How Good Was Hulk Hogan Actually?

Time has not been kind to Hulkamania in an avalanche of ways.

Looking back at Hogan’s matches now is a slog. The Intercontinental division during his best years featured the likes of Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect and Bret Hart putting on classics that bang to this day. Watch the main event work of Cody Rhodes, MJF and Roman Reigns, and there is a chasm between them and the Hulkster on his best day. His main event peers Ric Flair, Sting and Randy Savage put on bouts that hold up a million times better than the sluggish and predictable stuff peddled by Hogan.

Then there’s everything that happened behind the curtain, and this is where time really caught up to Hogan. Hulk is as well known for his sly backstage politics as he is for anything he achieved in the ring, and his continual refusal to lose cleanly (or at all!) has aged terribly.

At a time when corners of the internet think Cody or Becky Lynch are booked too strongly, Hulk Hogan’s period of dominance would have made these critics bleed from their eyes. Roman had the longest WWE Title reign of the modern era, but his wins were laced with shenanigans. Hogan’s babyface run with the title from 1984-1988 was 1,474 days of all-American, white meat, babyface victories. Today’s fans would have HATED it.

In WCW, it was even worse. He walked in and won the company's heavyweight title from Ric Flair in his first match at Bash At The Beach 1994. Hogan swept WCW’s biggest monster, Vader, all the way through 1995, including a farcical no-sell of his earth-shattering Vader Bomb. Randy Savage and Hogan took on 8 men (including Flair, Lex Luger, Meng, and Arn Anderson) who were literally called 'The Alliance to End Hulkamania' and still won.

Time’s test on Hulk Hogan also has to acknowledge his controversies. Hogan was caught using racial slurs on a private videotape in 2015 that defines his legacy as much as anything he achieved in the wrestling business.

He refused to ever atone for these actions; Shelton Benjamin suggested his “apology” to the WWE locker room warned them not to get caught rather than showing remorse for his reprehensible words. This understandably soured his relationship with fans to the extreme. After this disgrace, like so many others, Hogan then attempted to keep his fame by aligning with political parties that only alienated fans further.

His last appearance in WWE before his death involved being booed out of the building for the world to see on the company’s Netflix debut. His passing should have seen one of the biggest outpourings of emotion and respect in wrestling history, considering he did more for the business than anyone (with the possible exception of Vince McMahon). Instead, he died marred in controversy, with fans split on how to consider his legacy within the global industry he helped create.

3.5/10