How Good Was Hulk Hogan Actually?

So people are always going to get mad at me, but I feel like it's only fair to be honest

And when you are talking about Hulk Hogan, you also have to bring Terry Bolea into the mix

Because some of the things that Terry Bolea did in the last 10 years of his life, well, they're just bad, they're controversial, and I didn't think they were very good at all

At the same time, Hulkamania totally changed the WWF and totally changed what professional wrestling was

But both these things can be true. I just think when we do wade in these waters, you have to admit there is a nuance to this

or that we need to be able to talk about it from all sides. However, as we do continue our How Good Were They series, you'd be mad to ignore Hulk Hogan for obvious reasons

There is some comedy to this, because of course the rating system we do use is Bret Hart's from his autobiography

And do you not wrestler he picked to show us an example? Well, it was none other than Hulk Hogan

The Hitman broke it down into three categories, looks and presentation, promo and in-ring

And he gave Hogan a 10 for look, he gave Hogan a 10 for promo, and of course he gave him a 3 for professional wrestling

You can debate that in the comments. We can start with the look as well, because Bret Hart is totally right

especially in that mid-80s era, everybody wanted to look like Hulk Hogan

I mean, he was deceptively massive at like 6'7". He had the 24-inch arms and even the red and yellow

When he was coming to the ring, waving his American flag, especially if you were a kid, you could just look at him and say

oh my gosh, he is a superhero come to life. How did he escape from the comic

I mean, even the balding but long hair and the moustache somehow seemed to work. And if you want to say he was the biggest babyface that was meant to be a babyface

in the history of the WWF, I don't think many people are going to argue with you. You also had the big pose down after matches that kind of reminded you of Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger

And even the real American entrance song. I don't know how the WWF got this so right, but they ticked every single damn box

I mean, even calling his fans Hulkamaniacs is something that modern day celebrities do. They take a part of their name and pick crew or group or team and throw it together

And I'm sure that people were doing this before Hulk Hogan, like the Beatles. But he was someone that carried it on and he absolutely made it more popular

So if you want to say there's never been a more significant brand identity in the world of pro wrestling

once again, it's going to be hard to debate. I mean, even in wrestling now, you don't really see people wearing red and yellow because they know what it means

You just got to give it a 10 out of 10. Hulk Hogan had this absolutely perfect

Now, promo is a little bit funnier because good grief. When you watch them today, some of them you'll be like, I don't know what you were talking about there, Hulk

But you will want to run through some walls. He was the epitome of knowing that it's how you say something and not really what you actually said

because somehow that gets into your loins, it gets into your emotions, and you're like, man, we better go to MSG

to see Hulk kick someone's ass. He also had the catchphrase, what you gonna do, brother? And of course, he loved using brother, jack, and dude

But in many ways, he became the prototype for all of this that professional wrestlers still copy today

We just go and watch anything he did do before WrestleMania III when he was building up the Andre the Giant match

If you're of a certain age, you will go, well, damn. If Hulk Hogan isn't successful here

I think the world is going to end because that's the amount of importance he put on it

The truth is that he just connected with the crowd throughout his career, and of course we can talk about WrestleMania 18 when it comes to that too

Nobody expected to get that kind of a noise as Hulk returned to a WWF ring

but even today, some of the biggest wrestlers in the world, how do they describe this

As the best professional wrestling match of all time, because it's all about connection

That also comes down to the fact that before all this, The Rock and Hulk Hogan were promo against each other

and of course Hogan doesn't miss a beat, even though he is dealing with Dwayne The Rock Johnson

and that's another reason people were so excited. Remember the first time he said, what you gonna do, brother, after he came back in 2002

Everybody went nuts. And sure he never changed his approach and it is a little bit dated in 2026 but it also of its time And look at the longevity it did have Brat Hart got this one right too 10 out of 10 Now it gets super fun after this because we do get to talk about the in capabilities of one Hulk Hogan

And I have said this on every video, so I'll say it here as well. It's twofold, actually. One, if you do make it to AEW or WWE, you're a very successful professional wrestler

And it makes no difference what some random bald guy is saying about you. But also, two, he did connect with the fans when it came to his physicality

That's all wrestling is. It doesn't matter if you can do a hurricanrana or not. What does matter is that if your shoulder gets off that mat, a one-two-oo

and the fans go, oh my gosh, I can't believe it, well, you're pretty good at your job. Again, we can go to WrestleMania 18, which was years after Hulk Hogan's peak

Once again, he had launched people into a fever pitch. It's only fair to say that his matches were very formulaic and he loved to Hulk up

If you want to get into the science between the hulking up, what exactly was happening here

Why did it take a few punches to the face for all of a sudden Hulk Hogan to realize

wait a minute, I'm not feeling any pain. And now I'm going to boot you in the skull. I mean

technically he starts the no-sell moves, which you'd never get away with today. But he did come

up with what the WWF main event style was for years. And actually it was probably Stone Cold

Steve Austin that changed that in the late 90s. That's one hell of a legacy. And yes, we will

throw in his New Japan work because everyone that does see that goes, oh, wow, that's very impressive

