July 24, 2025 • 8 mins
Tune in here to this Thursday's edition of the Brett Winterble Show!
We're joined by Bo Thompson to talk about the passing of pro wrestling icon Hulk Hogan and his lasting impact on American pop culture. Bo reflects on Hogan’s rise to stardom in the 1980s, describing him as a defining figure of the decade alongside names like Ronald Reagan, Michael Jackson, and Sylvester Stallone. He highlights Hogan’s influence on professional wrestling’s mainstream breakthrough and his unforgettable role as “Thunderlips” in Rocky III. The conversation also explores Hogan’s later controversies, including scandals that affected his public image and standing within the wrestling community. Despite these setbacks, Bo emphasizes that Hogan’s role in elevating the WWE and shaping the modern wrestling landscape is undeniable. They also touch on the cultural legacy of Hogan’s patriotic persona and iconic catchphrases that left a permanent mark on fans.
Listen here for all of this and more on The Brett Winterble Show!
For more from Brett Winterble check out his YouTube channel.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I am a real Erangian fight for the rights of
every man. I am a real American fight for what's right,
fight for your life.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Here's talk eleven to ten nine three WBT. Very sad
day today passing of Hulk Hogan, and I wanted to
reach out to one of my favorite people, and that
is Bo Thompson joining us here. Bo, welcome back to
the to the airwaves. Here.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hey Brett Man, what a shock that was today?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yes, it was. I mean, your your your thoughts on
the on the span of all that he has done
and uh, the the the imprint that he has put
on the American experience. I'm just I'm just kind of
curious about what you think from that perspective.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, and not only that, but of course that don't
addage about the pretty deaths coming in threes. We had Malcolm,
Jamal Werner and Ozzy Osbourne and now hul Cogan. I mean,
you know, I was thinking about it today and I
think people who've listened to my show over the years. No,
I've always made no bonds about the fact that I
(01:16):
was a pro wrestling fan as a kid and I
grew up and the rise of hul Cogan era in
the eighties, and so so much of my childhood was
about figures like hul Cogan. But I was thinking about
the eighties, you know, and if you had to think
about who are the most defining personalities of the eighties,
I think you had to start with Reagan, Ronald Reagan.
(01:38):
But I think no, it's a short list, right, I mean,
Michael J. Fox or Sylvester Stallone and hul Cogan's on there.
And hul Cogan during the eighties to about nineteen eighty
eight eighty nine, he started to sort of wane a
little bit before he had a sort of resurgence about
ten years later when he switched companies and went to
(01:58):
work for Ted Turner and became a bad guy. But
in the eighties, you know, haul Cogan was responsible for
putting pro wrestling on the map, along with vincement Mann.
And there was a time there in about nineteen eighty
three when Hogan was in Rocky three opposite Sylvester Stallone
and that movie. I mean, I have an office here
(02:21):
at home where I do a lot of my show
prep each night, and it's nothing like John Hancocks, which
is the stuff of legend. But I've amassed a kind
of a wall of magazine covers and pictures and this,
you know, memorabilia. And one of the ones I have
is the Sports Illustrated cover from the early eighties when
Rocky three came out. It's got Paul Cogan on the
(02:42):
cover of it. And it was that moment where pro
wrestling sort of caught the attention of mainstream America, and
Hogan kind of rode that wave. And you know, if
you see somebody on the street right now and you
say name one pro wrestling one that they can probably name,
even if they know nothing about pro wrestling and and
(03:04):
have never watched any of it, they can probably tell
you the name HAULK. Hogan. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, that's it's so interesting the way you you
frame that, because when you started talking about that run
of time and beginning with Reagan, Reagan was very aware
as a as a as a communicator, but also as
somebody who had been in Hollywood and understood the power
of what that meant. American cowboys and and and all
(03:32):
those sorts of guys, and most of those professional wrestlers,
those were like the modern day sort of cowboys, right
that you would see and no doubt this stuff all
leaked into the Eastern European part that was not free,
and all of this stuff, and man Hulk Hogan made
no bones about how much he loved this country and
(03:54):
what this country did for him.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I will say this, and you can't tell the story
of Hull Cogan and not tell what happened in his
later years. There's a lot of you know, a lot
of celebrities we can think of like this. I mean,
even like a Michael Jackson, for example, who also was
a name I should have added in that mix if
you're talking about kind of the Mount Rushmore or the
number of names you can name on you know, on
(04:19):
one hand of people that defined the eighties. But you know,
Michael Jackson in the early eighties could do no wrong.
If you compare that Michael Jackson to the one that
we knew in a few years before he died, completely
different situation. Paul Cogan in the last fifteen twenty years
at a very very checkered past. I mean, he had
(04:40):
a situation where he was involved in a scandal where
he had had a racial slur that he said in
a video, and then there was a there was a
sex tape scandal that also followed him around, and he
even got sort of banned from the WWE for a
spell there, although he'd repaired things in recent years. And
then there's you know the Hogan that had the persona
(05:01):
where we saw him at the the RNC last number.
He was talking that his new beer. He was always
doing something and and so you can't talk about Hulk
even the people that worked with hul Kogan. If you
and I followed wrestling for a long time, I haven't
you know, in a long time with kind of what's
going on in modern day, but you know, for a
(05:22):
spell there when I was a kid growing up, and
then again when I was a young adult in the
in the late nineties when when Hogan was kind of
back in vogue, when he was a bad guy, but
he was working for the other you know, the w
c W right, But here there's a if you if
you read stuff about behind the scenes, I wouldn't say
Hogan was one of those popular wrestlers ever in the eighties.
