THE CZECH IS IN THE MAIL
It’s hard to believe it was 30 years ago – July 7, 1996 – when one of the biggest heel turns in professional wrestling history took place.
That was the day the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling pay-perview event “Bash at the Beach” took place in Daytona, Florida. It also was the day Hulk Hogan became a bad guy AKA took a heel turn.
In professional wrestling, a heel is a bad guy, and a face is what the good guys are called. Prior to Bash at the Beach 96, Hogan was one of the biggest faces – if not the biggest face – in the professional wrestling world.
The main event for Bash at the Beach 96 was WCW faces Lex Luger, Randy Savage and Sting against two guys called “The Outsiders” – Scott Hall and Kevin Nash – and a mystery partner.
Toward the end of the match, Hogan was revealed to be the third man on the Outsiders’ team.
In the three months prior to this particular pay-per-view, Hogan took a hiatus to film episodes of “Thunder in Paradise” and his box-office flop, “Santa with Muscles.” On May 27, 1996, Hall “interrupted” a match on WCW Monday Nitro to announce that he and two of his associates were declaring war on the wrestling organization.
Hall previously wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation – now World Wrestling Entertainment – under the ring name, “Razor Ramon.” Hall’s last appearance in the WWF at that time was May 19, 1996, at a house show at Madison Square Garden, which I’ll touch on later in this piece.
Two weeks after Hall’s initial appearance on WCW, Nash appeared. Like Hall, Nash’s last WWF appearance was at the same MSG house show, but Nash wrestled in that organization under the name, “Diesel.”
This gave WCW fans the impression that two wrestlers from the WWF were “invading” the organization. Between their initial appearances on WCW televised events, it certainly seemed that way.
Then came the Bash at the Beach main event. Hall and Nash walked to the ring without their mystery partner, but informed ring announcer Gene Okerlund the man would be ready to go when necessary.
Luger, Savage and Sting arrived at ringside and the fight was on. Two minutes into the match, Luger suffered a kayfabe (fake) injury and was wheeled off on a stretcher.
For the next 20 minutes, Savage and Sting fought Hall and Nash before all four men were laying down in the ring. That’s when Hogan arrived and was greeted with a hero’s welcome.
Fans assumed Hogan came to save Savage and Sting. However, Hogan delivered two leg drops across Savage’s chest and gave high-fives to Hall and Nash, revealing he was the third man on the Outsiders’ team.
In the following months, Hall, Hogan and Nash formed the New World Order. The NWO became one of the biggest heel factions in wrestling history.
Other former WWF superstars joined the NWO such as Syxx (1-23 Kid in WWF), Vincent (Virgil in WWF), Mike Rotundo (Irwin R. Schuyster in WWF), Ted DiBiase and Savage – to name a few. Because of this, fans were treated to dream matches such as Sting vs. Hogan, Savage vs. Ric Flair, Luger vs. Hall, etc.
As mentioned earlier, the May 19, 1996, WWF house show where Hall and Nash made their final appearance with that organization until 2002 had its share of controversy. The duo held a celebration in the ring with longtime friends Michael Higginbotham (Shawn Michaels) and Paul Levesque (HHH), which wouldn’t have been an issue except Hall and Michaels were faces while HHH and Nash were heels.
This incident infuriated WWF owner Vince McMahon, which he believed broke kayfabe. Five years after the incredible summer of 1996, McMahon bought WCW and many of its stars wrestled in WWE, which was renamed from WWF after McMahon lost a naming rights lawsuit against the World Wildlife Fund.
I’ll never forget the summer of 1996. It shook up the wrestling world.
Chlapek can be reached at jason.chlapek@ granitemediapartners. com.
