Deexter Jorgan
Has a Dark Passenger on board...
Whilst reading Norcals thread about how much the Macho mans title win meant in the era that was Hulkamania I started to really think about Professional wrestling and sports Entertainment, the fact is till this day Hogan has had a career that has often been imitated but never matched.
This article talks about Hogans drawing Power over the WWE and WCW, it does not talk about his return to the ring after WCW due to the fact that it was at a time where his dominance wasnt as strong as it was at these times in history.
I will skip the personal life stuff and go straight into Hogans Wrestling Career:
Early career
Trained By Hiro Matsuda Hogan Worked his debute match against Brian Blair working for Eddie Graham, in Fort Myers, Florida on August 10, 1977. A short time later, Bollea donned a mask and assumed the persona of "The Super Destroyer," a hooded character first played by Don Jardine and subsequently used by several other wrestlers.
A few months later, he joined Louie Tillet's Alabama territory, where he tag teamed with Ed Leslie (later known as Brutus Beefcake) as Terry and Ed Boulder. These early matches as a tag team with the surname Boulder being used by both men prompted a rumor among wrestling fans unaware of the inner workings of the sport that Hogan and Beefcake were brothers, as few people actually knew their real names outside of immediate friends, family, and of course the various promoters the two worked for.
During this time, he appeared on a talk show, where he sat beside Lou Ferrigno, star of the television series The Incredible Hulk. The host commented how Terry, who stood 6 ft 7 in (201 cm) and weighed 295 pounds with 24 inch biceps, actually dwarfed "the Hulk." As a result, Bollea began performing as Terry "The Hulk" Boulder and sometimes wrestled as Sterling Golden.
In May 1979, Bollea had an early shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, whose holder was at the time generally recognized as the industry's best. In June 1979, Bollea won his first wrestling championship, the NWA Southeast Heavyweight Championship, recognized in Alabama and Tennessee when he defeated Ox Baker.
In 1978 -1980 Hogan worked for the world Wide Wrestling Federation which at the time was an NWA territory booked by Vince Mcmahon SR, Hogan wrestled his first feud against Andre the giant Culmulating in a match at Shea Stadium, it was told by Hogan in his autobiography that he and Andre where the reason the gate sold out, but it was also stated in Wikipedia that Hogan and Andre wrestled in White Plains, New York, drawing 1,200 in a building that held 3,500 this was the main event prior to Hogan Wrestling Andrea in Shea.
[youtube]avmRhhNnzLc[/youtube]
New Japan Pro Wrestling (19801983)
This is where Hogan had his greatest sucess winning the IWGP Tournament (First International to do so) by defeating the japanese Icon Antonio Inoki by knockout in the fina
ls of a ten man tournament and winning the MSG Tag League tournament two years in a row row in 1982 and 1983 with Inoki as his partner.
[youtube]3gA_U3NIs24[/youtube]
[youtube]KIuEcao2cCM[/youtube]
[youtube]qXg-P7Vw2c0[/youtube]
[youtube]gLxsuLBKT9E[/youtube]
[youtube]wFys9DtP1tw[/youtube]
Hogans popularity in Japan was so great that they actually nicknamed him "Ichiban".
American Wrestling Association (19811983)
After having a falling out with Vince Mcmahon Sr in regards to his role in the film Rocky 3, Hogan left for the American Wrestling Association owned by Verne Gagne, Hogans was started off as a heel but due to his more charismatic and muscular physic the fans turned Hogan Face, IMO this is where Hulkamania started as Hogan started to gain more momentum,
Hogan soon became the promotion's top babyface, and throughout 1983, he engaged in a big feud against AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel and his manager Bobby Heenan. Gagne, however, continued to tease the AWA audience by booking numerous screwjobs meant to keep the championship with Bockwinkel.
because Hogan was not an "old school" technical wrestler, Gagne would not let him be champion. On several occasions, Hogan defeated Bockwinkel to win the title, only to have the decision later reversed.
one crowd nearly rioted until Hogan himself calmed the audience down
[youtube]TxokO8CBonA[/youtube]
[youtube]a2SY7kNa4x8[/youtube]
Hogan himself also began to grow frustrated with Verne Gagne's unwillingness to give Hogan a larger share of his merchandise sales.
