Which Superstar was the bigger draw?
Hulk Hogan. Austin had great moments and no one should or will in my opinion ever question that. Austin was just outright phenomenal and so vital to the resuscitation of the World Wrestling Federation. Without him to lead the charge who knows how things would have been? Again I can't and won't discredit The Undertaker, The Rock, Mick Foley or Triple H but Austin is the guy that led that group and led it well. However, Hulk Hogan even with incredibly awesome talent to support him in the 1980s in the form of Macho Man, Ricky Steamboat, Ted DiBiase, The Junkyard Dog and others, Hogan was the guy that had the entire WWF built around him after he left the AWA to return to the company. The first 9 WrestleManias prove that.
Which Superstar was more entertaining?
I'm not going to let my bias of the Hulk Hogan character cloud me on this one, I was more entertained by Hulk Hogan to be honest, I just like Hogan more.
But to be fair, I think Austin had better range in the way he could entertain, he had better segments and did very well as a non-wrestler when he became Co-RAW GM as well as his special appearances as a guest referee. As a non-performer I don't have the same confidence in Hogan's abilities. While I don't think he's holding people back in his current TNA role like some might feel, I just don't think he comes off as well in a non-wrestling capacity as Austin did.
Therefore, even though I like Hogan more and always will, Austin gets the nod for most entertaining.
Has either superstar hurt the business in any way, shape, or form?
No. I don't care what people say and I don't care what their opinions are. There are a lot of things about Hulk Hogan that are less than positive as we have seen in the past few years, i.e. the situation with his son. I have my own reasons for not caring too much for what he said about the young Marine who almost got killed in the accident his son caused, but then again even as a former Marine myself I can't be blind, the Marine in question put himself in a position to let a 17 year old kid drive drunk. Only so much blaming can be done there in the way of Hogan (Bollea)'s public image but just the same when he said that "God put some heavy sh*t on John Graziano" was enough to be greatly disappointed in Hogan.
Anyway though I don't care about backstage hearsay about Hogan's antics as a wrestler, a lot of is suspect and fishy and outright ridiculous to believe. Like one poster pointed out Starrcade, I need more evidence that it was Hulk Hogan's fault that the count was botched because of him. I think it's possible Nick Patrick missed his cue. Now I do think that Hogan's ego along with several others in WCW never helped no doubt bout that, but Hogan was far from being the only one who wanted things his ways, I think many people like to ignore that and just place the blame on Hogan. Bottom line is a lot of us on the internet that follow the backstage happenings tend to forget that most fans watching could give a shit about what happens back stage and if they did Hogan would be excommunicated from wrestling as a result but since that is not the case, what happens backstage has not led to Hogan hurting the business.
Austin if what is said about him is true should not be one that is blindly defended either. After all he supposedly walked out on the company TWICE in 2002. Frustrated with the creative direction he left the company, now I think this very well could be kayfabe I am not for certain again like the Hogan situations none of us fans are there to see things happen, who really here can separate work from shoot and be outright accurate in such a declaration. Simple answer...no one. Either way, if the case of Austin walking out is true than that's an outright shitty position to put a company in to, Hogan as I have heard has done similar moves (2003's Mr. America stint where he left abruptly) but I can't think of that case matching the magnitude of Austin's walk outs (unless they really were storylines that we were fooled into thinking were shoots). Also during that same time he went to court for beating Debra in a domestic situation, again not the type of behavior that looks good for a valued member of WWE's roster. If that case happened five years later amid the Benoit Murder/Suicide case then I can guarantee you it would not be so easily forgotten like it was back in 2002. In a time where people like Jeff Hardy are reviled because of a drug addiction we have a guy that has had a rap sheet for domestic assault be given a free pass. Kind of a double standard if you ask me.
But the bottom line (pardon the pun) is that neither of these men's personal lives or public scandals or company conduct have done a damn thing to hurt the business for it still exists today even if we are not in the Rock N Wrestling or Attitude era.
Which one of these legends helped the business overall the most?
Hulk Hogan. I stand by this one and even with how much of a riot I think Steve Austin is he can't compare to Hogan in the way of his contributions. People can talk about merchandise sales meeting record numbers because of Austin (but people these days forget how the internet as opposed to mail order catalogs helped make that very easy in the Attitude era) and at the prices WWE charges for their merchandise you can see why it's so easy for them to make money, that's not to say Austin 3:16 wasn't an effective merchandising slogan but I dare say that if the internet age was around during the Hulkamania era, you'd get some good sales numbers for Hogan. By using the merchandising sales argument that would be like saying that The Dark Knight (which don't get me wrong is a great movie) is better than the original Batman movie because it made over a billion dollars. (Again charging over 10 bucks a ticket or more doesn't hurt that result)
But aside from merchandising, Hulk Hogan wins this category hands down, love or hate the guy where he's gone to wrestle has benefited greatly from his presence. With TNA it's still too soon to tell so the OP saying that the company is close to its deathbed is vastly premature. TNA is not setting the world on fire but with close to 2 million viewers they're not doing as bad as the IWC likes to make them out to be doing. However, even with that said I will say this slightly hurts Hogan but the fact that Hogan was already a star wrestler before going back to the WWF after the AWA and how he was able to leave the WWF and have a successful career elsewhere negates this.
Speaking of that this is where I wrap up my argument on why Hogan's helped the business more. When the WWF fired him the first time for doing the Rocky III movie and Hogan went to the AWA he became the "Hulkamania" Hulk Hogan that we know of today. The company was finding new success with Hogan in the Minnesota based federation and had Hogan been given the AWA title, and had Gagne taken the new direction of wrestling more seriously who knows, the AWA might have been the company that ended up buying everyone else out. You can talk all you want about Vince being the be all end all of the business but had Verne Gagne had a better vision who's to say he couldn't have had the company that made wrestling bigger. After all he was already in business for nearly 30 years at that point and most of his roster were guys that went to the WWF during the 80s boom.
Anyway fast forward past Hogan's WWF return in the 80s because we know how huge that was, but the fact this guy alone went to WCW (which by the way was in just as bad of shape years before Hogan's debut as it was before the WWF buyout) and he revitalized the promotion. Even though people had gotten tired of the red and yellow after being in the company for a couple years the fact that Hogan could use that to catapult a second life for himself as Hollywood Hogan says it all. As great as Stunning Steve Austin was in WCW (I personally thought it was a great persona), Austin can not ever claim that he could be a top guy in more than just one company while Hogan did so with three separate entities. That's not even counting Hogan's huge following in Japan and you have a very lopsided comparison when it comes to the impact of both performers.
But to be fair, Austin's injuries are also another factor which I think hinders this argument, Austin while he had a hugely successful run as the top star of WWF/E, he only lasted four-five years in that role and he only headlined a few WrestleManias, while Hogan was promoted heavily in all 11 that he wrestled at. His appearances at 18 and 19 might not have been the last matches of the night but every time you saw promotional material for those two his likeness was heavily used to promote the events.
With that said, you can't compare the two, Hogan's success in previous wrestling entities motivated the competition to court him and sign him to lucrative deals which in turn has changed the fortunes of wherever he goes. We still got some time before we really know what happens to TNA and as far as WCW goes, let's not forget that the company was still pulling decent numbers compared to the Turner networks other programming, while they were losing money, they were losing just as much money back in the early 90s before Hogan debuted. I think corporate mergers along with the egos like Hogans were a one two punch to the company's selling to WWF, but without really knowing what happened behind the scenes just blaming Hogan as the sole reason is ridiculous.
So in closing I score 3-1 in favor of Hogan.
