Hulkamania is dead

[fleischmark]

Well, I liked him.

[SwayWays]

6 hours ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

It's crazy to think just how over Hogan was at his peak. When I was in early years of primary school, I dont think there was a boy in my class who didn't own at least one of the Hogan Hasbro's. Mad to think about really. My best friend at the time had Hogan / Warrior WALLPAPER in his bedroom. 

Honestly he was right there with MJ, Super Mario, Arnie, Mickey Mouse etc in terms of instantly recognisable. I was talking to a friend about this earlier. He mentioned that when Hogan popped up in Gremlins, everyone would have just been like "oh that's Hulk Hogan". 

A ludicrous man. Impossible to really sum up in a few words. The unbelievable run on top, the crap movies and TV shows, the insane lies, the steroid scandal, the NWO, the reality show, the sporadic returns for huge matches, the sex tape stuff, the racism. Total highest of highs and lowest of lows stuff.

 

 

 

I love how the end of this reads like an amazing reworking of we didn't start the fire

[Ironic Indie Lad]

I am the Billy Joel of the UKFF

 

[FUM]

On another note around the success of Hulk Hogan. I watched DSOTR on Superstar Billy Graham the other day and, while I know nothing in wrestling is truly sacred and people are always inspired by someone else, I was amazed to see just how much Hogan ripped from him. It wasn’t just the usual “I was meant to be Hogan” type chat either, it was backed up by clips. The poses, the ear cup, the bandana and shades, the “brother”, the “24 inch pythons”, the shirt rip. They had clips of him doing the lot.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

1 minute ago, FUM said:

On another note around the success of Hulk Hogan. I watched DSOTR on Superstar Billy Graham the other day and, while I know nothing in wrestling is truly sacred and people are always inspired by someone else, I was amazed to see just how much Hogan ripped from him. It wasn’t just the usual “I was meant to be Hogan” type chat either, it was backed up by clips. The poses, the ear cup, the bandana and shades, the “brother”, the “24 inch pythons”, the shirt rip. They had clips of him doing the lot.

Those times should come back. Imagine some samoan bloke showing up in AEW who looked exactly like Roman Reigns and did all his catchphrases and wore that daft flower thing round his neck? And he has a fat penguin of a manager. Eventually you'd just go "he's better than Roman! He was in Creed IV!"

[Carbomb]

3 hours ago, fleischmark said:

Well, I liked him.

Bloody hell, a name from the distant past.

Fair enough - if anything were to bring you back here, it would have to be this.

[Roy]

On 7/24/2025 at 5:14 PM, herbie747 said:

lol calm down 

You don't think so? 

[BigJag]

Terry Bollea may be gone but Hulkamania will never die, brother.

[TheBurningRed]

55 minutes ago, Roy said:

You don't think so? 

To be fair, you said he’s on everyone’s Mount Rushmore. Everyone’s differs. What he did for the business can’t be denied, but he wouldn’t be on my Mount Rushmore. 

[wandshogun09]

Just watched the heel turn from Bash At The Beach 96 again. Man, what a moment.

Mind blowing at the time. This was pre-internet, pre-jaded cynical fandom days for me, and I’m guessing most of us. I never even really used to think about what would happen if a certain wrestler turned heel. I used to just happily watch, almost oblivious until something major happened, and it shocked me every time. Simpler times. And the thought of heel Hulk Hogan especially never even crossed my mind in 96. Even having sat through that weird late 95, all black clobber, no ‘tache period where he seemed like he might be going to the dark side. I just didn’t entertain the possibility.

Whenever I watch this moment back, it always makes me laugh how you can bet there’ll be a comment going ‘Why did Heenan have to spoil it?’ Referring to the “Yeah but whose side is he on?” when Hogan comes out. It’s exactly what The Brain would say though isn’t it? If anything it added to the moment. If he’d sat silent or, worse, started cheering for Hulk, it would’ve been more of a red flag that something was off. 

