In July 2000, WCW held its annual Bash at the Beach pay-per-view, and the night ended with Booker T winning the company’s World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. However, Booker’s victory was overshadowed by something that took place earlier in the evening.
According to the most common version of the story, after being asked to lose the title to Jeff Jarrett before Jarrett went on to face Booker in the main event, Hulk Hogan invoked the creative control clause in his contract and demanded to beat Jarrett instead. As a result, Vince Russo instructed Jarrett to simply lay down in the ring, and Hogan pinned Jarrett by putting a boot on his chest before cutting an unplanned promo about the state of WCW.
Hogan walked out of the company, and the night would go down as one of the final nails in the coffin for the promotion. The main event still took place, with Jarrett losing the title to Booker, despite the fact Hogan had just pinned him for that championship a short time earlier. Speaking on a recent episode of “The Hall of Fame,” Booker looked back on what could’ve been, had the company been able to work out an arrangement with Hogan.
“It seemed like it would’ve been a perfect setup for Hogan and I to actually work,” Booker said. “That really could’ve been something big.”
While WCW experienced a steep decline before being shut down by its parent company and bought by WWE, Booker believes a feud between himself and Hogan could’ve saved the promotion. Instead of having both Hogan and Booker feuding while holding championships of their own, the company chose to have Booker lose to Kevin Nash the following month. Although Booker would win the title several more times, the damage was done. He stayed with the promotion through the bitter end but joined WWE in 2001 as part of the infamous Invasion storyline.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Hall of Fame” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
