Starrcade 1999: Bret Hart VS Hulk Hogan

[Wolf Pac]

In 1999, it seemed like WCW were planting the seeds for a Bret/Hogan showdown all year long. Bret would come out to the ring on some occasions during that year, even after Owen's death, and talked about facing Hogan and said it was one of his goals in WCW. With what happened to Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1999, laying down for Sting and disappearing afterwards, and Bret winning the WCW Title at Mayhem, maybe they could've brought back Hogan for Starrcade and had Bret defend the belt against him in the main event. It would've made sense for the nWo 2000 reunion with Bret, Nash & Hall the next night too. They could've booked Hogan/Bret in a rematch the next night on Nitro, Nash & Hall could've came down to the ring, teasing an nWo reunion with Hogan, making everyone think they were gonna help out Hogan, but instead they shock everyone, attack Hogan and help Bret retain the belt, forming the nWo 2000. And even though the "Montreal Screwjob" ending in Bret/Goldberg's match sucked, it would have made some sense with Hogan instead, as Hogan and Piper were long time rivals. Plus, Bret would have wrestled a much safer opponent in Hogan and his in-ring career could've lasted a bit more longer after Starrcade.

Should it have been Bret vs. Hogan instead at Starrcade 1999?

 

[SquizzRodgers]

Eh... By the end of 1999 WCW was already terminally ill. Hogan was completely awful in the ring, and Bret wrestled with zero passion for the majority of his time there. Sure, the nWo reboot with Bret, Hall, and Nash would have been cool for a week or two, but the nWo was beyond stale at that point. Hogan/Bret in early 98 would have been tolerable, but by Starrcade 99 WCW n the nWo were on life support

 

[Goldie]

Would Hogan do the job for Bret though?? He refused to do so in 1993 afterall... and having Hogan go over Bret for the title would have been anti-climatic.... like Hogan really needed the title after holding it over the summer?... and with Owens death still being recent.... the sympathy factor was sky high and Bret could have had a fair run with the title had he not got injured.

If this match took place I could see a DQ or a non-finish ... protecting both Hogan and Hart.

Even if Bret faced Hogan instead of Goldberg and not been concussed.... his contract expired in the autumn of 2000... he wouldn't have seen WCW to the very end because his contract salary was so high WCW could not have afforded him.
He was the 2nd highest earner on the roster after Hogan

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

Bret Hart should have come to WCW and teased an NWO formation. He should have come in on week one and given a speech about the double cross. Then he should have ended that with a tease by saying "I just wanted to say to all my USA wrestling fans; thank you for standing by me. The events of the past year or so have been beyond my control and I thank you for never leaving me. I would also like to thank all the boys in the back for making me feel welcome; Flair, Piper, Arn Anderson. People I truly admire in this business. I would also like to thank Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall; me and those 2 boys go way back from our time on the road together - they are like brothers to me. I want to thank Randy Savage and Rick Rude too. I am not medically cleared to wrestle because I broke my hand and wrist when I punched Vince McMahon out. When I am cleared I will stand before you all and take on all challengers. WCW may be in the mist of a war, but you can bet that the excellence of execution is a soldier and he will be back! Thank you"... then leaves. The following 3 weeks could have been a tease on who Bret was with. Then have him cost Hogan the belt.

Now - that DID happen; but Bret was screwed again by Hogan. The supposed fast count was slow - so Brets hero character looked stupid in restarting the sting and hogan match.

Bret should have stayed away from hogan for the first angle he was involved in - it should have been Bret running in and saving WCW from a kicking from NWO.

SO YES - this should have led to a showdown between Bret and Hogan - which Bret should have won.

The problem is - most WCW writers, even Bischoff, probably could have written anything better than how Bret Hart's WCW storylines turned out. There was no sense to anything really - and his 5 major moments in WCW were - Vs Ric Flair in his first WCW match, Vs Booker T, Vs Benoit in Owens memory (what a match THAT was!! - and probably Brets last ever truly excellent match - which is fitting), Bret Vs Benoit to win the WCW title and then Brets angle with Goldberg where he laid Goldberg out.

