When Hulk Hogan left the green pastures of WWE behind to become an official member of WCW in 1994, it served as a major inflection point in the professional wrestling industry.

Sure, WCW and its predecessor, Jim Crockett Promotions, had stars in the past, with Ric Flair and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat having many of their best matches in the company's ring, but at the time, Hogan was unlike anything else the promotion had on their roster before, a legitimate star outside of the wrestling sphere who could bring in interest from outside of the traditional fanbase.

Discussing whether or not WCW had the infrastructure in place to accommodate a star of Hogan's caliber at the time on The Arn Show, Arn Anderson peeled back the curtains to let fans know how it all went down.

“You know, they were still — you got to look at WCW for what it was at that point in time. It was still a startup company. It wasn't Jim Crockett Promotions, albeit there were leftover talent that were featured with Jim Crockett Promotions. But it was still a startup company. I was a little worried. You know, to bring a guy in like that, which — you know, a year or even a year earlier you would have said, ‘Well, that'll never happen, Vince will never let him go, he's there for life!'” Arn Anderson explained via 411 Mania.

“But then, when it happened, I remember having a thought, ‘Well, who do you have heated up that's hot enough, that's got enough heat that's gonna be something that is must see?' You know what I mean? You know, I ran down the the lineup in my head and just went — for a guy to come in like that, if he's gonna wrestle right away you need to have a guy on the other side of the ball that has got a ton of heat and says ‘Oh, you want to come into my company? I'll take care of these guys.' You know what I mean? But done in a heel way, you know.”

While the idea of Hogan joining WCW held very little downside from an external perspective, it was far more of a conversation behind the scenes, as the wrestlers had to accept bringing in a performer who was going to dominate the headlines, dominate the bookings, and potentially dominate the profits too.

Arn Anderson notes the struggles of guaranteed money vs. Hulk Hogan.

Turning his attention from the front of the house to the backstage area, Arn Anderson discussed how the locker room accepted Hulk Hogan and whether or not they actually appreciated what he brought to the table.

“Here’s the one thing that you can think about. And it’s a good thing, and it’s a bad thing. When you find out a guy’s gonna come in and have the opportunity to make — you know, I’m sure he was like, PPVs was a percentage, right? It was no fixed income. The beauty of WCW, which I took a lot of pride in, [was] the fact that we had guaranteed money, and if you didn’t draw a lot of money, you still got your pay. But now you’re going to be wrestling Hulk Hogan. If you had been working for Vince, you would have — if you got to sell out Madison Square Garden, and you were wrestling Hulk Hogan, you would have got a huge payoff. Now you’re going to get what you always get, your weekly salary.”

Asked if Hogan's unlimited earning potential rubbed some wrestlers the wrong way, Anderson gave a nuanced answer, noting that it was a very common topic of conversation among the boys in the back.

“Here's the one thing that you can think about. And it's a good thing, and it's a bad thing. When you find out a guy's gonna come in and have the opportunity to make — you know, I'm sure he was like, PPVs was a percentage, right? It was no fixed income. The beauty of WCW, which I took a lot of pride in, [was] the fact that we had guaranteed money, and if you didn't draw a lot of money, you still got your pay. But now you're going to be wrestling Hulk Hogan. If you had been working for Vince, you would have — if you got to sell out Madison Square Garden, and you were wrestling Hulk Hogan, you would have got a huge payoff. Now you're going to get what you always get, your weekly salary,” Anderson said.

“And guys, they don't think about, ‘Well, I got paid for a week that wasn't very good, wasn't very profitable and I still got my money, whatever that was.' You know, that's the way that I thought about it. But the guys that, you know, if there was a big house and it was sold out they would — if you came from the era of working for Vince and every other company out there. Turner was the first guy to give guaranteed money, you know? And it's just the way, how do you approach it, how do you look at it? It was a point of contention with a lot of guys. And a lot of conversations I'm sure went down, because of it.”

Though the initial run of Hogan in WCW wasn't exactly the apex of his career, it served as the foundation for what certainly became one of his peaks, the NWO, a faction started with fellow Outsiders Scott Hall and Kevin Nash that went on to dominate the wrestling world for the back half of the 1990s until the promotion was purchased by Vince McMahon. All things considered, it's safe to say WCW made the right call in pursuing the “Hulkamaniac.”