Terry Gene Bollea, Hulk Hogan: Why was he so popular?

alko

Registered User
Oct 20, 2004
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I watched wrestling from beginning the 90s. That was the time, when Hulk Hogan was still one of the most popular mans in the business. But now, i want to know, why was he such phenom? Looking to his matches, he wasn't such good performer. I saw him only once to jump from the rope. Also in the ground he didn't show some special skills. And still, the fans were hyped, when he entered the rink.
 

Sens

Registered User
Jan 7, 2016
6,086
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Charisma brother

And the Hulkster could go... he put up some great matches in Japan... just the WWE style limited him...

Again though it was all about the Hulksters charisma in North America
 

Shoalzie

Trust me!
May 16, 2003
16,904
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Portland, MI
All of WWF/E's biggest stars...great presence in the ring, impressive look and well-marketed. Might not be the best pure wrestler on the roster but it's all about how you package and present a character. Rarely do we see the best pure wrestler be the top guy in the company. It'll drive you nuts but that's always been their MO.

Plenty of quality wrestlers in the company will get a good push from time to time but this company always seems to have a tent-pole guy that programming and storylines revolve around. We're on the backend of the Cena era.

Could a guy like Hulk be popular now? I doubt it. Too many "smarks" don't want these packaged guys to be the top guys...see Reigns. Ability matters more to some fans...I'd probably put myself in that group. Great ability with nuanced or unique character work is probably more appealing. I think we just don't want to keep seeing repeats of the same kind of character as the top face of the company.
 

Hypernova

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Apr 20, 2007
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All of WWF/E's biggest stars...great presence in the ring, impressive look and well-marketed. Might not be the best pure wrestler on the roster but it's all about how you package and present a character. Rarely do we see the best pure wrestler be the top guy in the company. It'll drive you nuts but that's always been their MO.

Plenty of quality wrestlers in the company will get a good push from time to time but this company always seems to have a tent-pole guy that programming and storylines revolve around. We're on the backend of the Cena era.

Could a guy like Hulk be popular now? I doubt it. Too many "smarks" don't want these packaged guys to be the top guys...see Reigns. Ability matters more to some fans...I'd probably put myself in that group. Great ability with nuanced or unique character work is probably more appealing. I think we just don't want to keep seeing repeats of the same kind of character as the top face of the company.

He'd easily be one of the top guys now. Comparing him to Roman is insane. Hogan has tons of charisma and gave great promos while Reigns has/does none of that.
 

PeterSidorkiewicz

HFWF Tourney Undisputed Champion
Apr 30, 2004
32,442
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People did eventually get sick of Hogan, but as others have said the guy was entertaining as hell. I was actually never a fan of Hogan as a kid as I thought he was pretty lame. :laugh: I was all about Ravishing Rick Rude and the Heenan Family. He was still entertaining though.

It's one of my major annoyances with the "IWC" is where all they care about is "workrate." That's fine, but I feel WWE is not the promotion for that. I want good matches too, but I want a good mix of in ring psychology, great story, and cool characters. For that I thought the 80s WWF and other promotions were awesome.
 

tony d

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Jun 23, 2007
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What Hogan lacked in wrestling ability he more than made up for it in charisma, the guy had a very natural charisma, brother.
 

ColePens

RIP Fugu Buffaloed & parabola
Mar 27, 2008
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And I think styles were different back then. I started watching in 93 as a young kid and fell in love with it based on the Bret Harts/HBKs of the world. I hated Hogan. But I notice the generation before me was all about the big guys. They were superhumans it looked like.

Heck even to this day I hear people say "How can you like CM Punk? He's so small!" :laugh: Different generations.
 

GarbageGoal

Courage
Dec 1, 2005
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I watched wrestling from beginning the 90s. That was the time, when Hulk Hogan was still one of the most popular mans in the business. But now, i want to know, why was he such phenom? Looking to his matches, he wasn't such good performer. I saw him only once to jump from the rope. Also in the ground he didn't show some special skills. And still, the fans were hyped, when he entered the rink.

I started watching wrestling because of Hulk Hogan when I was nine.

Guy looked like a real life superhero, like Thor come to life. And he was smart in the ring as to what his limits were. He knew what he could and couldn't do and how to hold the audience. Plus he was respected enough in the ring to have a good run in Japan.

I loved watching him beat guys like King Kong Bundy, Andre, and throw Bobby Heenan around when I was 11 and 12.

Eventually my favorite wrestlers became the guys like Bret, Mr Perfect, The British Bulldogs....but as a kid I was right there for the start of Hulkamania and it was awesome.
 

Cleetus

Brick Woll
Jan 2, 2012
19,307
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My favorite moment of the hulk was when he joined the NWO best heel turn in wresting! and exactly he wasnt a good wrestler but again the Charisma more than made up for it!
 

GarbageGoal

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Dec 1, 2005
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Guys like Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior had charisma which mad up for their lack of skill.

Warrior still had to be carried by Hogan in their Mania match. They really are not in the same league. Warrior failed where Hogan succeeded.
 

