He is wrestling.
I don’t care how you slice it, the guy has done more for professional wrestling than anyone. He is the main reason for the two major booms in the eighties and nineties. In the beginning, he had it all: the body, charisma, the wild eyes, and the ability to put on an entertaining match. No, I didn’t say a great match – an entertaining match. It was his small role as “Thunderlips” in Rocky III that first attracted Vince McMahon Jr. But it was his juiced up muscles, his moral code of “saying your prayers and eating your vitamins,” and his ripping up of that yellow shirt that attracted the crowds. He was the manufactured hero for the manufactured lusts of the eighties. And he made the WWF/E what it is today.
Forget The Rock, forget Austin – Hulk Hogan was the real difference maker. It was with this balding, blonde giant that a baby-faced kid took his daddy’s company and made it into an American success story. Hulkamania ran so wild and so long that the aftershocks are still being felt today. Would you even be reading about professional wrestling on The Balrog’s Lair without him? Would I even be writing this if he had never wrestled? I doubt it.
He made the WWF. He is wrestling.
And he wasn’t done there. No, he left the WWF and shocked the world by turning heel in WCW. He was the real power behind the n.W.o. Forget Nash, forget Hall, forget Flair, and forget Goldberg – Hogan was the difference maker in WCW. With his painted on stubble and new attitude, Hogan rekindled something in a generation of fans that had “grown out” of wrestling and showed a whole new generation just who was the top dog.
And for a while, it really worked. The WCW accomplished something no other wrestling organization had ever done: They beat the WWF. And you can scream Flair and Bischoff and Nash and Hall and grey and different all you want to – at the heart of it was Hogan. Because, like it or not, he is wrestling.
But with the booms come the busts. Why did WCW die the death it did? Because of massive egos and power trips that Hogan helped participate in. Because of clauses in contracts that allowed The Hulkster to decide his “creative direction”. Because the man who was the face of wrestling couldn’t figure out that people had grown tired of that face. Because he was infatuated with his own “icon” status and wasn’t interested at all in elevating new, younger talent. And, as a result, a company failed.
After going back to the newly named WWE, he got over quick in a nostalgia angle that worked for a short time. But again, his ego got in the way. He left twice because he didn’t feel like he was either being used right or getting enough money. Never mind the fact Vince slapped a stupid mask on him and made him the very focus of the Thursday night show.
So, now we come to it. Hogan has verbally agreed to appear on the biggest pay-per-view in NWA:TNA’s history. A three-hour, Sunday night extravaganza that will likely either make or break their chances at a cable deal. And the question is, will this man that has helped both elevate and crash the two biggest wrestling federations ever be able to work a little magic on “the little company that could?” I say, yes.
But he’ll have to reinvent himself in order to do it. He won’t be able to walk in there with the red and yellow, waving the flag or with the painted on stubble and expect to fit in. He won’t. It’s not all glitz and glamour over there; the people at TNA work hard. They wrestle. They’re gritty. They are who they are and the company is what it is.
In order for Hogan to work (and I’m talking about more than just a one-time PPV – indications are that he wants to work more than that), he needs to be himself. He needs to be an aging wrestler who probably should have given it up long ago but doesn’t because he loves what he does. No more “Dudes” or “brothers.” No more “Hulking up.” No more posing for the fans after he wins. The time for all that is past. If he would just go out there and be what he is and not what he thinks he is, NWA:TNA could become huge.
Because he is wrestling. He’s just not bigger than wrestling.
I’m Roland
– Feedback in regards to the above article may be emailed to rolandg77@sbcglobal.net. With the amount of time each author puts into an article, your responses are appreciated.