Eventually, Gagne was finally ready to book Hogan to win the AWA title; however, according to Hogan, Gagne wanted a piece of the large money Hogan was making from his frequent trips to Japan, more control over the bookings that Hogan took overseas. Hogan refused flatly, saying he didn't need the AWA title at that point.
Return to the WWF (1983 - 1993): BIRTH OF HULKAMANIA
By this time Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon JR baught the WWWF from his father renaming it the WWF and recreating the company from local promotion to nationwide sports entertainment showcase, due to Hogans name recognition, previous working relationship in Hollywood and great charisma, Vince wanted Hogan to became the companies centre piece, the main attraction that would put butts on seats and provide a vast return for the newly rebranded company.
Hogan made his return to the WWF at a television taping in St. Louis, Missouri on December 27, 1983 defeating Bill Dixon. Initially, Hogan was a heel, once again allied with Blassie; however, this was short-lived.
On January 7, 1984 edition of Championship Wrestling, Hogan saved Bob Backlund from a three-way assault.
Hogan's turn was explained simply by Backlund: "He's changed his ways. He's a great man. He's told me he's not gonna have Blassie around".
The storyline shortcut was necessary because less than three weeks later on January 23, Hogan won his first WWF Championship, pinning The Iron Sheik (who had Blassie in his corner) in Madison Square Garden.
Gorilla Monsoon coined the frase Hulkamania as Hogan won his first WWE championship from the Iron sheikh, during this time wrestling went into a new phase, some have called it rock and wrestling others have simply called it the Hulk Hogan era, but you cant deny this was the birth of main stream wrestling otherwise known as Sports entertainment and Hogan became the centrepiece of this era becoming the most requested celebrity with the make a wish foundation of the 1980's, he sold out arenas and main evented pay perviews making not only himself but the WWE alot of money.
Hulk Hogan and MR T main evented wrestlemania 1 in a culmination of a feud between Hogan, Mr T, Piper and Orndoff .
[youtube]HKbR4Dh85C8[/youtube]
[youtube]2aRwbwLxLr0[/youtube]
[youtube]N2LNmaTuztg[/youtube]
[youtube]samNFe8vqeI[/youtube]
[youtube]UycLwE8eXyQ[/youtube]
[youtube]CgOMXi95GUU[/youtube]
Hogans reign as champion was a dominate one for over four years a title reign by todays standards would have been long and overdone, but the crowd remained hot, ticket sales remained high and the attention remained solely on the WWF champion as Hulk defended the championship in feuds against Terry Funk, "The Magnificent" Don Muraco, King Kong Bundy (in a steel cage match at WrestleMania 2),Paul Orndorff,and Hercules Hernandez.
[youtube]Pknpbyl6pfc[/youtube]
[youtube]RG_mAgCWuB4[/youtube]
Hogan was the companies top Babyface having challengers built up as threats to not only his championship but to Hulkamania, many attempted to challenge the strong champion but non succeeded in taking the title from his grasp.
[youtube]AZllGmRt_VE[/youtube]
[youtube]SwjzSZg1B9Q[/youtube]
Andre would capture the WWF championship in an episode of Saturday Nights Main event ending hogans reign of Four years and 13 days due to a controversial finish and back hand deals with the Million Dollar man Ted Dibiase.
A Tournament was held at Wrestlemania 4 for the vacant WWf Championship with the evantual winner being Macho Man Randy Savage
Hogan still remaind the face of the company starring in one of the first films made by WWE studios (Due to the fact that it was Vince's financing that made the film possible and was used as a way to help Hogan move more closer into Hollywood).
[youtube]uNiS-KVM6qE[/youtube]
Savage would hold the WWF championship for over a year dropping the belt back to hogan at Wrestlemania 5 having Hogan once again held the championship for only a year, due to commitments to the film No Holds Barred.