But most of this is also from 1983. And also at the time it was very hard to see because you had

to be a tape trader. So I do kind of feel like you have to move it to one side just a little bit

You can't dismiss it though because it proves that he could do it, but let's look at some of his matches today

If you do sit down with Hulk Hogan versus The Ultimoire from WrestleMania, outside of the crowd noise, I don't think you're going to get much from it

The same with Andre versus Hogan too, do not get me wrong, one of the most important and biggest matches of all time

but if you just want to sit there and focus on what they're doing, well, to be honest with you, you may just be a little bit bored

I don't mean that disparagingly, the world has just changed. So it's already fair to say it would be completely different if Andre the Giant wasn't a broken mess

this was towards the end of his career and please go and watch Andre in his peak because you will be

exploding with joy. So let's do the whole video game thing as we always do and 7 out of 10 isn't

average here. 5 out of 10 is and that is what we are going to do. He came up with a style that was

absolutely incredible and he did know what he was doing but sure after a while could all his matches

feel very samey which is one of the reasons he had to go to WCW in 1994. The answer is yes. So it's

a very very positive 5 out of 10 but we're looking at a 40 plus year career here. In terms of the test

of time though where it's only fair to say the amount of controversies that hulk hogan was involved

in well it hasn't stood up at all i just don't think you can ignore this or at least i can't if

you want to separate the art from the artist more power to you but go and look at the netflix debut

in 2025 or whenever it was when hulk hogan did turn up he didn't get booed on a fluke my friends

people remembered the absolutely awful things that he did say and they didn't want to get past it nor

should they there's also hundreds of stories about how hogan was backstage both in the wwe and wcw

and they are not the best tails. And even if you do go to the 1994 arrival

in World Championship Wrestling, fans were livid. They didn't want this WWF hokiness

by the time he was feuding with the Dungeon of Doom. Once again, it's all out there on the internet

I wouldn't say it's very good. It's hilarious, but not for the right reasons

Once again, though, none of that is as important as some of the things that Terry Bollet has said in his real life

And I know you're going to react to that, so I'm going to caveat it once again. That doesn't mean he wasn't a game changer in wrestling

It doesn't mean he isn't one of the biggest wrestlers of all time. He did do all that and you can't tell the story of sports entertainment without Hulk

but you also can't tell the story of Terry Borella without going into that world or that

side or that corner of what he did do And that why when it comes to the test of time you have to give it a three out of 10 Whatever his reputation once was it is not now And that is all of his own doing Now cultural significance is different because in terms of pop culture icons

really from the 80s all the way till he did pass away in 2026, Hulk Hogan was right there

You can meet a random person on the street and say, hey man, do you watch pro wrestling? And if they didn't or they had sort of an awareness, they would go, oh, is that the thing with Hulk Hogan

I mean, that is like saying you use Google rather than search the internet. and it's why Vince McMahon threw the bank behind him when WrestleMania did launch

He knew that if he wanted to take the World Wrestling Federation to the heights that he did, he needed a face of the place, and he went and picked Hulkamania

But in 1982, he was part of Rocky III, which was a massive movie

Believe you me, wrestling fans weren't going to see that. Casual fans and movie fans were going to see that

And all of a sudden, once again, individuals were like, who the flub is this Thunderlips fella? And sure, the rest of the TV shows and movies are mixed back, to say the least

but even something like Hogan Knows Best, it kept him in the public eye. and I know loads of people that watch that

and think of a damn about his wrestling mostly because his family was totally nuts

I mean even his rubbish movies like Mr. Nanny somehow cemented him with something outside of professional wrestling

and you could argue only Hulk Hogan would have gone away with it. I mean few could ever hope to replicate this even in 2006

whether you're a wrestler or not. If you crave fame Hulk Hogan is probably someone that is on that list

That's why you got to give it a 9 out of 10. Once again go back to the phrase he made it into pop culture

Hogan also had great rivalries as well and I'm sure I forget some here, but there was the Macho Man

the implosion of the Mega Powers, everything with the Ultimate Warrior. I mean, some suck like Sergeant Slaughter

but then there's Earthquake, or Roddy Piper, or Ted DiBiase. Nobody ever talks about those

They didn't get to the Superman event, but they're actually pretty damn good. Obviously, the one who joined the Giant

has to get in there, as does The Rock from WrestleMania 18. And even at WrestleMania 19

when we actually did the Hulk vs. Vince program, well, a lot of people bought into it. When he did jump to WCW as well

everything that they did with Hogan and Flair was what they should have done in the WWF

And the Sting thing was good, for like 12 months when we got to Starrcade 1997 and we blew it up

But if we're talking about the rivalry, well, at one time, it was the biggest thing in wrestling

Now, most of the time, the person on the other side of the ring did have to play to Hulk Hogan's strength

but they didn't mind doing that because where was the money coming from? Essentially, Hogan's name was so damn big

that if you did get the right opponent, every single fan on the planet would buy into this

So I think it's a 9 out of 10. Go and look at those first, what, 10 WrestleManias

They're all the Hulk Hogan show. So without it, well, Wrestlemania probably wouldn't be what it is today

