RIP Hulk Hogan

[Stiva]

Yeah, this is a big one 

[El McKell]

Hate to see death even of someone who was a shithead both personally and professionally.

Great at certain aspects of pro-wrestling, awful at certain aspects of pro-wrestling. One of the most historically important wresters of all time.

[El-P]

One of the biggest and most important figure ever (arguably the biggest and most important in US wrestling). Perfect flagship for the Regan era version of pro-wrestling. Average worker overpraised for basic shit. Terrible human being.

[Ricky Jackson]

I really soured on the human in recent years, to the point I had pretty much zero interest in watching any of his classic stuff, but at his peak the whole Hogan Wrestling Experience was a real fun ride 

[NintendoLogic]

A man with a complicated legacy to say the least, but still the biggest star on a global basis the industry has ever seen. The idea that pro wrestling was a tiny thing happening in bars before he and Vince took it mainstream is obviously a crock, but his drawing power at his peak really was unfathomable. I'd wager his name is still the one that would come up the most often if you asked the average American to name a pro wrestler.

[The Thread Killer]

Normally, when somebody who I didn't care for passes away, I tend to either not say anything at all, or at the very least say something kind of bland and non-committal.  I've never been one to celebrate a person's death, as I find that kind of behavior to be tasteless and rather ghoulish, and I don't much like the idea of trampling on somebody's grave.

But as a Pro Wrestling fan, what do you do with Hulk Hogan?  I was a 14 year old kid when "Hulkamania" first hit, and I lived through the Hulkamania era.  I don't mean to sound like the proverbial old man, talking about "back in my day" but suffice it to say, if you didn't experience the 80's Pro Wrestling boom firsthand, it's hard to overstate how popular Hulk Hogan and the WWF really were...especially in the Northeast where we had no exposure to Jim Crockett Promotions and "Southern" Regional Pro Wrestling. I mean...this dude was EVERYWHERE. The cover of Sports Illustrated, hosting Saturday Night Live, the Tonight Show. His merchandise was everywhere. Toys, T-Shirts, Vitamins, Posters, you name it. Basically, there was a good portion of time during the 80's where Hulk Hogan WAS Pro Wrestling.  He ended up transcending his own industry and became a household name.  At his peak, there was nobody on earth who didn't know the name Hulk Hogan.

I have heard the argument made that Vince McMahon could have picked any number of musclehead Pro Wrestlers and slotted them into Hogan's spot, and they would have been just as successful.  I'm not sure I buy that.  I think Hogan was pretty much the perfect guy for that role, that he and McMahon were pretty much made for each other (in both good and terribly bad ways.)  And let's be honest, while a large number of WWF guys got super-popular during the 80's, Hogan pretty much carried that entire organization on his back, all while working a schedule which is almost unbelievable when you look at it now.  Back then, guys were literally working every night of the week, and twice a day on weekends.  As I have mentioned many times here at PWO, I was a regular attendee at Maple Leaf Gardens, and they ran shows every three weeks.  I can't even count the number of times I saw Hulk Hogan wrestle. Don Muraco, King Kong Bundy, Killer Khan, Kamala, tag matches with Andre the Giant, and most notably the "Big Event" where he fought Paul Orndorff in front of 62,000 fans in Toronto.

Funny thing is, I was never a "Hulkamaniac."  I never bought into the "Train, Say Your Prayers and Eat Your Vitamins" shtick, even as a kid.  I had plenty of friends who did, but my favorite wrestler in that era was Jake Roberts...which probably tells you all you need to know about me as a kid.  But facts are facts, Hulk Hogan was a hero to a lot of little kids back in those days...and I mean a LOT of kids.  And he may probably go down in history as the most famous Pro Wrestler who ever lived. And you can certainly make the argument that he helped make the sport so popular, that a lot of the things many people still love about Pro Wrestling today can be attributed to him.  And I do believe he deserves credit for that.

As far as Hulk Hogan as a human being?  His legacy is obviously much more mixed.  I think he tended to be paranoid and selfish a lot of the time.  The whole "That doesn't work for me, brother" mentality was definitely not a positive thing.  And there is no excuse for some of his behavior later in life, the compulsive (and easily disprovable) lying for no discernible reason, the drugs, the exploitation of his own family for continued fame, and most notably of course...the racism. "Hulk Hogan" the character literally inspired a lot of little kids to work hard and act heroic.  If only the guy who played that character had believed even a fraction of what he was saying, and tried to live up to his own supposed ideals, then we wouldn't have to have watched the slow decline and total collapse of the legacy of Hulk Hogan over the years.  It's kind of sad that in his last major appearance in WWE, he was booed out of the building, but what's even sadder was the interview he gave on Pat McAfee's show about the incident weeks later. Hulk Hogan either actually believed that he had been booed because of things he had done as a heel 25 years earlier, or he expected the fans to believe it...and that's even worse. Not only was he a lying carny, but he wasn't even good at being a lying carny, and considering how much practice he had, that's almost worse.

Remember that nostalgia run Hulk Hogan had after Wrestlemania 18?  Do you remember that insane ovation he got in Montreal, on Smackdown in April 2002? (Not to be confused with the one he got in Montreal the night after Wrestlemania 18.)  I wish he had just retired then.  Before most of the bullshit interviews full of lies. Before "Hogan Knows Best."  Before the sex tape, and the racist language came to light.  I wish we could all remember Hulk Hogan fondly.  It's sad that his legacy went to hell, but he did it to himself.  I'm not going to feel bad about talking about all the bad things he did...because he's the one that did them, not me.  Hulk Hogan could have been remembered as a great guy, but he generally didn't act like a great guy, so that's on him.  I feel bad for the fans who loved the character he played.  I feel bad for his friends and family. But I guess in the end, you reap what you sow.

I texted one of my oldest buddies, who is a couple years younger than I am.  He was about 12 when Hulkamania was "running wild" and he was a die hard Hulkamaniac (a fact which I have taunted him about relentlessly over the years.)  I asked him if he had heard that Hulk Hogan had died.  He said that he did, and he said that it made him surprisingly sad, but it felt like part of his childhood had died.  And then he said something which pretty much sums this whole thing up: "When I was a kid, Hulk Hogan was my hero. Too bad Terry Bollea was a bad human being."

[sek69]

TTK pretty much said it all. The start of my wrestling fandom was the build to WM 2 with Hulk vs King Kong Bundy on SNME. I was never a Hulkamaniac but he was a central part of how it all began for me. He was responsible for two of the biggest booms in the history of wrestling, Hulkamaina and the nWo. Very few people can lay claim to being the biggest attraction in their industry, and he managed to do it twice. He was a cultural icon in the 80s like Santo in lucha or Rikidozan in Japan. All of that made the final act of his life all the more sadder.  The guy famous for the "work yourself into a shoot" line became an embarrassing parody of himself who seemed at times like he actually believed some of the hilariously obvious lies he would tell.  It's actually sad that his legacy will largely be the racist old buffoon who often seemed out of touch with reality, but like TTK said you reap what you sow.