Ho Kogan

[LAWraith]

So quarantined here (I go back to work Monday) ... I been doing P90X and spending my afternoons playing my fed and watching OSW review on YouTube.

 I’m watching the chronological playlist and one thing I’m kind of noting is that things I picked up on as a kid the first time watching this stuff other people do as well.  As a kid I HATED Hulk Hogan.  I was a Macho Man fan and immediately hated that Hogan had to save Macho and help him win the title.  Macho wins title and Hogan gives him the title.  Dude, get out of the ring and let the man enjoy the moment.  OSW to my surprise also points this out and I feel a little redeemed lol.  Just watching the end of Mania VI and same thing, Hogan loses and HE hands the title over.  Camera follows HIM to the back.  At the time I wanted to see Warriors moment but as kid me and OSW mention the whole way it’s shot and presented it makes you feel bad for Hogan and to focus on him.  The way it’s shot doesn’t make you feel this is a start to a new era but Hogan is more important and will be back.

I get why Hogan is the most important wrestler but I have never liked the guy (I guess is this a plot twist at this point?  My LAW fed is run on the premise that it’s an alternate timeline where Hogan goes into Baseball instead).  I feel he and John Cena, they may be great guys who help out kids and stuff, actually did more damage than good long term.  

I wonder ... WHAT IF ... How would things have played out if Dibiase had run with the title?  Savage title reign without so much Hogan inclusion?  Perfect wins the rumble where he drew #30?  Simple editing changes to celebrate the Warrior winning at Mania, the ref giving him the title and not focusing so much on Hogan?  Imagine a Perfect world title run?  They say Hogan and Cena are the biggest draws every, what if they had given someone else a chance?  And obviously let’s cover the opposite as well, what if they had given someone else a chance would that have hurt Hogan and would Hogan have settled for that?

Just some interesting historical what ifs to think about on this FRIDAY ...

[Swarm]

I was never a Hulkamaniac. Didn’t love him or hate him (until he pulled Sid Justice out of the rumble). Liked Macho Man better. Even without the influence of the dirt sheets/internet I began growing tired of him. Thought the Ultimate Warrior beating him at WM was the greatest thing I’d ever seen at that point. Was severely disappointed when Warrior lost to Slaughter setting up Hogan getting back into the WM main event. However, that gave us my all time favorite match ending where Warrior shoulder blocked Macho into unconsciousness and stood on him for the 3. Spectacular stuff.

Wasn’t until I was older that I appreciated Hulk Hogan, the greatest pro wrestling superstar in history. How big of a star he truly was, and the impact he had on the sport. Same with Flair. I’ve grown to like both much more as an adult than I did as a kid. Seeing how he was treated by the “smart fans” aka Meltzer readers - voting Hogan Worst Wrestler and Most Hated for many years just showed me how ridiculous elitist wrestling snobs could be and that made me like Hogan a lot more.

[Deleted]

DiBiase winning the WM IV Tournament as planned had a long-term ending of Hogan getting the belt back. There's legit no other way that ends, that whole angle was about him trying to screw Hogan out of the belt after Hogan wouldn't sell the belt to him. There's no way the top babyface isn't the one to take DiBiase out at the end. It really doesn't do much good to try to view that one in particular through a "who else could they have gotten over" perspective because literally nobody but Hogan works in that scenario.

Also, the "Mr. Perfect should have been world champion" narrative has never made sense and only because the WWF was a babyface company. Very few exceptions throughout the pre-Monday Night War history where a heel held the title. I think Hennig could (and should) have been more seriously considered in 1993 rather than just being another guy on the roster but that's got nothing to do with Hulk and everything to do with Vince wanting Yokozuna to be the champion so he could make Lex Luger.

I've always hated the WrestleMania VI post-match and you know Hogan did that shit intentionally. I think he's even admitted he did it intentionally. There's a good argument to be made that it hurt Warrior's drawing power and I think that argument is valid. Them billing SummerSlam 90 as a "double main event" basically tells you "Hogan is still on Warrior's level and not on the way down at all" and that absolutely hurt the perception of Warrior.

Hogan did do damage, but the damage was more done to WCW and his contributions to killing the biggest promotion to ever exist in the US other than the WWF or the real big one in terms of Hogan screwing people over: the stooging of Ventura trying to form a union before WrestleMania 2. The other stuff, like him being involved in Savage's reign literally lead to the most profitable series of house show matches Hogan ever had with the exception of the Big Boss Man feud. For all his meddling, for a time, there was nobody better to work with from a monetary standpoint. Really if you think about it, that was true of literally Hulk's entire career with the exception of 91-93 and even then...you were still working with the biggest name in the business.

Also, Cena didn't do damage long-term. Him not being around would have been exponentially worse for WWE when the whole industry crashed in the wake of the Benoit tragedy. There's a real argument to be made that without Cena, the WWE doesn't make it out of the late 2000s in the same shape it was in (and it wasn't in particularly great shape to begin with...and that had nothing to do with Cena either). Did Cena screw with Alex Riley and a few other guys who probably had no chance of being stars? Yeah. Was Cena also the guy picked by The Rock (the actual biggest draw in WWE history---look it up, he headlined 100+ shows that drew 10k in 2000 and nobody, not Hogan or anyone else, pulled that off) to headline the most successful PPV in WWE history? Yep.

When it comes to what ifs like this, especially Hogan, people view that era through a modern lens and a lot of that thinking doesn't apply to the 1980s. Guys like Curt Hennig were never going to be WWF Champion realistically and Savage would have eventually needed to work with Hogan anyway. The company used to be built around one guy and people kind of rotated around him as opposed to everyone getting a chance to be in the middle.

[TTX]

I was (and still am if not quite as much) a huge Randy Savage fan so it was easy for me to hate Hogan but I definitely see how important he is.

If Hogan never wrestles, the WWF probably never becomes the force it is...best case scenario, wrestling is mostly a regional thing still with a few big companies who have snapped up the dying ones (most were going anyways, Vince just shaved a couple years off them...others would have died Vince or no Vince like Indianapolis and World Class) Where wrestling might change is if Hogan did a Rock and simply moved to Hollywood in 89 and never returned to wrestling except as one shots. Then things get more interesting.