10 Shocking Wrestlers That Beat Hulk Hogan

Many wrestlers have been protected over the years but Hulk Hogan, the golden-skinned goose who laid so many fat eggs during his heyday, was protected perhaps more than any other.

The Hulkster rarely lost and, if he did, you better believe he did so about as cleanly as a chimney sweep after a 10-hour shift.

One of the biggest stars the industry has ever seen, Hogan understood the importance of wins and losses and, though promoters were more than happy to protect their investment, he also regularly had some degree of creative control and could decide who he did the honours for, and importantly, who he wanted to steamroll past.

Despite that, he did suffer an occasional L and, though a clean win over Hulk was incredibly rare, he has put over some surprising wrestlers in the past, be it by pinfall, submission or, usually, disqualification or countout.

These are 10 Shocking Wrestlers That Beat Hulk Hogan.

10. Mike Awesome

The months before Hogan left WCW in 2000 saw the Hulkster undergo a distinct change in attitude.

Hogan, along with the rest of the so-called Millionaire’s Club of established headliners, were embroiled in a feud with the New Blood, a group of upstarts that wanted to take the place of the veterans at the top of the card.

Hogan developed an edge as he went up against younger performers like Billy Kidman, Vampiro and Mike Awesome, updating his look for the new millennium and wrestling a more aggressive style.

He also developed a more giving streak, as he allowed himself to be put in precarious positions and even let himself be pinned to help the programme along.

This is especially true when it came to Mike Awesome, who was presented as a genuine threat. The former ECW Champion first powerbombed Hogan through a table and then beat him in the main event of the May 1 Nitro.

The two had a decent, weapons-filled brawl that spilt to the ringside area. Hulk looked to be in control, before Billy Kidman caught him with a flying chair shot from the top rope to the floor.

The most obvious bladejob in wrestling history followed and Awesome got the 1-2-3.

9. Arn Anderson

Arn Anderson was a respected worker, particularly amongst those in the business, and he enjoyed his fair share of success as a member of the Four Horseman.

Technically skilled and reliable as rainfall, Arn could almost always be counted on for a good match but he wasn’t exactly a star in the same sense that his longtime friend and stablemate Ric Flair was, for example.

You could see The Nature Boy getting the W over Hogan, but The Enforcer?!? Well, you better believe it happened, baby! And in the main event of the February 12, 1996 episode of Nitro, no less.

Hogan and longtime friend/rival Macho Man Randy Savage were beefing with the Horsemen at the time and, the night after the Superbrawl pay-per-view and Flair beating Savage for the WCW Title, Hogan met Anderson.

Miss Elizabeth had turned heel during the aforementioned title change, and she was at ringside supporting Arn, along with Slic Ric and Woman.

The match was the basic Hogan offering, with Double-A getting his head pounded in until those pesky dames on the outside used the combined forces of baby powder and a high-heeled shoe to subject the Hulkster to a rare loss.

8. Horace Hogan

The signing of Hulk’s nephew Horace Hogan was, rather transparently, something done to keep Hulk happy.

He’d had a decent-ish run in Japan but, besides that, had never enjoyed success anywhere else and, to be blunt, didn’t have the talent, ability or name recognition aside from being a member of the Hogan clan to be put in top positions.

That didn’t stop WCW, of course, as Horace was instrumental in helping Hogan get his win back over the Ultimate Warrior and was then inducted as a member of the nWo.

Uncle and nephew were united against the New Blood in the Spring of 2000, when Eric Bischoff placed Horace in a triple threat match with Hulk and Billy Kidman.

That match was basically just the Hulkster smashing the cruiserweight about until the Filthy Animals ran in and Horace turned on his kin, hitting him lightly with a chair and covering him for the pinfall victory.

It turned out that Bischoff had offered Horace the services of Kidman’s girlfriend Torrie Wilson in exchange for the double-cross.

7. Sean O'Haire

Sean O’Haire seemed like a can’t-miss prospect when he re-emerged on Smackdown in early 2003.

Previously stuck in a so-so tag team with fellow WCW Power Plant graduate Mark Jindrak, O’Haire came back solo with a new and improved look and character.

The Devil’s Advocate who convinced his co-workers to indulge in their sins was certainly intriguing and O’Haire had the size and youth that the company covets so strongly.

Then he lost the gimmick and was awkwardly paired with Roddy Piper. With Hot Rod as his manager, though, O’Haire was at least involved in top storylines and found himself tangling with Mr. America.

Their Smackdown main event was, essentially, a backdrop for the whole Hogan vs. Vince McMahon drama that was playing out at the time, with the stipulation that if O’Haire won, Mr America would need to take an in-ring lie detector test, while if Hogan won, Piper would be fired.

It was basic and it was quick and, in the end, O’Haire prevailed.

He didn’t get a pin or a submission but rather won via count-out, after Terrible Terry left the ring to confront Vince, who was having Zack Gowen arrested.

6. Kurt Angle

Hogan’s 2002 WWE comeback saw him go from leader of the nWo to the conquering hero fuelled by the nostalgia of a million Hulkamaniacs.

Trading in the black and white for the red and yellow once more, Hogan parlayed his resurgence in popularity into an Undisputed Title run and was, for a while, the most featured act on the show.

