So people are always going to get mad at me, but I feel like it's only fair to be honest.

And when you are talking about Hulk Hogan, you also have to bring Terry Beaulia into the mix. Because some of the things that Terry Boile did in the last 10 years of his life, they're just bad, they're controversial, and I didn't think they were very good at all. At the same time, Hulkomania totally changed the WWF and totally changed what professional wrestling was. but both these things can be true.

I just think when we do wade in these waters, you have to admit there is a nuance to this, or that we need to be able to talk about it from all sides. However, as we do continue our How Good Were They Series, you'd be mad to ignore Hulk Cogan for obvious reasons, or there is some comedy to this, because, of course, the rating system we do use is Brathearts from his autobiography and do you not wrestler he picked to show us an example well it was none other than the hulk hogan the hitman broke it down into three categories looks and presentation promo and in ring and he gave hogan a 10 for look he gave hogan a 10 for promo and of course he gave him a three for professional wrestling you can debate that in the comments we can start with the look as well because Brat Hart is totally right, especially in that mid-80s era. Everybody wanted to look like Hulk Hogan. I mean, he was deceptively massive at like 6'7 he had the 24-inch arms and even the red and yellow. When he was coming to the ring waving his American flag, especially if you were a kid, you could just look at him and say, oh my gosh, he is a superhero come to life. How did he escape from the comic? And even the balding but long hair and the moustache somehow seemed to work. And if you want to say he was the biggest baby face that was meant to be a baby face in the history of the WWF, I don't think many people are going to argue with you. You always had the big pose down after matches that kind of reminded you of Stelveston or Arnold Schwarzenegger and even the real American entrance song. I don't know how the WW have got this so right, but they ticked every single damn bucks. I mean, even calling his fans Hulkomaniac is something that modern day celebrities do. They take a part of their name and pick crew or group or team and throw it together. And I'm sure that people were doing this before Hulk Hogan, like the Beatles, but he was someone that carried it on and he absolutely made it more popular. So if you want to say there's never been a more significant brand identity in the world of pro wrestling, once again, it's going to be hard to debate. I mean, even in wrestling now, you don't

really see people wearing red and yellow because they know what it means. You just got to give it a 10 out of 10. Hulk Hogan had this absolutely perfect. Now, promo is a little bit funnier because good grief, when you watch them today, some of them you'll be like, I don't know what you were talking about there, Hulk, but you will want to run through some walls. He was the epitome of knowing that it's how

you say something and not really what you were talking about there, Hulk, but you will want to run through some walls.

He was the epitome of knowing that it's how you say something and not really what you actually said, because somehow that gets into your loins, it gets into your emotions, and you're like, man, we better go to MSG to see Hulk kick someone's ass. He also had the catchphrase, what you're going to do, brother? And of course, he loved using brother, Jack and Dude. but in many ways he became the prototype for all of this,

the professional wrestlers still copied today.

We just go and watch anything he loved using brother, Jack and Dude, but in many ways he became the prototype for all of this, the professional wrestlers still copied today. We just go watch anything he did do before WrestleMania 3 when he was building up the Andro the giant match. If you're of a certain age, you will go, well damn, if Hulk Hogan isn't successful here, I think the world is going to end because that's the amount of importance he put on it. The truth is that he just connected with the crowd throughout his career and of course we can talk about WrestleMania 18 when it comes to that too. Nobody expected to get that kind of a noise as Hulk returned to a WWF ring. But even today, some of the biggest wrestlers in the world, how do they describe this as the best professional wrestling match of all time because it's all about connection. That also comes down to the fact that before all this, the Rock and Hulk Hogan were promo against each other. And of course Hogan doesn't miss a beat, even though he is dealing with Dwayne the Rock Johnson. And that's another recent people were so excited. Remember the first when he said, What you gotta do, brother, after he came back in 2002, everybody went nuts. And sure he never had changed his approach, and it is a little bit dated in 2026, but it's also of its time. And look at the longevity you did have. Brat Hart got this one right to 10 out 10. Now it gets super fun after this, because we do get to talk about the in-ring capabilities of one Hulk Hogan. And I have said this on every video, so I'll say it here as well.