JackSlater

Registered User
Apr 27, 2010
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As others have noted... Hogan has boatloads of charisma. Like him or not, his charisma is undeniable. As far as why Hogan was so popular, I do think that part of it was timing. Entertainment in the 80s was bigger than life and cartoony, and Hogan fit in perfectly. If he came out today as a new wrestler I would expect a very Cena-esque mixed face reaction, which isn't really unlike his early 90s reactions.

To Hogan's credit, the guy did get over big wherever he was in the early days even before WWF. He got over massively very quickly in the AWA, and that was as straightlaced as any promotion in the 80s. He was over massively with the Japanese audience, which was obviously much more conservative than the typical WWF audience. He was even great in Rocky III. I am convinced that Thunderlips would have been one of the best heels of the 1980s.
 

Shoalzie

Trust me!
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Hogan certainly has way more personality in the ring than Roman and his gimmick reached fans and got people excited way more than Roman ever will. Roman's smug brooding attitude in the ring and bland arrogant promo style is a major put-off for sure. My thing is how you book and build a top guy in today's wrestling versus Hogan being plucked from the territories as a more established worker and then booked and marketed crazy strong in the WWF as it was building as a brand and company.

When you talk about taking a guy like Hogan who was massive in his day and drop him into now at his highest...would the smarky internet age accept him? That's my reason for questioning if his style or look worked from era to era. Back in the 80s, he looked like what a top wrestler would look like back then and would his message of prayers and vitamins be ruined by the "reality era" or the "social media era".

It's tough to say what he really could be in today's WWE when the company is the biggest brand and basically the only major brand. Hogan became huge as the WWF/E became bigger and bigger. Then he goes over to WCW with the NWO and we see how his raised their product up in the Monday Night Wars.

What role would he play in WWE today? Would he still be the undeniable top babyface? Is his persona and move set still the same or is he more evolved with the times?
 

Masked

(Super/star)
Apr 16, 2017
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One other thing that helped the Hogan mystique back in his first WWE title reign was that he wasn't overexposed. He didn't wrestle on the normal tv shows . If you wanted to see him wrestle a match it was either on (Saturday Night's) Main Event or at a live event.
 

AtlantaWhaler

Thrash/Preds/Sabres
Jul 3, 2009
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This was somewhat alluded to on the Flair 30 for 30 movie. They talked about, in the mid 80's, NWA/WCW (Dusty and Flair) was mainly watched by the blue collar audience and WWF (Hogan) was popular with family and kids.
 

CaptainCrunch67

Registered User
Aug 23, 2005
6,472
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I think its a tough question to really answer.

why was he popular, because Vince McMahon made him popular and Hogan was smart enough and politically astute enough to ride that until he basically miscalculated and became a caricature of what made him popular

I mean he had all of the natural personality traits, he was smart enough to know that he had to do things that invited audience participation, he looked out at the audience, he hulked up with audience participation, he was the king of the catch phrase littered promo. But he was a boy band, he was a creation of Vince's and at the same time he was also a creation of a massive push. The wrestling audiences weren't as smart back then, so it was easy to push Hogan as a larger then life good guy against cartoonish bad guys. Vince also was smart enough to create over whelming odds and monsters to feed Hogan thus making him look like the greatest thing since sliced bread.

He was also a poor worker who leveraged his clout to make himself look amazing in every match. His charisma is awesome his back stage politicking and clout always made him the top of the show at the cost of whatever company he was with.

I think if you talk to most wrestlers that aren't in his circle of sucks ups and friends, they will say that he did great things in terms of bringing attention to the wrestling business in the 80's and early 90's, but he crushed more wrestlers and wrecked more companies then anyone else. I doubt that anyone outside of his circle of suck ups would even be bothered to cross the street to help him if his house was on fire.



When fans started getting smarter in the 90's fans and the attitude era hit, Hogan really couldn't adjust and he basically became a running joke as a Champion, put on even worse joke matches and utterly crushed anyone to protect himself, when he said he put over younger guys, he basically crushed then and made then look stupid and then basically rolled over on his back.

He really should have walked away from the business in about 96 instead he over saw the downfall of WCW with his backstage antics. Then went to TNA and used his enormous ego and backstage precence to get his friends their last big paydays while crushing the company under his boot.

You ask me why he was so popular, it was because Vince McMahon hit lightning in the bottle and decided that the business wasn't about Wrestling, it was about larger then life entertainment and Hogan could do that. At this height in WCW he rode one event as long as he could and then boosted himself on the fallen bodies of other wrestlers to keep his spot. By the time he hit TNA all of his charisma couldn't make him interesting or the company relevant.
 

GarbageGoal

Courage
Dec 1, 2005
22,353
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RI
Hogan was already popular before Vince Jr brought him back in 1983. He actually left WWF the first time because he filmed his part in Rocky III and Vince Sr didn't like it.

Verne Gagne was the dummy who let him slip from his grasp again.

And when he came back to WWF in 2002, he was so over they ditched his part in the nWo Outsiders angle fairly quickly due to the reaction he got in Toronto during the Rock match.
 

