Dwayne Johnson may have a higher Q rating than Hulk Hogan, but to the public at large, he's an actor who used to wrestle rather than a wrestler who became an actor. My guess is that if you asked a bunch of non-fans to name a professional wrestler, they'd say Hogan 9 times out of 10.

I will always use this story as the perfect example to illustrate how much Hulk Hogan = Pro Wrestling to the mass audience.

 

I'm watching ESPN doing an NBA season opener report on the Bulls as they headed into the 1994 season, the first in the United Center. Now I've dropped off of following day-to-day wrestling at that point, but when the announcer stated that the stadium had opened in August with "a Hulk Hogan wrestling event" I did know enough that Hogan had parted ways with the WWF at this point, and assumed that the card was something he had promoted with others.

 

It wasn't until I went to college a year later (September of 1995) that I realized WCW did not run shows through there in the summer of 1994, and the show the announcer was referring to was of course WWF's SummerSlam. A show that Hogan had not one bloody thing to do with!

 

So there ya go, Hogan so transcends the sport, or at least transcended it at the time, that his name was affixed to it, even though simple research on the event would have revealed that he wasn't involved on that particular event. I'm sure one could be hard pressed to come up with another one like it, in terms of pro wrestling.

I suppose that would make the equation Undertaker + Undertaker

lol

Hogan is the guy who is synonymous with wrestling for sure, but let's not overstate his place in pop culture. He's probably just slightly above the "Where's The Beef?" lady in stature.

Hogan is the guy who is synonymous with wrestling for sure, but let's not overstate his place in pop culture. He's probably just slightly above the "Where's The Beef?" lady in stature.

 

Really? You compare the "Where's the Beef?" commercial to HULK HOGAN!?!

I would say it means about as much to your average person on the street, yes. He's not Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey or Arnold Schwarzeneger. He's an E-list celebrity at best.

I would say it means about as much to your average person on the street, yes. He's not Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey or Arnold Schwarzeneger. He's an E-list celebrity at best.

If you look outside the American bubble he is still, very much, a hugely recognisable and certainly deemed a famous celebrity.

 

I have asked 3 non wrestling fans just now and they have all heard of Hulk Hogan, which they have, and can exactly describe how he looks.

Yes, absolutely. But he's not a cultural icon in any shape or form. He's a sideshow name at best. I don't think he was ever "ingrained into popular culture", as was mentioned earlier in the thread. He was huge by wrestling standards, but not by pop culture standards.

Hogan is a yard stick short of Carrot Top who is more recognizable than almost all major movie actors, but qualitatively none of them will be remembered 100 years from now anymore than Gilbert Gidfrey will be. They're all generationally unique acts with a limited historical life span.

 

The essence of this issue, a point I was making earlier, is they all have tremendous recognition but none are respected. They're like a sanitized version of a freak show.

An essay arguing Hogan as a cultural icon: http://popculture11.wordpress.com/essay-fo...ays-hulk-hogan/

Hogan is the guy who is synonymous with wrestling for sure, but let's not overstate his place in pop culture. He's probably just slightly above the "Where's The Beef?" lady in stature.

"Where's the Beef?" lasted one summer if memory serves. Hogan's been doing (bad) movies/TV for 30 years. I agree that his importance shouldn't be overstated, but people know who he is. Comparing him to someone who's only notoriety came from a 30 year old fast food commercial is equally disingenuous.

 

Hogan is a yard stick short of Carrot Top who is more recognizable than almost all major movie actors, but qualitatively none of them will be remembered 100 years from now anymore than Gilbert Gidfrey will be. They're all generationally unique acts with a limited historical life span.

I wonder about your social influences when you say that Carrot Top is more recognizable than almost all major movie actors. The rest of your thought is immaterial as well as 99% of entertainers aren't remembered 100 years later. Or are we about to side-drain into a discussion about the top entertainment acts of 1913?

Hogan is the guy who is synonymous with wrestling for sure, but let's not overstate his place in pop culture. He's probably just slightly above the "Where's The Beef?" lady in stature.

"Where's the Beef?" lasted one summer if memory serves. Hogan's been doing (bad) movies/TV for 30 years. I agree that his importance shouldn't be overstated, but people know who he is. Comparing him to someone who's only notoriety came from a 30 year old fast food commercial is equally disingenuous.

Well, you knew who I was talking about right away and I did say Hogan is probably more recognizable than her. But I don't think it's a significant difference. Molly Ringwald hasn't had the longevity of Hulk Hogan as far as movies and television, but are you going to tell me that Hogan is the person more people know between the two?

 

Pro wrestling is not something most people think or care about. Hulk Hogan is the most famous wrestler, but he's a big fish in a small pond. Cultural icons are Abraham Lincoln, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Arnold Schwarzeneger, Oprah Winfrey, etc. Cathy Griffin had a show called "My Life on the D-List" on Bravo. I'm not sure Hulk Hogan is more recognizable than Cathy Griffin.

 

At best, he's part of that same "Oh yeah, I remember him" sideshow.

 

The same thing happened when WWE hired Freddie Prinze Jr. for Creative, and Dave kept gushing over how "mainstream" he was. He was a name people knew yes, but again, it's overstating it.

 

K-Fed was notorious for a very short period of time. Probably more of a "cultural icon" than Hogan. Donald Trump is definitely more famous than Hogan. Both were on WWE TV in 2007.