It's twofold, actually.

One, if you do make it to AEW or WWE, you're a very successful professional wrestler,

and it makes no difference with some random ball guys saying about you.

But also, two, he did connect with the fans when it came to his physicality, and that's all wrestling is.

It doesn't matter if you can do a Hurricane Rana or not. What does

matter is that if your shoulder gets off that matter, a one, two, ooh, and the fans go, oh my gosh, I can't believe it, well, you're pretty good at your job. Again, we can go to WrestleMania 18, which was years after Hulk Hogan's peak. Once again, he had launched people into a fever pitch. That's only fair to say that his matches were very formulaic and he loved to Hulk up. If you do want to get into the science between the hulking up, what exactly was happening here? And why did it take a few punches to the face for all of a sudden Hulk Hogan to realize, wait a minute, I'm not feeling any pain and now I'm going to boot you in the skull? I mean, technically he starts the no-cell moves, which you'd never get away with today, but he did come up with what the WWF main event style was for years. And actually it was probably Stone Cold Steve Boston that changed it in the late 90s. That's one hell of a legacy. And yes, we will throw in this New Japan work because everyone that does see that goes, oh wow, that's very impressive. But most of this is also from 1983 and also at the time it was very hard to see because you

had to be a tape trainer.

So I do kind of feel like you have to move it to one side just a little bit. You can't dismiss it, though, because it proves that he could do it. But let's look at some of his matches today. If you do sit down with Hulk Hogan v. the Ultimoyan from WrestleMania, outside of the crowd noise, I don't think you're going to get much from it.

Same with Andre versus Hogan too. Do not get me wrong, one of the most important and biggest

matches of all time. But if you just want to sit there and focus on what they're doing, well, to be honest with you, you may just be a little bit bored. I don't mean that disparagingly. The world has just changed. So it's already fair to say it would be completely different if Onda the giant wasn't a broken mess. This was towards the end of his career. And please go and watch Andre in his peak because you will be exploding with joy. So let's do the whole video game thing as we always do and seven out of ten isn't average here. Five out of ten is and that is what we are going to do. He came up with a star that was absolutely incredible and he did know what he was doing. But sure, after a while, could all his matches matches feel very samey which is one of the reasons he had to go to wcd w in 1994 the answer is yes so it's a very very positive five out of ten but we're looking at a 40 plus year career here in terms of the test of time though where it's only fair to say the amount of controversies that hulk kogan was involved in well it hasn't stood up at all i just don't think you can ignore this or at least i can't if you want to separate the amount of controversies that Hulk Hogan was involved in, well, it hasn't stood up at all. I just don't think you can ignore this, or at least I can't, if you want to separate the art from the artist, more power to you. But go and look at the Netflix debut in 2025, or whatever it was, when Hulk Hogan did turn up. He didn't get booed on a fluke, my friends. People remembered the absolutely awful things that he did say, and they didn't want to get past it, nor should they. There's also hundreds of stories about how Hogan was backstage, both in the WWE and WCW, and they are not the best tales. And even if you do go to the 1994 arrival in World Championship wrestling, fans were livid. They didn't want this WWF hokeyness, but the time he was feuding with the Dungeon of Doom,

and once again, it's all out there on the internet, I wouldn't say it's very good, it's hilarious, but not for the right reasons. Once again, though, none of that is as important as some of the things that Terry Bole has said in his real life, and I know you're going to react to that, so I'm going to caveat it once again.

That doesn't mean he wasn't a game changer in wrestling.

It doesn't mean he isn't one of the biggest wrestlers of all time.

He did do all that and you can't tell the story. so I'm going to caveat it once again. That doesn't mean he wasn't a game changer in wrestling.

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