In death, Hulk Hogan left behind a complicated legacy and, towards the end of his life, few memories that fans would view positively. But one such moment that remains largely unsullied by Hogan's reputation is WCW Bash at the Beach 1996, where he was revealed to be the third man, siding with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to form the New World Order. Nearly thirty years later, the angle remains one of wrestling's high water marks, and is still considered to be among the greatest heel turns of all time.
Just days after Hogan's death, JBL was honoring the good portions of Hulk Hogan's wrestling career on "Something to Wrestle," when Bash at the beach and the nWo formation came up. Like most people, JBL was very complimentary towards the angle as a whole,but when giving his perspective of it as a WWE star at the time, revealed that the angle left him pretty scared for the WWE's future.
"I thought the whole thing...I'd never gone through a war like that," JBL said. "A lot of guys hadn't, but I'd never seen guys leaving territories before. And all of a sudden, Hogan shows up as a heel? I thought we were dead."
Fortunately for JBL, that fear turned out to be unfounded, as WWE would eventually rebound in late 1997 and early 1998, and go on to win the Monday Night War over WCW, as the nWo storyline ultimately petered out with no firm resolution. By 2002, JBL and Hogan would wind up being co-workers, after Hogan returned to WWE with Hall and Nash, reuniting the nWo briefly.
If you use any quotes in this article, please credit "Something To Wrestle" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