Cubs2024WSChamps

Tate MacRae follows me on Tiktok
Apr 29, 2015
7,885
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Hogan would have been a star in any era even today. Vince would cry happy tears if he had a prime Hogan on his roster right now.

Hogan got over huge because of his charisma. He could talk adults into the building (awa) then talked families into the arena in the E. The internet couldn't stop just how over Hogan was if the same scenario were to happen today.

Hogan was a legit super hero come to life, and 83-88 he was one of the most popular men in the entire world. He was beyond wrestling and similar to the Rock right now times two. If you didn't go thru Hulkamania you have no clue just how over he was.

He didn't want to drop the belt to Bret, even on the down swing? Who cares, it's Hogan.

He had creative control because he was a brand outside of wrestling? Who cares, it's Hogan.

Hogan made alot of people alot of money. Many are quick to say Austin was the most popular wrestler.......and to that I say, just no. Austin's height hits Hogan's NWO heel run but comes up way short his first face run during the RnW era
 
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JackSlater

Registered User
Apr 27, 2010
18,042
12,664
I think its a tough question to really answer.

why was he popular, because Vince McMahon made him popular and Hogan was smart enough and politically astute enough to ride that until he basically miscalculated and became a caricature of what made him popular

I mean he had all of the natural personality traits, he was smart enough to know that he had to do things that invited audience participation, he looked out at the audience, he hulked up with audience participation, he was the king of the catch phrase littered promo. But he was a boy band, he was a creation of Vince's and at the same time he was also a creation of a massive push. The wrestling audiences weren't as smart back then, so it was easy to push Hogan as a larger then life good guy against cartoonish bad guys. Vince also was smart enough to create over whelming odds and monsters to feed Hogan thus making him look like the greatest thing since sliced bread.

He was also a poor worker who leveraged his clout to make himself look amazing in every match. His charisma is awesome his back stage politicking and clout always made him the top of the show at the cost of whatever company he was with.

I think if you talk to most wrestlers that aren't in his circle of sucks ups and friends, they will say that he did great things in terms of bringing attention to the wrestling business in the 80's and early 90's, but he crushed more wrestlers and wrecked more companies then anyone else. I doubt that anyone outside of his circle of suck ups would even be bothered to cross the street to help him if his house was on fire.



When fans started getting smarter in the 90's fans and the attitude era hit, Hogan really couldn't adjust and he basically became a running joke as a Champion, put on even worse joke matches and utterly crushed anyone to protect himself, when he said he put over younger guys, he basically crushed then and made then look stupid and then basically rolled over on his back.

He really should have walked away from the business in about 96 instead he over saw the downfall of WCW with his backstage antics. Then went to TNA and used his enormous ego and backstage precence to get his friends their last big paydays while crushing the company under his boot.

You ask me why he was so popular, it was because Vince McMahon hit lightning in the bottle and decided that the business wasn't about Wrestling, it was about larger then life entertainment and Hogan could do that. At this height in WCW he rode one event as long as he could and then boosted himself on the fallen bodies of other wrestlers to keep his spot. By the time he hit TNA all of his charisma couldn't make him interesting or the company relevant.

Vince McMahon didn't make Hogan popular. Hogan got himself over, and in circumstances quite different than in WWF. Vince and Hogan was a nearly perfect marriage though, one guy with massive charisma and a promoter who was ballsy enough to bet huge when he saw potential. It helps that it happened at the perfect time with huge PPVs becoming realistic, the territory system still in place to fragment wrestling talent and an audience that enjoyed cartoony heroes, but that doesn't mean that Hogan didn't do his part.

The stuff about Hogan using his influence negatively... yeah that seems pretty much true. He only had that influence because he was such a massive star though.
 

Roo Returns

Skjeikspeare No More
Mar 4, 2010
9,255
4,783
Westchester, NY
He was a real life superhero and he had that blond tanned California look to go with it, plus the intensity and charisma. Also let's not forget he was booked geniusly. Always overcoming odds against an opponent usually bigger. At times a foreign menace.

How often if ever did he not get the comeback? People paid to see that.
 

Kimi

Registered User
Jun 24, 2004
9,890
636
Newcastle upon Tyne
A big part of why Hogan was good, outside his character work and charisma, was that he knew when to go away.

A problem that every wrestler has is over exposure, especially today. But Hogan was really good at knowing when his run was done, and would leave for a while. Then he'd come back for the big return pop and ride that wave for another run before leaving and starting the cycle again. It was always fresh, opposed to Cena who was always there.

Jericho does the same thing. He comes in for a run, then stays until the run is over, then goes off to be a rock star for a while (opposed to being a failed movie star like Hogan).
 

Ozz

Registered User
Oct 25, 2009
9,459
673
Hockeytown
It's crazy to think that some don't realize how popular Hogan was in the '80s. If you weren't there I'm not sure you can truly get it. Kinda like the 60s, I guess, but I wasn't there so I can only take the word from those who were - lol
 

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
129,839
75,228
New Jersey, Exit 16E
It is easy. Hogan is insanely charismatic. He is legit one of the best at working a crowd, and he had the right gimmick for the right time.

He may be a piece of shit, but he is good at this wrestling thing.
 

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