In a bizarre moment, it was the one time that the fans wanted Hulk Hogan to say "f**k you" to them that actually turned into the biggest time Hulk Hogan ever said "f**k you" to his fans. The New World Order revolutionized pro wrestling not just because it largely destroyed pro wrestling's traditional heel/face dynamic. It's because Hulk Hogan turned bad and fans enjoyed booing Hogan as much as they loved cheering his cool new bad guy friends that it rendered every other thing that transpired in pro wrestling since as less revolutionary as the idea of loving to boo Hulk Hogan. The really sad thing to realize is that as a heel, Hogan was actually portraying the d-bag that we've seen him evolve into in real life. If the kind and caring Hogan we believed him to be was always who Hogan was remained through the NWO heel turn, it'd be a different story and this article wouldn't be so heartbreaking. However, life now mirrors art, and there are no longer any cheers (or in many cases respect) left for Hogan at all anymore.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
