The results of this year’s presidential election will forever stand as a moment in which America, for the second time, looked in the mirror and saw a truly gnarled caricature of its own visage staring back. Many of us awoke on Wednesday, November 6th shocked at how the majority of our country chose to make their voices heard. How could our fellow citizens knowingly support someone with such a record of horribly flagrant violations of both the moral and legal order? For me, that shock still resonates for all but one of these so-called patriots, because I did not bat an eye when I saw Hulk Hogan struggling to tear his shirt in support of Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden. In fact, I had never forgiven him since he joined the New World Order (nWo.)
It was July of 1996, and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was holding its third annual Bash at the Beach pay-per-view event. I had tuned in with my family, eager to see my favorite wrestlers compete honorably for the Heavyweight and Cruiserweight titles. I had noted (with no small amount of disgust) that The Outsiders (comprised of Kevin Nash and the late Scott Hall) had left the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) fully intending on “invading” the WCW. They had a scheduled tag team match against Macho Man Randy Savage, Sting and Lex Luger alongside a yet-to-be-named third teammate. I watched the opening matches with zeal, completely unaware that my world would come crumbling down around me as the headlining events unfolded.
Yes, the unnamed third teammate of Nash and Hall was Hulk Hogan.
I felt sick to my stomach as my hero stormed the ring and hit Macho Man Randy Savage with two Atomic Legdrops before throwing the referee out of bounds, thus ending the match in a no-contest. My whole perception of reality felt completely distorted as Hogan then told Gene Okerlund that his newfound alliance with Nash and Hall would “take over the wrestling business and destroy everything in their path.” Nothing made sense anymore.
So spare me your outrage, dear reader, as we see Hogan openly supporting the man who may very well act as the death knell for our beloved democracy almost 30 years later. That duplicitous bastard has long been unable to surprise me, yet sadly, I feel the past is prologue when it comes to Mr. Hogan, and we’re doomed to see his new team of ragtag outsiders disrupt Washington D.C. much like his nWo did to wrestling on that cursed summer evening so long ago.