8/6/2025

© WWE

Hogan
1953-2025

By Peter Edge

There are moments which are “where were you?” moments. My parents had JFK’s assassination, my generation has 9/11 and for wrestling fans, our “where were you?” moment was when you found out about the Chris Benoit murder/suicide (I was listening to talkSPORT). Thursday the 24th July, 2025, was another entry into the pantheon of “where were you?”

In the hours after news broke about Hogan’s death, various sites had coverage of the death of Hogan high up their content outlets. Sky News did the “Breaking News” spiel on the death of Hulk, with respected anchor Mark Austin breaking it with the gravitas like it was a president of a country who had just succumbed to a helicopter crash. CNN had Dave Meltzer on to talk about the story. BBC had Mike Johnson from PWInsider as a talking head on the news (I hope people in the BBC HQ didn’t go on the PWInsider site, that malware could get them into trouble with the Daily Mail). The Guardian had this as the seventh story from the top at 8pm on that Thursday night. The BBC website had a live blog about the death ongoing.

In their summary, the British Broadcasting Corporation had bullet points talking about the likely cause of death (cardiac arrest), why this story was being treated as a big deal (he was the biggest name in wrestling throughout the 80s and 90s that achieved crossover fame and that tributes had come in from the “wrestling world, political sphere and Hollywood with many remembering him as an ‘American pop culture fixture’”). JD Vance broke from leaking stuff to the Wall Street Journal, allegedly, to talk about how he had planned to have a beer with Hogan.

I always had JD as a fan of Dick Murdoch, personally.

Talk of the yellow and red colours synonymous with Hogan, his theme music and Hulkamanaics went above every mention of the racist comments that he made that became public 10 years ago, the context about his reinstatement to the WWE Hall of Fame, and being removed from said Hall in the wake of those comments.

There is some irony that Hulk Hogan died on the 10th anniversary of the week that the National Enquirer published the story of those comments made by Terry Bollea. They were words that are damning. Lying in bed with the wife of his best friend, Bubba the Love Sponge (with the knowledge of the husband after Terry begged his best friend to sleep with her, according to Bubba) he launched into a homophobic rant where he used a gay slur, he was taped expressing disgust with his daughter dating a black man and ended a diatribe laced with the n-word, with the hard r. He bemoaned that if Brooke was to date a black man, he’d wished it was an NBA player, despite the fact the man Hogan is directing his bile at is the son of the billionaire Cecil Barker (who Hogan bragged about taking for a ride), and then saying that he was “a racist, to a point”.

Hogan was “cancelled” or punished, to be grown up about it. He was fired from his contract and all references to his legacy were removed from WWE. It also came out that homophobic slurs were used by Bollea on the sex tape and then in the days after the leak of the tape it came out that Hogan had said them in a call to his son in prison. Nick Hogan had been found guilty of reckless driving involving serious bodily injury and operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.02% or higher, with blood toxicology results being over 0.55%. His father had the knowledge that Nick was into street racing and already had 4 speeding tickets in 11 months, despite being only 17 years old. He told his son that he hoped the pair of them wouldn’t be reincarnated as black males in a speech filled with racist language, but also saw Hogan using carny language to disguise his bile (which was caught out by people with knowledge of carny language).

But of course, Hogan would not be kept away from WWE forever because of these comments. After a “three year suspension” (WWE’s words), a suspension that had only “came to light” on July 15, 2018, Hogan appeared on the Saudi Arabia show in November 2018 before appearing at “WrestleMania 35”, when Alexa Bliss clicked her fingers and a racist suddenly appeared like a MAGA version of Aladdin.

Given a chance to make amends, Terry Bollea showed he had no bit of remorse about what he said that night. He warned the roster when addressing them that they needed to be careful with social media, which was still in its infancy of influence (Twitter especially being only in its rookie year when the tape was made) when he made those comments. As Shelton Benjamin termed it in his social media post after Hogan praised him (and getting his name wrong in the process), it was a “don’t get caught” speech rather than an apology speech. All the backlash that Hogan had taken post-July 2015 had always been on him.

© WWE

Hulk would make infrequent appearances on WWE television in the years after. He paid tribute to Mean Gene Okerlund, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for a second time as part of the New World Order faction. He endorsed champions (not Big E, though). He guest hosted “WrestleMania 37” with Titus O’Neil and once a year, from 2023 onwards, Hulk appeared on an episode of “RAW”. In 2023, it was on the 30th anniversary of “RAW”. In 2024, it was to celebrate 40 years of Hulkamania (even though Hulkamania was a thing in the years before he moved to the WWF). And in 2025, it was the first episode of “RAW” to be aired on Netflix. Unlike the previous two appearances, though, Hulk Hogan was booed out of the building. It was funny, absorbing to watch and offered a glimmer of hope about a WWE fanbase that felt beyond saving (that has been extinguished since). But how did we get here?

The thing is, if you were to ask me to set up a Hall of Fame for pro wrestling and write down my first 10 inductees, and ignore obvious moral flaws, Hulk Hogan is easily one of them. Before the Attitude Era, Hogan was responsible for 11 of the 13 WWF PPVs that had 400,000 or more buys – and nine of the top 10 WCW PPV total buys had Hogan in the main event. Hogan was the undisputed top box office attraction of the 1980s. In Matt Farmer’s calculations of Box Office Attractions from years past, Hogan was the No.1 attraction at the gate every year from 1984 to 1991, setting box office records in 1985 and 1986. Is pro wrestling in the shape it’s in if it wasn’t for Hulk Hogan? It’s an easy claim to make. Plenty of mainstream media outlets did in the 24 hours after Terry Bollea’s death. Even the Voices of Wrestling duo of Joe Lanza and Rich Kraetsch made it. The truth is somewhere in the middle, though.

When Vince McMahon wanted a face of his national expansion, Hogan was the guy who made it work. His charisma and his look was perfect for the role he would envelop. Hulk was the perfect build of what McMahon’s vision of pro wrestling was. He was ‘Americana’ in music, look and attitude. Hogan was Vince’s version of ‘The American Dream’. Had it been Kerry Von Erich in that role, someone who was on the shortlist for being the Fed’s Ace, WWE wouldn’t have become as much of a behemoth. It was combined with Vince’s aggressiveness in his business dealings, which saw him taking TV slots in big markets, causing problems for territories from a system he felt inadequate and poaching wrestlers from other promoters. The tactics of weakening the opposition that you have seen his son-in-law, Paul Levesque and his last corporate hire, Nick Khan, use on AEW on “All In” Weekend all originated from Vince McMahon during this period. What happened in those 80s years meant that a lot of wrestling fans’ introduction to pro wrestling was going to be through the product of Vince McMahon’s imagination.

Before Hogan beat The Iron Sheik in Madison Square Garden on 23/1/84, Terry Bollea was a perfect traveling attraction, going to Memphis and New York, where he and Andre The Giant were on the semi-final of a card that saw Bruno Sammartino and Larry Zbyszko draw 36,000 at Shea Stadium (Hogan, of course, took sole credit for the gate). He also went to New Japan, where he and Antonio Inoki had one of the most memorable feuds in puro in the early 1980’s. It included Hulk winning the IWGP Title in its original format, after winning the annual summer tournament that became the G1, making him the final boss for the winner of the following year’s tournament. But it was a trip to Hollywood that made Hulk into a star.

Cast in the movie Rocky III, on the recommendation of Terry Funk to Sylvester Stallone, he was cast as Thunderlips. The scene in which Thunderlips and Rocky competed in a match stole the movie and interest in Hulk soared. The AWA gained the benefits, as this was Hulk’s place of residence at the time.