[youtube]FMWEyXhaVJU[/youtube]
[youtube]h-KlXYnzYNc[/youtube]
, during this time he won the royal rumble in 1990 a time when the Rumble was not a road to the WWE championship, he then moved on to face a man who was being billed up as the new face of the WWF, a man who was booked strong the then intercontinental champion, the Ultimate Warrior as Wrestlemania 6
[youtube]Z9-T0jtelrQ[/youtube]
[youtube]TOT42cD1qT4[/youtube]
The Warriors reign was short lived dropping the championship to the biggest Heel in the WWE at the time Sgnt Slaughter, Hogan again was thrusted back into the title picture for Wrestlemania 7 Defeating Slaughter to become the WWF Champion for a third time and once again recording record revenues for the WWF in terms of gate and PPv revenue.
[youtube]nDVAmSgcs_E[/youtube]
Hogan then began to feud with the unstoppable phenom known as the undertaker in 1991 where he faced the Dead man Hogan lost the WWF championship to the undertaker due to interference from a man who in the NWA came close to mirroring Hogans sucess, the nature boy Ric Flair.
[youtube]OM2-Zj-RkSk[/youtube]
[youtube]5wZTk66hsIw[/youtube]
Hogan would then regain the championship within six days later defeating the undertaker at a special PPV known as Tuesday in Texas.
[youtube]xqCKTuMh074[/youtube]
due to controversy surrounding Hogans win the title was then declared vacant and held up for the Royal Rumble ppv 1992, in the Royal Rumble Match Hogan was eliminated by then friend Sid Justice, a feud then culminated in Hogans then last match in the WWF Wrestlemania 8.
[youtube]iWXr4kp6agY[/youtube]
[youtube]_hBXOJaJQWQ[/youtube]
Hogan won the match via disqualification and left the WWE to pursue a movie career outside of professional wrestling, hogan then returned to the ring yet again at Wrestlemania 9 to aid his friend Brutus Beefcake in a match against the unstoppable team of Money Incorporated a match which saw the Hogans team win the WWf tag team championship before having the decision reversed and losing the match by Disqualification.
[youtube]EwE2XA8SyC8[/youtube]
[youtube]560EPxVymhU[/youtube]
The Loss didn't stop Hogan who the same night captured his record fifth WWF championship pinning Yokozuna for the Title.
[youtube]5BySsLhh244[/youtube]
Hogan the lost the championship to Yokozuna at King of the Ring, dropping the belt back to the monster Sumo Wrestler, the feud was set to continued on the house show circuit but due to his steroid testimony which didnt help his own and the WWE's credibility Hogan remained at home until his contract expired ending his relationship with the WWE.
World Championship Wrestling (19942000)
Hogan Debuted for World Championship Wrestling a Company owned by Ted Turner and run by Eric Bischoff who used Turners assets to bring in the best, and the best is what he brought with a former Five time world champion Hulk Hogan, a man who still managed to draw even after the whole steroid scandal in the WWE which laid his and the WWE's credibility in tatters.
Hogan became a Six Time Champion Defeating WCW's then headliner Ric Flair for the WCW championship culiminating in Hogans Six consecutive World Titile Win.
Hogan held the championship for 18 months feuding with the likes of the Dungeon Of Doom, the Butcher, Ric Flair and Vader Hogan Dropped the belt to the Giant via DQ at Halloween Havoc (similar to the Andre the Giant situation with the WWF Championship), after this time Hogan began to feud with the Giant and the aliance to end Hulkamania and began to appear sparingly on TV due to his other TV and film commitments thanks to Turner Broadcasting and Eric Bischoffs part of the Hogan Contract, in this time fans became to grow tired and Hulkamania began to fade as more prominent stars where displayed on WCW television, the gate remained strong and PPV buys remaind at an all time high for WCW as Hogans career began to suffer due to commitments to both wrestling and Entertainment (sounds familiar?).
Hogan again returned to the ring full time at Bash at the Beach coming to the aid of WCW in a six man tag team match where team wcw where against the newly debuted Kevin Nash and Scott hall (the outsiders) promising to bring a third man to the team who did not appear until the eventual double Cross happened, shocking fans Hogan applied a Leg Drop to the Macho Man Randy savage as Scott Hall counted the pinfall Hogan made the cover and the three men stood tall, this shocking incident Jump started Hogans career and led to the formation of one of sports entertainments most infamous groups, the NWO!.
