This Day in Wrestling History (July 7): Hulk Hogan Has Betrayed WCW!

25 years ago today, WCW/NWA presented The Great American Bash (WWE Network link) from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. It would be the last Great American Bash under the NWA name, as WCW would split from NWA just before next year's edition. About 10,000 were in attendance, with 200,000 homes watching on PPV. That's up from 140,000 homes for the 1989 event.

• Doug Furnas defeated Dutch Mantel.
• Mike Rotunda defeated The Iron Sheik.
• Brian Pillman defeated Buddy Landell.
• Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed) defeated The Rock N' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) to retain the the NWA World Tag Team Championship.
• Paul Orndorff, Junkyard Dog & El Gigante defeated Sid Vicious, Arn Anderson & Barry Windham via disqualification.
• Harley Race defeated Tommy Rich.
• Big Van Vader defeated Tom Zenk. This was Vader's WCW debut.
• The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner) defeated The Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin & Michael Hayes).
• The Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Stan Lane) defeated the Southern Boys (Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong) to retain the NWA United States Tag Team Championship.
• Lex Luger defeated Mark Callous to retain the NWA United States Championship.
• Sting defeated Ric Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

19 years ago today, WCW presented Bash at the Beach (WWE Network link) from the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. 8,300 were in attendance at the Ocean Center with about 250,000 homes watching on PPV. That's up from 160,000 homes for the 1995 edition.

• Rey Mysterio Jr. defeated Psicosis.
• John Tenta defeated Big Bubba Rogers in a Carson City Silver Dollar match.
• Diamond Dallas Page defeated Hacksaw Duggan in a taped fist match.
• The Nasty Boys (Jerry Sags & Brian Knobbs) defeated The Public Enemy (Flyboy Rocco Rock & Johnny Grunge) in a Double Dog Collar chain match.
• Dean Malenko defeated Disco Inferno to retain the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
• Steve McMichael defeated Joe Gomez.
• Ric Flair defeated Konnan to win the WCW United States Championship.
• The Giant and Kevin Sullivan defeated Arn Anderson and Chris Benoit.
• The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) and their mystery partner fought Team WCW (Randy Savage, Sting and Lex Luger) to a no contest. The story, of course, was the conclusion of the match. Hall and Nash promised for weeks a third man to join the team, but did not appear for much of the match. Luger was injured in the early portion of the match, leading to speculation that he would be the man turning heel. Late in the match, with Savage down, Hulk Hogan came down the aisle, Hall and Nash went to the outside. Then Hogan leg drops Savage. Mistake, right? Except he does it again. And a third time. A mock three count, trash comes in, and the New World Organization-err-New World Order is born. The post-match promo transcript courtesy of iMDB.com:

Gene Okerlund: Hulk Hogan, excuse me. Excuse me. What in the world are you thinking?

Hulk Hogan: Mean Gene the first thing you gotta do is to tell these people to shut up if they want to hear what I've gotta say.

Gene Okerlund: I have been with you for so many years for you to join up with the likes of these two men absoulutely makes me SICK to my stomach! And I think that these people here and a lot of people around the whole wrestling world have had just about enough of this man and this man and you want to put yourself in this group? You've gotta be...kidding me!

Hulk Hogan: Well the first thing you've gotta realize brother is that this right here is the future of wrestling. You can call this the New World Order of wrestling brother. These two men came from a great big organization up north and everybody was wondering about who the third man was. Well who knows more about that organization than me brother?

Gene Okerlund: I've been there and done that. You have made the wrong decision in my opinion.

Hulk Hogan: Well let me tell you something, I made that orgainization a monster! I made the people rich up there. I made the people that ran that organization rich up there. And when it all came to pass, the name Hulk Hogan, the man Hulk Hogan got bigger than the whole organization brother! And then Billionaire Ted amigo, he wanted to talk turkey with Hulk Hogan. Well Billionaire Ted promised me movies brother. Billionaire Ted promised me millions of dollars. And Billionaire Ted promised me world caliber matches. And as far as Billionaire Ted, Eric Bischoff and whole WCW goes, I'm bored brother. That's why I want these two guys here, the so called Outsiders, these are the men I want as my friends. They are the new blood of professional wrestling brother! And not only are we going to take over the whole wrestling business, with Hulk Hogan, the new blood, the monsters with me. We will destroy everything in our path Mean Gene.

Gene Okerlund: [refering to the increasing garbage being thrown in the ring] Look at all of this crap in this ring! This is what's in the future for you if you want to hang around the likes of this man Hall, and this man Nash.

Hulk Hogan: As far as I'm concerned, all this crap in the ring represents these fans out here. For two years brother! For two years, I held my head high. I did everything for the charities. I did everything for the kids. And the reception I got when came out here, you fans can stick it brother. Because if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, you people wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis. And if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, all of these "Johnny come latelys" that you see out here wrestling wouldn't be here. I was selling the world out brother while they were bumming gas to put in their car to get to high school. So the way it is now brother, with Hulk Hogan and the New World Organization of wrestling brother, me and the new blood by my side. Whatcha gonna do when the New World Organization runs wild on you? Whatcha gonna do?

[Grabs Mean Gene]

Hulk Hogan: What are you gonna do?

Gene Okerlund: Hey, don't touch me! Don't touch me, I'm going to see the lawyers! Tony, Dusty, Bobby, Dammit let's get back to you!

Tony Schiavone: All right. We have seen the end of Hulkamania. For Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, for Dusty Rhodes, For "Mean" Gene Okerlund, I don't know...I'm Tony Schiavone. Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell! We're outta here. Straight to hell.

The impact of Hogan's shocking heel turn would be immediate. In addition to breathing new life into Hulk's career, the formation of the nWo would eventually lead WCW into becoming the top wrestling company in the world by 1997.

12 years ago today on RAW from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Booker T defeated Christian to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

BONUS! From 17 years ago today on Nitro from Memphis, Tennessee, Macho Man Randy Savage takes on La Parka. Or who he thinks is La Parka.