Then again - so many talented wrestlers were mis-used. If Bret had been midway through his career- he would have gone on to stand the test of time and performed excellent matches with people like Kurt Angle in WWF/WWE.

It is worth mentioning- Bret Harts career in WWF was one of the all time greats, and it is such a great thing that his matches are still available for todays fans to celebrate.

 

[Wald]

The problem with Hogan v Bret in 1999 was that Bret's character had been utterly ruined by two years of WCW booking. Seriously, the guy debuts and is a face who helps Sting and challenges the nWo. Four months later he turns to kinda but not really become part of the nWo before turning back face in September. That's nine months after he debuted and this is a character who was the WWF's number one face for much of the 90s and who even remained a sort of babyface character in his heel turn in 1997. That's more turns in nine months of WCW than in his entire singles run in the WWF.

That's without mentioning that he swerve turned back to a heel later that month and then kinda turned face again in April 1999. Then Owen died and the obvious answer to that is to keep the guy face. He's a natural face and his brother, himself a loved wrestler, had just died during a wrestling show. Fans wouldn't want to boo Bret after that and there was a tremendous groundswell of support for him. So obviously WCW turned him heel within three months of his return to the ring. ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[FlairFan2003]

In 1999, it seemed like WCW were planting the seeds for a Bret/Hogan showdown all year long. Bret would come out to the ring on some occasions during that year, even after Owen's death, and talked about facing Hogan and said it was one of his goals in WCW. With what happened to Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1999, laying down for Sting and disappearing afterwards, and Bret winning the WCW Title at Mayhem, maybe they could've brought back Hogan for Starrcade and had Bret defend the belt against him in the main event. It would've made sense for the nWo 2000 reunion with Bret, Nash & Hall the next night too. They could've booked Hogan/Bret in a rematch the next night on Nitro, Nash & Hall could've came down to the ring, teasing an nWo reunion with Hogan, making everyone think they were gonna help out Hogan, but instead they shock everyone, attack Hogan and help Bret retain the belt, forming the nWo 2000. And even though the "Montreal Screwjob" ending in Bret/Goldberg's match sucked, it would have made some sense with Hogan instead, as Hogan and Piper were long time rivals. Plus, Bret would have wrestled a much safer opponent in Hogan and his in-ring career could've lasted a bit more longer after Starrcade.

Should it have been Bret vs. Hogan instead at Starrcade 1999?

How was WCW pushing a Hogan-Brett agenda all through 1999 ??

1999 starts with Brett out with injury, MIA since Nov 98 - The NWO reforms, purges all the mid carders, and tries to regain control of WCW from Ric Flair, along the way screwing Goldberg out the WCW Title - This storylines takes us into the Spring, as Hogan-Flair headline 3 PPVs, Hogan loses the WCW Title to Flair, and eventually leaves for several months to have knee surgery.

The NWO disbands shortly after that and Hogan is MIA from April-July.

Hart is in and out that spring that summer not doing much of anything but never associates with Hogan. Randy Savage returns, Kevin Nash is a tweener character, DDP turns heel, and Piper returns to feud with a now heel Flair, all of which takes us into July of 99 (right when Hogan returns).

In Sept Bischoff is fired - Flair (who was MIA the last half of the summer, either due to a falling out with Bischoff or a reocccurrance of his shoulder injury from 96 depending on what you believe) returns and he Hogan, & Hart (who is finally wrestling full time for the first time all year unite as a team to oppose a heel Sting, DDP, and recently returned from injury Lex Luger. As Halloween Havoc comes up Vince Russo Era Part 1 is about to start and Hogan & Flair disappear while Hart is left kind of out there. New storylines emerge but Hart is nowhere near Hogan.

As the year winds down Hogan is MIA - How exactly was WCW "teasing" a Brett-Hogan match in 99.....seems to me that they never did one single thing to make fans think for one minute they might actually wrestle.

