Known as an Eternal Babyface, Hulk Hogan Was Shocked With the Reception His Heel Turn Got From Loyal Wrestling Fans

Hulk Hogan has played on both sides of the characters in professional wrestling. He was the ultimate babyface in WWE and then went on to become a great heel in WCW. He is the forming member of the notorious faction nWo.

Surprisingly, many at the start had mixed reactions over WCW for turning Hogan into a heel. However, The Hulkster gave an insight on his side about how surprised he was over the fans reacting to his heel turn, in an interview a few years ago.

In 2013, Hulk Hogan sat for an interview with motivational speaker James Arthur Ray. While having a great conversation over The Hulkster’s career, Hogan shed a light on the unexpected fan reactions he got after turning heel in WCW and joining the nWo.

Hogan recalled, “Eric Bischoff came up with the idea for Hulk Hogan to be the leader of the new organization called the New World Order. The cool, edgy, bad guys. So I became Hollywood Hulk Hogan with a black beard growing in and a blonde mustache and had a different swagger. I got rid of the red and yellow. (I) basically told everyone the training, the prayers, the vitamins – I did it for the money to make them hate me.”

He added, “But the characters in the nWo were so cool at the time that it kind of backfired on us. The business was awesome, put us on the top, and made us a number one organization because our business just took off. But the response we got was unexpected, the fans started cheering us more.”

It was indeed a shocking moment for Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and even Eric Bischoff. The fans cheered a heel faction who gave a tough time to the babyfaces of the company.

However, that was the era when edgier content and bad guys were the attraction. The same happened in WWE when the ‘Attitude Era’ began. Later, Hogan remembered fans cheered him again when he brought his iconic red and yellow back.

Why did WCW turn Hulk Hogan into a heel?

The fans used to storm to the arena to see The Hulkster leg-dropping his opponents in the ring. However, WCW had other plans with The Immortal One. In the same interview, Hogan spoke about why WCW turned him heel.

Hogan reminisced, “I don’t really remember the timing, we came on the idea of, ‘What do we do in the business that hasn’t been done? What should we do in the wrestling world that would shock the world? What could be done that could be this momentum-shifting move that will give us the upper hand?”

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Surprisingly, things happened the way WCW wanted to. They changed the course of the business in the mid-90s. Moreover, they defeated WWE in the rating war for 83 weeks straight. At the time, nWo became a culture and much more extensive than WCW at one point.

Clearly, The Hulkster can be called the wrestler who changed the course of pro wrestling twice. The WWE Hall of Famer enjoyed an illustrious career being on both sides.

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