Who is the G.O.A.T of Professional Wrestling.

[Carnage Carlson]

Not many people can claim to be the G.O.A.T., but those who can are the Greatest Of All Time in their field. Most often, the acronym G.O.A.T. praises exceptional athletes but also musicians and other public figures. To be the G.O.A.T you truly are "The Best there was, The best there is, and The best there ever will be." So who is the G.O.A.T of Professional Wrestling? Be it from; TNA, WCW, WWF/E, NJPW, ROH etc.

Now I'm new here but if you've read my other post "What's your favorite Era from WWE" or have read my profile, then you already know by now that Shawn Michaels is my absolute favorite Wrestler. However, not only is he my favorite wrestler but I'm also going to provide the argument that he is the G.O.A.T of Professional Wrestling Entertainment.

A great wrestler is an amalgam of several people; a comedian, an actor, an acrobat, a powerlifter, and a grappler. Michaels was all of those things and more, the rare complete package. He may not be the strongest, the fastest, or the most technical. He may not have been the best on the mic or have the highest draw. However, Shawn Michaels did absolutely everything extremely, extremely well. Now I know, his early career wasn't the best he was an "arrogant, cocky, asshole" and Canadian fans especially hated him(Some still do) for disrespecting the Canadian flag the way he did and the Infamous Montreal screw job. Regardless when he returned from a long time off between 1998-2002 after a serious back injury as well as dealing with his struggle with drug and alcohol abuse he returned a new man. Shawn Michaels was back Sober, a Born Christian and better than ever, absolutely everything he did with the WWE from this point on was absolute magic.

So, to help really drive my point home I stated that a great Professional wrestler is " an amalgam of several people". I'm going to go over every point that makes a great wrestler great starting with Mic work. Michaels was a powerful and emotive actor, as well as one of the funniest men in wrestling history. Charisma flowed through his body like blood flows through the veins of any other mere mortal. It certainly wasn't a stretch for him to play the cocky and brash rebel. The thinly veiled version of himself was one of the most engaging characters we’ve ever seen. Whether you loved it or hated it you were still talking about it and as the saying goes "there's no such thing as bad publicity." As a member of DX, he added a whole career's worth of hilarity to his resume. The "Show Stopper" had some of the funniest skits and moments in the sports history. I challenge you to look up a compellation of the funniest moments of WWE and I promise you that almost any video you find will be filled with Shawn Michaels antics, Whether it be the time where "He never slept with that woman, as a matter of fact they were up all night" to the time he kicked a poor random guy named "Stan". On top of just being hilarious HBK's off mic charisma was just as great if not better, with one of the most Iconic Entrances as a whole, paired with him playing to the crowd he was exciting from the moment he hit the ramp to the post match celebration. Shawn Michaels never disappointed when it came to comedy or being entertaining he turned the WWE into his personal Grand Theatre.

Next I'd like to talk about HBK's ring work. Some people say his ring work wasn't good, and that he over selled. Other than the one time between Hogan as a way to get back at him for turning their best of 3 fued into a one-off match, I'd like to ask when? A master of his body, an innovator and a warrior, Michaels fused technical wrestling, catch wrestling, Lucha Libre and martial arts-inspired moves to build a Hall of Fame career. Nearly everything that "Mr.WrestleMania" did inside the ring was clean and crisp. Some people have said "Oh he never put anyone over" and to that i'd like to say "You're not just wrong, you're stupid, and you're ugly, like your mom." Shawn Michaels was the absolute best person to put someone over, due to his near flawless sells and electrifying move set absolutely any body to wrestle HBK win or lose was better off after. The list of Superstars who had their greatest matches facing off against Michaels is a huge one.

 

[Carnage Carlson]

PART 2.
Moving on, to the next portion of why HBK is the G.O.A.T I'd like to take a brief moment to mention his tag team brilliance. WWE fans first saw Michaels as one half of the exciting Rockers. He and Marty Jannetty weren't just another talented team competing in the golden age of tag teams, they started a revolution. The Rockers brought a dynamic energy to their matches and didn't settle for the same tired routine most guys were doing. They innovated; they inspired. Their creative double-team moves dazzled fans. When it came time for Michaels to go out on his own, he broke apart the Rockers in momentous fashion. Sending Jannetty through the barbershop window is one of the most iconic moments in WWE history. Tag partners turn on each other all the time, but fans will never forget the broken friendship, the broken glass, the shock of seeing Michaels Superkick Jannetty. Also who could forget about his time with one of the most Iconic stables in Wrestling History with D Generation X. In the first run of DX Shawn was the founding member and leader of the Stable. The stable had many great iconic moments. During the second run of DX Shawn Michaels teamed back up with best friend HHH to reform the stable as a tag. The Duo once again delivered many Hilarious and Iconic Moments and won the World Tag Team Championship.

