The legacy of Terry Bollea, wrestling’s Hulk Hogan, obviously, it’s complicated.
In terms of his impact on the pro wrestling business, you have to start with, there is no WWE if Vince McMahon doesn’t pluck Hogan from the Midwest to make him the centerpiece of his national expansion in 1983.
No WWE means, no WrestleMania.
Maybe no UFC, which sprang forth out of pro wrestling in the 1990s.
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I think an argument can be made that UFC is still on the level of your local Toughman competitions if there’s no live-event pay-per-view business, which wasn’t a McMahon invention – the Charlotte-based promoter, Jim Crockett, beat him to it with his annual “Starrcade” shows – but if it wasn’t his invention, he’s the one who made it profitable, on the back of Hogan’s marketability.
TKO, the parent company of WWE and UFC, carries a $21 billion – billion, with a b – market cap.
One other thing that is just occurring to me: no WWE could mean, no Donald Trump.
WWF and WWE shows were among the crutches that Trump used in the 1980s and 1990s to keep his name on the fringes of the spotlight.
That one is just starting to sink in for me.
Damn.
Some of this, maybe all of this, we can trace to Hogan dropping the leg on The Iron Sheik to win the WWF title in 1984.
What else we can pin on the Hulkster:
He wasn’t the first ‘roided-up muscleman to hit it big in the wrestling business, but he was the one that everybody knew.
A generation of wrestlers who followed in Hogan’s giant footsteps ‘roided up, trying to keep up.
Scores died from the complications of years of steroid abuse.
His impact on pop culture wasn’t nearly what he wanted it to be.
Hogan made several efforts at hitting it big in movies and TV, with the only thing anyone would remember being the awful reality TV show, “Hogan Knows Best,” that ran for four seasons, between his gigs in WWE and TNA.
That Hogan was active in the wrestling business into his late 50s was a function of his inability to translate his wrestling fame into the mainstream, though, again, an argument can be made that there’s no Dwayne Johnson or John Cena actually making it in Hollywood if not for Hogan’s failed star turns in “Suburban Commando,” “Mr. Nanny” and “Thunder in Paradise.”
The racist comments that emerged in 2015 from a years-old sex tape would dog him to his final days – Hogan, a special guest for the Netflix premiere of WWE’s flagship show, “Raw,” in January, was booed out of the building.
He also turned off a segment of what was left of his fan base when he decided to appear on behalf of Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention, though one can see that as a full-circle moment, considering.
So, summing thing up, pro wrestling isn’t what it is today if Vince McMahon doesn’t hire Hulk Hogan and make him his star.
Dwayne Johnson is a guy who couldn’t even make it in the CFL.
Dana White is still a boxercise instructor.
Gawker is still daily snark.
Donald Trump is the guy who ran the USFL and several casinos into the ground.
Makes you wish Hiro Matsuda really had broken Terry Bollea’s leg on the first day of training school.
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Chris Graham
