What if? Terry Bollea without Hulkamania?

[@smarkmouth]

With no disrespect meant to people who post "what if" threads, generally a thread titled "what if" annoys me. The hypotheticals of if Benoit or Eddie were alive are just that, hypothetical. This, however, is a legitimate question about marketability.

It's commonplace in WWE for character names and likeness's to be owned by the company, rather then be owned by the performer. Granted, most persona's end up created by WWE in the first place. But there are of course examples of WWE purchasing the names from talent (see poor PJ Palaco), often leaving them high and dry if the leave the company. Without their previous persona, they are just not as marketable for other companies as they would be. I've thought about this lately, pertaining to one of the biggest chunks of marketability in wrestling, Hulk Hogan.

This leads me to my questions about Hulk Hogan, the Hulkamania brand, the nicknames, the catchphrases, the poses and taunts. If Vince McMahon and the WWE owned every stitch of it;

Would it have been worth it for WCW to hire in 1994 Terry Bollea and rebrand him?

Was Hulk Hogan too big for Bollea to possibly be marketed as something else, in WCW or possibly elsewhere?

 

[K Bro 30]

I mean, there's definitely ways to get by the technicalities. Hulk Hogan was completely different from Hollywood Hogan. The music, the attire, the look, the colors, you name it, it was different. So I feel like WCW could have brought him a long, pulled the Nash/Hall card where they didn't say Diesel/Razor Ramon. They could have found a way. Both Hall and Nash enjoyed success in WCW without their names. I think it could have worked, probably not as well, but certainly would not have flopped.

The one difference might be he is now signed to a Legend's Contract instead of pursuing his other endeavors (Impact, MCW, CCW, Hogan Knows Best)....but I think he'd still be a huge draw because he changed his character completely, and did it well.

 

[Paralyzer Z]

Hollywood hogan was much different than milk hogan.

All that matters is if Hogan was still in his name. People knew who the man was and even if he too the Hogan part out he still would have been a le to draw. WCW probably would have found some creative way to market the fact he was hogan.

Hogan is a legend wherever he goes