The Curious Case of Hulk Hogan

[CaptainZaltan]

You have no idea how to use the term "Ad-Hominem" correctly in a sentence. So stop trying to sound smarter than you are. Secondly, what you claimed i did to Candy, is exactly what you have done with me. Can we say hypocrisy? You have completely shown your lack of any logic or intelligence with your above posts and retorts. Thank you, i am now dumber having been introduced to your mindless drivel!!

Yes, I do. I studied logic. And no, I wasn't doing the same thing. I was trying to get you to shut up. I didn't realize I was feeding a troll until it was too late.

And NO HOGAN IS NOT A DRAW!!! Don't believe me, check out the numbers to American Gladiators & Hogan Knows Best. Both were dismal failures. He is completely irrelevant in this day and age, so keep him limited in his on air role with TNA. NOBODY WANTS TO SEE IT!!

Unlike you, I checked them. Both shows managed to draw higher ratings than TNA. I can't believe you have me defending Hulk Hogan here...

 

[TCBT]

Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Hulk Hogan was LET GO from the WWF due to his taking a role in Rocky III. Rocky 3 was released in 1982, two years after Hogan left the WWF. He then went on to become a huge star in the AWA, where Hulkamania ACTUALLY started. Hulk Hogan was HUGELY popular before the WWF re-signed him (and he only really re-signed because Gagne refused to put the title on him unless Hogan started giving him a percentage of Hogan's merchandise sales, which Hogan was selling by himself.)

And then he did this little thing in WCW called the nWo after he left the WWF. You might have heard of it, it was a pretty big deal, and pretty much ruins your point about "never being able to duplicate the success of his Hulkamania days".

So basically your post is just a clusterfuck of fail.

As I said, Hogan is a ratings draw, all evidence points to this. He may not be a great booker, but that's a discussion for a different thread.

For anyone like this guy bashing me or anyone else that is simply giving their opinion on Hulk Hogan, being tough in front of a computer isn't really being tough at all.

Hulk Hogan WAS in the WWE before Rocky, but nothing came from that. Obviously, I was referring to Hulk Hogan at his PRIME, hence during the time AFTER Rocky came out.

Anyway, I'll never take away the fact that Hogan draws. He's the most popular wrestler of all time. The reason why I criticize Hogan as a booker is because as a booker, he has the power to write the shows, and as a writer of the shows, he's involving himself too much into the storylines and he's quite bad in this new role, and if he's bad in his new role in the show he's writing, which is based all around him, then that makes for bad wrestling, bad television, and in turn, bad ratings.

Hogan was the best draw for the wrestling business back in the 80's. Then in the 90's, he became a great draw for the wrestling business, although not to the capacity of the 80's. That "little thing called the nWo" (as this guy I'm quoting sarcastically put it) had better writing and a group of people working as a team to put wrestling back on the map, not just Hogan alone!!! How can I prove that?? Because Hulk Hogan was stale, overused, and booed PRIOR to the creation of the nWo!!

Anyway, I give credit where credit is due. Hulk Hogan was the Michael Jackson of pro-wrestling, and that's saying a lot. But he's not anymore and needs to step back a bit from TNA.

 

[Hulkamaniac]

For anyone like this guy bashing me or anyone else that is simply giving their opinion on Hulk Hogan, being tough in front of a computer isn't really being tough at all.

How did I "act tough"? By calling you out for being dumb and talking like you knew what you were talking about, when you clearly did not. You said this in your first post:

Michael Jackson was NEVER able to duplicate his successes after Thriller, just as much as Hulk Hogan couldn't duplicate the successes of his prime "Hulkamania" days. And let's not forget the WWE picked him up at the best time - when he was gearing up to star as the lead in the next Rocky movie. So as far as I'm concerned, Hulk Hogan couldn't be the star he was if it wasn't for the McMahons and his role in Rocky.

This is blatantly wrong, as the movie had been out for over a year and a half by the time HOgan returned to the WWF. The film was released on May 28th, 1982. Hulk Hogan returned to the WWF on December 27th, 1983. So again, no, you're wrong, and an idiot for stubbornly sticking to your wrongness when you're so incredibly and obviously wrong.

Hulk Hogan WAS in the WWE before Rocky, but nothing came from that. Obviously, I was referring to Hulk Hogan at his PRIME, hence during the time AFTER Rocky came out.

Hogan was let go from the WWF for taking the role in Rocky. Vince McMahon, Sr. didn't think wrestlers should do anything but wrestle. So they were far from capitalizing on anything. Hogan went to the AWA with all that fame from the movie, and made himself a huge star. At the time when he was brought back to the WWF by Vince Jr., he was already the most over babyface in pro wrestling at the time, already starting to be known outside of the territorial system which is remarkable. So, he didn't "need" the WWF to be famous. He got famous all by himself. And, as I said, "Hulkamania" was a term Hogan came up with in the AWA, not the WWF.

Hogan was the best draw for the wrestling business back in the 80's. Then in the 90's, he became a great draw for the wrestling business, although not to the capacity of the 80's. That "little thing called the nWo" (as this guy I'm quoting sarcastically put it) had better writing and a group of people working as a team to put wrestling back on the map, not just Hogan alone!!! How can I prove that?? Because Hulk Hogan was stale, overused, and booed PRIOR to the creation of the nWo!!