Meanwhile the timing for Brett-Hogan was 1998 - Brett should have come in and saved Sting from a "Screwjob" finish at Starracde 97 and immediately started feuding with the various NWO members....there was a fairly good roster at that point to chose from and he could have worked against Henning, Hall, Steiner, and eventually Nash as the year progressed, building towards a Starrcade 98 match with Hogan. The whole ridiculous NWO split was two confusing and never caught on, pretty soon all of WCW was seemingly in the NWO in some form or another, Hart never should have feuded with Flair (the audience was split and leaned towards Flair despite his playing a clear heel vs Hart, not a great way to establish the popularity of your newest good guy), and Hart should have remained a hero all year, he was clearly more comfortable in that role, it was the role during his greatest periods of success in WWE, and "Montreal" gave him sympathy among fans making him instantly likeable.

WCW so thoroughly screwed all of that up so bad it is beyond description - Still, the time for Hart vs Hogan was 98 not 99 and WCW did almost nothing in 99 storyline wise to make you think there was any chance at all in Hart-Hogan happening or make you care that it could.

 

[Wolf Pac]

How was WCW pushing a Hogan-Brett agenda all through 1999 ??

1999 starts with Brett out with injury, MIA since Nov 98 - The NWO reforms, purges all the mid carders, and tries to regain control of WCW from Ric Flair, along the way screwing Goldberg out the WCW Title - This storylines takes us into the Spring, as Hogan-Flair headline 3 PPVs, Hogan loses the WCW Title to Flair, and eventually leaves for several months to have knee surgery.

The NWO disbands shortly after that and Hogan is MIA from April-July.

Hart is in and out that spring that summer not doing much of anything but never associates with Hogan. Randy Savage returns, Kevin Nash is a tweener character, DDP turns heel, and Piper returns to feud with a now heel Flair, all of which takes us into July of 99 (right when Hogan returns).

In Sept Bischoff is fired - Flair (who was MIA the last half of the summer, either due to a falling out with Bischoff or a reocccurrance of his shoulder injury from 96 depending on what you believe) returns and he Hogan, & Hart (who is finally wrestling full time for the first time all year unite as a team to oppose a heel Sting, DDP, and recently returned from injury Lex Luger. As Halloween Havoc comes up Vince Russo Era Part 1 is about to start and Hogan & Flair disappear while Hart is left kind of out there. New storylines emerge but Hart is nowhere near Hogan.

As the year winds down Hogan is MIA - How exactly was WCW "teasing" a Brett-Hogan match in 99.....seems to me that they never did one single thing to make fans think for one minute they might actually wrestle.

Meanwhile the timing for Brett-Hogan was 1998 - Brett should have come in and saved Sting from a "Screwjob" finish at Starracde 97 and immediately started feuding with the various NWO members....there was a fairly good roster at that point to chose from and he could have worked against Henning, Hall, Steiner, and eventually Nash as the year progressed, building towards a Starrcade 98 match with Hogan. The whole ridiculous NWO split was two confusing and never caught on, pretty soon all of WCW was seemingly in the NWO in some form or another, Hart never should have feuded with Flair (the audience was split and leaned towards Flair despite his playing a clear heel vs Hart, not a great way to establish the popularity of your newest good guy), and Hart should have remained a hero all year, he was clearly more comfortable in that role, it was the role during his greatest periods of success in WWE, and "Montreal" gave him sympathy among fans making him instantly likeable.

WCW so thoroughly screwed all of that up so bad it is beyond description - Still, the time for Hart vs Hogan was 98 not 99 and WCW did almost nothing in 99 storyline wise to make you think there was any chance at all in Hart-Hogan happening or make you care that it could.

Maybe you should read my first two lines again. I never said they were involved in any angles/storylines together. Bret would cut in-ring promos sometimes and talk about facing Hogan and it being one of his goals. I didn't say they were definitely pushing for it but I doubt WCW would've let Bret keep mentioning in his promos that he wanted to face Hogan if they didn't at least have it in mind.

 

[Just Do It]

For Histories sake it would have been nice for the two to of had a PROPER match. And it really should have been in Bret's first WCW one on PPV to get over the big deal and ensure WCW fans knew Bret was a player. It would have been fresh fro Hogan coming off Sting, and completely fresh for the WCW audience.

But hey...

 

[Just Do It]

Shit, first post here in a while, now I need to work out whether I change my avatar!!!!