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It was already bad enough that Hogan had to bury Sting at Starrcade 1997, now he was taking the belt again just 4 months later. Lets take a look at the ratings war while Sting was champion in 1998:
1998-02-23 3.2 4.6
1998-03-02 3.8 4.8
1998-03-09 3.6 4.9
1998-03-16 N/A 5.1
1998-03-23 3.6 4.6
1998-03-30 3.8 4.2
1998-04-06 4.4 4.6
1998-04-13 4.6 4.2
Sting would win every single week of the ratings war as champion with the exception of his very last week. Now lets take a look at when Hogan won the belt right afterwards:
1998-04-27 5.7 1.72
1998-05-04 5.5 3.5
1998-05-11 4.3 4.3
1998-05-18 5.3 2.51
1998-05-25 4.2 4.2
1998-06-01 4.4 3.7
1998-06-08 4.3 4
As we can see here, the very first Nitro after Hogan won the title again, the ratings dropped all the way down to a pathetic 1.72. This clearly proves fans were tuning out from Hogan by 1998 and were clearly sick of him. Not only was Hogan not a ratings draw but he was turning into an anti ratings draw. Than he continued to lose week after week with just two ties and no ratings war wins as champion. Despite being a poor draw as champion, Hogan would go on to continue main eventing PPVS over Goldberg after losing the belt to him.