The post-match scenes are mad. And aside from calling it both the “New World Order” and then the “New World Organisation”, I think Hogan cuts one of his better promos. Acknowledging his past in the WWF, referring to Billionaire Ted and stuff but the actual logic of him turning is pretty sound. Crowds had been gradually growing tired of the same old stuff from him and him basically calling them ungrateful cunts after all the charity work, stuff he’d done for kids and saying “if it wasn’t for me none of you would be here”, I guess it kind of makes sense as a motive. At the start you can still see a lot of people in the crowd cheering and clapping but by the end they’ve absolutely pelted the ring with rubbish in disgust, with one fan even trying to do a run-in and instantly regretting it as he’s met with Scott Hall’s boot. One of my favourite bits though is at the end when Hulk grabs Mean Gene by the collar and Gene goes “Don’t touch me! I’ve got a fleet of lawyers!” Didn’t remember that bit. 

I was watching Nitro religiously every Friday night on TNT but I can’t even remember who I was thinking might be the ‘third man’ going in. I was probably expecting it to be another guy jumping from the WWF though. Bret was probably my assumption purely because he was off WWF TV at the time anyway and it all seemed to add up, but I couldn’t picture Bret as a bad guy at that point either. I’ve said it before on here but it still pisses me off that we never got the WCW PPVs over here. Moments like Hogan’s turn should’ve been a really vivid memory of watching it unfold live, or the next day on tape unspoiled like with WWF shows. I’m sure I found out about this through teletext. Not the same. No less shocking though and I still don’t think I believed it until the next couple of Nitros aired. It got old after a bit but for about a 18 months after that Nitro was must see, all off the back of this moment.

I know there’s been a bunch of stories about how the heel turn actually came about, who came up with it, who convinced Hogan to do it, who was gonna be the third man if not Hulk (Mabel, obviously), everyone wants to take credit for the idea. Just imagine Hulk didn’t go for it though, the old “Doesn’t work for me, brother”. I can’t even picture what WCW would’ve looked like through 96, 97 and so on. Hall and Nash coming in was really cool and interesting but without Hogan turning to really push it over the edge, I can’t help thinking the novelty would’ve soon wore off and The Outsiders would’ve basically became just another part of the show. It certainly wouldn’t have had the lasting impact it did with Heel Hulkster. And it absolutely gave Hulk’s career a much needed boost at a time when the yellow and red ‘Real American’ shite had gone stale.

WCW being WCW, they didn’t know how to keep the ball rolling or bring the NWO story to a satisfying conclusion, fucked the Sting match up at Starrcade 97 and the wheels started coming off from there. But they might not have even made it that long without Hogan’s heel turn. Properly changed the course of wrestling at the time, not just for WCW but it forced the WWF to up their game as well. 

[air_raid]

6 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Whenever I watch this moment back, it always makes me laugh how you can bet there’ll be a comment going ‘Why did Heenan have to spoil it?’ Referring to the “Yeah but whose side is he on?” when Hogan comes out. It’s exactly what The Brain would say though isn’t it? If anything it added to the moment. If he’d sat silent or, worse, started cheering for Hulk, it would’ve been more of a red flag that something was off.

It’s the worst revisionist history. Everyone just thought it was Heenan being Heenan, nobody guessed Hogan was coming out to turn until he dropped the leg.

Hogans venom at the WCW fans that night was so emphatic, it made me think he meant it.

[Merzbow]

I can't believe Hogan took that man's job..

I'm never going to say Hogan wouldn't work as the nwo leader cause he obviously did and he brought in a true boom period, that first promo was fire and one of his/the best ever but it took a while after for him to nail it again. I love how he pretty much learned on the job to be that cool bad guy from being around Hall and Nash, they rubbed off on him hard and without them who knows how a Heel Hogan would have gone down.

Props to the brilliant editing on those black and white videos, made everyone look like the baddest fuckers on the planet.

Edited July 26, 2025 by Merzbow

[FUM]

I was looking forward to seeing what sort of tribute video they put out as they generally do this well. I still watch the Eddie and Dusty Rhodes ones to this day. Real shame Triple H has main character syndrome and narrates them all now. Those music videos used to be some of the best things put out to the point I used to joke with my partner that I’d want WWE to do my tribute if I ever died.

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, FUM said:

I’d want WWE to do my tribute if I ever died.

I want someone to announce I've been caught and compromised to a permanent end.

[TheScarlettChad]

The Bray one makes me cry still.