At What Point Did Hulk Hogan Stop Being Bigger Than The Wrestling Business?

[RIPbossman]

Before his scandal, Tiger Woods had lots of endorsements, talk show appearances and positive sports articles written about him. He was everywhere, and if you asked someone who didn't watch golf to name 1 current golfer, they almost definitely would say Tiger Woods. Its safe to say Tiger was bigger than the sport of golf, but never had any high profile accomplishments outside of golf. All his media appearances and endorsements were tied to him being a golfer.

Hulk Hogan may have needed his wrestling persona for all his media appearances, guest TV appearances and whatnot, but his name was recognizable enough and his face was in the media enough (in positive ways) that he was bigger than wrestling.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Before his scandal, Tiger Woods had lots of endorsements, talk show appearances and positive sports articles written about him. He was everywhere, and if you asked someone who didn't watch golf to name 1 current golfer, they almost definitely would say Tiger Woods. Its safe to say Tiger was bigger than the sport of golf, but never had any high profile accomplishments outside of golf. All his media appearances and endorsements were tied to him being a golfer.

Hulk Hogan may have needed his wrestling persona for all his media appearances, guest TV appearances and whatnot, but his name was recognizable enough and his face was in the media enough (in positive ways) that he was bigger than wrestling.

Well said.

The answer to this question is honestly how you answer the question of what it means to be bigger than something.

For a long time, if you mentioned Golf to someone who didn't know a thing about the sport, the common response would have been "Oh do you mean like Tiger Woods?"

With wrestling, it was like "Oh like Hulk Hogan?"

To me, when someone hits those types of heights in their respective field, then they've transcended their field and become bigger than it.

 

[LBGetBack]

Nah. I wanted to say when Vince bought WCW, but then I remember how hot the crowd was for Hogan when he faced The Rock at Wrestlemania. I want to say the true hype died down during that strange Mr. America stint he did with Roddy Piper, Zack Gowen, and Sean O'haire. It was just too weird for people to get into, and the whole thing was eventually scrapped. He would get the crowd going here and there after that, but for me it wasn't the same since he donned a mask and pretended not to be himself.

He didn't pretend not to be himself. He made it as blatantly clear as possible that he was himself. He was doing it to f with Vince, who "fired" him. Wearing a mask but doing everything else the same.

But yeah, I have no idea where they were going with that.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

He didn't pretend not to be himself. He made it as blatantly clear as possible that he was himself. He was doing it to f with Vince, who "fired" him. Wearing a mask but doing everything else the same.

But yeah, I have no idea where they were going with that.

Yeah, that was pretty much identical to when he did the Hulk Machine gimmick in the 80's.

Backstory:

Andre was still a babyface feuding with the Heenan Family, and was kayfabe suspended (can't remember why in kayfabe - IRL it was medical). Some time after, new footage airs of a team coming to the WWF from Japan called the Machines. Their was Big Machine (Blackjack Mulligan), Super Machine (Demolition Ax), and Giant Machine (Andre).

Heenan was beside himself at Andre cheating to get out of his suspension, and would do everything he could to expose Andre as the Giant Machine.

The Machine's were pretty popular, so on the house show tour, they added a 4th member. Hulk Machine.

Hulk Machine was of course Hulk Hogan in black tights wearing a Machine mask. He would act completely like Hulk Hogan, and even do spots in each match where he'd lift his mask up to the crowd to show them who he really was.

Point of the story. Hogan's kind of a weird guy.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

You're missing a major point though... Hogan didn't even own the rights to his name untill well into the latter stages of his career. He had to pay Marvel to license it, as did Vince and WCW... that includes the "Bigger than wrestling" period you're talking about, he had to be Hollywood Hogan or Terry Hogan for Thunder in Paradise...

On top of all I've already said, if you don't own your name - you're not bigger than the business you're in...or the one who owns it... remember how in his early movies the WWE always got a credit but later on when Dwayne became the big star rather than The Rock he didn't...

 

[MrMojoRisin]

You're missing a major point though... Hogan didn't even own the rights to his name untill well into the latter stages of his career. He had to pay Marvel to license it, as did Vince and WCW... that includes the "Bigger than wrestling" period you're talking about, he had to be Hollywood Hogan or Terry Hogan for Thunder in Paradise...

On top of all I've already said, if you don't own your name - you're not bigger than the business you're in...or the one who owns it... remember how in his early movies the WWE always got a credit but later on when Dwayne became the big star rather than The Rock he didn't...

That's kind of a unique way of looking at it...

considering if Marvel had a trademark on the name "The Rock" because one of their biggest properties was called "The Rock"... then I'm pretty sure that regardless of how big of a star the man who is STILL often billed as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson became...

there would still be a little disclaimer on everything he did saying that Marvel owned the rights to that name!

Maybe if he was Ant Man Hogan they wouldn't have cared that much, but considering the Hulk has always been kind of a big deal for Marvel, you can't really blame them for wanting to hold on to the rights to that name.

 

[Makaveli31]

Hulk Hogan was never bigger than the pro wrestling business. Hr was always a wrestler who made movies, tv shows, commercials etc...it was never the other way around. He never achieved that mainstream success that would've allowed him to leave the WWF and the pro wrestling business. Hulk Hogan needed wrestling, wrestling didn't necessarily need Hogan.

The Rock on the other hand became bigger than the business. His identity is independent of WWE. He is no longer looked too as a pro wrestler who does movies, he is a full actor who makes "celebrity" appearances in the WWE.

 

[GhettoV1]

Thanks to the WWF Hulk Hogan became a huge name. Best thing Hogan did was leave the AWA when he had the chance to grow his brand.