Ladies and gentleman, me and Hulk Hogan are mortal enemies. And by "mortal enemies" I mean he blocked me on Twitter for tweeting that I like my coffee the way he doesn't like his people, so now I take little jabs at him on Twitter every now and then. However, I have to thank the man for one thing and one thing only. I wrote a paper about him, and I got an A. The topic? Why Hulk Hogan is a jerk. Seriously, that's the title. I walked into English one day, the professor asked me what I wanted to write about. I chose why Hulk Hogan is a jerk, and the rest is history. Other people talked about Palestine, or Donald Trump, or the NCAA athletes not being paid, and I'm just here like "Man, isn't Hulk Hogan a dick" And the best part? I got an A on it. So, I thought I'd share my essay here for all of you. Here it is: "Why Hulk Hogan is a Jerk" by me, Cameron Biddle
Why Hulk Hogan is a Jerk
Hulk Hogan is almost unarguably the biggest star in the history of professional wrestling. He led the WWF (now WWE) through one if its most successful periods, was part of the resurgence in popularity for wrestling in the mid-1990s, and was partly responsible for turning professional wrestling into a global phenomenon and taking it out of small venues. When fans think of wrestling, they think Hulk Hogan. However, Hulk Hogan has all but tarnished his legacy after a racial tirade he went on back in 2012 was discovered in 2015. Hogan has now been all but scrubbed from WWE’s history, as WWE has gone as far as releasing him from his Legend’s contract, removing any mention of him from their website, and no longer selling his merchandise. Hogan has gained the reputation of being a bad person due to this leak, but wrestling fans have known for years now that Hogan is not the perfect do-no-wrong human being he portrayed on TV, and is in fact, a jerk.
One of reasons Hulk Hogan is a jerk is his refusal to lose to just about anyone. In wrestling, losing to someone is called “putting someone over.” This is mostly used when referring to top stars losing to rising stars in order to create the next big star. While most top stars in wrestling (John Cena, Triple H, The Undertaker) are reluctant to put over a new wrestler, Hulk Hogan almost never put over new wrestlers. Some of the wrestlers Hogan would not put over include Randy Savage, Mr. Perfect, Earthquake, Sycho Sid, Bret Hart, Big Show, Jeff Jarrett, and Randy Orton. While wrestlers like Hart and Orton would reach that main event status later in their careers, wrestlers like Perfect and Earthquake would never break through and remained in the middle of wrestling cards, all because of Hogan. This type of selfish attitude from Hogan hurt the futures of several wrestlers and kept the WWF from finding a new top star for the future.
Part of the reason Hulk Hogan was allowed to refuse to put over talent is because he had something called “creative control” in his contracts in WWF and WCW. This enabled Hogan to reject or veto a decision the bookers or writers presented to him that he did not want to go through with. Despite denying it, Hogan frequently used creative control in his career to make sure he didn’t lose his spot in the company. One of the most infamous instances of Hogan using creative control was refusing to lose to Bret Hart. The story goes that after Hogan won the WWF Championship from Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX he was supposed to drop the title to Hart at SummerSlam 1993 (in what would be Hogan’s last match in the WWF.) However, Hogan instead lobbied to Vince McMahon to drop the title back to Yokozuna at King of the Ring two months earlier, all reportedly due to Bret Hart being smaller than him. Hogan dropped the belt back to Yokozuna and sat out the rest of his contract, while it took Hart another year to win the WWF Championship and cement himself as a headliner. This decision has been generally criticized by wrestling fans and reporters due to how selfish it was from Hogan’s standpoint and how it nearly cut Bret Hart’s career off at the knees.
Finally, Hulk Hogan is a notorious liar. Hogan has a well-documented history of stretching the truth in order to inflate his own ego and make his accolades seem bigger than they actually are. One of the biggest lies Hogan has told has been that Elvis Presley was a fan of his. In his autobiography Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Hogan writes about how Presley was a fan and would watch Hogan wrestle every time he came to Memphis. In reality, Hogan had not wrestled in Memphis until 1979, two whole years after Presley’s death, and was not a huge star until 1983, making the idea that Presley would rise from the dead to go to a Continental Wrestling Association show seem a little farfetched. An insane group of lies Hogan has told involve his WrestleMania III match against Andre the Giant. Hogan has made several claims, including that Andre the Giant weighed over 600 pounds (his billed weight was 520 pounds, but is believed to actually be closer to 450 pounds), the finish to the match was only decided during the match, and (the most ridiculous) that Andre had died six days after the match. This is easily proven as false, as not only did Andre make his last WWF pay-per-view appearance in 1991 (four years after WrestleMania 3), but Hogan was actually involved in a segment with Andre on the next four pay-per-views (Survivor Series 1987, Royal Rumble 1988, WrestleMania IV, and SummerSlam 1988.) Its lies like these that show how egotistical Hogan is, no matter how ridiculous the lie is.
Hulk Hogan is a legend in the wrestling business; there is no denying that. However, the lengths this man went to hold onto his legendary status are unforgivable. Not only did his constant use of creative control hurt other’s careers, it hurt the WWF and WCW as wholes because after he left those companies, there was almost no one to take the reigns as the top star. The refusal to put over new wrestlers, abuse of creative control, and his frequent lying combine to show that Hulk Hogan is in fact, a jerk.
Thanks again, Hulkster!...you still suck, though.
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