Hogan’s Last WCW Night, and the Dispute Over the Script

At WCW’s Bash at the Beach on July 9, 2000, Jeff Jarrett lay down in the ring, and Hulk Hogan took the championship without a fight. Vince Russo, who helped direct the company’s wrestling storylines, then publicly denounced Hogan and announced that he was fired. What happened on the pay-per-view broadcast is clearer than what the men had agreed to beforehand: Hogan won a title, Russo repudiated him, and the championship was contested again that night.

Russo accused Hogan of abusing his contractual creative control by refusing to lose. His speech told viewers they would not have to see Hogan again and set up a championship match between Jarrett and Booker T. Booker won his first WCW championship. Hogan’s apparent victory had lasted only long enough for the broadcast to move on without him.

The dispute concerned more than who would win. In retrospective accounts attributed to Russo, Eric Bischoff and Hogan, a proposed storyline had Hogan leaving with the belt and returning months later to face Jarrett again. But agreement about a title angle did not necessarily mean agreement about the public attack. Hogan’s position, as described by TheSportster, was that events had followed the script until Russo’s speech; Russo said the speech, too, had been agreed upon.

A previously unaired Hogan interview, reported by ComicBook.com, offered a different recollection of the match itself. Hogan said Russo had proposed a victory by disqualification but had no plans for his character afterward. In that telling, Jarrett’s decision to lie down surprised him. “Is this a rib? Why are you doing this?” Hogan recalled asking. He said he put his foot on Jarrett, took the belt after the count and went backstage looking for Russo.

Hogan also recalled telling his family to leave because he intended to confront Russo physically. He said others prevented the confrontation and that it took “three or four people” to get him to leave the arena.

Responding in 2023, Russo said he had been told by John Laurinaitis that Hogan had approved the script. “We checked everything out with him first,” Russo said on “The Wrestling Outlaws.” He recalled learning two hours before the show that Hogan no longer accepted it. Russo denied being angry at Hogan for exercising creative control that WCW had granted him; he described the late change as unprofessional. He also said the plan had always been for Booker to leave as champion.

The disagreement over Russo’s speech outlasted the show. Hogan later pursued legal action, while Russo maintained that the speech belonged to an agreed storyline. Hogan’s position was that it crossed a boundary the script had not authorized. The proposed return with the belt did not occur: Bash at the Beach was Hogan’s final appearance in WCW.