Welcome to the Busted Open podcast, along with Justin LaBarr.

I'm Jonathan Hood, and on today's show, we discuss the late Hulk Hogan and the Rise of Hulkomania.

This is the Busted Open podcast.

Yeah, when you think about the rise of Hulkomanies, I mentioned growing up in Chicago, I saw it on the ground floor. And then to see where it is,

Justin, as you well know, that Vince McMahon's marketing and his booking and Hulk Hogan's

persona was able to get Hulcomania to an unbelievable level. We've seen heroes before, baby faces

wrapped themselves into the flag.'ve seen this but the way

hogan did it just remember the real american is the first thing because wrapping himself into the

flag saying hey you know say your prayers eat your vitamins train you know love of country this far surpasses

slaughter or corporal kersner or Ranger Ross or whoever you

come up with that loved America and had the American persona. Hogan did that the best,

and it was the most lucrative. Yeah, you know, you watch Hogan in the AWA. When you watch

them on those clips, and obviously that stuff was airing, you know, regionally.

And the thing that stands out is, man, look at his ability to sell.

Look at this six foot seven guy who's able to grab this sympathy.

I mean, and you can see it from the back row of the arena.

You can see the pain and struggle on his face.

And then, of course, you can feel the energy when he hulks up.

And so you just, when you see that in the AAWA, you go, my God, Vince is taking this stuff national.

He's, he's capitalizing on cable television. He's capitalizing on,

you know, closed circuit pay-per-view and like, like this guy is, this is your guy who is made

for television. Put a camera on him and you're going to see the sympathy. You're going to feel it.

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