10 Things WCW Fans Should Know About The Giant Vs. Hulk Hogan Rivalry

Hulk Hogan joining WCW led to him having a lot of creative input for better and often times for worse. Big Show started his WCW career thanks to Hogan discovering him and wanting the young tall athlete to join the wrestling business. The Giant was the name given to him when debuting with minimal experience to confront the biggest star.

RELATED: 10 Weird Moments From Big Show's WCW Career We Completely Forgot About

Everyone in WCW hoped that Hogan’s idea was genius and that a new top monster heel could draw money. WCW even had Giant be revealed as the son of Andre the Giant looking to get revenge on Hogan for his late father’s old rivalry. The feud is considered one of the strangest in WCW history for good reason. Any wrestling fan will enjoy a deeper look as the Hogan vs Giant rivalry in WCW.

10 Hulk Hogan Wanted To Wrestle With The Giant With One Match Experience

Hulk Hogan not only discovered The Giant and helped him get signed, but he wanted to wrestle the newcomer without any relevant experience. The Giant only had one match in his history before debuting as the newest rival to Hogan on WCW television.

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A random independent show at a mall saw The Giant making his debut losing via count out to that promotion’s champion. Hogan didn’t care and actually felt it was a more ideal scenario to have Giant start against him to build the intrigue.

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9 Only Sumo Monster Truck Match Ever

The first meeting between Hulk Hogan and The Giant actually saw them in a sumo monster truck battle on the roof of a building at Halloween Havoc 1995. Both wrestlers drove monster trucks and tried to ram the other out of the allotted area.

Giant falling off the building after losing the truck battle and trying to brawl Hogan was bizarre. The story was that Giant returned a few minutes later no-selling death to have his traditional match against Hogan in the main event.

8 Jimmy Hart Betrayed Hulk Hogan For First Time

WWE started managing Hulk Hogan in WWE towards the end of his run there. The duo worked well together with Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake trying to join the act. Hart became synonymous with Hogan since many fans linked them together heading into WCW.

Hogan had Jimmy managing him when starting that run together in the new company. Halloween Havoc 1995 featured Hart turning heel on Hogan betraying him for the first time to help The Giant as the latest Dungeon of Doom member.

7 The Giant Won WCW Championship Thanks To Jimmy Hart Writing Hulk Hogan's Contract

The heel turn for Jimmy Hart worked even more elaborately than helping The Giant win a match as it played into the inner workings. Hart did the negotiating and contract extensions for Hulk Hogan heading into his match with Giant at Halloween Havoc 1995.

The Giant won the match by DQ where a title wouldn’t normally change hands. However, a later reveal saw Jimmy sharing that he made sure to include in Hogan’s contract that the title would change hands if he were to lose the title via DQ.

6 Big Show Didn't Like Hulk Hogan's Idea Of Him Playing Andre The Giant's Son

WCW took a huge risk by having The Giant playing the son of Andre the Giant to tap into Hulk Hogan’s history. This felt a little out of place since Andre never even worked for WCW, but they knew the entire fan base was aware of his feud with Hogan.

RELATED: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant: 10 Things Fans Forget About Their Rivalry

Big Show has admitted he didn’t like this character and felt a bit guilty about misleading people into believing Andre was his father. Fans still reference it today with many being young or not realizing it was completely scripted at the time.

5 Big Show Didn't Want To Work Together In WWE

A friendship did form between Hulk Hogan and The Giant in WCW, but the latter had no desire to work another angle with the legend in WWE. Jim Ross shared a story on his podcast about Hogan wanting to wrestle Big Show at WrestleMania 23.

The hope was that Hogan could body slam Big Show to replicate the infamous Andre the Giant spot two years after WrestleMania 3. Big Show didn’t want to put over Hogan and declined any interest in the match to end talks before they got serious.

4 They Had A Match Playing Into History On 2007 Indie Show

Even though Big Show didn’t wrestle Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 23, they ended up having a huge match for an independent show. Hogan was the main name associated with a major show taking place in the Memphis area.

Jerry Lawler was originally scheduled to face Hogan until WWE pulled him off the card. Big Show was the replacement and put over Hogan in the main event, despite previous claims of not wanting to lose to him. A bigger financial cut of a show outside of WWE likely tempted Big Show to work Hogan again.

3 The Giant Was Kicked Out Of NWO For Questioning Hulk Hogan

The Giant became an ally of Hulk Hogan when he joined the New World Order as the fourth member. Even though many fans complained about the group adding too many members, Giant actually felt like he fit into the group better as a monster heel.

However, this wasn’t meant to last long when Giant won the World War 3 battle royal for a future WCW Championship. Hogan kept finding ways to get out of the match until the tension between the two sides led to the nWo kicking out Giant to continue the feud.

2 Big WCW Match Took Place During Robin Hood Commercial Breaks

WCW used to be the hottest property on TNT outside of the NBA games. The wrestling promotion was often pitched to help introduce new projects and use their audience to shine a light on other programs. A Robin Hood television series started around the same time and went a bit too far with the WCW cross-promotion.

The end of Nitro one week featured Robin Hood following the show and having Hulk Hogan vs The Giant for the WCW Championship continue. Every commercial break for Robin Hood featured more of the match until a pointless DQ finish made fans regret watching all that episode.

1 Hulk Hogan Ended The Giant's Title Reign During First Match With "Hollywood" Character

Bash at the Beach 1996 was the night Hulk Hogan joined the New World Order, but he didn’t make his debut with the Hollywood persona until afterwards. WCW started calling him Hollywood Hogan to represent the new look and demeanor after years of being the top face.

Hog Wild 1996 was the first match for Hollywood Hogan when challenging The Giant for the WCW Championship. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall helped Hogan defeat Giant to win the title before spray painting it with the NWO letters.