What If Hulk Hogan Had Never Existed?

Hulk Hogan was, without question, the biggest star of the professional wrestling in the 1980s and early 1990s.

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He was the foundational performer Vince McMahon made his national expansion of the WWE on the back of, leading to the Rock N Wrestling Connection that brought the company into the mainstream, and events like WrestleMania that would build WWE into an institution.

From there, Hogan remained one of the biggest names of the late 1990s and into the 2000s on top of WCW, then for a huge nostalgia run with WWE.

But what if Hulk Hogan had never existed?

There are pieces of wrestling that would have carried forward without Hogan. McMahon probably would have pursued his national expansion anyway, and other people would have filled his role in certain ways. Things probably wouldn’t have worked out entirely the same way, though, particularly as more time went on, introducing more variables into the series of historical events.

This article takes a crack at imagining wrestling history without arguably its most important star, the one and only Hulk Hogan.

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#5 Orndorff-a-Mania Runs Wild

Might Paul Orndorff have gotten Hulk Hogan's spot?

If we are to imagine a world without Hulk Hogan, the first step is to consider whom Vince McMahon might have plugged In as the face of his company instead? There are quite a few possibilities.

Maybe it would have been Andre the Giant, but larger than life legend was already well on his way out the door of wrestling, past his physical prime and eyeing retirement.

Maybe it would have been Jimmy Snuka, but the legal scare around the death of his girlfriend made him a bit unsavory. It’s possible someone like Hacksaw Jim Duggan might have gotten the nod for his everyman qualities, but he didn’t have the same Superman look that Hogan did.

In the end, Paul Orndorff was the man who, at that time, demonstrated the proper Herculean physique, good looks, charisma, and in-ring work to accomplish similar objectives as Hogan. No, his charisma couldn’t match Hogan’s, and he had injury issues start to catch up to him in the 1980s. As a launching point, though, it’s likely McMahon would have strapped a rocket to him.

#4 Roddy Piper Wins A World Championship

Roddy Piper may have been a world champion

Roddy Piper stands out as one of the most talented and most famous wrestling stars to have never won a recognized world championship.

The conventional wisdom associated with this fact is that he was perceived not to need a world title, and in that era of wrestling, it wasn’t so unusual for a top tier guy to not necessarily have a title reign.

Piper and Hulk Hogan have each commented from their own perspectives on their legendary 1980s rivalry (and, to an extent on their less celebrated 1990s feud in WCW).

The consensus seems to be that Piper never wanted to absorb a pinfall loss in order to protect his character, and Hogan was unwilling to consider dropping the title to him for fear he’d never get the title back.

In lieu of a star as powerfully over and money-making as Hogan, WWE may not have been so committed to having just one face stay on top in the 1980s, and may not have had someone to yield as much influence over his own character as Hogan.

There’s every reason to think Piper may have had at least a short reign, feuding against the surrogate top faces of his day.

#3 Tito Santana’s stock rises

Tito Santana may not have been the guy, but he would have had more opportunities in Hogan's absence

Tito Santana was never treated like he was a proper main event level star during his WWE tenure. There was nonetheless a time, particularly as the leadership of the company transitioned to Vince McMahon from his father when Santana ruled over the mid-card and was the top gatekeeper for rising main event heels.

So what would have happened without Hulk Hogan in the picture? Santana didn’t have the superhuman physique or level of charisma that Hogan had to offer, and probably wouldn’t have been in serious contention to take his place as the face of the company during the company’s national expansion.

In less of a single superstar system, however, Santana may have gotten a bigger piece of a smaller pie.

Rather than Hogan headlining every early PPV, Santana may have been in the mix alongside other top tier guys and even gotten world title shots as a fringe main event guy had Hogan not been around.

#2 WCW stays slower and steadier

WCW may have moved more slowly without Hulk Hogan

To oversimplify a bit, WCW underwent three major stages of evolution to arrive at its heyday. First was hiring Eric Bischoff to the role of Executive Vice President, which saw the company’s business practices shift and WCW start to yield a profit.

Next was the signing of Hulk Hogan as a step toward genuinely competing with WWE. Then there was the rise of WCW Monday Nitro and the launch of the New World Order (highlighted by Hogan’s heel turn) that allowed them to usurp WWE as the top wrestling company in the world for a time.

Remove Hogan from the equation, and WCW likely would have still reached a point of pursuing competition and signing away top stars.

Without as definitive a star as Hogan at stake, though, we likely never would have seen the same kind of radical shifts on WCW’s part, but rather a more slow and steady approach to its growth.

#1 No Silverdome

Without Hulk Hogan vs. Andre, could WWE have ever filled the Silverdome?

There’s a very real argument that WWE’s pre-Attitude Era peak came in 1987 with WrestleMania 3.

The show had Aretha Franklin singing to kick things off, an all-time classic match between Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat, and the iconic showdown between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant in the main event.

Without Hogan vs. Andre, WrestleMania 3 still may have been great. However, it’s less likely it could have drawn a suitable audience to fill the 90,000-plus seats available at the Pontiac Silverdome. Furthermore, without a star the caliber of Hogan, it’s entirely possible Andre would have retired from the ring before making the heel turn that facilitated such a big show.

WWE may well have been OK without having put on a show with the live scale of the Silverdome, but without that particular moment of wrestling lore, the company’s lore would have been affected—one of its signature nights gone forever.