Old School WWF/WCW Legend “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan (Real name: Terry Gene Bollea) celebrates his 67th birthday today.
Pretty much every pro-wrestling historian, journalist, dirt sheet writer, promoter & everyone else who knows about the history of this sport, considers Hulk Hogan the greatest of all time.
But let’s look at the facts, shall we? According to the official numbers, which aren’t based on anyone’s opinion, Hogan is by far THE single greatest long-term draw in professional wrestling history. Period.
What about Stone Cold? Yes, Steve Austin was THE single greatest short term draw ever, as he drew the most money in a short period of time, but nobody comes close nor will anyone ever come close to Hogan drawing a huge amount of money for as long as he did.
Facts are facts, and you can’t debate them, numbers don’t lie.
Was he the best ever when it came to moves, holds & high spots? Absolutely not, even though he could do that stuff too if he wanted to, which he proved in all of his 1981-1993 NJPW matches.
But let’s get something straight, pro-wrestling is a work and it’s entertainment only. Moves, holds & high spots have never drawn a dime in the history of this business, so they don’t matter. If you consider yourself a fan and you think a wrestler can be judged by how many moves he does, then professional wrestling is not for you and you should find yourself another sport to support. Sounds harsh, but it’s true and it’s about time someone told you!
Believe it or not, but without The Hulkster there’s a big chance that you would have never heard about pro-wrestling before, well, unless you were a fan before the mid 80s already.
Yes, it was him with Vince McMahon as the mastermind behind him who single-handedly turned the sport of professional wrestling from a small local territory thing into a national and later even international sensation.
Those IWC Smarks who falsely assume “Vince would have just used someone else instead” have long been proven wrong, when Vince himself, among others, confirmed that had it not been for Hogan being there and becoming a national hero over night by defeating the evil Iron Sheik, it wouldn’t have worked.
WrestleMania 1 would have never happened without Hogan, and WrestleMania in 1985 was an all-or-nothing scenario for the McMahon Family, as has been confirmed countless times by Vince & Linda. They would’ve gone bankrupt, if it hadn’t been a huge success.
Sure Hogan had help, Vince himself, as well as Roddy Piper, Mr. T & others played a part in turning our sport into a main stream attraction, but there’s zero doubt that Hulk played the biggest role there.
In 1996, he turned heel, while working for Ted Turner, and again he played the biggest role, in what would turn out to become an 84 week winning streak, that saw WCW defeating the WWF with the Monday Night television ratings from 1996 till 1998.
In 2005, Sylvester Stallone inducted Hulk Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame. They first became friends when they filmed Rocky III together in 1981.
In 2018, WWE falsely claimed that Hogan is now reinstated into the WWE Hall of Fame, when in fact he has always been a Hall of Famer since 2005, his profile just wasn’t on the website between 2015 and 2018, which to be fair is completely irrelevant.
Today, on his 67th birthday, Hogan posted the following on Twitter:
“I’ve been from MSG, the Silverdome and to the Moon, I love this beach and all I wanted was to live my life here, some stayed with me for the journey some left, to those that truly loved and believed in me thank you with all my heart, I’m not done yet BROTHER HH”
I’ve been from MSG,theSilverdome and to the Moon,I love this beach and all I wanted was to live my life here,some stayed with me for the journey some left,to those that truly loved and believed in me thank you with all my heart,I’m not done yet BROTHER HH pic.twitter.com/JXFHZa9CMm
— Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) August 11, 2020
Now there is only one thing to say, so from the entire Team WWF Old School, as well as our 2 million+ community members:
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY HULK HOGAN! Have a good one!”
WATCH: Brooke Hogan’s (Hulk Hogan’s Daughter) Private Photos Leaked:
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