In February 2002, WWF Legend Hulk Hogan returned to Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation after 9 years, but he came back as Hollywood Hogan, his WCW heel character, to lead the new World order into the WWF.
As a heel, Hogan wrestled against The Rock at the WrestleMania X-8 pay-per-view, but the crowd turned him babyface that night, and by the end of the match, the turn was official when The Outsiders, Scott Hall & Kevin Nash, turned on him and The Rock stood by Hogan’s side.
During an interview on the ‘Theo Von’ podcast, The Hulkster revealed that Vince originally wanted him to come back as a babyface right away.
Here’s what Hulk had to say:
“I get a call from Vince. He says ‘Hey man! I want you to come back and put the red and yellow rub on The Rock’.
I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to come back as a good guy. I’m gonna come back as Hollywood Hogan because if I’m gonna do it right. I want to put this kid over right’.”
The next month after his big encounter with The Rock, Hogan – already back in his red & yellow babyface colors – managed to win the WWF Championship from Triple H at Backlash 2002.
This was Hogan’s final World Title run. This was during the time when WWF changed its name to WWE, thus making Hogan the last “WWF” Champion and the first “WWE” Champion.
His final World Title reign was ended by The Undertaker at Judgment Day 2002.
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