Eric Bischoff On The One Time WWE HOFer Hulk Hogan Pulled Creative Control In WCW

For years, Hulk Hogan has widely been seen by many as a serial backstage politician. There have been countless stories of Hulkamania running wild with creative retcons to put himself at the forefront. Such has often been thought to have been the case with Hogan's run in WCW, where the narrative has portrayed him as abusing his creative control. But Eric Bischoff refuted such a concept recently during "83 Weeks," seeking to put the subject to bed.

"We're going to dig something up that I was — that I hoped would have been buried a long time ago," he laughed, "Look, Hulk Hogan never made a decision, I'm gonna set Starrcade aside for a minute because we're gonna come back to that ... Everything else that Hulk Hogan did while he was in WCW while he had creative control was in the best interest of WCW, not in the best interest of Hulk Hogan."

Starrcade 1997's main event did not go smoothly after Hulk Hogan looked to pull rank and initially declined to put Sting over for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Hogan retained his title at first with referee Nick Patrick making a "fast-count." That was then rectified by Bret Hart arriving on the scene, restarting the match, and awarding Sting a submission win in a messy ending.

Bischoff said that he understood why Hogan had declined to drop the belt to Sting at first. He said that it wasn't self-serving but he also understands why those watching drew to that conclusion. Ultimately, Bischoff admitted that the incident did create a really bad issue for himself and WCW — and it was devastating not to get the payoff he had spent 18 months building toward.