© WWE

With Hogan as the top draw in the territory and a Top 5 in the entire country, the argument for Hogan becoming AWA Champion was obvious. But the reality was business was working, in promoter Verne Gagne’s mind, with Nick Bockwinkel as champion and Hogan as a chaser. Bockwinkel would wrestle Hogan on occasion, always ending in a DQ finish because Hogan wasn’t going to do a 60-minute draw, nor did Gagne ever suggest Hogan lose. Bockwinkel would always walk away with the belt even if Hogan was originally announced as winner. Before the Dusty Finish became known as such, it was used in the mid-west regularly in the case of Nick and Hulk. Hogan also being a New Japan guy, and the AWA being so politically close to All Japan, meant Hogan couldn’t hold that belt, but it turned out to be for the best that Hogan never won the AWA World Championship. If Hogan had won the title by beating Bockwinkel, he would have left a few months later for the WWF without doing a job and as the real world champion to every fan in the Midwest area.

Much of Hulkamania evolved in the AWA when he feuded with Bockwinkel, but when Vince McMahon Jr. (fresh off buying out his father and becoming the owner of WWF) made Hulk Hogan the crown jewel of his talent poaching spree, it turned Hulkamania into the yellow monster that dominated wrestling for the decade after. Combined with Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T, two of the biggest names in American show business, The Rock N’ Wrestling Era shot WWE into the stratosphere of popularity. MTV specials like “War To Settle The Score” did great numbers and would lead to the founding of “WrestleMania”. There was even a period of time that WWE programming was on two of the three major networks with “Saturday’s Night Main Event” on NBC and “Hulk Hogan’s Rock N’ Wrestling” on Saturday mornings on CBS.

Now, don’t let the WWE version of telling history fool you. “WrestleMania I” was basically the March Madison Square Garden show with bells and whistles on with the added ability for people nationwide to watch it in bars and cinemas. Oh, and the main star of one of the biggest shows in the world was in the main event. Mr.T’s appearance on WWE, as Hogan’s buddy, brought eyeballs to wrestling from those that had never thought about watching wrestling, especially from their last minute appearance on “Saturday Night Live” after the original guest host Steve Landesberg got sick and pulled out of the show. It also started the idea that people would consume wrestling if a famous person appeared on a show.

© WWE

The success of “WrestleMania I” with its main event of Hogan and T vs Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff is undeniable.

Hulkamania was also undeniable as Hogan drew five figure attendance numbers all over the country, fending off foes like Killer Khan, King Kong Bundy, Kamala and Terry Funk. “Saturday Night Live” would go on Hogan’s CV. His theme “Real American” was the headline attraction of the “Piledriver” album. His star was ascending and, in the ring he was no Ric Flair, but he could hold his own. Matches against Randy Savage and Terry Funk were in the 3.5/3.75 star range.

A knee injury suffered in 1986 (that needed a procedure on it but never got operated on) changed things. As a result, Hogan wasn’t the same wrestler after that point, but with the emphasis of WWE being on the ‘entertainment’ in “sports entertainment”, it really didn’t matter unless you were a workout nerd or a Wrestling Observer subscriber (weren’t they the same thing back in the 80s?). The formula for main events with Hogan was simple: Hogan faced monster/dastardly heel, vanquished said heel, happiness filled Titanland, then the next heel came to scare the Hulkamaniacs into thinking that, actually, everything wasn’t going to be all right.

The two most famous feuds of the first WWF Title reign of Hulk involved heel turns on Hogan. Paul Orndorff, who had turned face in the aftermath of “Mania I” was now Hogan’s best mate – but honestly, Hogan was a shitty friend. He never took Paul’s calls. He was absent when Paul was struggling in situations when he was outnumbered. The duo of Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson, the creative force of WWE, wanted us to believe that Orndorff turned heel but people who have been in Paul’s situation know that Paul actually turned face on Hogan that night in Allentown.

The resulting feud drew big, “The Big Event” in Toronto drew 60,000 with just local promotion driving the ticket sales for that night on the back of Orndorff/Hogan. It was a show so successful that it gave Vince the idea that maybe, just maybe, that a “WrestleMania” in the Pontiac Silverdome in nearby Detroit could actually work. That risk turned into reward and did so on the back of another heel turn.

The heel turn of Andre the Giant on Hulk Hogan is one of the greatest heel turns in wrestling history. It might have been more shocking than a certain heel turn we’ll talk about later and the John Cena turn that has been exclaimed as the G.O.A.T. of heel turns in the most prisoner of the moment you can think of.

© WWE

The number of 93,000 might be as debatable as a claim to the World Heavyweight Wrestling Title in the 1920s and 30s, but the Dave Meltzer reported number of around 78,000 is still an insanely fantastic number. It’s a number that in North America is only bettered by “WrestleMania 32” in Dallas and only one other time has WWE beaten that 78,000 number (“Summerslam 1992” at Wembley). The 400,000 buys on PPV for “Mania III” would be beaten by Manias IV-VI but considering the constant theme of the ‘main events’ of those Manias, it showed how the aura of Hogan rose with the burgeoning market of PPV.

I know what you’re saying right now: “Randy Savage and Ted Dibiase main evented ‘Mania IV’.”

While the Savage/Dibiase match would be the last match on the show, those who ordered the PPV in the way you order PPV’s in the 80s (which was more complicated than a Krypton Factor puzzle) ordered for what was Hogan/Andre III (or was it actually IV?) based on the events of Hogan/Andre II. The main event went out on February 5th, 1988 on NBC. Hogan/Andre: The Rematch was the marquee match.

The events of that match went down in folklore: evil twin refs, with Earl Hebner being the Bart Simpson to Dave’s Hugo (Bret Hart really should have seen it coming), a Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar Man, who was the perfect wrestling villain trying to buy the WWF Title and the shock value of Hogan losing in the ring for the first time in WWF since his return in 1984 led to 33 million people watching it on NBC.

A title vacation later, and a tournament was set up and a bracket released that saw Hogan and Andre, with their champion exemptions, getting a bye to the “Elite Eight” where they would face off. That match is worse than any of the previous three they had before the Trump Plaza Clash, but its double DQ finish led to a new champ at the end of the night in Randy Savage. The main reason for the change at the top of the mountain was that Hulk was going into the movies. But as you can probably only name one Hogan movie compared to the many that Cena, Rock and Batista have got their name attached to, that tells you how successful that section of Hulk’s life was.

No Holds Barred sucked, as did Suburban Commando, as did Mr. Nanny. Even if the writing were so bad it’d enrage George Lucas, the fact that Hulk was so bad an actor that he wouldn’t be able to make a Quentin Tarantino script work meant Hollywood was never going to work out for Bollea, and with Birth of a Nation thankfully never going to see a remake, Hogan’s most natural role was never going to happen, so Hogan’s true calling of wrestling was his fallback – and when he came back to the WWF, it was business as usual.

Another main event at “WrestleMania” beckoned, as did another heel turn on him with the man turning heel actually being in the right. Randy Savage ran through 1988 as WWF Champion, with Hogan making sporadic appearances to face Andre at special house shows. He would team with Macho Man in PPV main events such as “Summerslam” versus Dibiase and Andre and “Survivor Series” in a 5 vs 5 elimination match against a team captained by Akeem and The Big Boss Man.

But as the months went by, Savage saw that Hogan had that “lust in his eyes” and was obviously wanting more than to be friends with Savage’s love, Miss Elizabeth, the final straw being when Hogan abandoned Savage during a tag match against Akeem/Boss Man at “Main Event” in 1989 to take Elizabeth to the back after Savage and Liz collided. I’m sure the MAGAs that Hogan had embraced in the final year of his life will try to tell us that Hogan was trying to be a gentleman, but us Wokes know what Hogan’s aim was.

