Bundy managed to beat the Hulkster in a controversial count-out decision.  This meant the men had to meet in a rematch, only this time in Bundy's corner would be none other than Andre the Giant.  Hogan dispensed of Bundy and had words with Andre, then moved on to his posedown.  But from behind the Eighth Wonder of the World grabbed Hogan by the hair for two monstrous headbutts.  He proceeded to choke out the mighty Hulkster with his bare hands.  The British Bulldogs came out to help but were cast aside like two French Poodles, and the mighty paws of the Giant clamped around the Champ again.  Finally, Hacksaw Jim Duggan came out and broke his 2x4 over Andre's back to get him to release the hold.  But even that did little else, as Andre watched Duggan in anger as they dragged the yellow and red lumped hulk of mass away.  The message was out.  The Giant was an angry man, an indestructible monster, and he has his sights set on a blonde champion.

Meanwhile, remember Ted DiBiase?  Well this is where things begin to tie themselves together.  DiBiase, having stacked himself a neat list of wins, decides there must be an easier way to wrest the title off of Hogan than to wrestle him, muss his perfect, wind-tunnel proof hair, and face the ever dreaded Hulk-up.  So he goes on television and offers to buy the WWF World Title from Hogan.  Fans waited for weeks in anticipation for the Hulk's answer (well, actually anybody who'd been watching wrestling for more than 6 weeks knew what the answer would be, but everyone knew this had to be leading up to something big).  Hogan goes onto television for his answer and after briefly teasing a heel turn (gasp!) he says, "Hell Noooooo!!!"  (whew).

But a top heel isn't foiled quite so easily.  So DiBiase acquires the services of Andre from Bobby Heenan for an undisclosed amount (as usual, it's hinted to be a huge sum of money).  And he says that Andre is going to do his evil bidding and win the WWF title for DiBiase.  The setting of the match was The Main Event, an NBC prime time special airing on a Friday night, the first time wrestling returned to a prime time network slot in decades.  The match wound up being considerably different from their WM 3 meeting.  This time Hogan took much of the offense.  He beat up on DiBiase and his henchman Virgil for the opening minutes of the match.  The Hulk took offense on Andre with chops, kicks, and punches.  Finally, Andre took over when Hogan came off the top rope (gasp!) but was slammed off.  But Andre's offense still consisted mostly of choking Hogan out.  Hogan came back for the Hulk up, beat on Andre more, then came off the top rope again (bigger gasp!) with a clothesline that connected.  It looked like a sure win for the Hulkamaniacs's hero, but the ref was distracted by DiBiase, so Andre came from behind with his two big headbutts and a suplex (his finisher going way back) for a pin, but Hogan lifts his shoulder at two, only the ref continues counting three.

Now here's where this angle and feud (which had really been going so well up to then) begins losing it.  Andre "gives" the title belt to DiBiase immediately following the match.  Hogan is furious that he lost under such underhanded dealings.  When who should come out, but another ref looking exactly like the ref who worked the match.  The two refs argue until one punches out the other, and now Hogan gets it.  He presses the evil ref over his head and dumps him out into DiBiase and Virgil.  In a later interview Hogan goes on and on about how much money DiBiase must have paid to have a referee undergo plastic surgery to look exactly like the other ref, when just a few weeks later, they reveal (rather anticlimactically) that they were in fact two twin brothers, Dave (the good ref) and Earl (the evil ref) Hebner.  Stories seems to sway on this, but according to MY memory, Dave was refereeing in the WWF several years prior to this angle, while Earl was reffing for the NWA.  Earl jumped ship, and this was the first time Earl reffed in the WWF (at least on this stint).  After the angle, Dave became an office employee while Earl continued reffing, and became involved in a real double-cross in Montreal, but that's another story.

Then WWF on-air president, Jack Tunney, came on TV to announce that according to the WWF rulebook (a rather scrupulous piece of literature), no one can buy a WWF title, it must change hands in the ring.  WHY?!?  Why didn't he get around to reading that thing back when DiBiase wanted to buy the belt from Hogan?  You see what I mean?  Everyone was marking out on this whole scenario until the day after The Main Event in Indianapolis.  Aaaaanyway, Tunney declares the title held up until WrestleMania 4, where a tournament will be set up to determine the new WWF champion.  In the tournament, Hogan was scheduled to face Andre one more time (possibly to ensure people buy the show) in the second round, and both were given a first round bye.

When the show came around (and I'm not going to get into the politics of the outcome because this isn't an "insider" website) the outcome seemed pretty up in the air to most people, but I had my money on DiBiase.  Hogan wrestled Andre in probably their worst meeting ever, and both were eliminated in a no contest.  Savage made it to the final round, and in a stunning upset beat DiBiase for the WWF title with a little help from Hogan.

NEXT MONTH:

I'm going back in time again, to recap the history of the promotion's tag team titles and champions.