The greatest WWE wrestlers of all time

Continuing with our series on the greatest WWE wrestlers of all time, here’s No. 2 on our list.

No. 2 – Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan. That is a household name that both wrestling fans and those not interested in wrestling recognize the second they hear it. Hogan is quite possibly the most famous name in pro wrestling history; he had a career spanning across five different decades, claiming numerous championships along the way, as well as numerous other accolades.

In his younger days, Hogan didn’t always want to be a wrestler. The man born Terry Gene Bollea got interested in it at the age of 16 as a fan, but didn’t necessarily plan on doing it himself. Instead, Hogan’s first love at the time was music, and he had plans of becoming a rock star, playing in several local bands in his native Florida. While working out in a Tampa Bay-area gym in the late seventies, Hogan (attempting to replicate the look of “Superstar” Billy Graham, one of his idols) was spotted by the world-famous Brisco Brothers (Jack and Jerry). Impressed by Hogan’s physique, they suggested he start training to be a wrestler, since he had the perfect look for the sport. Not long after, Hogan began training with Japanese legend Hiro Matsuda, and after having his leg broken (a common practice then to “weed out” those who weren’t fit for the sport), Hogan came back, proving he wanted it bad enough. From that point, Matsuda saw Hogan’s potential and began to put a lot of focus on the 300-pound blonde.

Hogan started out as “the Super Destroyer”, a gimmick initiated by Don Jardine that has since been recycled many times. However, he wasn’t getting booked all that much, and after being unable to deal with Matsuda any longer (Hogan considered him overbearing), he took a break from wrestling altogether to manage a night club.

In 1979, Hogan got back into the sport, meeting now lifelong friend Ed “Brutus Beefcake” in the process, even forming a team with him as the Boulder Brothers. Later in the year, Hogan was introduced to Vincent J. McMahon, then-owner of the World Wrestling Federation. Hogan started as a heel, being paired with famed heel manager “Classie” Freddie Blassie. In 1980, he began what would be an on-again/off-again rivalry with Andre the Giant, wrestling the “8th Wonder of the World” on the undercard of a Shea Stadium show headlined by Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko. Initially, while Hogan was fairly well-regarded as a heel thanks to Blassie, he wasn’t gaining traction the way many thought he would. Hogan decided that maybe it was time to leave, and headed to Japan for a bit, a country known for responding quite well to American wrestlers, especially large ones.

While in Japan, Hogan was extremely well-received, even becoming the first IWGP Heavyweight Champion, defeating legendary Antonio Inoki in the process. Hogan stayed in Japan for nearly 5 years, officially ending his run there in 1984.

During this time, Hogan was also working back stateside for Verne Gagne’s AWA, once again as a heel. Despite being offered the AWA World title on several occasions, Hogan kept turning Gagne down, as it would tie him down to AWA, and Hogan was making too good of money in Japan to work solely for Gagne’s fledgling promotion.

In 1982, Vincent K. McMahon, son of Vincent J., bought the WWF from his father and, after seeing Hogan appear as “Thunderlips” in the film Rocky III, decided he was the kind of guy he wanted as the centerpiece for his new version of the company. In late 1983, Hogan re-signed with WWF, and just a few months later, dethroned then-champion The Iron Sheik for his first WWF Championship. Depending on whose books you go by, this reign is the 2nd or 3rd longest in history at 1,474 days, right behind Bruno Sammartino (or behind Sammartino and Bob Backlund, again, depending on whose book you go by).

Once Hogan won the belt, he remained the focal point of the company for the next 10 years, spearheading the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” era and helping bring WWF to heights it had never seen before, selling out arenas and stadiums across the country. During this time, Hogan feuded with every major superstar on the roster in any given year, most notably Andre the Giant and Bobby Heenan’s “Heenan Family”. Andre and Hogan headlined Wrestlemania III to a reported crowd of 93,173, a supposed indoor attendance record (in reality, the crowd was about 78,000 deep, but Vince felt that number wasn’t large enough and inflated it). Hogan defeated Andre in a “passing of the torch”, as Andre’s ever-deteriorating health was making it harder and harder for him to be a top-level headliner (he passed away 6 years later).

During Hogan’s run in WWF, he picked up four more WWF Championships, bringing his total to five and holding a record that wouldn’t be broken until Bret Hart did it in mid-1997. In 1993, despite Vince still getting behind “The Immortal One”, fans weren’t buying what they were selling. Hogan’s act was tired, and fans were sick of seeing a superhero-type constantly crush guys bigger and/or more talented than he was. Fans were starting to smarten up to the product, and Vince knew it. At the King of the Ring PPV in June of 1993, Hogan dropped his then-last WWF title to the 500-plus-pound behemoth Yokozuna, the man he had won the belt from in the first place (under suspicious circumstances that are still debated). Yoko even went as far as to pin Hogan after his own legdrop finisher, more as a “screw you” to Hogan from Vince himself.

