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Undoubtedly, Hulk Hogan will be remembered by fans as one of the greatest heroes in the ring of all time and the babyface around whom Vince McMahon built the entire monstrosity that became the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s.
Outside of the ring, that legacy is a lot more complicated due to racist comments that Hogan made when he didn't know he was being recorded.
That situation, which also included Hogan being filmed without his knowledge having sex with his then-friend Bubba the Love Sponge's wife, led to Hogan being suspended by the WWF, a lawsuit against the Gawker website that yielded Hogan millions of dollars and forced the bankruptcy of that site, but all of that came at the cost of Hogan's sterling reputation as a red, white, and blue patriotic all-around hero being blemished forever.
In recent years, Hogan has attempted to rehabilitate that image by wrapping himself in the red, white, and blue patriotism that comes with right-wing politics, using that and appearances at Donald Trump rallies to help launch a Real American Beer line and what was planned as a bar across the street from Madison Square Garden.
There are multiple chapters to the career of Hulk Hogan. There's the young kid who walked into a wrestling school in Florida and had his ankle broken by Hiro Matsuda, later writing in his book that they thought he was a mark and tried to run him off from the business. According to Hogan, Terry Funk allegedly talked him back into coming to the ring, at which point Hogan returned and became a heel initially as Sterling Golden, touring Florida and Memphis among other places.
The second chapter would begin with the World Wrestling Federation under Vince McMahon Sr., where Hogan was first dubbed "Hulk Hogan," with the initial name taken from the Marvel Comics character and the last name "Hogan" coming from Irish heritage, since the territory at the time was built around ethnic babyfaces such as Pedro Morales for Latino fans and Bruno Sammartino for the Italians.
Hogan initially was a heel managed by Fred Blassie, and then left the territory, claiming years later that he left due to Terry Funk suggesting he work on the Rocky III movie as Thunderlips with Sylvester Stallone. With Vince McMahon Sr. allegedly not approving this, he was let go from the territory. Rocky at the time was a massive cultural phenomenon, and that third film was the apex of that popularity, creating Mr. T as a pop icon and Hulk Hogan not being far behind.
As Thunderlips, he menaced and destroyed Stallone’s Rocky, and that larger than life appearance cascaded into making Hogan a much greater wrestling star amongst the general population.
Hogan at this point was working for New Japan Pro Wrestling as a top babyface and later went to the AWA, where Hulkamania was truly born—although that is often forgotten. Verne Gagne continued to tease putting the belt on Hulk Hogan, but AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel continued to retain it. Vince McMahon began his national expansion and poached Hogan, who was already upset with Gagne because Gagne was selling T-shirts and not giving Hogan a cut of the money.
Hogan no-showed a number of announced dates and started immediately with the WWF, where he returned as a babyface saving Bob Backlund, who declared that Hogan was "good now." Backlund lost the belt to the Iron Sheik and within a month, Hulk Hogan defeated the Sheik in a massive moment in the middle of Madison Square Garden to kick off the true national era of Hulkamania.
The entirety of the Hulk Hogan act at the time was built around the idea of Hogan selling to a myriad of monster villains or despicable personalities including Roddy Piper, King Kong Bundy, Don Muraco, Big John Studd, and Dr. D David Schultz, among many others. Hogan would get beaten down after a few minutes of initial offense, and then kick out at 2 at the last second. A major move would be hit, and suddenly Hogan would feel no pain, "Hulking up" in a scene that was repeated millions upon millions of times around the world before pointing the finger at his opponent, screaming "You!" At that point, Hulk Hogan would hit all his major offense including lariats, a big boot, and finish his opponents off with the Atomic Leg Drop.
As "Real American" or "Eye of the Tiger" played (before the former became Hogan’s signature song), Hogan would then do a muscle-bodybuilding pose-down and play to the fans as rock and roll played. It was perfect for the time. The schedule was insane and grueling, and Hogan was the horse pulling the cart as the company became larger and larger and took over every aspect of pro wrestling in the eyes of the pop culture audience.
The reality is that while Hogan does not get the credit he deserves as an in-ring worker for much of what he did later in his career, during that formative period of the WWF he was absolutely excellent in his role, and it is nearly impossible to think of anyone else who could have filled that role and been as charismatic and as important to the mainstream expansion of the WWF. Jimmy Snuka was popular but would never have fit the role. Roddy Piper was a great villain but never would have worked as a babyface in that role. There were lots of monsters who would have been important but never would have had the charisma of Hogan. Andre the Giant was breaking down physically and didn't have the ability to connect with people the way Hogan did in that moment. Hulk Hogan was the right guy at the right time, promoted by the right company, and changed professional wrestling forever.
