World Championship Wrestling was the main competitor for the WWE in the 1990s. With big stars like Hulk Hogan, Sting and Bret Hart, it seemed impossible that they’d lose in the Monday Night Wars.
However, they seemed intent on destroying their own company from within with some of the most stupid angles and booking decisions from the writers.
While big hits like Sting vs the NWO, and the rise of the cruiserweights made Monday Nitro a hit, it was awful angles like Hulk Hogan vs Jeff Jarrett that would ultimately kill the company.
Hulk Hogan left WWE in 1993, joining their rivals WCW in one of the biggest moves in wrestling history. However, he would wrestle his last match 7 years later in one of the worst matches in wrestling history.
Hulk Hogan’s Last WCW Match
Hulk Hogan’s last match in WCW was against Jeff Jarrett at Bash at the Beach 2000. This match was for Jarrett’s WCW Championship, but was not positioned as the main event of the show.
Hulk Hogan beat Jeff Jarrett for the WCW Championship, but that does not even come close to telling the full story.
Both men came out to the ring as normal, with nothing out of the ordinary happening. However, once the bell rang and the match began, the WCW Champion simply laid down in the ring.
He laid down, both figuratively and literally, for Hulk Hogan. After some conclusion, Hogan casually pinned Jarrett with his foot, ending the match and becoming the new WCW Champion.
However, that was only the start. Hulk Hogan then grabbed a microphone to cut a “worked shoot” promo – presenting it as Hogan going “off script”, but was actually planned. This would be a staple of Vince Russo, the head writer of WCW, during his time in the company.
Hogan said:
“That’s why this company is in the damn shape it’s in, because of bullsh*t like this!”
Which promoted Vince Russo to come out to the ring and cut a promo himself, shooting on Hogan. He mentioned Hulk Hogan “Playing his creative control card” in beating Jeff Jarrett, when he should have put him over.
This makes zero sense. He was presenting wrestling as being fake, and Hogan not doing what the booker telling him. This completely negates the entire point of wrestling, and takes the audiences suspension of disbelief away from them.
Rubbish like this is what killed WCW, in the end.
He also warns the crowd that they will “never see that piece of shit again” (referring to new WCW Champion Hulk Hogan), calling him a “politican” and a “bald son of a bitch!”
It was these words that the WWE Hall of Famer took umbrage with. Hulk Hogan refused to return to work, despite being the WCW Champion. He also sued both WCW and Vince Russo for defamation of character, although the jury found against Hogan in that case.
This meant that Hulk Hogan’s last WCW match was the horrible Bash at the Beach 2000 “match” against Jeff Jarrett – a terrible end for a man who had formed the NWO and helped WCW beat WWE in the ratings for 83 weeks.
Hulk Hogan vs Jeff Jarrett
While people have talked about and theorised what may have happened backstage at that point, one man who can (usually) be trusted to tell the truth is Jeff Jarrett.
Whilst Hogan is a noted liar, Jarrett has been candid about all things WCW on his podcast, My World, as well as in his entertaining interview with Steve Austin on the WWE Network.
Speaking with Austin on the Broken Skull Sessions, former WCW Champion Jeff Jarrett said;
“Russo wanted me to go over [win],” Jarrett said. “Hulk, to his defence, I think this is where the rubber meets the road, I don’t think he necessarily had a problem putting me over. He wanted to know, ‘If I’m putting Jeff over, where am I going from here?’ Like any talent would. I don’t think Russo had the exact plan, so he [Hogan] refused to put me over.”
Later that night, Jeff Jarrett faced Booker T for the WCW Championship, after he was reinstated by Vince Russo as Champion. Hulk Hogan would never wrestle in WCW again, and the company went under in 2001.