Elizabeth and Buff Bagwell).
And that was the end of that nonsense.
Analysis
This was just another in a long line of bad ideas from WCW. By this point, people were retiring and un-retiring at such a rapid pace that nobody expected that Hogan was through, and the Presidential run was just an angle to leech off Jesse Ventura’s popularity. Overall, this was just another ego stroke for Hogan, and led up to an event that stripped away most (if not all) of the prestige that the WCW world title still had.
Next Week
What happened next after Kane debuted at Badd Blood?
