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Retired American professional wrestler Hulk Hogan has died at the age of 71

Look I don't believe in saying one thing in life and another in death. I disliked the man for his incessant politicking, actual politics, brazen lying to the point where it rivalled Trump for narcissicism and delusion, and racist comments.

I couldn't fathom why somebody whose extraordinary career required no embellishment felt the need to lie, embellish and exaggerate at every turn.

However what's no exaggeration is he personified American pop culture for generations, fronted the globalisation and mainstreaming of an industry in the 1980s and 1990s, and leaves a legacy as the most iconic wrestler in history (crippling himself in the process). How many people can claim that in any walk of life ?

@Bhaijaan is right - in the height of the Cold War, Hogan was a physical manifestation of the image America wished to project to the world. In later life, he also perfectly resembled what America has become. RIP.

One thing I will add to this perfect summary of his life & times is how good he has always been with his fans, I’ve never heard anyone say they ever had a bad experience with him, they say don’t meet your heroes, but if Hogan was your hero, he generally treated everyone quiet well and was thoughtful in that regard. There was a body building show @ the NEC in Birmingham and I had some friends who went to it like 10 years ago, they were very positive about their exchanges with Hogan and how he was interacting with everyone.
 
Normally when someone passes away in the industry, they open the show with their graphic & a RIP, but on Smacksown we had that same old Triple H intro who is a spotlight whore, worse still, he spoke prior to the 10 bell salute and during the video package after that, he took it to another level by being the one to do the narration; normally they hire someone else to do that, it was pathetic to say the least, this guy is a million times worse then Hogan ever was.

I forgot to mention that while H was doing his narration on Hogan’s life, he failed to mention / include Hogan’s 2002 WWF/E title victory @RedwoodOriginal @Suleiman @BunnyRabbit

🤡🤡🤡🤡/10
 
I am going in a slightly different direction to say both Gorgeous George & Muhammad Ali played huge roles in commercialising the entertainment aspect in sports & pro-wrestling, Ali was a huge wrestling fan before it became popular globally and went to shows to see Gorgeous George who was a villain, he couldn’t understand at first why so many people showed up to see a guy talk so much trash and he started employ this very early in his youth, Jack Johnson caused the white population to be insanely outraged with his actions given the sentiment towards coloured people at the time, and while things slightly improved, Ali had to overcome similar obstacles and the fans/media were always molten during the early part pf his career, it ultimately helped shape a huge star. In the pro-wrestling world, I am not sure if you are familiar with Superstar Billy Graham, but this guy’s gimmick was inspired entirely by Ali, he was charismatic no doubt but all the promo’s & rhymes were Ali like, he had a great physical presence to, and when you look at his overall presentation, I strongly feel he inspired the bones of the Hogan character.

Vince McMahon’s father coined the name ‘Hogan’ as he wanted an Irish name, and ‘Hulk’ was incorporated by the wrestler himself who was aware of the comic book character. Vince McMahon Jnr played a huge role in the marketing and creation of the all American hero personality however, he actually bought him back to the WWF after his father fired Hogan for agreeing to do Rocky 3, wrestlers were not allowed to step out their own little territories let alone make a movie, Vince was very forward in that way and while his father despised him for breaking tradition, he led wrestling into the future using Hogan; he was on TV shows, he started the big wave with the toys & merch, video games and sweets/snacks/cereals as well, whatever would be appealing to family’s/kids in the 80’s, Hogan was at the centre of it; Hogan had success working for other territories, but Vince played a big part in creating the gimmick and adjusted his ring-style as he prioritised national exposure. The arcade machine you mentioned, the merch etc and general commercialisation we even see in Boxing/MMA today was all started by Hogan/Vince, Vince was also the first to come up with the PPV model.

