In late 1983, Hulk Hogan was fresh off of a star-making role in Rocky 3 and a top-level run in the American Wrestling Association where he returned to WWE and was immediately pushed to the moon. From there, Hulkamana ran wild on the pro wrestling business, helping turn WWE into a global brand and the Hulkster from a superstar to a megastar.
The 1990s weren’t quite as strong for Hogan, at least before he jumped ship to WCW in 1994. But he had a few solid years in WWE at the beginning of the decade, with some major rivalries. Let’s take a look at all of them, starting with the worst one.
8 Sgt. Slaughter
The year 1990 saw the formerly patriotic Sgt. Slaughter turn heel in a brand new way, becoming an Iraqi sympathizer and aligning with Colonel Mustafa (a.k.a. The Iron Sheik) and General Adnan (a.k.a. Billy White Wolf), and capturing the WWE Championship in the process. It was only natural that The Hulkster would stand up to him, leading to Hogan winning back the belt at WrestleMania 7 and defending America’s honor with one of the most ridiculous Hulk-Ups in his career.
That said, the feud itself was extremely weak and felt more in questionable taste than the sort of gimmick that generated the good kind of heat. Hilariously, the Gulf War ended a month before WrestleMania.
7 The Undertaker
The Undertaker made his WWE debut in 1990, so there was ample time for The Dead Man to cross paths with Hulk Hogan. At Survivor Series 1991, ‘Taker managed to do the impossible by defeating Hogan — albeit thanks to some Ric Flair — interference. This led to a rematch for the belt six days later at This Tuesday In Texas, where Hogan won the belt back by throwing ash from The Undertaker’s urn into The Dead Man’s face.
While The Undertaker was a more supernatural monster heel than the Hulkster was used to and thus offered something different, this rivalry stopped cold after This Tuesday In Texas, as the title would be vacated and fought for in the 1992 Royal Rumble.
6 Money Inc.
In 1993, Brutus Beefcake returned to wrestling after recovering from a horrific facial injury, only to be attacked by Money Inc., Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster. But Beefcake ended up having some back up in Hulk Hogan, himself returning from the steroid controversy that killed his credibility. Together, they formed The Mega-Maniacs, and got themselves a tag team match at WrestleMania 9 — for Money Inc.’s Tag Team Championship, no less. It was a pretty low-key feud to functionally reintroduce Hogan into the fold, but one made worse by the match ending in a disqualification finish.
5 Sid Justice
Speaking of disqualification finishes, Hulk Hogan’s 1992 WrestleMania 8 main event bout with Sid Justice also ended in a DQ, albeit thanks to some mistimed cues rather than strange booking decisions. This feud saw Hogan at his most petulant, as it all stemmed from a Royal Rumble elimination. In the aforementioned 1992 Rumble — the one for the title that was vacated because Hogan cheated to win it — Sid Justice ended up eliminating his friend Hogan late in the game, so the Hulkster got mad and eliminated Justice in response, giving Hogan’s rival Ric Flair not only the Rumble win, but also the WWE Championship.
4 Yokozuna
In the main event of WrestleMania 9, Hulk Hogan — who had taken on Money Inc. in the aforementioned tag match earlier on the show — emerged as a new challenger for Yokozuna after the sumo wrestling monster heel beat Bret Hart to become the new WWE Champion. Hogan managed to put away the new champ in 21 seconds to become the new new champ, but their feud didn’t end there. It would carry over to King of the Ring two months later, with Yokozuna regaining the WWE Championship and putting away Hogan in the Hulkster’s last televised WWE match until the 21st century.
While the WrestleMania 9 moment is one of the more controversial booking decisions in the event’s history, it’s pretty awesome that the last time fans saw Hulk Hogan in WWE was while he was getting his chest caved in by Yokozuna.
3 Earthquake
However, that’s not even the first time a gigantic monster heel caved in Hulk Hogan’s chest. In May of 1990, Earthquake did just the same during an attack during a talk show segment, putting Hogan in the hospital and forcing the Hulkster to consider (kayfabe) retirement. Doing the heavy lifting on TV was Hogan’s buddy Tugboat, who encouraged fans to write letters of encouragement to keep him in the game.
As fans know, Hulk Hogan did indeed not retire, but also returned to WWE for SummerSlam, where he had his big showdown with Earthquake. The result was a fun, entertainingly overbooked variation on the Hogan vs. Monster Heel formula, scoring a countout victory over the big man.
2 Mr. Perfect
While Hulk Hogan’s feud with Mr. Perfect started in the fall of 1989, with Perfect’s iconic destruction of the WWE Championship belt on Saturday Night’s Main Event — following a countout loss for Hogan against Mr. Perfect’s associate, The Genius — the feud extended into 1990. Clashes on various televised events and a Royal Rumble elimination of Perfect by Hogan’s hand followed, all leading to a match on Saturday Night’s Main Event in April of 1990. There, after an eight-minute match, Hogan scored a victory over his rival.
1 The Ultimate Warrior
By this point, the reputations of both Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior are fairly tarnished due to wrestling business stuff and outside-of-wrestling stuff, so the fact that their WWE feud resulted in a great match feels like a miracle. By 1990, Warrior was set up to assume the throne as WWE’s top guy, and the hype of them facing off in the Royal Rumble was more than enough to book a match between the two babyfaces at WrestleMania 6.
Dubbed “The Ultimate Challenge,” the stakes were high, as Hogan’s WWE Championship and Warrior’s Intercontinental Title were both on the line in a winner-take-all affair. The match itself proved to be a standout effort for both men, with The Ultimate Warrior scoring a rare clean victory over Hulk Hogan to capture the WWE Title in what was meant to be a major passing of the torch.