The final days of World Championship Wrestling are immortalized in infamy. What once was the top professional wrestling promotion in the world underwent a catastrophic collapse beginning in 1998. As the story goes, WCW commentary spoiled that the taped episode of Raw is War, which was airing simultaneously with the live episode of WCW Monday Nitro, would feature Mick Foley winning his first WWF World Championship. Hundreds of thousands changed the channel in that moment, and WCW never truly recovered. What followed included celebrities winning world championships, locker room drama spilling into in-ring action, and one of the strangest title changes in wrestling history.
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At WCW Bash at the Beach 2000, Hulk Hogan “defeated” Jeff Jarrett for the big gold. Once the bell rang, Double J laid on his back in the middle of the ring, handing the Hulkster the victory on a silver platter. Authority figure and creative member Vince Russo came out to the Daytona Beach crowd, announcing that Hogan was abusing his creative control by refusing to lose. Russo fired Hogan on the spot and Jarrett was booked to defend the WCW World Title in an impromptu contest against Booker T.
“The bottom line was I got there, Russo goes, ‘We want you to beat up Jarrett. (Scott) Steiner is going to come down. Beat up Steiner. We want to get your hand raised, head high, chest high, you win the match by disqualification,’” Hogan said on a previously unaired interview from the Bubba The Love Sponge Show. “‘Okay, cool. What are we doing at Nitro?’ ‘I haven’t thought about it.’ ‘No problem. What about next week or the next pay-per-view?’ ‘Terry, I have to be totally honest with you…’ When he started saying that, I went, ‘Oh shit.’ I looked at Bischoff and [Russo] goes, ‘I really don’t know what to do with your character.’”
Despite his frustration with the lack of future direction, Hogan eventually complied. Backstage personnel put together “a hell of a finish” that never materialized.
“I go out to the ring and I’m predicting trouble. Two to three times, Jarrett doesn’t get in the ring. I think he’s working the crowd and we’re going to tear the place down. I got them right in the palm of my hand,” Hogan continued. “This son of a b—h gets in the ring and lays down. Russo looks at me, climbs on the apron, ‘F–k you, Hogan.’ He throws the belt at me. I look down at Jarrett, ‘Is this a rib? Why are you doing this?’ Jeff goes, ‘You always told me to do what I have to do.’ He’s laying in the middle of the ring and I’m talking to him. I put my foot on him, they counted it, I took the belt. I came to the back and said, ‘Where’s Russo at?’”
As Hogan recalls, he instructed his family to leave as he was intent on physically confronting Russo. Unnamed people on both Hogan and Russo’s side kept the two from actually exchanging blows, despite Hogan’s best effort. It took “three or four people” to get Hogan to leave the arena.