Still not convinced? Ok fine let's go over the "Showstopper's" long list of achievements. Starting early in his career as the Rockers with Marty Jannetty HBK would win the AWA world Tag team championship twice. He would win the WWF, European Championship once, be intercontinental Champion 3 times Be WWF Tag team champion 3 time be WWE Tag Team Champion twice and World Tag Team Champion once, World Heavyweight Champion once and WWF World Heavyweight champion. He was a 2 time royal rumble winner one time as the #1 entrant(first man to do so). First Grand Slam champion, Fourth Triple Crown champion. "BUT CARNAGE NON OF THAT MEANS ANYTHING THAT'S ALL BOOKING AND WRITING." O.K Fine lets play that game. Pro Wrestling Illustrated would give MR. WrestleMania match of the year 12 different times, 7 times in a row during his prime from 2004-2010. 2000-2009 Feud of the decade, 2000-2009 match of the decade. 2000-2009 Inspirational Wrestler of the decade, 2 time Most Popular Wrestler of the year. 2 time Hall of Famer once solo once with DX. Let's not forget that he invented the Ladder match with close friend Razor Ramon, was in the first hell in a cell match against Under Taker, and was part of the first elimination chamber. Finally all these great matches aren't just the best of the year, or best of the decade some of them are the Greatest Matches of all time. Shawn Michaels was everything a great professional wrestler needed to be He was funny, charismatic, great in the ring, an innovator and overall the personification of entertainment.

So there you have it, my opinion as to why "THE HEARBREAK KID" "THE ICON" THE SHOW STOPPER" "MR.WRESTLEMANIA" SHAWN MICHAELS is also the G.O.A.T. As always thanks for reading and I can't wait to read your thoughts and opinions.

 

[The Boss]

I'm going old school Boss here but, whether or not I am in character I still say that the ONLY option for the greatest professional wrestler of all time is HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN. I don't have time to write a whole column right now but perhaps I will later.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

It's kinda of hard to pick because i been following wrestling for so long that i've seen so many greats come and go over the year. So with that said instead of just picking one, i've got to have to put the top 5 guys that i think could be considered the greatest of all time. There not going to be in order.

1. Bruno sammartino: First of it's the guy that pretty much represented the early era of WWF and one of the most recognizable name of that era. The guy was one of the most over babyface in the new york territory in the 60's and 70's and still to this day hold the record for the longest reign as WWE champion. Without him their wouldn't have been a lot of the other names on my list, So Bruno is one of the best in my eyes.

2. Ric Flair: Outside of Hogan, Ric Flair is the most recognizable name from the 80's and had so many classic by doing almost nothing. By being one of the greatest heel in wrestling history, he was able to make a lot of guys and make them look like superstars.

3. Rowdy roddy Piper: One of the best talker the business and the reason wrestlemania was such a success. He was the best person to put against Hogan for the first mania main event and after that, he had so many memorable moment that even fans that weren't alive still remember. That's the why he's one of the greatest

4. Stone Cold Steve Austin.: the reason WWE became the juggernaut it is today. He was the face of the attitude Era, brought more money for the company that they ever done and was the reason why WWE was able to go public.

5. Hulk Hogan: Hogan is probably the only wrestler in the history of the business that was the face of both wrestling boom. His stuff in the 80's was just awesome and made a ton of money for WWF and one of the first name they went mainstream. Then in the 90's when his stock was going down, he reinvented himself turn heel and is as over as he's ever been and makes WCW a lot of Money with the NwO gimmick. So he's one of the greatest wrestler for those reason.

 

[TDFG]

It's an extremely difficult question because there can be all sorts of reasons to pick 1 guy.

I've got to go with Hulk Hogan. I wasn't ever a big Hulk Hogan fan, back in the early 90's when I got into wrestling, my house didn't have Sky so we didn't have WWF, we had WCW on a Thursday night, replayed on a Saturday afternoon around the time of Surfer Sting, Flyin Brian, Steiners, The Four Horsemen (Flair, Anderson, Windham & Sid), so the whole euphoria around Hulkamania etc. was lost on me barring a few VHS (remember them) tapes of WrestleMania, SummerSlam etc.