© WWE

Savage’s no longer wanting to be friends with such a toxic human being and acting in self defense backstage at the “Main Event” show led to the main event of “WrestleMania 5”, which Hogan won via the traditional ‘getting hit by his opponents finisher, kick out, Hulk Up, hit the big boot and Legdrop of Doom for the 1-2-3’ final stanza that was associated with Hogan matches.

On Christmas Day of that year, Hogan ended the feud with Savage (and Zeus) in a tag team Cage Match. Afterwards, an opponent would be needed for “Mania VI”. That opponent would end up being the guy cast as the Hogan replacement.

The Ultimate Warrior was supposed to be the guy that took WWE into the 90’s. He had the look (he was ‘roided up to his eyeballs), he had the charisma – and he had, more importantly, the connection with the fans. “WrestleMania VI” was supposed to be the passing of the torch moment. Warrior would beat Hogan clean in the ring. Hogan would go into the sunset for the time being, to film Suburban Commando, while The Ultimate Warrior could be champion without the spectre of Hogan shadowing over him. What happened in the Toronto SkyDome that night ended up with Hogan, not overshadowing Warrior, but slashing the tires of the Warrior Express before the engine got started.

One of the themes of Hogan’s career is that he wasn’t a good wrestler at all. As mentioned before, I think Hogan was a good wrestler (on my most charitable day) until 1986 when he suffered the knee injury which limited him in the ring. Add the increase in size from 1988, and in order for Hogan to have a good match he needed to be carried, like Savage did at “Mania V” (***½). Hogan’s lack of good matches became a point of criticism from those that didn’t want McMahon-ism on their TVs.

So that’s what makes the “WrestleMania VI” main event so unbelievably great. I mean, it’s more basic than a shopping trip to Primark but for 20 minutes under the direction of Hogan, who becomes a ring general for the first time in his WWF/E career, the pair put together a match that had the crowd in its grasp and was the perfect match for the situation, both for their abilities and the audience it was catering to. The finish catered perfectly for what they were trying to achieve. It might have not been the final notebook match of Hogan’s career, but in my eyes it’s his greatest performance in the ring. The minutes after the match saw Hogan’s greatest performance of his life.

Handing the belt to Warrior, hugging him, raising his hand, it gave the impression to those who believed it was “real to them, damn it!” that Hogan was the most sporting of losers, but the actual story was that Hogan overshadowed Warrior in his crowning moment. All eyes were on Hogan, as he went from the ring on the cart that took wrestlers to and from the ring that night, while Warrior was standing on the second turnbuckle with the Winged Eagle belt that Hogan had made famous.

Warrior was now doomed to fail – and he did. Warrior would have probably failed as champ even if Hogan had slunked off instead of upstaging his conqueror. Warrior couldn’t work, couldn’t do an elite promo and couldn’t follow Hogan like David Moyes couldn’t follow Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager, but Hulk didn’t help.

By the time “WrestleMania 7” came about, Hogan was challenging for the WWF Title once more. The champ was Sgt. Slaughter. The feud used the Gulf War as a Macguffin in their hostilities and it was the first “WrestleMania” to properly flop. Hogan’s mystique was dwindling. The “Summerslam 1991” match, in which he teamed with Warrior against Slaughter, Col. Mustafa (TAFKA Iron Sheik) and General Adnan wasn’t the highest publicised thing on the card. The feeling that a successor to Hogan was needed to be found in 1990 was getting more and more solidified as 1991 developed. But whatever inevitable downward trajectory that Hogan was going down was getting harsher when Hogan went on to Arsenio Hall’s talk show.

© Pebble Mill

With America having a broader conversation about steroids after Ben Johnson’s failed drug test after crossing the line first in the 1988 Olympics 100m final, people started to look at wrestlers in the “New York territory” and started to put two and two together. Arsenio Hall asked Hulk if he did steroids when he appeared on his show – and when Hogan said he didn’t, chaos ensued.

“Titangate” would dominate the discourse of wrestling for the first half of 1992, with talk of Pat Patterson’s casting couch, Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin violating ring boys and Rita Chatterton telling her story about Vince McMahon and the sexual assault he inflicted on her in a limo they were sharing – yet outlets seemed more fascinated with Hogan and his activities, from the use of steroids to alleged use of cocaine.

The reasons for this might deserve a whole other article – but in short, a country that was still obsessed with “the war on drugs” added to an attitude in the US on same sex sexual assault that is still prehistoric to this day, would ensure that details about Hogan’s drug use was always going to overshadow what Tom Cole went through in the media. Titangate really holds similar characteristics to the scandal that should be engulfing WWE HQ in 2025. But again – that’s a story for another time, I think.

The heat on Hogan was so strong that “Wrestlemania VIII” would prove to be his last match before he would go away for a while: the match against Sid Justice, brought on in WWF canon because Hulk Hogan was upset that Sid eliminated him in the Royal Rumble match in 1992. Hogan had retaliated by then helping his enemy-at-the-time Ric Flair to eliminate Vicious so heel Ric could win the WWF Title (yet Sid was presented as the heel after all this). The ironic thing about the night was that the show ended with a returning-from-7-month-suspension Ultimate Warrior saving Hogan from a 2 on 1 ambush from Sid and Papa Shango, with the idea as the screen went to black that Warrior was Hogan’s replacement going forward.

Guess how that went? History has a tendency to repeat itself.

While Hogan’s lie on “Arsenio Hall “might be his most historic in changing wrestling history, it’s actually not his worst.

Allan Cheapshot on X has a thread which documents the insane amount of lies that have come from Hulk Hogan’s mouth and it’s a really great thread. Here is a Top 10 list of the best/worst lies from Hulk Hogan:

Every kid born in the mid-80’s like myself would for a couple of years have their hand held in a vice-like grip by their mother when out shopping because of the case of the murder of James Bulger. James was a 2-year old child who months before Hogan’s “Pebble Mill” appearance was murdered by two 10 year-olds after James distanced himself from his mom in a shopping centre in Liverpool. It is a case that is still seen as one of the most horrific cases in British history. I would recommend Googling it, but actually don’t if you have faith in humanity.

Even Hogan realized that this lie was too unconscionable so he pivoted to the following:

Hogan wasn’t at “SummerSlam 1992”, I strongly doubt Michael Jackson was there even if the demographic of the crowd at Wembley that night would have been to his liking, The Gary Glitter cover only charted in the UK (and even then while Wikipedia says it reached No 25, the official singles chart has no record of this – though that might be because anything Glitter related might have been redacted, which makes Hogan even mentioning that he covered a song done by an infamous pedophile so insane). Hogan claims this all led to “Rock ‘N Wrestling”, which was in 1985. Jimmy Hart never had a Number One anywhere in the world and Simon Cowell only started getting involved with WWE in 1993 when he produced the “WrestleMania” album.

By the time the calendar flipped to 1993, Warrior was gone (steroids) and the WWE Champion was Bret Hart, the lightest champion since Bob Backlund. “Mania IX” was going to be Hart vs Yokozuna for the belt but the card needed something; it needed Hogan.

Hogan would be back teaming with Brutus Beefcake (himself coming back from a horrific paragliding accident) against the tag champions, Ted Dibiase and Irwin R.Schyster (I.R.S).

Was it obvious that Vince McMahon was having problems with the tax authorities at the time? Money Inc. would retain despite a DQ loss but it wouldn’t be the end of Hogan for the night.

© WWE

Yokozuna would beat Bret Hart for the WWF Title via shenanigans from his manager Mr. Fuji. As Yokozuna was parading his prize, in comes Hogan complaining to the ref like Arne Slot after a Merseyside derby. In all the chaos, a challenge was set to Hogan by the new champ and within two minutes Hogan was champion for the fourth time.

