What if Hulk Hogan had refused to join the nWo?

A variety of sources close to the situation have maintained over the years that Hulk Hogan was highly reluctant to join the New World Order. He had spent over a decade of working as wrestling’s top face—not just playing a good guy wrestler on TV, but taking his responsibility seriously when it came to publicly serve as a role model and doing charity work. Thus, Hogan himself and others have described that he didn’t take it lightly to become a villain and let down particularly his young fans.

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Hogan did turn, though, and in doing so was instrumental to launching one of the hottest angles in wrestling history. While the nWo and Hogan as the top heel each may have worn out their welcome, the scenario was nonetheless initially successful, and on the short list of the most important heel turns in wrestling history.

But what if Hogan hadn’t turned heel? The choice would have had a huge impact on not only his career, but the larger picture of WCW’s booking, and perhaps even ripple effects into WWE. This article speculates on what might have happened.

5. Sting is the third man

Though Sting himself has been cagey—or perhaps legitimately doesn’t remember—a number of sources have reported that if Hulk Hogan had ultimately backed out playing the third man, then Sting was the backup plan. While the undertone of the core nWo guys being former WWE mainstays would have taken a hit, there are ways in which this turn could have worked.

A part of why the Hogan turn was as shocking as it was was the sheer fact that Hogan had been such an iconic good guy. While Sting couldn’t necessarily match the Hulkster in notoriety, he had a comparable streak of years playing a main event level hero, such that he could have garnered a significant reaction from fans of that era as well. In the end, it’s probably best that Hogan took the part, as he wound up showing excellent heel charisma that Sting has never proven himself

4. Sting vs. Hogan at Starrcade 1996

WCW wound up building to a huge showdown between Sting and Hulk Hogan at Starrcade 1997, including over a year of intrigue as Sting isolated himself, cast off his trademark bright colours, and teased even joining the nWo. In the end, his serious Crow-inspired character was a perfect foil for Hogan’s big heel personality, and even though the blow-off match didn’t deliver, the rivalry leading up to it was iconic.

Had Sting taken the mantle of nWo leader instead of Hogan, there’s reason to believe WCW still would have tried to cash in on Hogan’s stature by booking this match. The intriguing difference is that Sting would have walked in the heel, Hogan the hero defending WCW.

It would be interesting to see if Hogan’s popularity would have surged standing opposite a cool heel version of Sting, or if that might have been the final nail in the coffin for the Hulkster as the face of WCW.

3. Hulk Hogan joins WWE’s Attitude Era

Hogan Rock Kane — Hulk Hogan may well have defected during the Monday Night War.

A number of sources have claimed that Hulk Hogan was on the cusp of returning to WWE in the middle of the Monday Night War before striking a new deal with WCW. Source vary in terms of how serious negotiations were, or whether Hogan was only leveraging WWE for a bigger contract from Turner, but it’s fascinating to imagine what might have been had Hogan made the leap. The scenario becomes much more realistic if Hogan hadn’t been on board for the hot nWo stable.

Would Hogan have carried on with Hollywood-type heel persona? Surely, the old school Hulkster wouldn’t have worked so well alongside Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, though conceivably he could have worked something like Bo Dallas’s NXT gimmick, in which he claimed to be a hero while behaving more and more heelishly. Hogan may have had some interesting matchups in that era, like squaring off against Austin, Mankind, or Kane.

2. Sting never goes to TNA

Icon Sting — If Sting had headed up the nWo he may have made his way to WWE sooner after the buyout.

There were a variety of reasons why Sting didn’t sign with WWE until the very last stretch of his career. He’s claimed in interviews that he wasn’t confident WWE would use him appropriately, or in himself returning to the brightest of spotlights. Had Sting headed up the nWo, though, and if the group were anywhere near as hot as it turned out to be under Hogan, Sting probably would have gotten even more pressure to sign with WWE with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash did in 2002. In this scenario, maybe The Icon never winds up working for TNA.

A shift like this would fundamentally shift Sting’s legacy for sure. Moreover, it might change TNA’s fortunes, as Sting was not only a main event wrestler for them, but a famous star used to shore up TV and advertising deals. Thus, by indirect means, if Hulk Hogan hadn’t joined the nWo, it may have ultimately led to TNA going out of business, or at least staying small in its early years.

1. Sting Vs. Triple H plays out differently

If Hulk Hogan hadn’t joined the nWo from the start and Sting had, Sting may have wound up in WWE much sooner. Even if we maintained more of the original timeline, though, and have Sting go to TNA rather than WWE for the decade after WCW closed, things would still look different when The Stinger surfaced in WWE. It would no longer make as much sense for him to immediately target The Authority when he got there, and it would have shifted the concept of what it meant for the old nWo guys to back him at WrestleMania against Triple H’s DX army.

If Hogan hadn’t joined the now, Sting vs. Triple H may have happened sooner, and almost certainly would have happened differently from how it did end up playing out in 2015. Whether that’s for better or for worse, we won’t ever really never know for sure.

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Edited by Rohit Nath