But the reasons for my choice of Hogan is, he didn't directly take over from Bruno Sammartino, Hogan's time at the top started around a decade after Bruno.

Hulk Hogan main-evented the majority of the first 9 WrestleMania's, without Hogan & Hulkamania, we may not have had WrestleMania today.

Hulkamania was on it's last legs long before he jumped ship to WCW, but Hogan & WCW booking team had the balls to do something on a scale that was probably the biggest gamble in the history of Wrestling, they turned the man heel. To this day, WWE didn't have the balls to turn Cena heel, they won't turn Reigns heel, they probably never will, mainly because of merchandise revenue.

So anyway, Hulk Hogan becomes "Hollywood" Hogan, leads the NWO and becomes a monster heel, he and the NWO are a big reason why WCW beat WWE in the Monday Night Wars for 83 weeks or whatever it was.

In my opinion, he perhaps had too much power:-
The Starrcade debacle with Sting (Hogan should have took the defeat clean).
World Title match with Goldberg on Nitro should have been kept (can't blame Hogan for this).
The Finger Poke of Doom (Scott Steiner should have ended the streak).
Jarrett laying down at Bash at the Beach (maybe Hogan was innocent).

Return to WWE, at this stage Hogan's knee was in rough shape, his back was in bad shape, he was past his peak and looked a broken man so to speak, until WrestleMania X8. Hogan v Rock was incredible, a double turn, the return of Hulkamania, I believe this match extended Hogan's career. One last short run as World Champion followed.

Of course Hogan still showed that he could throw his toys out of the pram, losing to Brock Lesnar with the thought process being Lesnar would return the favour (possibly for the World Title) was a wrongful expectation for Hogan, I also believe he should have returned the favour to HBK, perhaps Hogan coming out on top in a third match at a big PPV. Mr America or whatever it was, let's move on.

His TNA run was terrible, he played a part in destroying that company. I don't think TNA knew what to do with Hogan and I don't think Hogan knew much about TNA or was ever really invested in it's product.

Anyway, as an in-ring performer, he had a run of around 30 years at the top, he took WWF to a level it was never at before, he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders, he also took WCW to a level it was never at, he took Wrestling to a level it was never at, that's incredible.

 

[The Boss]

Okay, here is my reasoning for choosing Hulk Hogan as the greatest of all time. (part 1)

First of all, whatever your personal feelings are about the man - be them favorable or unfavorable - just know that those feelings are IRRELEVANT to his status as the greatest of all time. What makes him the greatest is what he has done for the business of professional wrestling.

Starting with his popularity. Hogan's popularity remains unsurpassed in professional wrestling. Any of you saying "but what about so and so?" obviously have very limited knowledge of professional wrestling. Sure there have been many popular individuals over the years but none who drew as many people, sold as much merchandise, carried as many companies, made as much money and maintained their status as the number one individual in all of professional wrestling (both as a heel and a face) as Hogan. And no, being the face of a company that Hogan was not part of during a boom period is not comparable.

In the 80s, Hogan was THE face of professional wrestling. During a time when pro wrestling had been looked down upon for several decades (kind of like now) Hogan emerged as a hero to many, a stand out who was cool and to watch not in spite of being a wrestler but BECAUSE he was a professional wrestler. Not because he wrestled 5 star matches night after night (many guys had done that over the years and failed to become acceptable in the public eye, let alone raise the stature of professional wrestling) but because he was a fun loving big man who actually cared for the fans. In addition to his pro wrestling schedule Hogan was on talk show after talk show talking up the business, telling everyone how wrestling is the greatest sport in the world but without the typical "bad ass" personality and ultra seriousness that others carried with them in order to protect kayfabe but, as your average Joe who was a friend first who then explained why pro wrestling is such a major part of his life and subsequently why we should love it as well.

Hogan's charisma and likability carried much greater weight than anyone could have imagined. He not only emerged as a stand out wrestler but brought up the status of professional wrestling for ALL who were in the business. Suddenly - because of Hogan - it was exeptable - and even expected - to follow and admit that you enjoy pro wrestling.

But he didn't stop there. In addition to hyping up pro wrestling Hogan would tell the young fans to train, say their prayers eat their vitamins and believe in themselves. He would appear for charities to raise money for great causes and was even the number one requested celebrity for the children's Make A Wish Foundation. The man was a true hero. One that kids could look up to and parents would approve of.