Why was Hogan the right guy? It was the 1980s—a time of true patriotism and a lot of foreign menaces that were presented as the worst thing in the world to the mainstream media. In an era of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone being the larger-than-life babyfaces in movies and action-adventure roles, Hulk Hogan was a real-life version of that—or as real as it could be in professional wrestling. The idea that he was a "Real American" fighting off the foreign menace of the Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Mr. Fuji, and others like them was something the audience 100% believed in and bought into, which is why when Hogan made the comments that he did later in his career, when he didn’t know he was being taped, they bothered fans so much. They believed in Hulk Hogan—only to find out that Captain America didn’t exist; he was just a character being played by someone.
While everyone will point to WrestleMania I as being the true moment where everything changed, the reality is that even though Hulk Hogan and Mr. T defeated Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff that night, the true moment when Hogan and the WWF became immortal and pop culture forever was WrestleMania III in 1987 in front of a sold-out Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan, where Hulk Hogan defeated former friend turned foe Andre the Giant, managed by Bobby Heenan.
That match was built up as the one and only time where there was true doubt sown into the eyes and minds of WWF fans with the idea that there was no way Hogan could defeat Andre—who he had allegedly never wrestled before (he had many times), and that Andre had never been body-slammed (he had many times), and that Andre had not been defeated in over 15 years. Therefore, Hogan had no chance. The WWF went as far as to build a new championship belt for Andre with the idea that the current belt was not big enough for him. The idea was Hulk Hogan was a dead man walking and this was his ultimate threat.
Of course, by the end of the night, Hulk Hogan had hulked up, body-slammed Andre, and scored the pin with the leg drop, sending Andre and a devastated Bobby "The Brain" Heenan to the back as fans showered them with garbage as they rode their WrestleMania III ring cart to the locker room. In the end, WrestleMania III was the moment when the WWF truly solidified itself as an entertainment force, and at the end of that night, it was Hulk Hogan doing the posedown because he was truly immortal, and he was one with the audience in that mome
With Hogan's fame came outside opportunities, which led to Vince McMahon forming his own film company to give Hogan a chance to star in a movie: No Holds Barred. It is over-the-top, campy, and pretty horrible if we're being honest, but it forced Hogan to take time off, which led to one of the greatest angles of all time in the WWF. Hogan wrestled Andre in February of 1988, live from the now-defunct Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, in a rematch against Andre the Giant.
By this time, the new top heel was Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man, who had spent months showing in vignettes that he could pay everyone off to get what he wanted and bend them to his will. He offered Hogan untold riches to hand over the WWF title, and Hogan, even while considering it in an emotional interview—saying he could only imagine what those riches could do for all his Hulkamaniacs with cancer—then decided to stand up and say, “Hell no.” DiBiase instead bought the services of Andre the Giant, and Andre defeated Hogan, even though Hogan had his shoulder up well before the three count.
How did this happen? Earl Hebner made his debut. Everyone knows who Earl Hebner is now due to his great refereeing over the years, especially during the Attitude Era, but he was also the twin brother of Dave Hebner, who at the time was refereeing for the WWF while Earl worked for Jim Crockett Promotions. Earl jumped ship, and the storyline was that Ted DiBiase paid off someone to have plastic surgery to look exactly like Dave Hebner, something Hogan alleged in the post-match promo.
The crooked referee stole the title from Hogan, setting up Andre also being stripped of the belt by then-WWF President Jack Tunney for vacating the title in order to hand the belt to Ted DiBiase. With no Champion, a tournament was set up for WrestleMania IV, at which point former Hogan foe turned Mega-Powers ally Randy Savage won the belt from DiBiase in the finals after Hogan cracked DiBiase with a chair. Earlier in the night, Hogan and Andre were both counted out, a shocking moment in a promotion that until that point had always been built around the idea that Hulk would always walk out victorious.
While Savage was undoubtedly a great champion and drew money for the company, it came time for Hogan to return when the film was done, which meant there were cracks within the Mega Powers. In an excellent story that had been seeded well over a year in advance, Savage turned on Hogan. In an incredible series of interviews where Savage declared that Hogan was lusting after Elizabeth, they showed footage of Hulk Hogan putting his hand "accidentally" on Elizabeth's butt as he lifted her up on Savage’s shoulder during a SummerSlam celebration.
When Elizabeth was taken out accidentally during a live *Main Event* special, when Savage was thrown out of the ring on top of her, it was Hogan who carried her to the back and cried over her unconscious body, leaving Savage to be beaten down by the Big Boss Man and Akeem before Hogan returned. While Savage and Hogan were successful in the match later that night, Savage attacked Hogan for caring more about Elizabeth than him, and suddenly all the paranoia of the Macho Man came full circle. This led to Hogan versus Savage at WrestleMania V, with Elizabeth in a neutral corner not wanting to side with either star. While the timing would have been perfect for Hogan to put over Savage, it was not to be, and Hogan regained the WWF Championship.