[youtube]H76DwHgOwpA[/youtube]
Hogan would continue to dominate WCW with the NWO winnig the WCW championship for a second time his seventh Title reign at Hog Wild, defeating The Giant for the title.
On August 4th 1997 Hogan lost the WCW championship to Luger via the Tortour rack finisher Hogan would then win the championship back five days later Road Wild, The NWO was attracting attention as fans started turning away from the WWE to watch WCW ppvs and Monday Night Nitro, Hogan had more pull over his own storylines and finishes then ever before thanks to his WCW contract.
Hogan then lost his third title to sting within 18 months worth of hype with his feud against sting at starcade but due to a bunch of bad finshes sting defeated Hogan for the vacant WCW championship at SuperBrawl VIII.
Hogan remained Dominant In WCW until his sixth and final title at fall brawl inwhich he lost the WCW championship to sting.
I wont go too much into detail about Hogans final days in WCW because for me this was the same time WCW was losing ground partly due to the bad booking of Vince Russo and secondly due to a majority of fans turning over to the WWE product.
Now basically this thread has been made to ask who has had a better wrestling Career then Hogan?
Will anyone come close to Hogans sucess?
Now you will have to logically asses this financially and from a career perspective, ticket sales and ppv buys, if you do state an opinion please do not be afraid to use sources, I want information thats what where here to do debate.
My Opinion
Thanks to Hogans run ultimately it helped Wrestling in general, his first run in the WWE braught wrestling into the attention of a wider audience and made it become part of pop culture, his foray into films helped create a distinguishable name in the wrestling industry one which would maintain a connection with fans up until his final run in the WWE.
Will their be anyone else? well the likely candidate at the moment is John Cena, he is working hard maintaining that connection the WWE has to Hollywood, doing both film, television, and has a Gold Selling Album, hes the most distinguishable face in the WWE at the moment and the great thing is, hes young, hes single and will do anything for the company, but will he be as big as Hogan?... well only time will tell even though wrestling is not in a boom period anymore its still going strong and i think partly due to the work of Hulk Hogan one of the most dominant champions in wrestling history!.
This article talks about Hogans drawing Power over the WWE and WCW, it does not talk about his return to the ring after WCW due to the fact that it was at a time where his dominance wasnt as strong as it was at these times in history.
I will skip the personal life stuff and go straight into Hogans Wrestling Career:
Early career
Trained By Hiro Matsuda Hogan Worked his debute match against Brian Blair working for Eddie Graham, in Fort Myers, Florida on August 10, 1977. A short time later, Bollea donned a mask and assumed the persona of "The Super Destroyer," a hooded character first played by Don Jardine and subsequently used by several other wrestlers.
A few months later, he joined Louie Tillet's Alabama territory, where he tag teamed with Ed Leslie (later known as Brutus Beefcake) as Terry and Ed Boulder. These early matches as a tag team with the surname Boulder being used by both men prompted a rumor among wrestling fans unaware of the inner workings of the sport that Hogan and Beefcake were brothers, as few people actually knew their real names outside of immediate friends, family, and of course the various promoters the two worked for.
During this time, he appeared on a talk show, where he sat beside Lou Ferrigno, star of the television series The Incredible Hulk. The host commented how Terry, who stood 6 ft 7 in (201 cm) and weighed 295 pounds with 24 inch biceps, actually dwarfed "the Hulk." As a result, Bollea began performing as Terry "The Hulk" Boulder and sometimes wrestled as Sterling Golden.
In May 1979, Bollea had an early shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, whose holder was at the time generally recognized as the industry's best. In June 1979, Bollea won his first wrestling championship, the NWA Southeast Heavyweight Championship, recognized in Alabama and Tennessee when he defeated Ox Baker.
In 1978 -1980 Hogan worked for the world Wide Wrestling Federation which at the time was an NWA territory booked by Vince Mcmahon SR, Hogan wrestled his first feud against Andre the giant Culmulating in a match at Shea Stadium, it was told by Hogan in his autobiography that he and Andre where the reason the gate sold out, but it was also stated in Wikipedia that Hogan and Andre wrestled in White Plains, New York, drawing 1,200 in a building that held 3,500 this was the main event prior to Hogan Wrestling Andrea in Shea.