Throughout the 80s, Hogan's popularity continued to increase as did the popularity of pro wrestling. As more and more fans began watching, attendance for the live events continued to grow and pay increased for the wrestlers. Hogan ushered in the era of annual, then quarterly and finally monthly PPVs. Pro wrestling continued to get more and more exposure and the fans couldn't get enough of Hulk Hogan. He broke several attendance records often outdoing records that he himself had just set the previous year. The biggest and most famous croud was 93,173 in attendance for WrestleMania III. Shockingly, he set an even bigger record less than a year later on February 5, 1988 when 33 million fans tuned in to see his rematch with Andre the Giant. Many fans (particularly those who started watching in the 90s) don't realize that this is STILL the highest rated televised professional wrestling event of all time. Even the NBA has never drawn that high of a rating.

Hulkamania seemed unstoppable. Not even taking time off for the births of his children in 1988 and 1990 could diminish Hogan's popularity. Despite great build ups for and the popularity of new champions Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior the fans still demanded the return of Hogan.

It was only the government crackdown of the use of anabolic steroids that knocked Hogan's run off track. The media was shaming and slandering anyone who used them (completely disregarding their usual "my body my choice stance" - go figure) which included not only Hulk Hogan but the vast majority of pro wrestlers at the time. As a result of this media onslaught, pro wrestling took a drastic hit in popularity and Hogan had to be sidelined in favor of smaller, more "natural" looking guys. During Hogan's absence, pro wrestling's popularity continued to dwindle.

Hogan's arrival in WCW was like a shot of adrenaline to pro wrestling. From the moment it was leaked that Hogan was in negotiations to return - and in a rival company yet - the wrestling world was abuzz. WCW wasted no time and sparred no expense hyping up the return of Hulk Hogan to professional wrestling. Providing a ticker tape parade to carry Hulk Hogan for his contract signing and announcing that his very first match would be against long time rival Ric Flair for the World championship on PPV (a match that the WWF missed out on) instantly made WCW a must see event. Hogan did not disappoint, drawing WCW their largest PPV buy rate ever at the time Hogan defeated FLair for the WCW World title to usher in a new era of Hulkamania.

Being in a rival company was not without it's consequences. Hogan often heard a lot of "boos" from the crowds. Despite what some incorrectly surmise, this was not due to any diminishing of popularity of Hogan. In fact it was the exact opposite. Long time fans of WCW/NWA fondly recalled the many years of debating over who was the greatest wrestler. Hogan in the WWF or Flair in the NWA/WCW? Now that Hogan was in WCW, those fans still looked at him as the face of the competition. Hence the "boos". None the less Hogan continued to trek on using his popularity to help WCW expand and draw new fans. Within just one year WCW's popularity had grown to the point to where they were confident enough to launch a brand new television program directly against the WWF's established Monday Night program.

Initial fears were that this would split the Monday night viewership in half thus hurting the sustainability of both programs. While the WWF did see a slight drop in ratings from a 3.0 average to 2.5, WCW was also drawing an average of 2.5 at first thus showing that the number of wrestling viewership had actually INCREASED! From the very first head to head program WCW was able to able to defeat the WWF in the ratings. For the next several months the two companies world trade ratings victories showing that Hogan had done the impossible by bringing WCW to equal levels of popularity with the long established WWF. Further testament to the popularity of Hulk Hogan as he helped to usher in what became known as the Monday Night War.

 

[The Boss]

(part 2}

Just as Hogan did in the 80s, in the 90s hogan started another boom in pro wrestling popularity. By increasing the popularity of WCW thus enabling the era of the Monday Night War. A period that many fans (not around in the 80s) still believe is the greatest era in professional wrestling, Hogan remains to this day the only individual to cause not one but TWO wrestling booms. But the best was yet to come.

In 1997 Hogan shocked the world when he turned heel and joined Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to form the New World Order. The turn shocked the crowd so much that they pummeled the ring with trash as Hogan cut arguably the most memorable promo of his life. Instantly the entire wrestling world was talking about Hogan and the nWo. Monday Nitro became must see TV. For 83 straight weeks Monday Nitro defeated Monday Night Raw in the ratings as WCW took over the #1 spot in professional wrestling.