So why was Hogan back as champ? Bruce Prichard said on his podcast that it was to boost European tour tickets. The problem was Hogan was as close to the continent of Europe during this time as he was the weekend of “Summerslam 1992”. I know you’re shocked that Bruce Prichard might be a liar.

The main thought was that Hogan was going to defend the belt against Bret Hart at “Summerslam” and drop it in Detroit that night in another attempt for Hulk to pass the torch, and this time the hope being that it stuck. But in the first instance of Hogan playing his “that won’t work for me, brother” card that we know of, Hogan opted to lose the belt back to Yokozuna at “King of the Ring”. This was the end of Hulkamania in the WWF for the time being. The finish wasn’t 100% clean (mystery photographer with a flameball coming out of the camera) but the post match beatdown was decisive. Hogan left and wasn’t seen on WWE TV for another 8 and a half years.

The split between Hogan and WWE was bitter. In the build to “WrestleMania X”, the look back to previous Manias never included Hogan, a man who was in the closing shot of 8 of the first 9 Manias. The build to “WrestleMania 12” saw them run Huckster vs Nacho Man skits with ‘Billionaire Ted’. Undertaker nicked Hogan’s big boot and leg drop combo for a 2-count regularly during 1997. The collapse of the relationship wasn’t all in WWE’s court, though. Hogan, in an appearance in NJPW at a pre-match presser before a contest with the Great Muta, said that the Winged Eagle belt was a trinket compared to the IWGP belt.

When Hogan left Dayton, Ohio, he might actually have had no intention of wrestling again. He signed on for a TV show called “Thunder in Paradise”, in which he and Chris Lemmon (son of Jack) played NAVY seals who were now mercenaries seeking to track down terrorists and bad people in general.

“Thunder in Paradise” stunk.

Again, Hulk realized that pro wrestling was his calling, but with a tattered relationship with the WWF, where would Hogan go? That’s when Eric Bischoff came calling.

© WWE

With Ric Flair as a go-between, Hogan and Bischoff’s negotiations led to Hogan joining WCW. His arrival on screen came after months of vignettes in which Mean Gene Okerlund, a man associated with Hogan for over a decade through AWA and WWF and now working on WCW telly, met with Hogan. A parade was set for Hulk around Disney-MGM Studios where, flanked by longtime friend Jimmy Hart, Hogan signed his WCW contract. It was a contract that heavily favoured Hogan. It was a contract that Eric Bischoff gave thinking that Hogan (probably on Hogan’s insistence) was also talking to the WWF. Eric needed the ace in the hole in his efforts to make WCW relevant to mainstream America, and now he had one.

When that four year deal was coming up, he started angling for a return and managed to get a contract where he got limited dates, including a maximum number of PPV dates. He got a 15% slice of PPV show revenue or $675,000 (whichever was higher) that he appeared on, a $2 million signing bonus and 50% of any merch sales that had his Name, Image and Likeness on it. I’m not going to lie as a pro-union person, but I commend Hogan for getting an image rights deal like this. I guess this is the point where I talk about that time Hogan did some union busting that Rupert Murdoch would have been proud of.

The issue of unions and pro wrestling has been around for ages and it’s complicated. Even a pro-union guy like me understands those complications. In a business where you are signed to companies and not teams, the chances of a union being successful is quite small, unfortunately, even if the need to unionize is obvious. When Jesse Ventura tried to get a union off the ground, Hogan found out and ratted him out to Vince McMahon.

Hogan also negotiated in his contract that he would get $20,000 for every month that he was a member of the NWO and he wore NWO merch that didn’t have his name on it. Hogan also got into his contract appearance fees of $25,000 for every “Nitro” and “Thunder” he was booked to appear, on top of his base contract, and even got himself a consultant fee in the final of the four years he signed on for (god, imagine him and John Muse in the same booking room). There was even an agreement that 100% of any revenue taken from a Hulk 900 number hotline if one was started up would go to him (it never was).

Let’s be honest, Hogan saved WCW when he debuted there in 1994, but he was also part of the downfall when he got high on his own supply. Especially with his ‘creative control’ stipulation written into his contract when he joined in 1994.

Hogan’s debut would be against Ric Flair – the match that never actually happened on WWE TV despite Flair being in the company from August 1991 to January 1993. The “Bash at the Beach” drew 225,000 buys on PPV, the largest in WCW history so far. Of course, Hogan won. To be fair, Hogan winning made all the sense. The next match and its booking didn’t. “Clash of the Champions 28” saw the rematch and this match was the most watched wrestling match in cable television history up to that point. The main focus of the show was an angle earlier in the show when Hogan’s knee was attacked by a crowbar akin to the Nancy Kerrigan incident, with a show-long storyline of whether Hulk could make it to the match. Hulk being Hulk, he did. (Editor’s Note: Ahh, I see now. The ol’ “Full Gear 2023” angle.)

The way to go in the booking was to go for either A) Flair beats an injured Hogan. It gives Hogan a reason for said loss and the rubber match has more meaning, or B) Hogan does Hogan things, Hulks up and beats Flair, which might kill off a potential third match happening so soon, or C) have the match end in a count-out.

It’s WCW, what do you think happened?

The count-out finish was a perfect example of “WCW Everybody” and also a perfect example of the creative control clause that Hogan had negotiated in his contract. Flair beating Hogan for the WCW World Title, with Hulk having that ‘out’ with the knee injury, could have led to a rubber match on “Halloween Havoc” in October that might actually have outdrawn the buyrate of “Bash at the Beach”.

The 210,000 buyrate for “Havoc” was the second best WCW had ever done at the time, which might have been due to the Loser Must Retire stipulation added to the cage match, but Flair with the Big Gold and Hogan chasing would have meant a buyrate higher than 225,000.

Hogan won the match at “Halloween Havoc” and the attacker from “Clash 28” was revealed. It was TAFKA Brutus Beefcake, now known as The Butcher. The main event of “Starrcade”, (WCW’s marquee event even before WWE’s granddaddy event of “WrestleMania”) was a match between Hulk Hogan and Brutus “the fucking Barber” Beefcake. The show’s buyrate of 130,000 was dwarfed by the four PPVs that surrounded the December PPV, with the “Superbrawl” and “Uncensored” events, after drawing a 38% increase on “Starrcade”. However, it still outdrew the previous year’s “Starrcade” at 100,000.

The “Superbrawl” and “Uncensored” PPVs saw Hogan defending the title against Vader. After a DQ finish in the first match after Ric Flair returned and interfered, the “Uncensored” PPV main event saw Hogan and Vader duke it out in a Strap Match. The finish saw Hogan deal with an again interfering Flair and lock him to the other end of the strap, dragging him around to touch the 4 corners needed to win the match (creative control, baby).

© WWE

Another Hogan/Vader match was held at “Bash at the Beach” which took place at an actual beach in Huntington, California. The match was in a steel cage, which Hogan won via escape. In the meantime, a “7ft” giant, billed as the son of Andre The Giant was stalking Hulk at events (that part of the story was redacted shortly after its inception). Months of build up led to a match at “Halloween Havoc” which was preceded that night by a Monster Truck Duel (creative control) in which The Giant was thrown off the roof of the Cobo Hall building in Detroit where “Havoc ‘95” was taking place.

The Giant must have survived the fall because just an hour later he showed up for the match without a scratch on him. The match itself would see Giant beat Hogan via DQ, when Jimmy Hart attacked the referee to have Hulk disqualified. Hart proceeded to turn on his client by hitting him with the big gold title belt. The next night it was revealed that Hart had put a clause in the match contract that the title could change hands via DQ. Hulk was no longer champion and he didn’t have to do a job to lose it.

Because the DQ was gained from nefarious means, the World Title was vacated and put up in a 60 man, three ring battle royale on the “World War 3” PPV. Living in London during the Blitz during World War 2 would have been preferable to watching this battle royale. The end of the match saw Hogan at his classic best, or another c-word best according to the wrestling vodcast “OSW Review”.

