Wrestler of the Week: "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan Part I

                             

Last week I did Ric Flair and what kind of wrestling fan would I be not to put Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan defined professional wrestling for his era. He has done so much for wrestling to put it mainstream. Hulk had the charisma and he knew how to work the crowd simply by being the Hulk. He was the best of wrestlers, but with the moves he had and the ring psychology he was a master.

In the 1970's, Hulk went to school and was going to become a musician. This never came to be. He had a greater calling ahead of him. That was when he was trained by Hiro Matsuda and became a wrestler. Hiro was serious about wrestling and as Hulk would know if he was not serious, his body part would be broken as Hulk would soon find out. Hulk came back.

He wrestled shows with Andre the Giant as a heel in the WWE, I think it was the WWWF at that time. Then he was fired for staring in Rocky III with Sylvester Stallone. His career then went to stardom. He then went to the AWA to feud with Nick Bockwinkel. Hulk's stardom was rising and he left back to the WWE because he wasn't getting his fair due and to become champion. Vince hired him back a few years later after Vince Sr. hired him. Hulk Hogan was Vince's man and he ran with the ball for 10 years.

Bob Backlund reintroduced Hulk Hogan's after a match with the Wild Samoans and Hulk then challenged the Iron Sheik where he won the WWE championship belt. He later on went to feud with Rowdy Roddy Piper which had the War to Settle the Score. It introduced Rock and Wrestling where it was new and innovative for the time. It set up the first Wrestlemania main event with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. Rowdy Piper and Paul Orndorff.

His next big feud was with Paul Orndorff which very well could have main evented Wrestlemania III, but they had something bigger and that was Hulk Hogan's feud with Andre the Giant. His match with Andre the Giant was Hulk's peak for his run as champion.

He then developed a feud with Macho Man Randy Savage at Wrestlemania V. There was a personal story with there feud. And you can't blame Macho Man Randy Savage for his jealousy then especially after how Hulk acted on air. I thought Macho was the face. But a good feud for Hogan with wrestling.

He put over the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI. Where Hulk Hogan lost clean. When someone beat the Hulk, Hogan made that victory count.

He then ran with the ball again as Hulk was the go to guy against Sgt. Slaughter.

He ended his big run in WWE when he lost against the Yokozuna.

Hulk was exhausted and went away from wrestling for a little bit and when he came back he would soon innovate the wrestling world once again in what would be called the Monday Night Wars.

Next week I will continue the Wrestler of the Week with Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
  
         

Brief Review of Legends of Mid South Wrestling DVD Part 1

Out of many things I will do on this blog, one of them will be Wrestling DVD reviews. For this week or next week whenever I will finish the DVD set the first one will be WWE Legends of Mid South Wrestling.  I will featured a brief review on the first part today and then later the other parts.

First, I learned of the promotion that produced the who's who of professional wrestling. When somebody who is a wrestling fan thinks of old promotions they think of the then WWF, NWA, AWA, World Class Championship Wrestling, and in the later years ECW. They don't think of Mid South Wrestling. Mid South Wrestling was located near Lousiana and it's impact was great. Greater then I first realized. It housed stars such as Andre the Giant, Ted Dibiase Sr. Better known as the Million Dollar Man, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the Junk Yard Dog, The Midnight Express with Jim Cornette, Magnum TA, and with ring announcer Jim Ross.

The first major segment of the DVD featured the Junk Yard Dog. The JYD was a charismatic character who might have been more popular than Ric Flair in his area. The JYD in this promotion was over. In the DVD it was said that were chanting his name from start to the finish of the card. They had loved to see him. I only saw him when he was in the WWF now WWE and he was over then. It was a thrill to see old footage of him.

The Ted Dibiase segment was before JYD, but I will discuss briefly about him now with the Rat Pack featuring Ted Dibiase, Jim Duggan, and Matt Borne, who is better known for his role as Doink the Clown in WWE. I could misquote Jim Duggan on the DVD, but he said Ted Dibiase was the smarts, he was the brawn and Matt Borne was the jerk of the group. Borne and Duggan didn't get along and this created a split between Duggan and Dibiase. They even had a tuxedo coal miners glove match in a steel cage. You don't see those gimmick matches that much any more.

They had a Tony Atlas segment where he benched 550 pounds.

And they featured segments with Magnum TA and Mr. Wrestling II. Mr. Wrestling II was Magnum TA's manager and one day Mr. Wrestling II had turned on Magnum TA. This made him a star because it got him over with the fans. Magnum TA had that special look of a wrestling in that time that he could have been one of the great had it not been for his motorcycle accident. He got his start though at Mid South Wrestling.

All this is new stuff for me to watch. I don't remember that much of Mid South Wrestling. I was only a kid then. I only saw some of the UWF at the tale end which was MSW. It was a thrill to see old time wrestling in new light. I've been absorbed with a lot of WWF material that it is good to appreciate the old stuff. On that note this is The Wolf Review and this is Wolfman Joe.