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WCW Hog Wild: Inside The Iconic PPV From A Motorcycle Rally

A snapshot from WCW Hog Wild '96.

WCW Hog Wild is the most bizarre wrestling show of all time. On a hot August day in 1996, WCW set up camp at a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota.

The open-air event starts with a two-minute montage of bikes, Mount Rushmore and the US countryside. It is extremely 90s and couldn’t be more American unless a bald eagle was seen eating a Twinkie.

At first glance, WCW Hog Wild seems it was created solely to fulfill one WCW executive’s leather, muscle, and bike kink. But it was more than that.

WCW Hog Wild was the scene for one of WCW’s most shocking and iconic moments, fuelled a brand, brought in major advertisers, and also nearly brought on a major lawsuit.

 

WCW Hog Wild Problems

The problem with wrestling shows taking place at non-wrestling events is you lose two critical factors. Firstly, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was a free event for bike nuts. So WCW didn’t draw money from tickets.

WCW was happy to forfeit a gate and instead went to Sturgis as part of a strategy to attract bigger advertisers such as Levi, Chevy, Miller Coors, Eric Bischoff told his 83 Weeks podcast. This strategy was successful and WCW gained new advertisers during the event, Bischoff claimed.

Secondly, although I’m sure there’s a cross-over between wrestling and bike fans, you can’t guarantee an engaged crowd. So the show takes place in front of an unenthused crowd and draws no money.

WCW also chose to put on 16 matches. The first eight matches aired on WCW on Saturday Night.

In the case of WCW Hog Wild portions of the crowd were at times worse than uninterested.

The opening match on the main card was Ultimo Dragon challenging Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight Championship. The crowd decided to test the waters on some xenophobia by revving their bikes and chanting USA throughout the contest.

Racist remarks were made towards Harlem Heat as they fought The Stieners.

Booker T surprisingly looks back on this moment as a positive because he was able to gain a reaction as a heel in front of the redneck crowd.

More well-known stars such as Ric Flair, Sting, and Lex Luger received more favorable welcomes.

WCW Plays Biker Dress-Up

This didn’t stop WCW from getting into the spirit of things. Dusty Rhodes, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Gene Okerland all dressed up as bikers for the broadcast.

Bischoff led a convoy of WCW wrestlers and personnel on a bike ride to Sturgis. This was said to be a hugely positive team bonding exercise and experience.

Bischoff spoke favorably about the thrill of riding behind Medusa on the journey.

It was the third match of the show that really got into the vibe of the rally. Bull Nakano and Madusa competed with the stipulation that the winner got to destroy the loser’s bike.

Bischoff revealed that this got one of the best reactions from the crowd as they could understand the story. Madusa was competing to protect the beauty of an American bike, and to destroy the Japanese bike Nakano had rode in on.

Medusa won much to the delight of the American bike superfans.

It was an enjoyable match by two future WWE Hall of Fame inductees who were the perfect opponents for each other.

 

 

“Hollywood” Hulk Hogan Debuts And The nWo commits vandalism

But it was the main event that made WCW Hog Wild a vital piece of WCW history.

A month earlier, Hulk Hogan had buddied up with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. But it was at Hog Wild that we got to understand the true identity of the nWo.

Billed at “Hollywood” Hogan for the first time, the nWo took out WCW World Heavyweight Championship The Giant. A shot with the title led to “Hollywood” pinning The Giant to win the main event and the gold.

This was the true formation of the nWo.

Hogan sprayed nWo on the big gold belt and rechristened it to the nWo World Heavyweight Championship.

23 years after this moment, people are still giving WWE $429 to own a replica nWo Spray Paint WCW Championship.

Legal Issues And Ultimate Success

Harley Davidson was obviously aware of the WCW Hog Wild event that took place at the massive motorcycle rally. The bike powerhouse filed a complaint that people could associate its company with the event as HOG is an acronym synonymous with its owner’s membership club the Harley Owners Group.

WCW changed the name of the event to Road Wild and ran it between 1997 and 1999 at Sturgis. Bischoff wanted to create an event that looked and felt totally different from any other WCW PPV.

He succeeded in that. Bischoff was also successful in securing advertising from companies that he wouldn’t have been able to get in front of if it wasn’t for the event taking place in Sturgis.

But it also provided iconic moments, such as Hogan spray painting the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

WCW also released a range of Road Wild action figures in which its top stars came complete with motorbikes.  

In 1998, bike enthusiast Jay Leno teamed with “Diamond” Dallas Page to take on Hogan and Bischoff in a tag team match.

Jay Leno & Diamond Dallas Page vs. Hulk Hogan & Eric …YouTube · WWE4 minutes, 26 seconds20 Feb 2017

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Laurence Gibbons

Laurence Gibbons

My personality is 20% the contents of Raven's shopping trolly, 10% Shayna Baszler's card tricks, and 70% Kane's hair after he's been in a Royal Rumble match for an hour. I preview WWE Raw for LWOS as well as contributing articles on news, analysis and wrestling history.

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