He transformed the business with the nWo angle, you fool. No company has come close to beating Vince since he took over for his dad, until Hogan went heel in WCW, when they not only beat the WWF, they DOMINATED the WWF. Beating the WWE is definitely akin to duplicating his past success. Hogan was stale and booed before the heel turn? No fucking duh, obviously he was. That doesn't change the fact that when he did turn heel, it changed the face of wrestling, and made WCW a major competitor for WWF.

So, in conclusion, you're wrong about almost everything I quoted here, but you refuse to acknowledge it and keep sticking to your incredibly wrong guns.

 

[Tastycles]

You have got to be joking. Hulk Hogan is the biggest draw in wrestling history bar none. Has he lost a bit of his power now? Yes, but the TNA ratings that run unopposed to the WWE are higher than they have been ever before, albeit only by a little bit. Hogan's usefulness as a draw now remains to be seen, but in historic terms it is unquestionable. When he dropped the WCW title the first time, the rating dropped by almost .5 immediately. Even more saliently the ratings went from pulling high 2s to pulling medium to high 3s almost as soon as he turned heel. That's effecting the ratings for you.

 

[Chrome]

I just finish watching the Bret Hart documentary and he made me realise something, Hulk hogan is a ratings killer. It's curious how a guy who is probably the most over performer in the industry isn't able to get good T.V. ratings for the company he works for.

This started way back in 1993 when Hulk Hogan pretty forced Vince to give him the title at wrestlemania 9. Has soon as Hogan became champion, the ratings for raw when down the toilet. They were still selling alot of hogan merchandise but nobody was watching hogan on t.v. The rating were so bad that they had to give the belt back to yokozuna 3 month later instead of doing the program they were suppose to do and wait until summerslam to give the belt back to bret hart.

Then Hogan got release from wwe and went to WCW a year later and then again, the arenas we're full, they were selling a lot of hogan merchandise but the ratings were down. Until the NWO came in but i don't give credit to hogan for this because it was a group effort and not just one man that brought the ratings up. So yet again Hogan as a solo act didn't bring in Ratings for WCW but did put butts in seat.

Then you have is first return to the WWE, again they gave him a title reign and again the ratings when down for the whole month he had the belt. But people wanted to see him wrestle live and sold a lot of merchandise.

Same scenerio for his second and third return to the WWE. All his outside t.v. projects failed, even American Gladiator who got a good first season but the second season failed. Now he's in TNA and again, his segment on IMPACt are the lowest rated segment on the show week after week.

So the curious thing is how is a guy that pretty much made a career out of his name and became the biggest name in wrestling isn'T able to get peoples to watch him on t.v?

Every other huge name like Austin, Flair and The Rock are able to help ratings go up everytime they show up so why is hogan not able to?

Your dead wrong here.. Hogan was a ratings king in the 90's. Check out the graph below from 1995-1998 when hogan was on top more than 75% of that time. In regards to Bret and his comments, ratings dropped because Hogan was not on TV during his world title regin after Wrestlemania when he won it from Yokozuna. he did not appear on TV till King of the ring.. then left for WCW in 1994. (see graph below) even when he was champ (after the NWO) there ratings were still strong (3.0 - 5+) true they didn't beat RAW but there numbers were still great and would beat the RAW ratings of today with average 3.0. So Hogan was a top draw since most of it he was the champ, the moment he wasn't champ in 2000 is when ratings got lower and lower. (hogan was not on TV then)

Also in regards to ratings.. you do realize hogan knowns best was a top rated show for VH1 right and gave brook a spin off? I also think he suffered from over exposure from it.

American gladiators? the rock could host that show and it would still suck! lolol That show was terrible hands down. And it wasn't Hogans fault, but he did have a lot of bad PR that year with his divorce and his son's issue. You can't blame hulk for that.

 

[Kenny Powers]

SOCIALIZM!!! REPULIKANS!!! Jesus this thread is worst then a Judy Bagwell on Forklift match. I don't think it's fair to lay all the blame on Hogan's doorstep with ratings. The same can be said about TNA. Would there really be a fighting chance of TNA even pulling a 1.5 or even a 1.0 on a Monday night without Hogan?

Obviously the ratings have tanked since then which can be blamed on some over exposure of Hogan, but lets not forget that its a team effort and it took the TNA team working together to either gain or lose their audience. I do think that Hogan is living in the past trying to book old school matches and cut promos like it's 1985. I think if Hogan was less kayfabe and just came out as Terry instead of Hulk Hogan then people wouldn't be sick of him. His name alone will still sell tickets and merchandise, but no wrestling organization can live on the Hogan name alone.

Bret Hart or even HBK weren't much of a ratings grabber either. Bret could lay the blame at Hogan, but I didn't see the ratings increase when Hogan left and Bret and Shawn were the champions. The same can be said when Hogan was pushed down the throats of the WCW audience. It wasn't until he turned heel and formed NWO that people actually cared about Hogan again. It wasn't Hogan or NWO alone that created the Monday Night War and ratings for WCW. There was a lot of talent there that helped.

TNA just doesn't have the name value of the WWE. No matter who comes to TNA like Hogan, Flair, Hardy, etc. It doesn't really have a big impact because a lot of people either see TNA as second rate or they have no clue what TNA is. I honestly feel until TNA becomes a legitimate company, it doesn't matter if a name like Cena, Rock, or even Austin shows up there.

Its easy to blame Russo, Bischoff, or Hogan, but at the end of the day if it was someone like Austin going to TNA I'm sure TNA would still be in the same predicament with dismal ratings and no new fan base. What is the purpose of having a show with tons of talent if no one is watching?