[youtube]avmRhhNnzLc[/youtube]
New Japan Pro Wrestling (19801983)
This is where Hogan had his greatest sucess winning the IWGP Tournament (First International to do so) by defeating the japanese Icon Antonio Inoki by knockout in the fina
ls of a ten man tournament and winning the MSG Tag League tournament two years in a row row in 1982 and 1983 with Inoki as his partner.
[youtube]3gA_U3NIs24[/youtube]
[youtube]KIuEcao2cCM[/youtube]
[youtube]qXg-P7Vw2c0[/youtube]
[youtube]gLxsuLBKT9E[/youtube]
[youtube]wFys9DtP1tw[/youtube]
Hogans popularity in Japan was so great that they actually nicknamed him "Ichiban".
American Wrestling Association (19811983)
After having a falling out with Vince Mcmahon Sr in regards to his role in the film Rocky 3, Hogan left for the American Wrestling Association owned by Verne Gagne, Hogans was started off as a heel but due to his more charismatic and muscular physic the fans turned Hogan Face, IMO this is where Hulkamania started as Hogan started to gain more momentum,
Hogan soon became the promotion's top babyface, and throughout 1983, he engaged in a big feud against AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel and his manager Bobby Heenan. Gagne, however, continued to tease the AWA audience by booking numerous screwjobs meant to keep the championship with Bockwinkel.
because Hogan was not an "old school" technical wrestler, Gagne would not let him be champion. On several occasions, Hogan defeated Bockwinkel to win the title, only to have the decision later reversed.
one crowd nearly rioted until Hogan himself calmed the audience down
[youtube]TxokO8CBonA[/youtube]
[youtube]a2SY7kNa4x8[/youtube]
Hogan himself also began to grow frustrated with Verne Gagne's unwillingness to give Hogan a larger share of his merchandise sales.
Eventually, Gagne was finally ready to book Hogan to win the AWA title; however, according to Hogan, Gagne wanted a piece of the large money Hogan was making from his frequent trips to Japan, more control over the bookings that Hogan took overseas. Hogan refused flatly, saying he didn't need the AWA title at that point.
Return to the WWF (1983 - 1993): BIRTH OF HULKAMANIA
By this time Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon JR baught the WWWF from his father renaming it the WWF and recreating the company from local promotion to nationwide sports entertainment showcase, due to Hogans name recognition, previous working relationship in Hollywood and great charisma, Vince wanted Hogan to became the companies centre piece, the main attraction that would put butts on seats and provide a vast return for the newly rebranded company.
Hogan made his return to the WWF at a television taping in St. Louis, Missouri on December 27, 1983 defeating Bill Dixon. Initially, Hogan was a heel, once again allied with Blassie; however, this was short-lived.
On January 7, 1984 edition of Championship Wrestling, Hogan saved Bob Backlund from a three-way assault.
Hogan's turn was explained simply by Backlund: "He's changed his ways. He's a great man. He's told me he's not gonna have Blassie around".
The storyline shortcut was necessary because less than three weeks later on January 23, Hogan won his first WWF Championship, pinning The Iron Sheik (who had Blassie in his corner) in Madison Square Garden.
Gorilla Monsoon coined the frase Hulkamania as Hogan won his first WWE championship from the Iron sheikh, during this time wrestling went into a new phase, some have called it rock and wrestling others have simply called it the Hulk Hogan era, but you cant deny this was the birth of main stream wrestling otherwise known as Sports entertainment and Hogan became the centrepiece of this era becoming the most requested celebrity with the make a wish foundation of the 1980's, he sold out arenas and main evented pay perviews making not only himself but the WWE alot of money.
Hulk Hogan and MR T main evented wrestlemania 1 in a culmination of a feud between Hogan, Mr T, Piper and Orndoff .
