The X-Factor: RIP Hulk Hogan and Ozzy Osbourne
There’s no doubt that much has been said about (Hollywood) Hulk Hogan and will continue to be said in the future. Good, bad, and neutral. I wonder where Bret Hart will be in the coming days.
Warrior attracted his fair share of controversy, but when his time came, people were more inclined to talk about the good.
Nevertheless, Hogan will continue to be seen as the one who lifted the WWF into the global spotlight and broke tradition doing it. The Attitude Era, Ruthless Aggression, all the feel-good moments, and especially WrestleMania couldn’t have happened without him and Vince McMahon tipping over the first dominoes.
Look at his drawing power alone. There’s NBC’s The Main Event specials and Saturday Night’s Main Event. Big ratings overall. As my fellow columnist just said, it was Andre vs. Hogan that filled the seats in the Superd…I mean Silverdome. That feud kept on making money. There was also Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Ted DiBiase, Ultimate Warrior, and the Iron Sheik. The man could rake in the millions, and he didn’t quite do it alone.
One of my earliest memories of Hulk was this old NES game. Can’t remember how I got it, maybe my mom found it in a used game store? I played the hell out of it for a few months. I remember beating it showed a graphic of the Hogan ‘86 title.
We were excited at the thought of Hogan, Hall, and Nash returning in 2002. When The Rock hit the ring after No Way Out, the match was made. It practically wrote itself, but there was a hitch. The WCW faithful were happy to pelt him with trash at Bash at the Beach ’96. He’d gotten stale. It wasn’t like that anymore.
It was a bit surreal. Seeing him and the Great One in the middle of Skydome doing the spiritual sequel to WrestleMania VI’s main event. Cheering the Immortal One was one thing, but hearing The Rock get booed? The irony.
When Hogan broke out the red and yellow on the 4/4/02 Smackdown, even Triple H smiled a bit.
Look at the rest of the year. Hogan put over The Rock, Undertaker, Kurt Angle, AND Brock Lesnar? At the time, seeing the Hulkster get destroyed by Lesnar was heartrending.
It says a lot that he could make new stars as good as he did, yet his unwillingness to do it more is well documented. Many of us will know one of his biggest success stories was Goldberg. Being the “third man” two years before saved the business and kick-started the Monday Night Wars into overdrive.
If we’re being honest, Terry Bollea didn’t stand alone at playing the political game backstage. Also, WCW just didn’t do enough to rein in all those egos during the Monday Night Wars.
He had a family. Hogan and Brooke had a falling out. Imagine how she must be feeling. Cool it with the jokes.
The business lost a legend, and the WWE lost a good friend. The Ozzman himself. A true legend in the world of music. No doubt the Hulkster will dominate Smackdown, but they’ve gotta mention Ozzy Osbourne too.
RIP.