Hogan, Savage and One Man Gang were the final three. As Savage and One Man Gang were on one side of the ring with the referee watching them, an eliminated Giant pulled Hogan out of the ring under the bottom rope. The referee saw Hogan outside and presumed that Hogan had been thrown over the top rope. He said that Hulk had been eliminated, Savage eliminated One Man Gang and was now the new champion (creative control). Hogan took over Savage’s post-match interview to complain, and Hogan and Savage got into an argument with the tease that the pair would face off soon. That match didn’t happen any time soon.

Would you be surprised if I told you that Hogan won in the following categories in the 1995 Wrestling Observer Awards: Most Overrated, Most Embarrassing, Most Obnoxious, Most Unimproved, Reader’s Least Favourite Wrestler, Worst on Interviews and Worst Feud?

Hogan was never an Observer favourite, but with constant wins in Best Babyface and Most Charismatic in the 80’s, he showed that the readers of the Observer were happy to give the guy his due when he was great. Hogan’s 1995, on the other hand, was abysmal, and an indication that Hogan’s ego was out of control.

Things didn’t exactly improve in the first quarter of 1996. Most notably, the main event of “Uncensored”, in which Hogan and Savage (who he had made up with in-storyline) faced Flair, Arn Anderson, Kevin Sullivan, Meng, The Barbarian, The Ultimate Solution and Z Gangsta in a Doomsday Cage Match. This saw the Mega Powers fight past all seven guys, through three levels of a cage as if it was a video game before Savage pinned Flair (yes, I’m shocked that Hogan wasn’t the guy getting the pin win). Stories have come out since then that Hogan requested that Brian Pillman, who was getting over in the “Loose Cannon” gimmick that has been bio’d on multiple occasions, be added to the match. Pillman seeing the writing on the wall, that he would have been the guy pinned, probably by Hogan, booked himself in for an operation to his throat to repair long standing damage instead.

This cage match is thought of as one of the ultimate “WCWLOL” moments. Voted by many as the worst Match of 1996; it was the zenith of Hulkamania gone wrong in this period. It also ended the feud between Hogan and The Dungeon of Doom and afterwards Hogan went away for a while, coming back to WCW television in July, in a moment that changed everything.

While Hogan was gone, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall came into WCW. Calling themselves “Outsiders”, playing on inferences that they were still employed by WWF, their employers until May 1996 (though that was shot down with lawsuits). For weeks the pair caused chaos in World Championship Wrestling.

In all the chaos, a challenge was set. Nash and Hall challenged WCW to bring three men to “Bash at the Beach” and they would bring a third man. WCW brought Sting, Savage and Lex Luger. The Outsiders didn’t bring anyone. But they said that their third man was waiting in the wings.

After 20 minutes, and with Lex having to be stretchered out due to an injury, the Outsiders were in control. That’s when Hulk Hogan made his entrance.

© WWE

Bobby Heenan asked on commentary, “What side is he on?” The question might have been met with incredulity by broadcasting colleague Dusty Rhodes, but it turned out that Heenan’s suspicions were correct. Bobby Heenan was actually in the right all this time about Hogan. One drop of the leg later shocked the wrestling world. Hulk Hogan had turned heel. He had joined The Outsiders.

In his first heel promo in 14 years, maybe his greatest promo ever, Hogan used the words New World Organization. The word Organization would be replaced with Order later down the line but the initials NWO were born and WCW’s fortunes skyrocketed.

This was also the night that Tony Schiavone said the words “Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell,” which has been memed more often in the last week than Tony has said “It’s Stinggggggggg!”

The Monday Night War that had been going on for 10 months was being won by WCW before “Bash at the Beach 1996” but it was close between the two big American companies. It was nip and tuck at times. From July onwards that year, it wasn’t close at all. 83 weeks of WCW dominating the Monday Night War had started three weeks earlier but would continue with Hogan as the heel World Champion with the Big Gold belt he won the next month at “Hog Wild”.

“Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, wearing all black with “Big Gold” around his waist. He would sometimes play air guitar with the belt. The letters “NWO” spray painted on its surface was the lasting image of Nitros and PPVs from August until the end of 1997.

Hogan would defend the title against Savage, a newly signed Roddy Piper and The Giant on PPVs. Per his contract, Hogan appeared on a limited PPV schedule, wrestling on seven shows in 1997, the same amount as he did in 1996 and 1995. It would be the final one of that year that was the most famous.

“Starrcade 1997” was focused on one match, where the build up was going on for nearly a year beforehand. Sting vs Hogan was the biggest match WCW had to offer. Yes, they did have a match on “Nitro” in November 1995 that was designed to pop a rating in the early years of the Monday Night War. It went 9:31 and ended in a no contest, so there was plenty of juice left in the Hogan/Sting tank. In 1997, Sting was also a different character to the Sting of 1995.

Accused falsely of betraying WCW and joining the NWO, Sting took it to heart and changed from the colorful vibrant Stinger to a black & white facepaint-wearing seeker of vengeance, with the group that had set Sting up to be accused in his sights.

Throughout 1997, the groundwork was laid for Sting vs Hogan to happen. Hogan was champion for every day but five since August 1996, when Lex Luger won the belt on the 100th edition of “Nitro” before losing it back to Hulk at “Road Wild”. The scene was set: the traditional biggest PPV of the year for a company playing host to the night. Surely its chief villain would lose the belt to its longest established hero, who would find his own redemption in the process? Surely nothing would happen to foil this?

This is WCW and Hulk Hogan we’re talking about.

The match itself is so bad. The pair had no chemistry. People from the Hogan camp have tried to pin this on Sting. Eric Bischoff, on his “83 Weeks” podcast, claimed that Sting was out of shape and not tanned as a reason for plans not going how they went. The events at the moment end were used to talk about how WCW shot themselves in the foot on this night, but things were going downhill before the moment when Nick Patrick “counted 3 quickly” to give Hogan the win.

© WWE

In the story, Nick Patrick, who had spent time in the past 18 months of the NWO as their bought referee but was now free of the NWO’s control and a fair and unbiased ref, had quick-counted and cost Sting the belt. The problem was that Nick didn’t count quickly, it was a normal three count.

The events after, with a debuting Bret Hart coming out to restart the match and act as referee while Sting put Hogan in the Scorpion Deathlock to get the submission win, were an obvious reference to the Montreal Screwjob that happened a month earlier. The win was completely undermined, though, because of the fact that the original moment of Patrick “costing Sting” the match didn’t actually happen.

Stories abounded since that night – that Hogan got in Patrick’s ear and convinced him to do the 3-count like he normally would. If true, and I think it is, Hogan once again, in someone’s crowning moment, cut his legs off on his night of coronation.

That night would have also been a perfect night to end the NWO storyline with its leader vanquished but the story continued with the New World Order being cut in half, with an NWO Hollywood led by Hogan and an NWO Wolfpac led by Kevin Nash.

During the year of 1998, Hogan would once again win a World Title off Randy Savage, who had beaten Sting for the World Title the night before. This would be his fourth reign, but this time, Hogan was more or less just keeping the belt warm for another wrestler.

In front of 40,000 at the Georgia Dome, Hogan would lose the belt to the hot new star in WCW, Bill Goldberg. It was a true changing of the guard and unlike any other time that Hogan had lost the World Title he was holding. Goldberg kicked out of the Legdrop of Doom, something never done before, ahead of hitting his signature and finishing moves.

Hogan was given a small out, with Hollywood being distracted as DDP and NBA star Karl Malone nullified the attempted distraction of NWO Hollywood member Curt Hennig at ringside before Goldberg hit his patterned Spear. This helped set up the “Bash at the Beach” PPV main event of Page and Malone vs Hogan and Malone’s NBA rival Dennis Rodman. But the Jackhammer finish was decisive and clean enough to show that Goldberg was now going to be the man. Shame he wasn’t booked to be the man afterwards in his title reign.

