Today Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, died.
Newer readers might not know this but I watched pro wrestling from age 9 or 10 onward for decades. I stopped a few years back firstly because I didn’t want to dedicate 4+ hours a week to keeping up with the storylines but mostly because I could no longer stand Vince McMahon or his wife.
But back in the 80s and 90s, we were OBSESSED with the WWF (now WWE). We watched all of the shows including the silly cartoon. My brother had all of the action figures. We bought the soundtracks so that we could blast the theme songs1. We grooved to Land of 1000 Dances.
I hugged Hulk Hogan in 1993 at the NATPE show where he was promoting his stupid Thunder in Paradise show. He was kind and very slick to the touch. So much body oil.
Hulk Hogan was a huge part of my life, but he’s also one of the people whom I wish I knew FAR less about.
Did he get Jesse Ventura fired because he was exploring creating a union? Probably.
Did he help shut down Gawker over 10 seconds of the most boring sex tape I ever saw? Yep2.
Did he make vile racist comments? Oh yeah, brother. On tape!
Did he make a far right turn and show up in favor of Donald Trump at the RNC? He did.
Did WWE fans boo the HELL out of him after she showed up to shill his right-wing light beer? Also yes.
And yet I still fondly clung to the memory of “say your prayers, take your vitamins, and you will never go wrong” Hulk, even though that Hulk died years ago.
Anyway, Hulk Hogan died again today, and even though I know what this version of him stood for, I am still so very sad.
- The Miz’s song “I Came to Play” is still my #1 go-to hype song ↩︎
- But he indirectly caused the birth of Defector, which is good. Here’s Defector’s story about Hulk. ↩︎
Leave a Reply