Before long, however, the rose-coloured glasses lost their pink tint and, rather than being booked on top, Hogan slid down the card and was used to help other rising stars instead.

That meant tagging up with the likes of Edge or otherwise putting over WWE’s future crop of main eventers.

One of the more shocking losses that Hogan incurred during this era was to Kurt Angle at King of the Ring. The Olympic gold medallist is one of the best to ever lace up a pair of boots and was on his way to being a Grand Slam winner, but he had still only been in the business for barely a couple of years at this point and Hogan never tapped out.

But he did on this night.

5. Vampiro

Just three weeks after doing the job for Mike Awesome and one week after doing the same for Horace, Hogan was back at it again, losing to another member of the New Blood.

The beneficiary this time was Vampiro, who was once a major star in Mexico and looking to climb the ladder in WCW.

At the time, he was engaged in a dispute with Sting, which would end when Vamp set the Stinger on fire and threw him from the top of an arena.

En route to the infamous Human Torch match, Vampiro met Hogan on the May 22, 2000 episode of Nitro.

Like the Awesome match before it, their contest with a meandering brawl that was dominated by the Hulkster, who looked like he could win the match at any moment.

Then the human banana peel that is Billy Kidman walked in to trip Hogan up with a blowtorch to the head that felled the Millionaire’s Club man and allowed Vampiro to be draped over him for the win.

4. Earthquake

If you were a monster in the WWE in the 80s or early 90s, odds are you were going to get matched up with Hogan at some point.

The formula of the Hulkster vanquishing a larger foe was tried and tested and usually led to big business, especially when the match was toured on the house show circuit.

The foe in question could spend the rest of his career bouncing around from here to there and never really achieving much-sustained success, but would be able to pay for a house with the money they made during their run with the Immortal One.

The likes of Big Boss Man, One Man Gang and Yokozuna likely didn’t care about staring at the ceiling night after night when those cheques came in the mail.

Earthquake was another big man who had an extended run with Hogan and, while Quake would typically eat a big boot and a big leg, he did manage to get a few wins against his rival.

All of those wins were by count-out and the majority took place when cameras weren’t rolling, but one of them – a match from Madison Square Garden on November 24, 1990 – made air.

Hulk was unable to answer the count when Dino Bravo ran in, shocking those in the World’s Most Famous Arena.

He even took a beating in the post-match, with the heels eventually being run off by Tugboat.

3. Jacques Rougeau

If Jacques Rougeau had went one-on-one with Hogan in any other setting, odds are that he would have eaten a leg drop and gone backstage to take a shower after about six minutes.

But on April 11, 1997, the former Mountie met the Hulkster in Montreal, a place where the established rules of wrestling tend to fly out of the window.

Rougeau was not only a wrestler for WCW at that time, he was also a promoter and a major star in his French-Canadian home market, where the Rougeau family name had weight. So whenever there was a non-televised event in Montreal, Jacques would inevitably be featured in the main event, often against the promotion’s champion.

His planned win over then-WWE Champion Diesel was infamously shut down in 1995, but Hogan had no problem looking at the lights for the hometown hero. Incredibly, Hollywood was the WCW World Heavyweight Champion at the time, although the match was obviously non-title.

And while it was non-televised, bootleg copies have surfaced for years.

They show a standard (but heated) match that Hogan could’ve won with any number of leg drops, only to get cocky and fall victim to a small package.

2. The Genius

One of Hogan’s great rivalries was against Macho Man Randy Savage, the ultra-intense and charismatic legend who formed once formed one half of the Mega Powers and then headlined WrestleMania against his one-time partner.

Randy’s real-life brother Lanny Pofo, best known as Mr. Perfect’s flunky The Genius, didn’t quite manage to main event any WrestleManias (or any show, for that matter) but he does hold a significant victory over the Hulkster.

The Genius – with his flamboyant theatrics and pre-match poetry recitals – was easy pickings for the almighty Hogan, who was riding high as WWE Champion when the two clashed on the November 25, 1989 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event.

It was a good showcase for Poffo, easily his highest-profile match ever as he got to shine against the biggest name in the industry.

Was it a great match? Not really, but it was undoubtedly entertaining and everyone (including Mr. Perfect at ringside) played their part and worked hard.

And it was Perfect that made the difference, clobbering Hogan with the WWE Title and ensuring that he was unable to beat the count back into the ring.

Even though it was a count-out, it was still one of the most shocking upsets of the decade.

1. The Wall

The Wall is one of those forgotten faces of the Monday Night Wars, someone who came from out of nowhere, enjoyed a decent amount of mid-level success and then pretty much vanished once WCW folded.

His most memorable WCW moment was the hilarious scene where Hogan managed to spot him on top of a building that was situated about three miles away from the ring. That ridiculous exchange led to a match later in the evening.

Once again, it was the type of wandering brawl that Hogan was specialising in at this point,  with The Wall getting his licks in, before setting up a table with the intention of chokeslamming the red and yellow menace through it.

That ended up backfiring when Vampiro ran in and attacked The Wall, giving the big man a win via disqualification, before Vamp and Hulk then teamed up to put him through a table instead.