And that comes down to Hulk Hogan's rivalries. And it's the same about moments too

I mean, basically, the idea of a WWE moment was built off the back of Hulk Hogan. And good grief, did he like doing them

I mean, teaming with Mr. T at the first WrestleMania, the double clothesline with the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI

carrying Miss Elizabeth out of the ring as the matchman went, why would you do this to me, my friend

I'm going to whoop your ass. There's the formation of the NWO, everything we did do in the lead up to WrestleMania 18

one of which was done when he tried to run the rock over in an ambulance. But again, you can't win them all

And I haven't even mentioned slamming Andre the Giant, which is probably the biggest WWE moment of all time

So it really was superb stuff in the eyes of the audience and actually did overshadow whatever he was physically doing in the ring from moment to moment

They lived and died by these moments. Nine out of ten. When we get to range, and it's the same thing I always say when it gets to a certain type of wrestler, Hulk Hogan didn't have any

But I also don't think he needed any. Even Kevin Nash and Scott Hall have talked about this

When he first turned heel in the NWO, they had to say, no, brother, don't cut promos like that

And Hulk would go, listen, this is what I do, and we're not changing it. Even sure Michaels hinted at this

when they had their feud at SummerSlam 2005, because one of the buffs he threw at Hulk was oh surprise surprise you doing the same stuff that you always do because that the same stuff you always do And he is right And it is a criticism It also one of the reasons Hulk Hogan was able to do it for 35 years So he was ready to do it because he was

crazy successful and trying something different may have ruined him. And even when he went heel

what did he do? Just like painted his beard and changed his clothes. But it's a two out of 10

But did anybody want to see Hogan do anything else? No. So that number is a little bit redundant

It's fine, though, because drawing power is next. And really, when it comes to the history of pro

wrestling there are only a few guys that will be up there with hulk hogan and i'll miss some of them

now but i think of bruno samartino and i think of steve austin and there's probably someone else

like a ricky dozan or antonio noki but yeah he is in an exclusive club i mean it really is one of

the biggest box office attractions in pro wrestling ever and again we talked about those first few

wrestlemanias i'll just say what i said again they were built around hulk hogan because vince

mcmahon knew well if we make him the center of the poster and the center of the show more people

are going to buy it and we're going to make more money and fans will come to the building. They did

Even when he jumped to WCW, all of a sudden their buy rates and their merchandise went through the

roof. I mean, they didn't have any merchandise before Hulk Hogan arrived. So he was a net positive

even though they were paying him millions and millions of dollars. Now you can get super with this and say that the WWE actually did better without Hulk Hogan. See the Attitude Era

But you don't get the Attitude Era without what Hulk Hogan did. He laid the foundations for every

single thing that WWF was going to do when it went go worldwide. So you can't just pretend that

he wasn't responsible for all this. In many ways, he was. I mean, he really was the model

And I imagine if you talk to Triple H right now and said, would you like a guy like this that could do similar numbers

And he would say, yes, please. That sounds great. So it's a 10 out of 10 for me. And I've seen some people try to argue this

and put it down to an eight. But go and look at the things he was doing during especially sort of the late to mid 80s

or the other way around and maybe into the early 90s too. But it's the fact he was then able

to regenerate himself into the mid 90s. Who the hell gets that many opportunities

and hits a home run every time? It's a 10 out of 10. It does mean overall it's a crazy bag

And listen, I got into pro wrestling after Hulkamania had calmed down. I was never a Hulkamaniac

But even today, I can look back in terms of his impact on the business and go, yeah, where the flub would we be about Hulk Hogan

Even then, though, no matter what he did once mean to me, it is not the same Hulk Hogan it was even 20 years ago

Because, look, I've talked about it on other videos, especially when he did pass away

I cannot forget the things that Terry Boloa said. And because a lot of people tell me he never apologized for them directly

Well, that to me is way more important than wrestling. because to me, pro wrestling will always be the most important of the least important things

I just think that's the most important thing that we have discussed. When we are talking about someone with a legacy and the test of time and how people see him today

I do think you probably have to rank him at a 7.5 out of 10. Now, given some of the things we talked about today are way more crucial than a damn number

I would just ignore that. But Hulk Hogan is not the same guy that he was once, at least not to me

And I know I'm an idiot, I'm a fool, nobody should like me, I totally agree with that. But I'll always be honest with you and I'll always be transparent and that's just how I feel

Wrestling is great, but it is just wrestling. I'm sure without all this controversy, he would have hit it out of the park

But that's like saying this Batman game wouldn't be any good if Batman wasn't in it. Well, he is in it

So why the flub would you ignore that? So I'll just say it one last time, even though it won't make a difference

And people will go crazy at me, which you are allowed. It is your right. But of course, Hulk Hogan is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time

But Terry Brayorley, the person, well, at the very best, I think he was difficult

And really, I just think he said some terrible things. It's even worse, of course, if you were a fan growing up with this

you probably felt really disappointed. and I would understand. Now, of course, my friends

please do leave a comment below and if you could try to keep it on track, that would be awesome. But again, you have free will to do whatever you want

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