An examination of Hulk Hogan's media impact — The guest is John Pollock of POST Wrestling

Sports Media with Richard Deitsch

Audacy

News, Business News, Sports, Sports News

4.3 • 721 Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 530 of the Sports Media Podcast features John Pollock, a reporter and writer at POST Wrestling and the co-host of the Pollock and Thurston podcast. In this podcast we discuss the death of Hulk Hogan; Hogan's impact on the wrestling business and American sporting culture; Hogan's making the front of the April 29, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated when the magazine was a publicity monster; why Hogan became the face and bulked-up body that led pro wrestling into America's mainstream culture; the direct line from Hogan to WWE Network's launch in February 2014 to Endeavor acquiring the WWE in a deal valuing WWE at $9.3 billion; Hogan's racism; getting booed during his Netflix appearance last January; how WWE will cover his death and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Indeed.
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0:18.4	Speed up your hiring today with a £100 sponsoredpound sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash SPAN-U-K.
0:26.2	Terms and conditions apply.
0:42.5	Welcome to the sports media podcast.
0:43.4	I'm your host, Richard Deich.
0:45.8	My producer is Patrick Antonetti. I wanted to get this out very, very quickly because a significant figure in American pop culture died yesterday.
0:58.6	I think if you're listening to this, you will already have known that.
1:02.1	Hulk Hogan, who helped usher in professional wrestling's rise in popularity in the 1980s and beyond,
1:08.7	passed away yesterday at 71.
1:13.2	The reason I wanted to do so, obviously, it's a major American figure, but
1:16.4	Hulk Hogan has a very, very significant impact when it comes to the media as it relates
1:23.4	to wrestling in America, but also sort of extending beyond media because the
1:29.3	WWE in many ways set a template for what others have followed.
1:34.1	The WWE network in terms of its streaming, and you can draw a through line to where
1:38.3	all these places are today.
1:40.1	It's really nobody better, in my opinion, in terms of wrestling journalism, than John
1:43.4	Pollock, who is a reporter at Post Wrestling.
1:46.7	He's one half of the tremendous podcast, Pollock and Thurston.
	...

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