Hulkamania is dead

[waters44]

Wrestling Playlists have just got to 1987, if you’re interested in this time period of wrestling you really need to get signed up to the newsletter, it’s great

https://wrestlingplaylists.substack.com

 

[herbie747]

12 hours ago, BigJag said:

Strangely I have it as pre dating the first Wrestlemania. Which is totally wrong. The cause of this timeline misplacement is probably a result of not having great access to the TV shows of that period.

I only started watching wrestling in early 1988 (shortly before WM4) and I had this match (clearly from 1986) on VHS for years - most likely down to Sky airing random shows they were sent, or maybe just re-running stuff they'd already shown. I remember seeing WM3 after WM4, so they must have rerun that too. I recall the Piper vs Adonis match and not knowing who either guy was since they'd both left before I started watching. 

[Chili]

The lads have weighed in.

 

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

The lads have weighed in.

 

Used to love Wrestle Me, but had to turn this off after about 3 minutes.

Each to their own, but that's a massive downhill turn they've taken IMO. 

[Cannibal Man]

3 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

that's a massive downhill turn they've taken IMO. 

What is it abut the opening that's turning you off it? I heard this a few days ago on the Patreon and thought it was interesting (and quite funny, sorry) to hear them describe in real time getting to grips with nobody actually giving much of a fuck and all of their predictions being wrong. In fact I don't think out of all the stuff on Hulk that's come out since that i've seen or heard anyone else tackle it from that POV and having to slowly accept the aftermath as a fucking depressing, muted mess that neither really saw coming (at least to the degree its gone) maybe naively. The whole thing was pretty fair IMO.

I do agree with them about Hulk's relevance to today's wrestling. I'm not interested in stamping on anyone's posts or tributes or whatever but the amount of talk I saw on nearly every outlet for this sort of stuff mentioned how all of us 'owe' several things to Hulk Hogan or how none of this, that or the other would be here without him probably helped in getting me to realise the same point. All of it was reading completely alien to me. At least with my own experience of wrestling fandom anyway.

 

Edited August 2, 2025 by Cannibal Man

[SuperBacon]

16 minutes ago, Cannibal Man said:

What is it abut the opening that's turning you off it?

I can't quite put my finger on it, and it's not so much what they're saying (that's all fair game) it's just not for me that's all.

Maybe it's just me, I'm a miserable sod.

[Arch Stanton]

14 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

I can't quite put my finger on it, and it's not so much what they're saying (that's all fair game) it's just not for me that's all.

Maybe it's just me, I'm a miserable sod.

The tone of the first few minutes of that clip is weird, admittedly. I felt the same thing, but stick with it. From about the fourth minute they get right into the reasons nobody was really shedding any tears for him and it's a brilliant breakdown from then on. I thought they hit the nail on the head with it. Go back and give it a proper go.

[Chili]

1 hour ago, Arch Stanton said:

The tone of the first few minutes of that clip is weird, admittedly. I felt the same thing, but stick with it. From about the fourth minute they get right into the reasons nobody was really shedding any tears for him and it's a brilliant breakdown from then on. I thought they hit the nail on the head with it. Go back and give it a proper go.

Yeah I posted it without actually seeing it as I know their stuff is well liked on here and agree the first few minutes swerve you and by the end I completely got the approach they went with, really interesting and very fair take on it.

Edited August 2, 2025 by Chili

[The Gaffer]

They did go through a period when they moved over to the Patreon where they were pretty much directly telling you "Yeah we're not arsed about the quality of this, pony up if you want to hear the real stuff" and being all smug and self referential (but it's fine because we know that and are joking about it!) but the move to video cuts as an in to it has been a godsend. 

[TibBo]

In all fairness, it wasn't recorded as a 25 minute youtube video, it was an hour-long podcast that has been chopped and edited into a video, so it kicks-in part way through a conversation without any pre-amble etc. 

[The King Of Swing]

Personally I enjoy the short cuts. Don't have the time or patience for hour plus content. 

Edited August 3, 2025 by The King Of Swing

[garynysmon]

16 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

I can't quite put my finger on it, and it's not so much what they're saying (that's all fair game) it's just not for me that's all.

Maybe it's just me, I'm a miserable sod.

TBH I felt the same, and I love Wrestle Me.

I fully appreciate that its easier to be 100% “fuck that guy” if you’re looking at it all through 2025 eyes and didn’t grow up when Hulk was at his zenith.

For many kids of the 80’s its been a very complex and conflicting time. And I’d argue that peak Hulkamania was well beyond  even Austin and Attitude in terms of visibility across the US.

Without that, (I’d even say emotional) and nostalgic pull then yeah, Hulk Hogan was probably limited in several aspects and wouldn’t work nowadays.

I don’t think it would ever fully translate if you started watching 80’s and early 90’s tapes now and tried taking it all in.

But he was the right guy at the right time, and Hulkamania as a brand was way more prominent than the ‘WWF’, as opposed to now where the brand is foremost and the top stars are secondary.

I believe that Mark from Wrestle Me is a long time viewer so am surprised to hear some of that.

You don’t have to have been a massive Hulk Hogan fan at the time to appreciate just how massive his impact was on the business.

No one else could have provided the vehicle needed to front the WWF’s national expansion.

The current wrestling audience doesn’t have the scale it once did but tends to be more hardcore in nature and likes its ‘pure wrestling’ more than the broader strokes WWF of old.

Back then you’d never have gotten away with how long matches tend to be nowadays.

With that in mind Hulk Hogan’s style is never going to appeal, but what doesn’t appeal doesn’t equate to it being unimportant.

(I know I’m in the minority, which is why I’d rather watch a random Hulk Hogan match on WWE Vault than any modern day WWE or AEW show. Each to their own and all that).

Edited August 3, 2025 by garynysmon

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The photo of him here from a few months back, knowing he had cancer, is pretty fucking sad.

[RedTwoster]

17 hours ago, garynysmon said:

No one else could have provided the vehicle needed to front the WWF’s national expansion.

I wasn’t alive at the time, so I’m asking this from a slightly ignorant perspective I suppose but is this really true? Surely if you take Hogan out of the equation, someone else just steps in and does exactly what he did - maybe Randy Savage, maybe someone else entirely. It doesn’t look from my 2025 perspective like there was a shortage of colourful, charismatic characters back then. 

Clearly he was very, very important - but had Hogan not existed, surely someone else could have been just as important?

Edited August 4, 2025 by RedTwoster

[LaGoosh]

I don't think so. Hogan had it all in a way no one else did at the time. That intangible special something. He was the perfect guy in the right place at the right time.

Macho Man was great and the closest option but I don't think he had a Hogan run in him. I can't think of anyone else who came close. I think WWF would still get big without Hulk but they probably wouldn't have become the juggernaut they were.