Someone doing the favours so definitely would be seen as a sign that that wrestler was happy to make the other look so good. But this is Hulk Hogan we’re talking about. There must have been a reason why Hulk was in such an altruistic mood. It was almost as if Hogan presumed or got word that he would be the guy to uncrown Goldberg and take the winning streak from the man whose __-0 gimmick was the talk of the wrestling world.

© WWE

In the months after July 6th, Hogan would wrestle in matches best described as pro-am matches, including the “Bash at the Beach” match and a main event at “Road Wild”, which saw Hogan team with Eric Bischoff against DDP and Jay Leno.

Once those matches were done, the next feud for Hogan would be against a familiar foe as The Ultimate Warrior signed for WCW. Taking out the “Ultimate” from his name because of copyright issues, Warrior and Hogan would feud – with “Halloween Havoc” their ultimate destination. The feud stank, with comical moments throughout. This included the now famous mirror spot, the head of Hogan spot and the moment at WarGames in which Warrior disappeared and then appeared.

The match itself is one of the all-time stinkers. One of the worst matches to ever appear on a US wrestling PPV, with a 0.55 on Cagematch and a MINUS FIVE STARS!!!! from Dave Meltzer. This match is so bad it’s unbelievable. Its 42nd placement in Cagematch’s worst matches list feels lenient. The botched fireball spot is just the icing on the cake of twenty minutes in which time feels like your worst enemy. Warrior wouldn’t wrestle another match in America again and Hogan went through an even stricter punishment: he ran for the office of American President.

The announcement Hulk Hogan made on the “Tonight with Jay Leno” show in November 1998 (guess they made up in the three months since “Road Wild”) that he was retiring and was running for president was taken with a pinch of salt in November 1998, even more so when you look back. He announced his intention to enter the primaries (I’m guessing for the Republican one – I mean, he’s a heel at the time of the announcement) five months before George W. Bush announced his intention to stand. Bush had a double digit lead in the polling for the Republican ticket at that time.

© WWE

Hogan wouldn’t be seen on WCW TV until Jan 4th, 1999, when he appeared at the “Nitro” event at the Georgia Dome, scene of his World Title defeat six months earlier, to “campaign”. Kevin Nash, who had beaten Goldberg for the title at “Starrcade” and took the undefeated streak in the process under controversial circumstances, had Goldberg taken away by police and accused in-storyline of sexually harassing Miss Elizabeth. In a segment in which Hogan was interviewed by Mean Gene Okerlund for the first time since “Bash at the Beach 1996”, Hogan and Nash set a World Title Match between themselves for later that night. One “Fingerpoke of Doom” later, and Hogan was champ for the fifth time.

Historical convention has told us that “The Fingerpoke of Doom” and the events of January 4th, 1999 was what, if not killed WCW, had contributed to Jamie Kellner turning off the life support machine. Truth is, ratings with Hogan as champ leading a “new and improved” NWO held very steady and the “SuperBrawl” main event of Hogan facing Ric Flair in February that year for the title did a better number of buys (485,000) than the WWE’s PPV offering of that month’s “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”, with a main event of Steve Austin vs Vince McMahon in a Steel Cage Match. That one in its own right saw its 450,000 buys make it the highest number of buys for a non-“Big 4” PPV in WWF history at the time. Even the “Uncensored” rematch between Hogan and Flair set in WCW’s cage did a better buyrate (325,000) than 6 of the previous 12 WCW PPVs.

However, I think that night was the most underrated contributing factor of the downfall of World Championship Wrestling. The double turn that occurred, with Flair turning heel and Hogan babyface, when Flair used the powers as WCW President won in storyline unfairly, led to a downside in ratings and buyrates which WCW never recovered from.

Hogan’s face run was stalled because of a knee injury suffered in the month after “Uncensored”. When back, Hogan once again won the WCW World Title and once again would beat Randy Savage for a top belt. It was the third time this had happened. It was to be the final match the pair had on television. Not once did Randy get a pin on Hogan.

Hogan would claim that Randy was his best friend, which might be 11th on the “Bullshit” list. Hogan never gave Savage anything in the business and it’s understandable why Savage was so filled with resentment for Hogan; that resentment was so deep that Savage even did a diss track on his rap album. Hogan never giving Savage anything will always be the biggest ‘tell’ on how insecure Terry Bollea was as a human being.

During this face run, Hogan would be back in yellow and using his “American Made” song that was his anthem during his face run in WCW from his debut to March 1996. A “Road Wild” 1999 PPV main event against Kevin Nash, in which both men’s careers were on the line, drew what would be the last PPV number to exceed 200,000 for WCW.

Hogan would drop the belt to Sting the next month, by way of a Stinger heel turn on Hogan. What would have happened next won’t be known, however, because Vince Russo, one of the architects of the WWF’s rise back to being the No 1 company in America and the world, joined WCW as their head writer.

Storylines were turned on their heads. A supposed match between Hogan and Sting turned into Hogan laying down for him and the Stinger pinning him to retain the belt. Hogan went on a leave of absence at Russo’s request.

Russo only lasted three months before going home, unhappy with people interfering with his vision of wrestling. When Kevin Sullivan was given the pencil, Hogan was also back, feuding with Ric Flair once again, wrestling in a Yappapi Indian Strap Match (don’t ask me what Yappapi means).

Russo would be back in April with Eric Bischoff by his side this time around and with Hogan this time on Russo’s vision of wrestling television. He was now a man seeking vengeance on those who had crossed him. Walking round in all black, with the initials FUNB in reference to saying “Fuck U New Blood”, the main heel faction of WCW in the latest version of WCW 2.0, Hogan feuded with Billy Kidman, one of the young talents that Russo was trying to make. Kidman did get a pinfall win over Hogan on an episode of “Nitro”, albeit with a ton of interference from everyone but the Chinese army. But apart from that, Hogan gave Kidman nothing, dominating the feud. Any hopes that Russo had that Hogan would make Kidman were spectacularly short of the mark.

Whether that played into the events at “Bash at the Beach 2000” is an interesting case study, but the events of that night in Daytona Beach were the final events of Hogan’s time in WCW.

© WWE

“Bash at the Beach 2000” is surely on the Mount Rushmore of Events in Wrestling History that have been regurgitated ad nauseum, along with The Montreal Screwjob and All Out 2022. The World Title match was supposed to be Hogan challenging Jeff Jarrett.

Michael Buffer is doing the ring announcements even in 2000. He calls it the main event, even though there is an hour left of the allotted three hours for the show. Vince Russo comes out first after Jarrett’s theme plays all the way through. We hadn’t seen Russo for three weeks. Reasons for this must have been because Russo’s vision was being compromised. Jeff Jarrett then comes out. Hogan comes out in his Hollywood gear to the NWO theme.

The bell rings. After circling, Jarrett lays down, like Hogan did at “Havoc 1999”. Hogan stares at Russo and Russo makes “Big Gold” in hand motions to Hogan. Hogan motions for Jarrett to get up and Russo chucks the belt into the ring. Hogan with mic in hand says: “That’s why the company is in the damn shape it’s in because of bullshit like this” and the crowd pops. It was maybe the biggest of the night up to that point. He then puts his foot on Jarrett’s chest. 1-2-3. Hogan is champion again. Jarrett just gets up and walks out, not looking back as he goes down the aisle.

And that’s it.

The segment itself isn’t entertaining. It’s just awkward, things just feel off. Nothing makes me feel interested in WCW 2000. Anytime anyone compares AEW to WCW 2000, just show them this, even before what was to come from Vince Russo.

