I know there’s mixed modern feelings about Hogan and that’s for another time… BUT if you grew up in the 80s & 90s there was NOTHING LIKE Hulk Hogan hulking up on TV or pay-per-view or in person…
You young kids don’t know… When those “I Am a Real American” chords kicked in they were lightning bolts to the brains of millions of Hulkamaniacs from about ‘83 to ‘94…
All your boys lit the hell up. Flexing. Posing. Screaming… Tearing old t-shirts off their adolescent chests.
Hogan with Mr. T.
Hogan vs. Andre
Hogan vs. Macho
Hogan vs. Warrior
The leg drop. The swinging hand to the ear…
And my personal favorite… The almost passed out from a submission hold and the ref holds his arm up and it drops once… then twice… then on the third drop it stop… holds… shakes… vibrates through his body… and Hogan revives… SLAPS HIS FACE… ONCE… TWICE…. THEN HE’S INVINCIBLE!!!
And he demolishes his opponents as a sweaty, red-faced, yellow-booted freight train in the ring…
You had to be there… Had to experience it… Had to believe wrestling was ‘real’ in the sense that you believed your hero, Hulk Hogan, was about to lose and lose badly. That he was hurt. That he was finished…
And if you believed that as an 8 or 10 or even 14-year-old… or you suspended disbelief as an 18 or 24-year-old…
Then when Hulk Hogan came back from the dead… From nearly passing out or getting pinned… It was pure adrenaline!
He was back. He was gonna win!!!
Brother, you have no idea what that felt like.
Eat your vitamins. Say your prayers.
Forget Thunderlips. Forget Hollywood Hogan as fun as it was.
Vintage 80s & early 90s, WrestleMania headlining, red and yellow Hulk Hogan was a force of nature you had to be a kid at the time to experience.
It’s that feeling we’re all tapping into today.
It’s that Hogan we’re mourning.
RIP, Brother
If you’re an 80s or 90s dude and you agree, share this with all the Hulkamaniacs you know.
Jon Finkel wrote the definitive biography of the “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
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Jon Finkel
Editor-in-Chief, Midlife Male
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Check out my latest books at jonfinkel.com
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