Hulk Hogan broke containment. As popular as professional wrestling became during the 1980s, its ins and outs were not as well-publicized as the highlights of more superficially respectable sports such as football, baseball and basketball. Even non-sporty 80s kids could probably name a bunch of teams and a few ultra-famous players such as Michael Jordan, Joe Montana or Darryl Strawberry. Wrestlers, meanwhile, were essentially both the players and the teams, which should have made them easier to differentiate – but, in reality, made the whole thing seem like a TV show that you either watched, or you didn’t. Hulk Hogan, who died this week just shy of 72, was different. For better or worse.
Hogan, born Terry Bollea, had a wrestling career that synced near-perfectly with wrestling’s growing 1980s-era popularity. After bouncing between the World Wrestling Federation (the Vince McMahon-run organization now known as WWE) and the American Wrestling Association in the early 80s, Hogan returned to the WWF in 1983 and presided over an outbreak of what was diagnosed as “Hulkamania”. Even those who received the proper vaccinations against Hulkamania – namely, not paying attention to wrestling – could see the symptoms manifesting in others, and especially in the Hulkster himself. The red-and-yellow shirt he would tear off, the biker stache, the bandanna atop his thinning blond mane became instantly recognizable trademarks even for non-fans.
