Hulk Hogan was focusing more on acting back in 1993 and that signalled the end of Hulkamania, while Vince McMahon was busy trying to set up the New Generation. Hogan wrestled his last WWF match at the King of the Ring when he dropped the heavyweight title to Yokozuna and he then began filming Thunder in Paradise near the street where WCW filmed their shows.
Bruce Prichard on Something to Wrestle With discussed Hulk Hogan’s relationship with Vince McMahon before Hogan signed with WCW.
“I don’t think there was much of a relationship at that point. I think the end of 1993 when Vince McMahon had resigned himself that Hogan wanted to go off and do Thunder in Paradise. The fact that Hulk was using talent from WCW that was doing tapings I believe in Disney in Orlando, Florida, that was kind of a statement by Hulk Hogan. He didn’t reach out from anybody at the WWF side to say that he would like to use some of our guys to get some exposure from the show, so the writing was on the wall pretty much and that relationship between Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan was strained.”
Prichard added that they always had a love/hate relationship and this period was mostly on the “hate” part.
“This was a time that he had distanced himself, and Hulk saw the opportunity with Thunder in Paradise to go off and become a David Hasselhoff in the syndication world, so he saw bigger and better things. If he was going to do wrestling maybe he was going to do good for a different billionaire, even though Vince wasn’t a billionaire at the time,” stated Prichard.
“You are waiting for the call from Hulk Hogan saying that he believes he is going to sign with WCW unless we can convince him to stay with the WWF, so, that always happened,” said Prichard. “Plus, you always went through that breakup period where at first you are sad, and then you get to the angry stage. But I think it ran its course with Hulk where he was going off and doing other things, to, well, that son of a b**** is now flirting with WCW and is using their talents, and is not even calling us for our talents.
“So, I think there were hurt feelings, probably on both sides that made it, okay, we will show him, or from his perspective he will show us. It went both ways.”
Hogan made his final WWF television appearance in June 1993. After that, he wrestled a few dates in Japan before signing with WCW in June 1994. He made his official in-ring debut at Clash of the Champions the following month, where he beat Ric Flair for the WCW Heavyweight Title.
h/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.
