WCW Starrcade 1995

As a recently leaked copy of WCW’s contract with Hulk Hogan revealed, WCW went out of their way to secure the services of what was at the time, the biggest name in all of pro wrestling. Amongst the list of perks that Hogan had secured as part of his deal were things like a $2,000,000 signing bonus, $20,000 per month just for wearing NWO t-shirts (a portion of the profits from sales of which he also earned) and approval over the outcome of all wrestling matches in which he appeared. These bonuses that Hogan had managed to wrangle himself were unprecedented in the industry, and would eventually go some way to changing the business end of wrestling- specifically the manner in which wrestlers were paid. They were however, simply the tip of the iceberg in terms of Hogan’s overall remuneration package as Hogan had also negotiated himself 15% of pay-per-view sales or $675,000 for pay events on which he appeared (whichever was the largest) and 25% of the gross of ticket sales for any other event, whether a Monday Nitro, Thunder or house show. Not only are these figures absolutely stunning but at the time, meant that WCW had to be very selective about where, when and how often they used ‘The Hulkster’.

WWE Survivor Series 2004

WWE Survivor Series 2004 took place at a time when the promotion were in the middle of transitioning from the botched push of Randy Orton (which had led to his World Title win in the main event of Summer Slam that year) and the hugely successful push of fellow Evolution member Batista (who would go on to win the World Title from Triple H in the main event of Wrestlemania 21). Going into the show, Randy Orton was positioned as the main babyface in the company, in position as the team captain of the good guys in the main event opposing ‘The Game’ as team captain on the heel side of the aisle. Unfortunately, due to a combination of Orton not really being ready for the babyface top spot- and the manner in which, having won the title (to become the youngest World Champion in WWE history), Orton was unceremoniously defeated by Triple H at Unforgiven just a month later to lose the belt- he didn’t live up to this billing and Survivor Series drew just 325,000 buys on pay-per-view (though a number that would have been considered a success more recently, was at the time the lowest number the show had done in 7 years). The number was put down to Orton and following this show, the spotlight would really begin to shine on WWE’s next project-  Batista.