Hollywood Hulk Hogan quickly regained the WCW World championship. The nWo was so popular that the entire focus of WCW programming became about the faction. The nWo T-shirt became (and remains) the highest selling pro wrestling shirt of all time. A new attitude in pro wrestling had begun as run ins, beat downs, theft, destruction and risque topics became the norm. It was now cool to be the bad guys. WWE, after failing to recapture its audience with wrestling conceded defeat and changed it's product entirely to mimic the new attitude ushered in by WCW by focusing not on wrestling but nudity and shock TV and dubbed themselves "WWE Attitude".

Unfortunately, WCW began to have problems when owner Ted Turner merged his company with Time-Warner inc. Without Ted Turner solely in charge of decision making, WCW's production began to falter as the company now had to go through a lot of red tape and could no longer make fast, last minute changes to keep their product hot. This resulted in rating falling as fans then turned to the WWF who had no such red tape issues.

If the first merger wasn't bad enough, Turner-Time-Warner then merged with AOL to form the biggest corporation in the world at the time. Where as Ted Turner was a huge fan of wrestling and did what was necessary to keep WCW running there was no such love from the new corporate board of directors who were looking to sell off some of it's smaller assets of which WCW was among.

When WCW was sold to Vince McMahon it was an end of an era. The Monday Night War was over and the WWF had won. But it was not yet quite over for Hulk Hogan...

Since the end of the Monday Night War the WWF began to see their ratings spiral out of control. In an attempt to correct this, Hogan (along with Hall and Nash) returned to the WWF as the nWo. Immediately Hogan began a confrontation with the Rock (who was by then the company's top star) and instantly magic was created. The chemistry between Hogan and the Rock was to the level promoters and fans up until then could only dream about. To the surprise of everyone Hogan - even though he was the heal - undeniably was the more popular of the two as chants of "HOGAN!" would drown out chants of "Rocky!" Their match at WrestleMania X8 proved to be far greater than anyone could have believed. Not because of any great athletics but because of Hogan's ability to work the crowd and bring them into the match as he took them on a roller coaster ride of epic story telling. the match even survived a double turn as Hogan and Rock switched heel/face roles mid match only to both be face by the end raising the level of excitement to peak potential and a climax that had everyone standing and screaming as they realized that they just witnessed a perfect wrestling match.

Although Hogan was brought in to "pass the torch", his obvious continued popularity could not be ignored. He would soon return to his trrade mark yellow and red colors followed by and Undisputed World Championship run (becoming both the last champion under the "WWF" banner and first champion under the "WWE" banner as a result) and a World Tag Team title run.

Even after ending his run as a full time competitor Hogan continued to make spot appearances in multi man tag matches and even two high profile one one matches at SummerSlam 2004 and 2005. In 2005 Hogan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Hogan's attributions remain unmatched.

 

[The Boss]

(part 3)

An often brushed over portion of Hulk Hogan's career is his sting with TNA/Impct Wrestling. While many fans are quick to jump on the bandwagon and trash Hogan's time in TNA, these generally seem to be the same people who erroneously blame Hogan with the fall of WCW rather than point to the real reason which was the corporate mergers. Those who actually follow pro wrestling and specifically TNA at the time see something else entirely.

Hogan was brought in at a time when TNA's popularity had plateaued. Despite early expectations that TNA world quickly grow to the level of WCW and compete with WWE for the spot of #1 promotion, those dreams were never realized. In 2007, after several years of growth the product had become stale and no one seemed to understand what had made them hot in the first place. As we approached 2010, Dixie Carter decided to breath new life into the company by signing on some of the sports biggest names not the least of which was Hulk Hogan

Once it was announced that Hogan was coming to TNA fans again had reason to celebrate. Hogan was the one person who could bring credibility to the company. Unfortunately, by this time Hogan was in his 50s, had multiple injuries, and not capable of doing much in the ring. Still, he was Hulk Hogan and his name carried a lot of weight.

Even at this point in his career Hogan still generated the loudest pops from the crowd. As General Manager, Hogan got ample screen time and set up the vast majority of the matches. During this time he oversaw multiple changes throughout the company. Most notably replacing the company's six sided ring with a traditional four sided ring. While the TNA base cried foul, other fans were finally coming to respect TNA as a legitimate company rather than just one big gimmick after another.

