Lariat's Elite 8 Old School Talker's series: (2) Hulk Hogan vs (7) The Rock

[It's...Baylariat!]

Lariat's Elite 8 Old School Talker's series​

Hulk Hogan​

vs​

The Rock​

The incredible HULK.. HOGAN... vs the People's Champion.. the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment.... The... ROCK! Two great talkers... both larger than life...

FIGHT!

 

[TheKingHustla]

This is an extremely hard one. The Rock idolized Hulk, and both were wonderful on the mic. It's kind of sad to me that Hogan stayed longer than he should and it seems like Rock might end up going down that same road, but me growing up watching Rock on WWF during the monday night wars, I have to side with Rocky.

 

[Rckstrtmmy]

Hogan had energy and character when he talked...he was great for sure. But Rocky IMO is the best talker of all time. His charisma is through the roof and his comedy was always spot on. He could have you hanging on the edge of your seat, and you can know exactly where he's going with what he's saying, but when he gets there he can still get a reaction out of you. Thats hard to do, and nobody can do that better than The Rock. Hogan was great, but Rocky is timeless.

 

[MrHashasheen]

Hogan. I might get a lot of shit for this, but a lot of what the Rock says does not strike a chord in me, nor does it amuse me. In comparison, watching Hogan cut a promo is both entertaining and at times realistic. Rock had two styles: Comedic Mocking and Righteous Anger. Hogan could pull off anger, confidence, heartbreak/despair and vengeance and a variety of emotions to get across what he said.

I might be the only one to feel this, but Hulkamania, brother. Hulkamania.

 

[#hamler]

Working over the crowd means you have great mic skills. And how great were The Rock and Hogan at working over the crowd? They both often relied heavily on catch phrases to get the crowd going. However, I'm giving this one to The Rock. In my honest opinion, Hogan was terrible until he left the WWF. After his time in the WWF came to an end, he became increasingly better and better each promo. The Rock however, was always good at talking. Whether he was Heel or face, he would be great at talking shit. The Rock's promo skills may be overrated by some, but they are also unmatched. Even the best wrestler in the world (Hogan) doesn't have the mic skills The Rock possesses.

Vote The Rock

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

It's hard to vote against Rock when it comes to mic skills. Hulk was a great talker and he could build up his feuds magnifcently just like The Rock. Both guys are equally adept at working the crowd, be it as a face or as a heel. But The Rock is someone whom the crowds will pay millions for just to hear him on the mic. He does not neccesarily need to feud with someone to cut a promo on him and entertain us. He is someone who can come out at anytime and just cut a promo on absolutely anybody on the roster, talk about whatever he feels like, and the crowd will lap it up. Hogan can talk brilliantly when he has been given some material to work with. Rock does not neccesarily need that. I am not talkig about scripting promos as it is obvious that almost all promos are scripted. I am talking about feuds here. In Hogan's case you need to build the guy up as a challenge before Hogan can start weaving his magic. That is not the case with Rock. A case in point is Michael Cole. He was not a challenge to The Rock at any point of his career yet all the interactions that Rock has had with Cole are nothing short of epic.

So I will go with The Rock here.

 

[Fenris]

This is.... A tough one. It's close between these two.

Charisma: They're both dripping with it. They both know how to strike a chord with the fans and have millions of wrestling fans eating out of the palm of their hands by the time the promo ended.

Intensity: The edge goes to Hogan. His WWF era promos were consistently intense as you can get. By the time he finished his 30 second-2 minute promo you were fired up and ready for the war. Hogans stands at the top when it comes to intense promos.

Fan interaction: The edge goes to The Rock. Hogan saved his fan interaction until after his matches, The Rock dialed it up to 11 and brought his fans with him into his promos, matches and celebrations. The Rock brought the millions into the WWF/E Universe and took the idea of 20,000 fans cutting a promo in unison to the forefront. Although Hogan updated that in his last WWE run.

Style: The edge goes to Hogan. Hulk Hogan totally reinvented himself including his promo style in WCW and has shown he is multifaceted in that department. The Rock has basically been doing the same promo since 1998/1999. That's not a bad thing, the fans still eat it up but as a face or heel it's always been the same style. When Hogan went heel his promo style completely changed.

As unpopular as it's going to be I gotta go with Hogan. Hulk had the ability to get the message across, get his point across and get the people fired up fast. If you gave him a 45 second spot he got to the point and got it done. The Rock needs 10 minutes just to get his catch phrases going. Hogan also changed whereas The Rock hasn't. The Immortal Hulk Hogan was vastly different than Hollywood Hogan, the Hollywood Hulk Hogan WWE version was different than both and a whole different level. He's done 30 second promos, 30 minute promos and everything in between and nailed it. He could make you love him and eat out of his hand, he could make you hate his guts and want his ass kicked. He could quickly turn the fans on the babyface. The Rock even when heeling still gets huge face pops and can't get heel heat.

No doubt The Rock is one of the greatest ever, and no doubt this debate is VERY close but IMO Hogan edges out The Rock at this point in time.

 

[wrestling89]

This one would be a hard debate even if you judge each guy for each of their interview personalities.

Hogan: He had the 80's AWA-WWF Hulkamania promo, he had the WCW face promo, he had the nWo Hollywood heel promo, he had the tweener WWE promo, and he had the non-wrestling Hogan knows best promo.

Rock: He had the Rocky Maivia smiling promo, he had the talk about different unrelated NOD promos, and he had The ROCK promos.

Those different styles are worthy of debate themselves. Personally I enjoyed the 80's Hulkamania and the unrelated NOD promos of the Rock.

If you don't remember the NOD Rock promos, basically it was when the Nation would come to the ring, and he was wrestling say Ken Shamrock, he would go on and talk about starving kids in China or something like that.

But that's off the subject, back to the debate.

Both guys were charismatic, so that's a wash. Both guys are household names all over the world, so that's a wash. Both had the biggest and baddest feuds ever, so that's a wash.

Hogan for an entire decade WAS the WWF. The Rock was a part of the WWF, as Austin, Undertaker, and HHH kind of stole some of his thunder.

Hogan had some of the worst movies ever, while the Rock were in some good stuff, not great, but good.

Since this race is pretty neck and neck, I would have to go on something that an earlier post mentioned. The fact that the Rock could get into a promo with anyone and make them entertaining.

Hogan couldn't do it. He couldn't get Bundy over, Bundy smashing his ribs, got him over. Same with Earthquake. I never bought either one as a top contender.

The Rock got The Coach and Michael Cole over. Who in the hell could do that? I gotta say that some of the stuff between Coach and the Rock were some of the best comedy promos of all time.

Think perspective, that would have been like Hogan getting both Mel Phillips and Sean Mooney over in the 80's.

Bottom line: The Rock over Hogan.