[youtube]HKbR4Dh85C8[/youtube]
[youtube]2aRwbwLxLr0[/youtube]
[youtube]N2LNmaTuztg[/youtube]
[youtube]samNFe8vqeI[/youtube]
[youtube]UycLwE8eXyQ[/youtube]
[youtube]CgOMXi95GUU[/youtube]
Hogans reign as champion was a dominate one for over four years a title reign by todays standards would have been long and overdone, but the crowd remained hot, ticket sales remained high and the attention remained solely on the WWF champion as Hulk defended the championship in feuds against Terry Funk, "The Magnificent" Don Muraco, King Kong Bundy (in a steel cage match at WrestleMania 2),Paul Orndorff,and Hercules Hernandez.
[youtube]Pknpbyl6pfc[/youtube]
[youtube]RG_mAgCWuB4[/youtube]
Hogan was the companies top Babyface having challengers built up as threats to not only his championship but to Hulkamania, many attempted to challenge the strong champion but non succeeded in taking the title from his grasp.
[youtube]AZllGmRt_VE[/youtube]
[youtube]SwjzSZg1B9Q[/youtube]
Andre would capture the WWF championship in an episode of Saturday Nights Main event ending hogans reign of Four years and 13 days due to a controversial finish and back hand deals with the Million Dollar man Ted Dibiase.
A Tournament was held at Wrestlemania 4 for the vacant WWf Championship with the evantual winner being Macho Man Randy Savage
Hogan still remaind the face of the company starring in one of the first films made by WWE studios (Due to the fact that it was Vince's financing that made the film possible and was used as a way to help Hogan move more closer into Hollywood).
[youtube]uNiS-KVM6qE[/youtube]
Savage would hold the WWF championship for over a year dropping the belt back to hogan at Wrestlemania 5 having Hogan once again held the championship for only a year, due to commitments to the film No Holds Barred.
[youtube]FMWEyXhaVJU[/youtube]
[youtube]h-KlXYnzYNc[/youtube]
, during this time he won the royal rumble in 1990 a time when the Rumble was not a road to the WWE championship, he then moved on to face a man who was being billed up as the new face of the WWF, a man who was booked strong the then intercontinental champion, the Ultimate Warrior as Wrestlemania 6
[youtube]Z9-T0jtelrQ[/youtube]
[youtube]TOT42cD1qT4[/youtube]
The Warriors reign was short lived dropping the championship to the biggest Heel in the WWE at the time Sgnt Slaughter, Hogan again was thrusted back into the title picture for Wrestlemania 7 Defeating Slaughter to become the WWF Champion for a third time and once again recording record revenues for the WWF in terms of gate and PPv revenue.
[youtube]nDVAmSgcs_E[/youtube]
Hogan then began to feud with the unstoppable phenom known as the undertaker in 1991 where he faced the Dead man Hogan lost the WWF championship to the undertaker due to interference from a man who in the NWA came close to mirroring Hogans sucess, the nature boy Ric Flair.
[youtube]OM2-Zj-RkSk[/youtube]
[youtube]5wZTk66hsIw[/youtube]
Hogan would then regain the championship within six days later defeating the undertaker at a special PPV known as Tuesday in Texas.
[youtube]xqCKTuMh074[/youtube]
due to controversy surrounding Hogans win the title was then declared vacant and held up for the Royal Rumble ppv 1992, in the Royal Rumble Match Hogan was eliminated by then friend Sid Justice, a feud then culminated in Hogans then last match in the WWF Wrestlemania 8.
[youtube]iWXr4kp6agY[/youtube]
[youtube]_hBXOJaJQWQ[/youtube]
Hogan won the match via disqualification and left the WWE to pursue a movie career outside of professional wrestling, hogan then returned to the ring yet again at Wrestlemania 9 to aid his friend Brutus Beefcake in a match against the unstoppable team of Money Incorporated a match which saw the Hogans team win the WWf tag team championship before having the decision reversed and losing the match by Disqualification.
[youtube]EwE2XA8SyC8[/youtube]
[youtube]560EPxVymhU[/youtube]
The Loss didn't stop Hogan who the same night captured his record fifth WWF championship pinning Yokozuna for the Title.
