How Good Was 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan Actually?

6. Cultural Significance

If the 'Monday Night Wars' are considered wrestling's highest peak, then Hogan's heel turn is what made it a war and not just a short-lived battle. Hall and Nash lit the fuse, but Hulk going rogue on Bash At The Beach 1996 caused the entire wrestling world to change the channel over to WCW for the first time in the history of the company. 

Until Hogan's heel turn, WCW was considered the minor leagues. Even him joining the company did very little to move the needle for himself or Ted Turner's business, but once he donned the black and white, the game changed entirely. WCW became the hottest product in town, and pro wrestling was having its biggest boom period inside the mainstream world of pop culture since Hogan put the art form on the map in the first place. 

Maybe The Rock, 'Stone Cold' and the 'Attitude Era' would've captured that zeitgeist energy anyway, but they were infinitely helped by the rise of Hollywood cool.

We live in a world where WWE writes wrestling history with their pen, but it can never be overstated how popular the nWo were. Forget DX, The Four Horsemen, The Elite, Judgment Day, Bullet Club or any other name you want to mention. Hollywood made the nWo the most popular faction in the history of professional wrestling. 

His cultural significance from this era lives on today, and the nWo shirt remains one of the top-selling shirts in WWE every year to this day.

8/10