Hulk Hogan is one of the most renowned professional wrestlers in the world. Born in 1953, Hulk Hogan’s real name is Terry Bollea. Over the span of his career, Hogan has become an icon in the professional wrestling industry, impacting the sport with his larger-than-life persona, niche gimmick, and amazing feats in the ring. His impressive successes have made a lasting impression that has developed an enduring legacy.
Table of Contents:
1. Early Life and Career Beginnings
2. Hulkamania and Mainstream Popularity
3. Hall of Fame Career
4. Post-Wrestling Life
5. Hulk Hogan’s Legacy
6. Hulk Hogan Quotes
- Early Life and Career Beginnings
Hulk Hogan was born Terry Bollea on August 11, 1953, in Augusta, Georgia. At the age of five, the family moved to Florida. Hogan used to watch a lot of professional wrestling growing up, which he quickly became interested in. As an adult, he trained under Hiro Matsuda and debuted in the ring in 1977, as Sterling Golden. By the late 70’s he had started wrestling under the name “Hulk Hogan” and a breakthrough in his career occurred when he joined Vince McMahon Sr.’s World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Hogan then established himself as a main event star, initially as an independent wrestler, but eventually as one of the original ‘Rock ‘n’ Wrestling’ connections, thanks in great part to his promotional efforts for the WWF.
- Hulkamania and Mainstream Popularity
By the early 1980s, Hogan was a bonafide star with his signature red-and-yellow outfit and a signature entrance, ‘Hulkamania’. His popularity skyrocketed and Hogan became a household name. He was featured in movies and television shows made frequent public appearances and went out on a worldwide tour, promoting the company and its product. During this time, Hogan held the WWF Championship for three and a half years, from 1984 to 1988, becoming the most popular and recognized wrestler in the world.
- Hall of Fame Career
Hogan left the WWF in the early 1990s and joined the rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW). There, he became one of the main faces of the company, forming the popular nWo (New World Order) stable with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, being the leader of the group. From 1995 to 1999, Hogan held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and was the most popular wrestler in WCW until the company went out of business in 2001. Hogan then went back to the WWF (now known as WWE) and continued to be a major face of the company. He won the Undisputed Championship in 2002 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
- Post-Wrestling Life
After retiring from wrestling in 2015, Hogan has stayed in the public eye, mostly for the wrong reasons. His podcast, Hogan Knows Best, is considered his biggest public relations blunder as it painted a negative picture of himself and his family members. Despite all of the controversies, Hulk Hogan still commands respect for his contributions to professional wrestling and his impressive achievements in the ring.
- Legacy
Hulk Hogan’s undefeated streak in the WWF and WCW established him as one of the most iconic wrestlers in the sport. He is one of the greatest of all time and his passion for wrestling is unparalleled. Hogan was a major part in the success of the WWF and WCW and helped put professional wrestling on the mainstream stage. He is remembered as one of the biggest stars of the ’80s, 90s, and 2000s, an award-winning wrestler who left a lasting impression on the industry. He is an inspiration to wrestlers everywhere and a reminder that anything is possible if you have the right attitude and work hard.
Hulk Hogan Quotes
“Hopefully I can become the Babe Ruth of the World Wrestling Federation and be the champion at the same time.” – Hulk Hogan
“Hulkamania is running wild, Brother” — Hulk Hogan
“I train all the time and the weird thing is I’m in the gym with people between 20 and 25 years old and I look in the mirror and I look better than they do and they are young kids – either they haven’t trained hard enough or they aren’t serious enough.” – Hulk Hogan
“I hate to toot my own horn but I just feel that I know people and I know fans and I don’t feel there is that Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt barrier with me. I’ve always felt from everyone I talk to that the fans feel like I’m tangible and they can talk to me and they know me.” – Hulk Hogan
“I love to give the fans what they want. They’re what I miss most when I’m not wrestling. That time in the ring is like being in heaven for me.” – Hulk Hogan
“There’s a lot of gimmick infringement out there, but that’s cool. It’s a compliment. But it all started right when I first came into the Garden. I came down to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and when I hit the ring with the Sheik, I just put my hand up to my ear by accident, and the crowd got louder. I was like ‘Oh, that works.’” – Hulk Hogan
“I promised each and every Hulkamaniac when I went to that great battlefield in the sky I would bring the WWF title with me.” — Hulk Hogan
“I know what happens every time I get in front of a UK crowd – they just go nuts and they are so nice and excited and crazy and they won’t sit down.” – Hulk Hogan
“Be a father first. Don’t put a priority of being a friend with your wife first, or a friend with your kids first.” – Hulk Hogan
“Whatcha gonna do when Hulkamania destroys you?” — Hulk Hogan
“Wrestling needs to be about the art form again. It needs to be about painting a picture and having a really good match.” — Hulk Hogan
“I feel really good right now. It will really be a tough decision. It’s so hard to give up what you love doing. Hanging up the boots will not be an easy thing to do.” – Hulk Hogan