A year later, in the 1990 Royal Rumble, it became time to set up Hogan actually passing the torch, as he and then-Intercontinental Champion the Ultimate Warrior—both heroes—faced off in a rare encounter in the match where it was every man for himself. At that point, WWF would have matches and plans set up well in advance, and in January, it was already obvious that Hogan would wrestle Warrior in the main event of WrestleMania VI. In one of the best matches Warrior ever had in his career—and a match that was way better than anyone would have expected going into it—that night, Warrior pinned Hogan clean with the big splash, retaining his Intercontinental title and becoming the WWF Champion.
Hogan, already well-versed in how to control the crowd, got in the ring and presented the championship to Warrior, later admitting in his autobiography that he did it in a way that all the attention would go to him and not Warrior, as he would be seen as the sympathetic legend leaving, perhaps, for the last time. Warrior's run did not last, and one has to wonder whether Hogan was smart enough to make sure that didn’t happen.
As the WWF headed into the 1990s, they were hit with a number of scandals of both drug and sexual natures. When Dr. George Zahorian of Pennsylvania was arrested for selling and distributing drugs to athletes, including professional wrestlers, Hogan was expected to testify, which would have been a major blow to his reputation as an All-American hero.
The WWF’s attorney (Jerry McDevitt, also WWF's attorney) was able to get him out of it, and Hogan went on The Arsenio Hall Show to discuss the rumors. In one of the worst mistakes of his career, Hogan claimed that he had only used steroids several times to rehabilitate an arm injury. The pushback against him was massive, with lots of personalities including Superstar Graham and Dr. D David Schultz speaking out against him. As the steroid scandal became a major factor in the WWF’s public perception, the company announced a number of steroid testing policies and began to recalibrate, focusing on smaller-sized wrestlers who were better athletes—most notably Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels—leading to their rise to stardom. Hogan appeared at WrestleMania VIII, wrestling Sid Justice, and then quietly disappeared from the company, with it teased he was retiring, although never explicitly stated.
In the early 1990s, Hogan made a number of other films that are pretty much forgettable, including Santa with Muscles and Mr. Nanny, and would later star in the TNT series Thunder in Paradise.
Hogan would return to the company in time for WrestleMania IX in 1993, returning on a live edition of Monday Night Raw after his longtime real-life friend Brutus Beefcake was attacked by Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster. This angle led to Jimmy Hart leaving those villains to join Hulk Hogan’s side, where he’s remained ever since and, to this day, is Hogan’s closest confidant, loyalist and travel partner. The return did not last long. After a number of house shows and a European tour, Hogan—who had won the belt in a surprise match against Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX—dropped it back to Yokozuna in June of 1993 and would not be seen in the WWF for many, many years. The original plan was for Hogan to face Bret Hart at Summerslam '93, but it was not to be.
Instead Hogan went on to work for New Japan, including a fun match against The Great Muta and focused on the Thunder in Paradise series until he was contacted by WCW. Ric Flair was the conduit, and Eric Bischoff and Flair went to visit Hogan on set, at which point Bischoff offered Hogan life-changing money and an incredible deal to come to World Championship Wrestling. The idea of Hogan—who always epitomized everything that was the WWF DNA—going to another company seemed impossible and like something that would never happen. But sometimes things in life take a turn, and the unthinkable in this case did happen.
In June of 1994, Hogan debuted by defeating Ric Flair to become the new WCW World Champion at the Bash at the Beach pay-per-view. WCW did everything they could at that time to play off the nostalgia of the Hulk Hogan-era WWF, including bringing in Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, The Honky Tonk Man, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Mr. T and everyone else you could think of who was available. They definitely reshaped the DNA of the company around Hogan, and WCW began to gain much greater attention, awareness, and market share than it ever had before. This led to Ted Turner creating Monday Nitro, and the Monday Night Wars began, as Hulk Hogan was now opposite his old compadres in the WWF—live on TNT—while the WWF was on the USA Network.
In an era before DVRs and before streaming, it was a massive, massive story as fans jumped back and forth or taped one and then watched the other in order to keep up with everything that was happening. There were three different stories going on at the same time: the WCW storylines, the WWF storylines, and the overarching storyline of WWF and WCW trying to outdo, outlast, and outwit each other. Way before Survivor was a reality series, the WWF and WCW were trying to put out the flame of the other company.
Part Two on Page 2.
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