Vince had his flaws to but he was a mad genius who had amazing instincts, he was good at using whatever was happening around him to benefit his promotion, wasn’t afraid of breaking tradition and pushed the creative boundaries; right now they’ve given the creative control to Triple H who’s booking style is extremely dull and predictable, a lot like his own ring career.
To me there is no doubt that 'Superstar' Billy Graham was the blueprint for Hulk Hogan. Superstar came up with the persona, but Hogan fine-tuned it for mass appeal and added that All-American patriotic fervor that deeply resonated with the era
 
Yeah it was Eddie who ran the Florida territory. Vince spotted Hogan while doing some business down there and that’s how he bought him into the WWF. Good spot on Hogan’s music career, he was a decent guitarist and when he bought that into his face run in the 2000’s, it wasn’t a gimmick, it was authentic, I loved that Voo Doo Child theme, I actually preferred the version on Smackdown which was modified for his face run because I believe he might have used it in WCW to, @RedwoodOriginal can confirm because he has vast pool of knowledge on WCW history, which is still why he is trying to find their glory days in AEW :yk
Yeah I think they modified it, from what I recall
 
Only Vince could come up with this 🤣

@KingKhanWC This kind of drama you wont see now, product is a bit too clean and undramatic

Yeah. It was a very entertaining period in wrestling (2002-2007). Ruthless Aggression era.

Hogan has had quite a few entertaining feuds during that period --> Rowdy Roddy Piper, Shawn Michaels, Vince McMahon etc.
 
Hulk Hogan's final WWE match was in SummerSlam of 2006 (against Randy Orton).

He made appearances after that but that was his final WWE match. He won that one.

I wish he ended on a better note than this match which is rather forgettable.
 
Nash was the worst member of NWO IMO.
Nash is easily one of the most overrated wrestlers of all time. Never understood the hype with him. Hall was massively underrated, while Hogan was Hogan, but Nash was/is massively overrated. It still pisses me off that Goldberg’s unbeaten streak was ended by Kevin bloody Nash. :mad:
 
Nash is easily one of the most overrated wrestlers of all time. Never understood the hype with him. Hall was massively underrated, while Hogan was Hogan, but Nash was/is massively overrated. It still pisses me off that Goldberg’s unbeaten streak was ended by Kevin bloody Nash. :mad:
Him going over Goldberg is one of the biggest travesties in wrestling, and was the coup de grace to WCW's demise.
 
Nash is easily one of the most overrated wrestlers of all time. Never understood the hype with him. Hall was massively underrated, while Hogan was Hogan, but Nash was/is massively overrated. It still pisses me off that Goldberg’s unbeaten streak was ended by Kevin bloody Nash. :mad:
Nash still had alot of charisma and presence. I think he was just as integral as Scott Hall to the whole Outsiders and nWo angle. He couldn't work in the ring after a certain point because his knees were shot. But that's bound to happen when you're as tall as him. As for the streak, it had to end at some point. You could argue that Nash was selfish booking himself to end the streak, but WCW's downfall had begun long before that.

Nash was a vert smart businessman too. And you could even argue that his push for guaranteed contracts changed the business forever for the wrestlers.
 
It’s all coming back to me slowly now that i reflect on Hogan’s career.

His resume of big matches is quite impressive actually. I mean look at this :-

Hogan vs Andre The Giant
Hogan vs Macho Man
Hogan vs Flair
Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior
Hogan vs Piper
Hogan vs King Kong Bundy
Hogan vs Yokozuna
Hogan vs Luger
Hogan vs Bret
Hogan vs Scot Hall
Hogan vs Big Show
Hogan vs Sting
Hogan vs Goldberg
Hogan vs Undertaker
Hogan vs HHH
Hogan vs HBK
Hogan vs Rock
Hogan vs Brock
Hogan vs Kurt
Hogan vs RKO


That’s an impressive list of high profile and mostly main events against the top talent from 3 eras of WWE and WCW.
Hogan vs Sting was the biggest failure for WCW, not something to be proud of.
 
Hogan's death has hit me hard. I wasn't even a big fan, but Hulk Hogan was Mr Wrestling. He was the first man most thought of when you said the word "professional wrestling." You always expect larger-than-life characters like Hulk Hogan to be around forever. The last time a wrestling death hit me this hard was when Eddie Guerrero passed away. Eddie's passing still hurts, nearly 20 years later. :cry:
 
Yeah. That could've been a great idea. Cena vs Hogan.

He didn't wrestle in WWE after 2006. He went to TNA and had some matches there I believe.

Perhaps he could've retired with a match against Cena in 2012.
He was too old in 2012 already. It would have been insulting for Cena to lose to Hogan when Hogan was 60+ and Cena was in his prime.
 
2007-2008 was also prime Cena. Hulk vs Cena was only realistically possible around 2002-2003.
Rock was in his prime in 2002, and we got Hogan vs Rock at Wrestlemania 18 in 2002, and it was great. No reason why we couldn't have had prime Cena vs Hogan in 2007-08.

