If you’re a wrestling fan who grew up during the Monday Night Wars, you are more than familiar with Pastamania, Hogan’s pasta themed restaurant that opened Labor Day weekend 1995 in Minnesota’s Mall of America. And the reason you’re familiar with it is because you saw the restaurant highlighted a day after it’s launch on “WCW Monday Nitro.” No, this is not a joke. In between the opening match between Brian Pillman and Jushin Liger and Lex Luger’s WCW return is a lengthy segment where Eric Bischoff interviews Hogan from Pastamania about his upcoming main event with Big Bubba Rogers. It’s enough to make one wonder if the first ever “Nitro,” the launching point for the Monday Night Wars, was as much about getting Hogan some free advertising for his restaurant as it was firing a shot across WWE’s bow. If nothing else though, it guaranteed that wrestling fans would remember Pastamania for as long as it lived.

Whether or not that was a good thing for Hogan can be left up for debate. Despite the hard launch of Pastamania, and all the attention it got from Nitro, the restaurant didn’t have any sort of legs, ultimately closing its doors less than a year into existence. No clear cut reason is given for why Pastamania ultimately didn’t have any staying power, leaving most to conclude that fans just weren’t interested in Hulk’s Power Pasta, Hulkaroni and Cheese, Mix and Match Pasta’s, or any other items that were listed on the Pastamania menu. Regardless, the only things one can say for sure about Pastamania is it didn’t stop Hogan from attempting to break into the restauranting business again decades later, and it remains an incredible piece of trivia for one of the most important wrestling shows ever.