At New Japan’s Wrestling Dontaku ’93, WWF Champion Hulk Hogan faced off against IWGP Champion The Great Muta in a clash between the two world champions, making one of the biggest matches ever.
It wasn’t just the match itself that turned heads. Even though The Great Muta is one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he could not hold a candle on the microphone compared to Hulk Hogan.
Hogan had many memorable promos in his time and excelled both as a beloved face and the most dastardly of heels.
Whether he was “The Real American” or the head of the NWO, you couldn’t help but stop what you were doing and listening as soon as the Immortal One started to speak.
However, the most infamous of promos ever came from the mouth of Hulk Hogan prior to facing off with The Great Muta.
The Hulk Hogan vs Great Muta match at Wrestling Dontaku ’93 has gone down in history for Hogan’s blatant disrespect to the WWF and their championship belt in a shocking interview that will shock you even to this day.
At WrestleMania IX, Hogan had just won the WWF Championship from Yokozuna and went on the tour of Japan as champion. However, he tore down his accomplishment of winning the belt, citing it as “just a toy”.
He called it a “trinket” or a “Christmas tree ornament”, claiming that the only belt he wanted to win the was IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This shocked everyone, especially given the loyalty both Hulk Hogan at WWE Chairman Vince McMahon had for each other over the years.
In the fateful promo prior to Hogan vs Muta, The Hulkster said;
“Five-times World Wrestling Federation Champion – this belt is just a toy. It’s just a trinket on a Christmas tree, like an ornament. The belt that I want is one that The Great Muta has, the IWGP belt. Because when Hulk Hogan wins IWGP Championship, which he should have right now, it will prove New Japan Pro Wrestling and Hulk Hogan is the greatest partners in the world.”
This promo showed huge disrespect to both WWE and the championship with Hogan used to hold so dearly. He left the company not long after, although not to NJPW and not to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Instead, he signed for WCW which was the start of one of the great factions in pro-wrestling history – the NWO.