Cena wasn't a top dog in 2002-03, so Hogan vs Cena wouldn't have made any sense during that period.
 
Rock was in his prime in 2002, and we got Hogan vs Rock at Wrestlemania 18 in 2002, and it was great. No reason why we couldn't have had prime Cena vs Hogan in 2007-08.

Cena wasn't a top dog in 2002-03, so Hogan vs Cena wouldn't have made any sense during that period.
Cena won his first WWE title in 2005 and already had memorable matches vs Undertaker circa 2003...wasn't he already US Champ by then?
 
Rock was in his prime in 2002, and we got Hogan vs Rock at Wrestlemania 18 in 2002, and it was great. No reason why we couldn't have had prime Cena vs Hogan in 2007-08.

Cena wasn't a top dog in 2002-03, so Hogan vs Cena wouldn't have made any sense during that period.

Hogan wrestled at TNA in 2011 I believe.

He could've easily returned to WWE in 2012 and had a match with Cena at Wrestlemania. Cena was the face of WWE at that time (just like Hogan was during his time). Face Hogan vs Heel Cena in 2012 could've been a box office.
 
Yes, but Cena wasn't a top dog in 2002-03. I doubt Hogan would want to work with someone like Cena in 2002-03.

Correct.

Cena was a jobber/mid-carder in 2002.

I remember he formed a tag team with Bull Buchanan (was known as B-Squared at that time).
 
Hogan wrestled at TNA in 2011 I believe.

He could've easily returned to WWE in 2012 and had a match with Cena at Wrestlemania. Cena was the face of WWE at that time (just like Hogan was during his time). Face Hogan vs Heel Cena in 2012 could've been a box office.
Hogan barely wrestled in TNA.

Hogan was too old to have a productive match by 2011-12. In his final matches, he didn't even use his leg drop finisher as his back was too messed up.

The right time for a match with Cena would have been 2007-08. After that time period, Hogan was simply too old.
 
Correct.

Cena was a jobber/mid-carder in 2002.

I remember he formed a tag team with Bull Buchanan (was known as B-Squared at that time).
Yes, it's true. He nearly got fired in 2002, but then started his white boy Eminem rip-off gimmick and that saved his career.
 
Hogan barely wrestled in TNA.

Hogan was too old to have a productive match by 2011-12. In his final matches, he didn't even use his leg drop finisher as his back was too messed up.

The right time for a match with Cena would have been 2007-08. After that time period, Hogan was simply too old.

That leg drop was a suicidal finisher. It messed up his back.

He should've developed another finisher like Sweet Chin Music or something.
 
That leg drop was a suicidal finisher. It messed up his back.

He should've developed another finisher like Sweet Chin Music or something.
Yes, the leg drop finisher always looked a bit weird for someone like Hulk Hogan. Sweet Chin Music would have looked even weirder lol. I think he should have had a finisher like JBL's clothesline from hell. That would have looked devastating, looking at the size of Hulk's arms.
 
Yes, the leg drop finisher always looked a bit weird for someone like Hulk Hogan. Sweet Chin Music would have looked even weirder lol. I think he should have had a finisher like JBL's clothesline from hell. That would have looked devastating, looking at the size of Hulk's arms.

Yeah. He is a big dude. He needed a finisher that wasn't harmful for his body and looked devastating. A modified version of clothesline or Rock Bottom could've been great.

Maybe he could've come up with a submission move also. Rock used to do Sharpshooter, Chris Benoit used to do Crossface, Ric Flair used to perform figure four leglock, Jericho had Walls of Jericho, Kurt Angle had Angle Lock etc. Even Undertaker used a submission move for a while. Hogan perhaps could've developed a submission move of his own.
 
Yeah. He is a big dude. He needed a finisher that wasn't harmful for his body and looked devastating. A modified version of clothesline could've been great.

Maybe he could've come up with a submission move also. Rock used to do Sharpshooter, Chris Benoit used to do Crossface, Ric Flair used to perform figure four leglock, Jericho had Walls of Jericho, Kurt Angle had Angle Lock etc. Even Undertaker used a submission move for a while. Hogan perhaps could've developed a submission move of his own.
Yeah Hogan said in an interview that he should have had a sleeper as his finisher. That would have made sense.
 
Was this the only time Hogan tapped out? I have never seen him tapped out before.

Great to see he put over a young Kurt Angle instead of burying his push.

 
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