“The coolest thing, and I have it at home, is a huge Hulk Hogan, normal-sized pinball machine. When people come over they play it for hours. When you hit the bumpers and the bells ring it goes, ‘Oh yeah!’ The whole time you’re playing this machine it’s yelling and screaming at you, ‘What you gonna do brother?!’ I think that’s the coolest.” – Hulk Hogan
“When you’re with the NWO, when you’re with Hollywood, you’re just…too…sweet!” – Hulk Hogan
“If I do hit that rope and do a hop, skip and a jump and get up as high as I can, I’m just going to hold my breath, because I know I’m going to hear all kinds of scar tissue popping.” – Hulk Hogan
“It’s tough because a lot of my friends in normal life, a lot of my friends in the entertainment business, and a lot of my friends in the wrestling business are gay. Just to say something spiteful and hurtful, I don’t get it… if it was true and I was gay, I’d embrace it, and I’d tell you guys about it and I’d celebrate it.” – Hulk Hogan
“When you start out in the wrestling business, you make a lot of mistakes, tripping over your own feet and looking like a fool.” – Hulk Hogan
“I’ve been knocked out a few times, but I have no idea how many concussions I’ve ever had.” – Hulk Hogan
“Negativity and Hulkamania – 2 things that don’t go together.” – Hulk Hogan
“I’m really critical of myself and if I take the bandana off my head I’m completely bald-headed and go from being 58 to looking 68 instantly.” — Hulk Hogan
“It’s amazing that even though I’ve lost everything else, I still have wrestling.” – Hulk Hogan
“I’m the man that made wrestling famous.” – Hulk Hogan
“If anybody dared say wrestling was fake, you’d punch ’em. And you never used the word show. If you used the word shows it was an insult.” – Hulk Hogan
“People always expect Hulk Hogan to be standing up straight, or to have the bandanna on, or to not have my arms covered up. If I have an extra-large shirt on people go ‘oh yeah you look small.’ It kind of ruins the mystique.” – Hulk Hogan
“I’ve always felt from everyone I talk to that the fans feel like I’m tangible and they can talk to me and they know me.” — Hulk Hogan
“Blood is thicker than New Blood Dude!” — Hulk Hogan
“In the ring, it’s fun to be the bad guy, but 24 hours a day, when you have to talk to kids, and you see Make-A-Wish kids that love you, the bad guy stuff is not fun. I’d rather be a good guy 24 hours a day than a bad guy just for a few minutes in the ring.” – Hulk Hogan
“We’re the greatest athletes in the world without a doubt.” – Hulk Hogan
“If I have a problem with someone I talk about them. I don’t pick on their kids.” – Hulk Hogan
“The only time I’m not Hulk Hogan is when I’m behind closed doors because as soon as I walk out the front door, and somebody says hello to me, I can’t just say ‘hello’ like Terry. When they see me, they see the blond hair, the mustache, and the bald head, they instantly think Hulk Hogan.” – Hulk Hogan
“I’ve always felt from everyone I talk to that the fans feel like I’m tangible and they can talk to me and they know me.” – Hulk Hogan
“Nobody told me how to talk or think.” — Hulk Hogan
“After watching wrestling for 20 years, I thought I had enough confidence to do it. There were no wrestling schools at the time.” – Hulk Hogan
“I used to be a session musician before I was a wrestler. I played bass guitar. I was big pals with Lars Ulrich and he asked me if I wanted to play bass with Metallica in their early days but it didn’t work out.” – Hulk Hogan
“To all my little Hulkamaniacs, say your prayers, take your vitamins and you will never go wrong.” – Hulk Hogan
“I woke up and realized life is great and people are awesome and life is worth living.” – Hulk Hogan
“The leg drop was a move that nobody really used, and nobody ever hit the ropes and jumped up really high, so I tried it out in Japan and the people loved it. That’s how I came up with it.” — Hulk Hogan
“I fear no man, no beast or evil, brother.” – Hulk Hogan
“You can have a wrestling idea, but you need to have these momentum-shifting moves. We had the Hulkamania movement, then it shifted to the beer-drinking, Stone Cold era, we reinvented the business with growing the black beard and becoming the bad guy, what’s that next level.” – Hulk Hogan
“I’ve been around so long and no matter if I’ve done good things or bad things, or my personal life has been good or bad, the fans have always stuck with me.” – Hulk Hogan
“God created the Heavens, he created the earth! He created all the Hulkamaniacs! Then, he created a set of 24-inch pythons, brother!” — Hulk Hogan
“Everybody’s out there wrestling like a robot.” — Hulk Hogan
“I’m real good with math, with numbers, like my dad was. I’m pretty much dialed in.” – Hulk Hogan
“I quit doing the movies because the wrestling was going so good and was so on fire during the ’80s and ’90s, but I was getting all these movie scripts.” — Hulk Hogan
“When the giant hits the ground, he feels the wrath of Hulkamania and the whole world shakes at my feet?” — Hulk Hogan
“The fans know what’s happened to me over the past couple of years. I lost my family. I pretty much got devastated financially and the fans know that I’ve had some hard times – and that’s the nature of loyal fans. They want to see the people that they love and believe in get back on their feet.” – Hulk Hogan
“I’d like to be the John Wayne of the ’90s. Not in terms of being the macho guy, but as a solid male leading character. Making an action-adventure comedy that kids can see with their families is a natural extension of what I did in wrestling.” – Hulk Hogan
“When you’re NWO, you’re NWO for life. “ — Hulk Hogan
“As far as my divorce goes, I love my family and I love my wife to death and I just don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring.” – Hulk Hogan
“Well let me tell you something, brother!” — Hulk Hogan
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