While on hiatus, Hogan decided he wanted to go back to acting. While in WWF, Hogan had made No Holds Barred and Suburban Commando, two critically-panned movies that made very little money. Despite the poor reviews, Hogan felt he was good at acting, and took the lead role in a string of bad movies and TV shows, more or less vehicles to stroke his own ego.

In 1994, as top competitor to the WWF, WCW was having a bit of a financial crisis, and needed to turn things around in a hurry. Ric Flair, who had been the centerpiece of the company for the better part of 20 years, suggested that company president Eric Bischoff talk to Hulk Hogan, who was a free agent at that point. Flair knew Hogan from their days in the WWF together, and was sure they could come up with a deal. After agreeing to an extremely large sum of money, Hogan returned to wrestling in July of that year, defeating Flair for the WCW World title at Bash at the Beach and helping the company score their then-highest PPV rating ever.

After winning the belt and having a lot of power backstage thanks to his inflated contract (including creative clauses), Hogan decided the best way to help the company was to re-create WWF at WCW, and that meant bringing in all of his old friends and on-screen enemies into WCW. Bischoff agreed, and soon guys like Haku (Meng), John Tenta (Avalanche), Kamala, Ed Leslie and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan began appearing on WCW shows, with Hogan more often than not beating them all in one-sided matches.

While this initially helped WCW, by 1995, fans were already beginning to turn on Hogan once again, for the same reasons they turned on him in 1993. By 1996, Hogan was hardly even appearing on television anymore, basically taking breaks whenever he wanted, as his contract allowed him to do so. By the middle of the year, it was decided by him and Bischoff that something needed to be done to keep him fresh in the minds of the fans, which led to the occurrence of something that hadn’t been done in nearly 20 years: Hogan was going to turn heel.

At the Bash at the Beach PPV that year, the main event was a six-man tag match, pitting WCW stars Lex Luger, Sting and Randy Savage against The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) and a mystery partner. Throughout most of the match, the mystery partner never showed. Despite this, Hall and Nash completely dominated the WCW team, even taking Luger out of the match in the process. Towards the end, Hogan, who hadn’t been seen on WCW in what seemed like months, hit the ring, leading everyone to believe he was going to help Savage and Sting. Instead, he dropped a legdrop on Savage, instantly turning the crowd into an angry mob. From that point, an angle was started that, at least for a while, was considered one of the greatest in pro wrestling history, and that was the beginning of the New World Order.

The n.W.o. ran roughshod over the rest of the company for basically the next year and a half, hardly ever losing matches, and getting new members on a regular basis to assist in the destruction of WCW, only looking vulnerable when it came to Sting who, as part of the angle, felt betrayed by WCW and didn’t wrestle on TV for over a year. At Starrcade 1997, the two finally had their match that was more than a year in the making, and despite a very real controversial finish, Sting finally ended Hogan’s lengthy WCW World title reign (he had won, lost and won the title back during this time, but his loss only lasted a few days).

Instead of the n.W.o. angle ending at that point, though, it just kept going, with more and more members being added, not to mention the group splintering off into smaller groups such as n.W.o. Japan and the Wolfpac. While this might have seemed great to Hogan, it was actually killing the n.W.o. Fans were sick of seeing the same thing over and over again, and what had once started as an elite group of only established stars now included curtain-jerkers and mid-carders, as well as several celebrities and retired wrestlers no one even cared about.

In July 2000 at Bash at the Beach, Hogan was done with WCW for good. In what was perceived to be an angle (and what was originally supposed to be one), Hogan won his final WCW title after then-champion Jeff Jarrett simply lay down and let Hogan pin him with his foot. This led to a profanity-laced barrage by booker Vince Russo, resulting in a lawsuit between Hogan and WCW that went on for quite some time. Hogan never appeared on WCW television again.

In 2002, Vince McMahon, as part of an angle with Steve Austin, decided to revive the n.W.o (he had purchased WCW and all of its trademarks a year earlier, when WCW went out of business), bringing in the original three members, including Hogan. What was supposed to be a heel run ended up getting cut short thanks to a match at Wrestlemania with The Rock that saw a crowd hungry for nostalgia cheer vigorously for “The Hulkster”. Hogan wound up turning face the next day, and a month later, won his 6th and final WWE Championship. From then to 2007, Hogan only made sporadic appearances, mostly for nostalgia purposes. In 2005, he took his long-overdue place in the WWE Hall of Fame, being inducted by long-time friend Sylvester Stallone. He wound up leaving in 2007 after money disputes, and has not been seen on WWE television since.

Hogan’s initial run in WWF cannot be emphasized enough. At the time, he took the company to heights it had never seen, making himself and nearly everyone around him millionaires in the process. Until “Stone Cold” Steve Austin caught fire years later, Hogan was the biggest box office draw in pro wrestling history, more or less being the focal point of the company for 10 years straight. He is a 13-time World Champion, a 2-time Hall of Famer (including the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame), a household name and an icon in professional wrestling, and for a long time, was the number-one guy in the sport. Calling him a legend would be an understatement.

And now, here’s a video clip showcasing some of the most iconic moments of Hulk Hogan’s career: