Many of us paid $9.99 for the WWE Network without the six-time WWE Heavyweight Champion and iconic face of pro wrestling demanding that we do so. In an era without the media being so pervasive, Hulk Hogan could easily be called one of the greatest and most financially and socially successful Americans of the 1980s. However, since his outing for steroid abuse in 1991 and subsequent WWF departure, it can be said that Hogan's been increasingly more desperate for attention ever since, as his life now is fraught with incredible levels of failure. Yes, Hogan signed with WCW in 1994. Even that move can be called desperate in the sense that he came back to the ring, but absolutely had to turn heel and use Scott Hall and Kevin Nash's level of cool in order to desperately cling to relevancy. As well, his turn BACK to "red and yellow" Hogan, as well as "Millionaire's Club" Hogan and "possibly running for President of the United States" Hogan in WCW also reeked of sheer desperation. Hogan's 2002 WWE return was likely more desperate than that, as by 2002, wrestling against The Rock would on the surface appear to do less for Hogan than for The Rock, but when one realizes that only one month after Wrestlemania it was Hogan, and not The Rock (who won the match) who was WWE Champion, then, well, the idea that the then 48-year old Hogan was yet again the face of pro wrestling was incredible, and possibly the sign of a desperate man in the twilight of his career. Of course, when real-life enters the picture and Hogan's son Nick is involved in a car accident that nearly kills the passenger in his car, while his daughter Brookle has a middling career as a pop music vocalist, and his wife Linda divorces him and slanders him in the process, the one-time desperation for the spotlight becomes a financial desperation and things first get sad, then turn pathetic. It's entirely arguable that nothing of note came from Hulk Hogan's VH1 TV program Hogan Knows Best, his five-year run in TNA Wrestling, his hosting gigs on NBC's American Gladiators or CMT's Celebrity Championship Wrestling, sex tape with Bubba the Love Sponge, oppening of EDM hotspot and memorabilia shop "Hogan's Beach" or re-marriage to Jennifer McDaniel other than the feeling that Hogan is a once proud, now quite desperate man at the end of his rope willing to to anything to remain a "celebrity." Thus, it's ultimately him, and only him who can top this ignominious list.
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.
