The value of the name hulk hogan he still sees him as arguably the most recognizable wrestling personality many decades after his prime. Hogan completely changed the landscape of both WWE and WCW and each company reached new heights with him at the top spot. However, that doesn’t mean everything about Hogan is perfect by any means.
Hogan fans sometimes overlook the negative moments or generally surprising things in his career. Harsh realities are something everyone in the public eye has that fans don’t always care to process. The following things about Hogan’s career can be considered those harsh realities that most of his fans avoid.
10 He wrestled before the turn of the heel in WCW
The signing of Hulk Hogan by WCW completely changed the landscape so that they felt that they were ready to compete with WWE. Hogan turning heel to form the New World Order made WCW the most popular entity in professional wrestling, but matches before that run are often overlooked by fans.
WCW attempted to continue the Hulkamania babyface gimmick which had mixed results. Hogan’s early WCW PPVs did great business, but started to get stale as he had been with that act in WWE for over a decade. Some WCW fans even booed Hogan to inspire Eric Bischoff to throw the heel spin.
9 In many bad games of all time
Hulk Hogan is considered the superstar of all superstars in WWE history, but he was markedly worse than most of the legends who followed him. Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, John Cena, and Roman Reigns were just a handful of WWE’s top stars who had significantly better matches than Hogan.
It becomes even more apparent when you see that Hogan is in some of the worst matches of all time from a ring standpoint. Hogan had infamous matches against Ultimate Warrior, The Giant, Sid Vicious, and even Triple H to show his greatest weakness.
8 Randy Savage and Roddy Piper were better artists overall
Hulk Hogan’s WWE and WCW tenures saw two household names always right behind him in the pecking order. Most fans would name Randy Savage and Roddy Piper right after Hogan when listing the top legends of wrestling’s Golden Age.
Die-hard fans actually saw Savage and Piper over Hogan because of their entertainment value. In-ring matches and promotions for both guys showed that they were a better overall performer than Hogan. WWE was lucky that Hogan was the right character for the role he was given to run the company.
7 Huge culprit of nepotism
Nepotism is one of the worst things in wrestling if it leads to a top star’s friends and family being unworthy of their opportunities. Hulk Hogan was the first legend who loved to use his power and influence to hire his friends.
Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, Horace Hogan, Garett Bischoff, and the Nasty Boys were just a short list of wrestlers pushed by him. The Hulk went further down the nepotism track when he tricked TNA into signing his daughter, pop singer Brooke Hogan, to be a major character with no real experience.
6 Kevin Nash was the coolest NWO leader
The New World Order became the hottest act in wrestling thanks to the trio of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Despite Hall and Nash’s coolness setting the angle, Hogan’s shocking heel turn is mostly credited to making the group a must-see TV show.
WCW eventually split the NWO into two unique factions of the Hollywood and Wolfpac sides. Nash became arguably the company’s most beloved babyface during this time. Fans saw Nash as much cooler than Hogan to get the facial version of the NWO pretty quickly.
5 Returning WWE Championship reign failed
Hulk Hogan’s return to WWE in 2002 brought many interesting twists and elements to this run. WWE initially wanted a heel Hogan leading the New World Order, but that just didn’t work out as planned when he started cheering for it.
The desire to see the return of Hulkamania for the first time in WWE since 1999 led to a huge push from Babyface. Hogan won the WWE Championship from Triple H to build on his momentum, but that’s where the shark jumped. The gruesome main event matches exposed Hogan’s age as if he wasn’t world champion material anymore.
4 Failed acting career
The wrestlers’ success in acting today sees The Rock, John Cena, and Batista all top leading men in blockbuster movies. Hulk Hogan tried to create that model in the 1980s and 1990s by pursuing a dream of acting when that was unheard of for wrestlers.
Hogan’s acting career fizzled, and most of his films became pranks. Hogan tried to claim that he had stronger opposition in major action roles than today’s wrestler, but he also lacked as an actor. Even the peak years in which Hogan was a wrestling icon did not lead to much success at the box office.
3 Responsible for bad ideas
Hulk Hogan loved to use his power to impact the product on screen when presenting his ideas. Quite a few of Hogan’s ideas showed that he was a horrible creative. Hogan inspired the idea of the Dungeon of Doom faction feuding with him and Big Show playing the son of Andre the Giant as the pay angle.
WCW had more terrible ideas of Hogan than WWE, as he had the creative control clause for his own angles. Hogan came up with the idea of fighting Brutus Beefcake or Ultimate Warrior and proved that he should be criticized for bringing weak angles to television.
2 played a very important role in the fall of TNA
Many Hulk Hogan fans overlook the TNA season as almost the entire thing was a flop. Dixie Carter offered Hogan a great deal to help run the product on screen. Hogan and Eric Bischoff convinced Dixie to think that TNA could compete with WWE like they did with their time in WCW.
Most of the decisions made by Hogan ruined the momentum that TNA had before joining. Fans felt that the product no longer appealed to them as Hogan made it clear that he had no respect for anything TNA did before him. The company got to the point of never being a realistic threat to WWE after Hogan’s career doomed TNA.
1 The biggest ego in the history of wrestling
The biggest argument against Hulk Hogan in wrestling always comes back to his ego. Hogan cared about every little thing in how he was portrayed as the industry’s top star. Names like Bret Hart, Sting and Billy Kidman saw Hogan wanting to clear them if he hurt his own reputation.
Hogan made the behind-the-scenes aspects of wrestling toxic on many occasions, as he had enough power to make life difficult for others. Many wrestlers had a negative opinion of Hogan and felt better not working in the same company as him due to his ego.