After a Bill Goldberg promo to build his match against Kevin Nash that was due to be next up, Vince Russo came out to address what the hell had just happened. Russo talked about having to deal with the “bullshit of the politics”. He apparently left three weeks prior because of said politics. He talked about Hogan “not giving a shit about the company” and exerting “creative control,” meaning that Hogan had beaten Jarrett in that way. He said that he would give Hogan what he wanted and that we’d never see “that piece of shit” again. The belt Hogan had would now be the “Hulk Hogan Memorial Belt” (it wasn’t the original belt as Jarrett later came back out with the belt that had had years of wear and tear). A new World Title match was made between Jarrett and Booker T. Hogan is called a “big bald son of a bitch” for good measure and told that he can kiss Russo’s ass.

Hogan would sue for defamation, but not until after an interview he did on “Bubba the Love Sponge Show”, where he kept on the illusion of the whole thing being a work. A theory tossed around is that Hogan never watched the Russo promo until after this interview on his friend’s breakfast show.

I will refer you to OSW Review’s look at “Bash at the Beach 2000” and the section where they look at the four cornerstones of this night (Hogan, Russo, Bischoff, Jarrett). It includes their recollections of that evening, and you can make your mind up on who is the most honest. The answer might surprise you (no, it’s not Hogan).

The fact that Hogan’s main issue with the promo was the word “bald” gives you further insight into how insecure Hogan really was as a person. The only person to leave Daytona Beach with any involvement in the world title picture that still held any credit was Booker T, and it was he that was the man who left the city as World Champion.

We wouldn’t see Hulk Hogan on a live wrestling television show again until February 2002, when he returned to the WWF.

After a knee surgery, Hogan worked the pilot tapings for a start-up promotion called XWF (Xcitement Wrestling Federation) run by Jimmy Hart. Those pilots never got the television deal that Jimmy was looking for. When Hogan, Nash and Hall’s Time Warner contracts, which were separate guaranteed contracts from those WWF acquired in the purchase of WCW, had expired, WWE made overtures to bring their three most famous departees back into the fold.

In their WCW gimmick regalia, the trio returned at the “No Way Out” PPV as part of a group that Vince McMahon was bringing in to kill the company and get rid of storyline co-owner Ric Flair. The group were heels on arrival, but in the case of Hogan, that wasn’t happening in the opinions of the fans.

© WWE

“WrestleMania X-8” saw a ‘dream match’ between Hogan and The Rock. Rock was supposed to be the face, Hogan the heel. The crowd wasn’t having it. 22 years after the Warrior match in the same building, the Toronto crowd were cheering uproariously for Hogan. He might have been wearing black and came out to Voodoo Child, but this was the red and yellow era Hogan according to the WWF faithful.

As the match went on, the two wrestlers pivoted. Hogan was now the face, The Rock working heel for this match. The crowd came alive for the Hulk Up. Everything Hogan did felt like you were in a time machine. Those kids who loved Hogan growing up were now adults, but were now back to being those Hulkamaniacs that watched Hogan fight off the heels in defence of Winged Eagle two decades before.

Hogan turned face right after the match when Nash and Hall disagreed with Hogan extending the hand after Rock’s win, leading to Hogan and Rock fighting off the Outsiders. The night after, Hogan received a lengthy standing ovation from the Montreal crowd in attendance and within weeks he was in red and yellow once again.

The nostalgia tour in which fans were rekindling their youth was something that WWE cashed in on, with a DVD released using the catalogue of archive tape they now had at their disposal on Hogan, with a series of classic matches added to a second disc of the release. WWE looked at him as the hot hand, and decided to put the WWE Undisputed Title on Hulk at “Backlash”. It cut short Triple H’s reign after winning the belt at “Mania”, in what was then WWE’s Jack Nicklaus at the ‘86 Masters moment.

That reign only lasted a month, with The Undertaker taking the title at the next PPV. Hogan would start to team with Edge, a Hogan fan growing up (some of my friends who can’t stand Cope are making jokes in their head right now aren’t they?) and who was in attendance at “Mania VI”. They would win the tag titles. But also during the summer of 2002, Hogan was doing jobs, and submission ones at that. Hogan would submit for the first time as a babyface in a match against Kurt Angle at “King of the Ring 2002” due to the ankle lock, and then after he and Edge dropped the tag belts after a two week reign, he would face Brock Lesnar. Lesnar was on the road to a world title coronation at “Summerslam” and beat Hogan to a bloody pulp, gaining a technical submission over Hulk.

That beatdown was the storyline angle to give Hogan a hiatus, which would last until “WrestleMania” season for XIX in 2003. Hogan faced The Rock at “No Way Out”, now a heel after another rejection from the fans in the “Summerslam” match against Lesnar.

Interference from Mr. McMahon would lead to a “Mania” match between the two architects of the national expansion. Called the “Match Twenty Years in the Making”, the street fight is memorable for McMahon’s bloody face evilly sneering over the apron. Hogan’s win was the next step of a Hogan/McMahon feud that saw Hogan do a Midnight Rider-esque deal after McMahon forced Hogan “to go home” in the storyline, dressing as Mr. America. He was back to using “Real American” and fans were under no illusion that it was Hogan under the red, white and blue mask.

The story wouldn’t get to its full conclusion, though. Hogan and Vince backstage were disagreeing on creative. Hogan presumed he’d get/wanted to get a win back on Lesnar after the bloody angle the year previous. Vince wasn’t having any of it.

The result was Hogan leaving. Luckily for WWE, they had an out. After every show in the Mr. America gimmick, Hogan would unmask after the show when the cameras were “off” (rule one of WWE TV, the cameras are never off) and put his fingers to his lips as to say “it’s our secret”. But when Hogan left, the “secret” was out. Footage from this was used as an excuse for the Mr. McMahon character to fire Hogan. Hogan wouldn’t be seen on WWE TV again until “WrestleMania 21”, when he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

In the meantime, Hogan wrestled in a match for NJPW against Masa Chono. Guess who won. Rumours of an appearance for NWA: TNA circulated, which were bolstered when Jeff Jarrett, the NWA Champion, attacked Hogan with a guitar shot in a press conference after the Chono match. But knee and hip injuries prevented any match, presumed to be the main event of the first NWA: TNA three hour PPV, from happening.

Hogan would also spend his “Mania 21” weekend in an angle where he saved Eugene from an attack from Muhammed Hassan and Daivari. It led to a tag match with Hogan and Shawn Michaels teaming to wrestle Hassan and Daivari.

© WWE

Another Hogan/Michaels team up against Carlito and Angle would lead to Michaels turning on Hogan, setting up a “Summerslam 2005” match. The build to the match between the pair saw Michaels apparently frustrated with Hogan playing politics, that led to him putting in an overexaggerated performance when selling. The level of mistrust between the two was so bad that Hogan managed to get HBK to find his mid-90’s malcontent HBK, and Hogan was so paranoid about dealing with Shawn that he actually spoke to Dave Meltzer and asked for his advice on how to deal with him.

A year later, Hogan beat Randy Orton in what was his final WWE match.

Vince and Hogan were at odds again creatively. Vince had wanted Randy Orton to beat Hulk and have that victory be the headline on his Legend Killer resume during his push, but that didn’t work for Hogan, who wanted to face John Cena for the WWE Title. Hogan was granted the first wish but Vince didn’t want to deal with Hogan again, at least in the ring. So Hogan went out as a freelancer for the first time since 1983.

A Hogan vs Jerry Lawler match that was promoted for months was nixed when NBC Universal, the television partner of WWE, prohibited WWE talent (i.e Lawler) to appear on Viacom’s VH1, which was airing a reality show that followed Hogan going about his daily life. Lawler would be replaced by Paul Wight and the match took place on 27/4/07.