[youtube]5BySsLhh244[/youtube]
Hogan the lost the championship to Yokozuna at King of the Ring, dropping the belt back to the monster Sumo Wrestler, the feud was set to continued on the house show circuit but due to his steroid testimony which didnt help his own and the WWE's credibility Hogan remained at home until his contract expired ending his relationship with the WWE.
World Championship Wrestling (19942000)
Hogan Debuted for World Championship Wrestling a Company owned by Ted Turner and run by Eric Bischoff who used Turners assets to bring in the best, and the best is what he brought with a former Five time world champion Hulk Hogan, a man who still managed to draw even after the whole steroid scandal in the WWE which laid his and the WWE's credibility in tatters.
Hogan became a Six Time Champion Defeating WCW's then headliner Ric Flair for the WCW championship culiminating in Hogans Six consecutive World Titile Win.
Hogan held the championship for 18 months feuding with the likes of the Dungeon Of Doom, the Butcher, Ric Flair and Vader Hogan Dropped the belt to the Giant via DQ at Halloween Havoc (similar to the Andre the Giant situation with the WWF Championship), after this time Hogan began to feud with the Giant and the aliance to end Hulkamania and began to appear sparingly on TV due to his other TV and film commitments thanks to Turner Broadcasting and Eric Bischoffs part of the Hogan Contract, in this time fans became to grow tired and Hulkamania began to fade as more prominent stars where displayed on WCW television, the gate remained strong and PPV buys remaind at an all time high for WCW as Hogans career began to suffer due to commitments to both wrestling and Entertainment (sounds familiar?).
Hogan again returned to the ring full time at Bash at the Beach coming to the aid of WCW in a six man tag team match where team wcw where against the newly debuted Kevin Nash and Scott hall (the outsiders) promising to bring a third man to the team who did not appear until the eventual double Cross happened, shocking fans Hogan applied a Leg Drop to the Macho Man Randy savage as Scott Hall counted the pinfall Hogan made the cover and the three men stood tall, this shocking incident Jump started Hogans career and led to the formation of one of sports entertainments most infamous groups, the NWO!.
[youtube]H76DwHgOwpA[/youtube]
Hogan would continue to dominate WCW with the NWO winnig the WCW championship for a second time his seventh Title reign at Hog Wild, defeating The Giant for the title.
On August 4th 1997 Hogan lost the WCW championship to Luger via the Tortour rack finisher Hogan would then win the championship back five days later Road Wild, The NWO was attracting attention as fans started turning away from the WWE to watch WCW ppvs and Monday Night Nitro, Hogan had more pull over his own storylines and finishes then ever before thanks to his WCW contract.
Hogan then lost his third title to sting within 18 months worth of hype with his feud against sting at starcade but due to a bunch of bad finshes sting defeated Hogan for the vacant WCW championship at SuperBrawl VIII.
Hogan remained Dominant In WCW until his sixth and final title at fall brawl inwhich he lost the WCW championship to sting.
I wont go too much into detail about Hogans final days in WCW because for me this was the same time WCW was losing ground partly due to the bad booking of Vince Russo and secondly due to a majority of fans turning over to the WWE product.
Now basically this thread has been made to ask who has had a better wrestling Career then Hogan?
Will anyone come close to Hogans sucess?
Now you will have to logically asses this financially and from a career perspective, ticket sales and ppv buys, if you do state an opinion please do not be afraid to use sources, I want information thats what where here to do debate.
My Opinion
Thanks to Hogans run ultimately it helped Wrestling in general, his first run in the WWE braught wrestling into the attention of a wider audience and made it become part of pop culture, his foray into films helped create a distinguishable name in the wrestling industry one which would maintain a connection with fans up until his final run in the WWE.
Will their be anyone else? well the likely candidate at the moment is John Cena, he is working hard maintaining that connection the WWE has to Hollywood, doing both film, television, and has a Gold Selling Album, hes the most distinguishable face in the WWE at the moment and the great thing is, hes young, hes single and will do anything for the company, but will he be as big as Hogan?... well only time will tell even though wrestling is not in a boom period anymore its still going strong and i think partly due to the work of Hulk Hogan one of the most dominant champions in wrestling history!.