 

Hulk Hogan may not be one of the 2000 most recognizable figures in American pop culture.

I took a quiz on sporcle.com the other day. You had to guess the famous celebrity from a very blurry picture of them. It had people like Madonna, Nicolas Cage, Elvis Presley, Julia Roberts, Muhammad Ali - and Hulk Hogan.

We're not that far apart on this. I think "cultural icon" is a ridiculous label to throw at Hulk Hogan. Comparing him to a 30 year old Wendy's commercial is just too far in the other direction. He had a successful MTV show just a couple of years ago.

 

Also, I hate you for making me remember who K-Fed is. That guy's more comparable to the Wendy's commercial.

Well, you knew who I was talking about right away and I did say Hogan is probably more recognizable than her. But I don't think it's a significant difference. Molly Ringwald hasn't had the longevity of Hulk Hogan as far as movies and television, but are you going to tell me that Hogan is the person more people know between the two?

Yes.

Well, you knew who I was talking about right away and I did say Hogan is probably more recognizable than her. But I don't think it's a significant difference. Molly Ringwald hasn't had the longevity of Hulk Hogan as far as movies and television, but are you going to tell me that Hogan is the person more people know between the two?

Yes.

 

I'd be really shocked if that was true. The John Hughes movies are iconic and The Breakfast Club is on cable almost ALL THE TIME.

I'd be shocked if 5 out of 100 people thought Molly Ringwald was more well-known than Hogan.

I would say it means about as much to your average person on the street, yes. He's not Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey or Arnold Schwarzeneger. He's an E-list celebrity at best.

No, he's not. But he was on the cover of SI, hosted SNL, has made, and still today, has made scores of talk show appearances.

 

I can see correlation between him and The Kardashians or the latest pop music "BIG THING" but really? NO WAY does an average American pop culture follower equate Hogan with an advertisement character who was in the zeitgeist for the appropriate Andy Warhol time.

I'd be shocked if 5 out of 100 people thought Molly Ringwald was more well-known than Hogan.

A decent chunk of people, including lapsed fans, dress up every year as Hogan for Halloween. When was the last time a decent amount of people dressed up as Molly Ringwald?

My 11 year old niece who has never watched 5 seconds of wrestling knows who Hulk Hogan is. She probably doesn't know who Arnold or Tom Cruise are off the top of her head. She definitely doesn't know Kathy Griffin.

 

I would say in the 1980s, he was almost as big as Tyson was. Even the kids who didn't watch wrestling knew who Hulk Hogan was.

I know there's no way to prove any of this, but I'm sorry. I just don't believe that. Wrestling is small, small, small potatoes.

I will always use this story as the perfect example to illustrate how much Hulk Hogan = Pro Wrestling to the mass audience.

 

I'm watching ESPN doing an NBA season opener report on the Bulls as they headed into the 1994 season, the first in the United Center. Now I've dropped off of following day-to-day wrestling at that point, but when the announcer stated that the stadium had opened in August with "a Hulk Hogan wrestling event" I did know enough that Hogan had parted ways with the WWF at this point, and assumed that the card was something he had promoted with others.

 

It wasn't until I went to college a year later (September of 1995) that I realized WCW did not run shows through there in the summer of 1994, and the show the announcer was referring to was of course WWF's SummerSlam. A show that Hogan had not one bloody thing to do with!

 

So there ya go, Hogan so transcends the sport, or at least transcended it at the time, that his name was affixed to it, even though simple research on the event would have revealed that he wasn't involved on that particular event. I'm sure one could be hard pressed to come up with another one like it, in terms of pro wrestling.

This.

 

In the 80s and well into the 90s, Hogan = Pro Wrestling.

 

It's hard to come up with a parallel, but it pretty much was 1992-98 Basketball = Jordan after Jordan won his first title, Magic retired, Bird wasn't relevant, and no one really stepped up to be at Jordan's level. Each addition thing he did marked Jordan = Basketball, to the point the basketball spent years after his retirement looking for The Next Jordan.

 

Hogan did thing after thing from 1984-87 to stamp himself as wrestling, with the Rocky III thing being a bit like Jordan's pre-title accomplishments. Then Hogan won the title, expanded, Rock 'n' Wrestling, Wrestlemania and eventually Wrestlemania III which kind of was like Jordan's 72 win season: you just ain't topping that.

Hogan = Jordan

 

Brutus Beefcake = Bill Cartwright.

I know there's no way to prove any of this, but I'm sorry. I just don't believe that. Wrestling is small, small, small potatoes.

Hulk Hogan was seen in a match watched by (around) 30 million people. That's three times more than the most liberal estimate of any wrestler for one match in history. He also came up when there was still something resembling a monoculture in the United States. This isn't a stretch. Any other wrestler, yeah, it's probably overstated. But, with Hogan, it's something entirely different. Even people who don't know pro wrestling know who Hogan is. 'Cause as jdw said, he was wrestling for a large part of the 80's.

But Hogan really wasn't small potatoes, Loss. My mom and dad knew who he was. Everyone at school knew who he was. And that continued for several generations. I mean, when they play Voodoo Chile at Camden Yards as the walk-in for one of the Orioles' relievers, someone in the press box invariably strums an air guitar and makes a Hollywood Hogan joke. I'm not saying people regard him as anything more than a cartoon sprung to life. But he's extremely well-known.