RIP Hulk Hogan, the omnipresent Eighties icon

Hulk Hogan, who died today at 71, will be sorely missed. But in July 1996, arguably the most famous and beloved pro wrestler of all time was standing in a ring as fans booed and threw trash at him. He had just turned into a bad guy for the first time ever. 

This was the second time Hogan would take professional wrestling to unprecedented heights. 

Nearly 30 years ago, Hogan formed the villainous “New World Order” (NWO) for Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Because of Hogan’s group, WCW would beat the former top wrestling company, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for 83 straight weeks in the TV ratings. 

No other company had ever beaten WWE in the ratings. 

That’s because 40 years ago, Hulk Hogan helped promoter Vince McMahon turn a New York-based wrestling regional territory into a national cable-based pop culture juggernaut. The World Wrestling Federation and “Hulkamania” ran wild throughout the last half of the 1980s, and from the time Hogan captured the world title from the evil Iranian “the Iron Sheik” in 1984, through the Hulkster body-slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania 3 in 1987. This all happened before the WWF even got to Hogan’s legendary feud with the Ultimate Warrior. 

Professional wrestling had made an unprecedented impact on American pop culture, most of it due to Hogan’s popularity.

He was perfect for the era. If President Ronald Reagan hated commies and terrorists, Hulk Hogan did too. After portraying the dastardly wrestler “Thunderlips” in Rocky III, Hogan formed an alliance with mega-action TV star Mr. T, appearing on his hit television show The A-Team, and Mr. T would in turn would take part in the first Wrestlemania. Hogan even hosted Saturday Night Live. Later, on nights when Saturday Night Live was not on the air, NBC would instead run WWF “Saturday Night’s Main Event” specials, with Hogan front and center. 

For Americans, Hogan was almost omnipresent in the Eighties. For kids, superheroes were finally real. 

Growing up in South Carolina at the time, I was immersed in both the WCW and WWF wrestling brands simultaneously, in which Ric Flair was the world champion of WCW and Hogan was at the top of the WWF. As a southerner, I was a Flair-WCW loyalist, but as big as that product was, its title lineage tracing back to the 1940s, the brand new WWF was bigger (Flair himself would admit this in later years). 

WCW is what I would watch after Saturday morning cartoons. Hulk Hogan and the WWF had their own cartoon. That made an impression on a child’s mind. 

Hulk Hogan action figures. Hogan sleeping bags. Hulk posters, shirts and pins. If you could put Hulk Hogan on it, WWF was going to sell it to you, enticing countless kids to harass their parents into ponying up. Closed circuit TV, a precursor to pay-per-views, was how the first few WrestleMania were viewed nationwide, where you could buy a ticket to bars or theaters to watch. Obviously many and perhaps most kids obsessed with wrestling could not make it to these venues, but they knew someone who did. An older brother, relative or friend. 

So kids talked. I distinctly remember being in shop class in the seventh grade and the buzz among the boys was over whether or not Hulk Hogan could actually physically pick up the gargantuan Andre the Giant. There was no consensus. There was debate. 

But of course, Hogan did. Hulk Hogan could do anything. That was the point. 

In later years, Hogan would become part of a sex-tape scandal and even a racial slur controversy.(stemming from the same video). Perhaps the most controversial stand he ever took was endorsing Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, in the most Hulk Hogan way. It was the first time he had endorsed a presidential candidate, polarizing much of his fan base. 

But if professional wrestling is one of America’s most famous entertainment exports, and it is, its face for the last half century has been Hulk Hogan’s. 

Perhaps Vice President J.D. Vance summed up Hogan after his passing best: “Hulk Hogan was a great American icon. One of the first people I ever truly admired as a kid.” 

Vance is a decade younger than me, but still part of a generation of young American boys who felt the same about an unforgettable childhood hero for so many.