The next big change was changing the name of the company to Impact Wrestling. The letters "TNA" were an obvious play on T&A (Tits and Ass) and had been a focal point of mockery towards the company. "Impact Wrestling" was taken from their TV show name "TNA IMPACT" with the word "Wrestling" added to show that they were going to go the traditional route of focusing on wrestling over entertainment. "Wrestling Matters" became the catchphrase. A new Blue color scheme was unveiled and new championship belts created to give the company and updated feel.

The next change was in trying to revitalize the X-Division which had been a staple of the company during it's early years. This proved to be more difficult than one would imagination because the enjoyment of the X-Division never had anything to do with stipulations or guidelines that made the Division unique. It was due simply to the abundance of talent that were competing for the X-Division title at the time. Stars like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Jerry Lynn, Low Ki and others ensured that the X-Division was always exciting and fun.

When these stars left or graduated to the World title scene, the X-Division was left with a void that could not be filled. People were beginning to realise that there was nothing that made the X-Division unique. Just because it was an X-Division match didn't ensure that it would be anything special. What did "X-Division" even mean? Hogan and Bischoff began to try to give the X-Division a uniqueness. Several attempts were made. They tried making it a cruiserweight championship by instituting a weight limit in order to ensure faster paced matched. Long time TNA fans cried fowl citing the old moto of "It's not about weight limits, it's about no limits". So the weight limit was revoked and a new stipulation was put in place.

The three way elimination stipulation - in which three competitors would wrestle for the title with the winner getting the title, the man who was pinned being eliminated and the third man would come back to again challenge in next week's triple threat with a new third person - proved enjoyable for a minute until the monotony of seeing the same guys in the same kind of match began to set in. It was back to the drawing board.

Finally the idea of "Option C" was created where the holder of the title had the option of relinquishing the title for a shot at the World title at Destination X. Hogan worked a great program with Austin Aries who had acquired the title after several underhanded tactics including stealing and assuming the identity of Suicide. A very popular angle that helped give the X-Division it's unique identity that was sought for so long.

The next step was one that TNA fans had been wanting for years. Bringing the show live. Throughout it's existence TNA had been at the mercy of internet spoilers. Now this was going to come to an end. Finally we could watch Impact with anticipation without knowing what we were going to see. Production valued were raised, new sets were built and the cameras were strategically placed to make the whole thing seem bigger.

Finally was taking the show on the road. While expensive to do, we got some of the best broadcasts in the history of the company. Finally we were seeing the program with REAL wrestling fans rather than theme park goes who decided to come in out of the sun. Having a crowd of enthusiastic wrestling fans made the show finally feel complete. A lively audience helps to bring out the best in the performers as well.

We also must not overlook the many great angles that took place during the Hogan years. We saw the reformation of the nWo (known as "The Band" due to copyright issues), we saw a brief but fun run by the Nasty Boys as they feuded with Team 3-D (a lot of TNA fans hated this because they were "Hogan's buddies" but it gave Team #-D a fresh feud with big names with whom they had never feuded), Hogan's heal turn and formation of Immortal, Ric Flair and the Fourtune Four, The Aces & Eights faction and probably best of all the emergence of James Storm, Bobby Roode and Austin Aries to the World title Picture.

Let's not forget to mention the hand full of Hulk Hogan matches sprinkled in with the most notable being his match with Sting at Bound for Glory that saw him bumping after 9 back surgeries and climaxing with Hogan turning face resulting in a pop like no one believed he was even capable of at that point. The crowd reaction during that match was so great in fact that the much anticipated World title match between Kurt Angle and Bobby Roode felt like a dud in comparison. Further testament to Hogan's longevity.

While Hogan did not bring Impact to WCW levels, he did pring them to their highest ever popularity and set everal records in the process. 2010: Highest rating ever (Hogan's debut). 2011: Highest yearly average rating. 2012: record domestic attendance at 5,500 (Slammiversary). 2013: Highest attendance ever, nearly 10,000 in London. 2013: NEW domestic attendance record, 7,200 (Lockdown). That's four years of consistent growth. All of these records still stand meaning that TNA/Impact Wrestling has never been as popular (before or since) as it was during the Hogan years.

All of the problems that the company has faced since Hogan left (losing three TV deals, rating and attendance drop and the company being sold) cannot be blamed on him but rather show that Hogan brought to company to heights that it could not maintain without him.

 

[redapple]

Bret “ the Hitman” Hart. The Best there is, best there was, best there ever will be!

 

[barongan]

i vote : Hulk Hogan

 

[IMMORTAL4WWE]

4 words: u can’t c me