A Hulkamania tour of Australia in 2009 headlined by Hogan and Flair for four shows drew crowds under expectation, including in Brisbane, a crowd which AEW would double 15 years afterwards. But when the year rolled to 2010, Hogan would be in a new project, as he joined TNA in a non-wrestling role.

TNA 2010 is one of those periods for a company that makes you think “what could have been?” A company that was looking to challenge WWE and gave us years like 2005 (which is one of the most fun years this wrestling fan has had watching a company) was now under the control of the wrestling minds of Hogan, Bischoff and Vince Russo. Russo had been head booker of the company since 2007. It’s kind of like having a McDonalds burger flipper as head chef of a decent restaurant.

In the four years Hogan was in TNA, he did wrestle two matches on TV and PPV as well as two on a UK tour in 2012. The impact the trio of brains had on TNA saw ratings hold steady, but PPV buys were half of what they were before Hogan’s arrival.

Hogan’s last match on screen would be part of the “Bound For Glory” PPV in 2011. This saw the conclusion of a period where Hogan was the heel authority figure. A match against Sting for control of TNA saw nostalgic fans cheer for Hogan. Hogan of course played into it. Sting wasn’t the heel that Rock was but by the end of the night, Hogan and his opponent shook hands and fought off the heel faction that Hogan was part of, turning the Hulkster face.

Hogan, you’ve done it again.

TNA would never be the same company after Hogan and Bischoff left. It was another Bischoff failure. If I could use a “can I be mean for a second?” ticket, you can say that Hogan used Eric as a “money mark” to help keep him in the limelight and Eric was happy to be bent over the table.

When Hogan left TNA in late 2013, he was quickly back in the WWE fold, in an ambassadorial role. He helped promote the WWE Network and when “WrestleMania XXX” came by in April 2014, Hogan was the first man out. He did call the New Orleans SuperDome the SilverDome (wrestler brain, brother) in his speech, something lampooned by fellow legends in the segment, Steve Austin and The Rock.

Hogan appearing regularly on WWE television to play into the nostalgia that certain fans have for the WWE product seemed like Hulk’s future – until the tape of him and Bubba the Love Sponge’s wife was leaked in 2012. It was subject to a lawsuit filed by Hogan against Gawker, but also shone the light on Hogan’s views on minorities.

© Getty

Hogan would win the lawsuit against Gawker, during which Terry Bollea would claim on the stand that while “Terry Bollea did not have a 10-inch penis,” Hulk Hogan did, which might go into a lot of psychology about the lies of Hulk Hogan.

Hogan spent the last few years of his life putting his name to various products, including something called an hPhone (which sounds as useful as the Amstrad E-mailer that Alan Sugar thought of) and Real American Beer. Hulk had just last month, apparently, made an increased bid to buy Hooters and add it to his restaurant portfolio, which included a beach restaurant in Tampa, and the sports league Real American Freestyle Wrestling. The future of that venture, at the time of writing, sounds as promising as the UFL’s after Hulk’s passing (though it was always destined to fail judging by ticket sales before July 24th).

In the last year of his life, he became a poster boy for the MAGA movement. He turned up at rallies for Donald Trump, endorsing him. Real American Beer was an anti-woke beer created in the aftershadows of Budweiser being accused of being “woke” after partnering with trans TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney for a promotional campaign on Instagram. Terry Bollea once said he would “kick Fallon Fox’s ass for being trans.”

Hogan would also embolden Peter Thiel by being his front man of his vendetta against the website Gawker by using his money to beat the media entity and help the company go into bankruptcy. While Gawker were the babyfaces in Bollea vs. Gawker, it is like Predator being the face in Alien vs Predator. The lawsuit was an attack on free speech, which is full of irony considering the party that Thiel had donated to in the 2016 US Presidential Election’s insistence on protecting it.

The announcement of the death of Hulk Hogan saw diversified reaction. The usual suspects on X, that will side with WWE and TKO no matter what will happen, acted like a catholic when the Pope passed away, while a portion of the populus were eager to piss on his grave or whatever carcass Hogan thinks he will be reincarnated into. Some media outlets, wrestling and non-wrestling, said Hogan’s legacy was “complicated.” It isn’t. As James Boyd on One Nation Radio said:

Those fans cheering Hogan at “WrestleMania 8” despite having been told a lie about what the vitamins actually were, are still rooting for their favourite wrestler growing up. A lot of those same fans would be the first to post Rest In Peace messages on social media. They were the first to say that we should forgive, but actually, they meant we should ignore.

© WWE

Friday night saw WWE tell us that we should forget what a douchebag Hulk Hogan was also. A 10-bell salute occurred, with the Smackdown roster standing on the stage. It looks like just three African Americans were among them, and just two of them were recognizable. Jade Cargill and Ron Killings were the most noticeable people that weren’t on stage. For fairness, I should say that Killings was on a AAA card the next night, maybe he was already in Mexico, but Ron’s lack of comment about Hogan and his passing sent its own message.

AEW stayed silent. It wasn’t that much of a surprise. Tony Khan did ban Hulk Hogan from AEW, his ex-wife too, after she tweeted a hate-filled message about the looting amidst the protests in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd was all being perpetrated by “afro americans”. Of course, the worst people were upset that AEW didn’t “honour” the legacy of the Hulkster and you’d like to think that they didn’t influence the decision Tony Khan made to dedicate a small percentage of the show to Hogan. But if they were to do something, what aired on Collision kind of fitted.

Tony Schiavone, the voice of WCW’s peak period with Hogan as its biggest star, after acknowledging the relationship between Hogan and TNT, sent his condolences to the family of Hogan, pointing out that losing a family member is an intense feeling, which he is right about. It also felt right that every match on this night had a black wrestler participating.

It was also right that the man who once said “….Hulk Hogan, you can go to hell” was the man who said “Rest in Peace, brother” on this night.

After reading this obit, you’d think that I can’t stand Hulk Hogan – and you’d be right, but I will say this: Hogan is far from the worst person in wrestling history. He hadn’t murdered anyone like Chris Benoit or Jimmy Snuka, he didn’t commit acts of sexual assault like Chastyn Rance or commit child rape like Buck Zumhofe. But I don’t like Hogan because he’s everything that I don’t want in a friend or a person.

The lies, the acts of selfishness in his personal life and professional life, the lack of accountability for his actions. The racism, the homophobia and transphobia. The world according to Hulk Hogan is a world that I don’t like. It’s the world view of someone who isn’t someone that you actually want to have a beer with if you yourself want to be a good human being. In a world where being a good person isn’t always achieved through mistakes and errors made but should always be the desired destination, Terry Bollea didn’t even try to get to the desired destination.

In the week since the death of Terry Bollea, people have claimed that Hulk Hogan was the most influential person in pro wrestling history. Truth is it’s either him or the man most associated with Hogan in the business sense, Vince McMahon. It’s very much a case that both men needed each other and got everything out of each other. The WWF was always going to be the top company in America, but Hogan meant they lapped the field and Hogan would never have got the chance to show what he was good at to that level in a company that wasn’t WWF. In normal circumstances, the cliche is to say it was a match made in heaven – but not in this case.

By Peter Edge

G1 Diary- Nights 1-6

Night 1 of the G1 CLIMAX took place in Sapporo. Hokkaido has been the traditional opening spot for the tour for much of the past decade but was unavailable last year due to building renovations. With those completed, it was back to their standard start.

CMLL 72 Aniversario Arena Puebla

CMLL celebrated the “72nd Anniversary” of the Templo del Dolor in Puebla by putting on a surreal main event that pitted top técnicos Místico and Esfinge against one another as they teamed with the perennial rudo tandems of Los Guerreros Laguneros and Los Infernales.