(05:44):
But then as time went on, he fell out of
favor with a lot of people. And if you talk
to a lot of people that worked with him during
those times, he wasn't very popular backstage with many people
because a lot of people said that he sort of
was a me guy who sort of worked the system
from else But what I think all wrestlers and all
wrestling fans would say is, whether you loved him or
(06:05):
you hated him, you can't deny that that wrestling would
not be in the mainstream, and I mean pro wrestling
would not be in the mainstream the way it is
today and the way it was then without Hulk Hogan
sort of understanding and capturing the attention of people at
a moment. And you know, basically everybody kind of jumped
on his bandwagon back in the eighties and wrote it
(06:25):
to what it became at its heights and still what
it is to a large degree today.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And you get to this place where where he's speaking
for Donald Trump at that convention, that incredible convention because
it had all of its other underlining stories including President
Trump getting shot and who do we have as the
Secretary of Education now? Right, it's like the circle of
the circle of life. I guess to a certain degree,
(06:52):
and I look and I'm with you, man. The very
first thing that went across my mind thinking about Rocky
three was Thunderline. Just that's One of the greatest names
for a for a put On character ever was Thunderlips.
I thought that was that was just a phenomenal touch
in that movie.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Oh yeah, and that when he was in Rocky three,
that changed everything. I mean that that took him from
a guy that's been on TV on wrestling to uh,
who is this guy? Let's let's like I said, let's
jump and ride this wave. And you mentioned you mentioned
Rocky three and Thunderlips, and I think again one of
the all time greatest broadcasters what happened to be a
(07:31):
professing professional wrestling announcer named Mean Gene Oakerland Oh yes,
and Means would stand behind him beside him in his
w w F and WWE interviews and he'd say, he'd say, oh,
here's hul Cogan. He say, let me tell you something,
Mean Gene, and then he would go off and do
his things, and it would always end with what you're
gonna do when hul Comania rides wild on you?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Brother? So great man, that's awesome. Well, look, I know
you're going to be doing a whole bunch of this
tomorrow on the program as well, and and everything else
that's moving out there in the same way. What do
you got planned for tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, we have obviously John Hancock on the show tomorrow
as usual, we have Sean O'Connell with this big Fantastic
four movie opening up today. And then, like you said,
I mean thinking back on the week that was with
all the Chuck MANGIONI pe. So you know, now you're
talking about four people from the world of celebrity and
and everything. Of course that's going on with politics that today.
(08:35):
The breaking news during my show was of course, as
I was talking to you about Michael Watley running for Senate.
So all of that to react, A big week of
a lot to talk about and a lot to recap.
So we'll get it cranking at six am.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Enjoy the night and stay cool man. I appreciate you
being here.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Thanks Brett.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Hey, you got it.
I am a real Erangian fight for the rights of
every man. I am a real American fight for what's right,
fight for your life.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Here's talk eleven to ten nine three WBT. Very sad
day today passing of Hulk Hogan, and I wanted to
reach out to one of my favorite people, and that
is Bo Thompson joining us here. Bo, welcome back to
the to the airwaves. Here.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hey Brett Man, what a shock that was today?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yes, it was. I mean, your your your thoughts on
the on the span of all that he has done
and uh, the the the imprint that he has put
on the American experience. I'm just I'm just kind of
curious about what you think from that perspective.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, and not only that, but of course that don't
addage about the pretty deaths coming in threes. We had Malcolm,
Jamal Werner and Ozzy Osbourne and now hul Cogan. I mean,
you know, I was thinking about it today and I
think people who've listened to my show over the years. No,
I've always made no bonds about the fact that I
(01:16):
was a pro wrestling fan as a kid and I
grew up and the rise of hul Cogan era in
the eighties, and so so much of my childhood was
about figures like hul Cogan. But I was thinking about
the eighties, you know, and if you had to think
about who are the most defining personalities of the eighties,
I think you had to start with Reagan, Ronald Reagan.
(01:38):
But I think no, it's a short list, right, I mean,
Michael J. Fox or Sylvester Stallone and hul Cogan's on there.
And hul Cogan during the eighties to about nineteen eighty
eight eighty nine, he started to sort of wane a
little bit before he had a sort of resurgence about
ten years later when he switched companies and went to
(01:58):
work for Ted Turner and became a bad guy. But
in the eighties, you know, haul Cogan was responsible for
putting pro wrestling on the map, along with vincement Mann.
And there was a time there in about nineteen eighty
three when Hogan was in Rocky three opposite Sylvester Stallone
and that movie. I mean, I have an office here
(02:21):
at home where I do a lot of my show
prep each night, and it's nothing like John Hancocks, which
is the stuff of legend. But I've amassed a kind
of a wall of magazine covers and pictures and this,
you know, memorabilia. And one of the ones I have
is the Sports Illustrated cover from the early eighties when
Rocky three came out. It's got Paul Cogan on the
(02:42):
cover of it. And it was that moment where pro
wrestling sort of caught the attention of mainstream America, and
Hogan kind of rode that wave. And you know, if
you see somebody on the street right now and you
say name one pro wrestling one that they can probably name,
even if they know nothing about pro wrestling and and
(03:04):
have never watched any of it, they can probably tell
you the name HAULK. Hogan. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, that's it's so interesting the way you you
frame that, because when you started talking about that run
of time and beginning with Reagan, Reagan was very aware
as a as a as a communicator, but also as
somebody who had been in Hollywood and understood the power
of what that meant. American cowboys and and and all
(03:32):
those sorts of guys, and most of those professional wrestlers,
those were like the modern day sort of cowboys, right
that you would see and no doubt this stuff all
leaked into the Eastern European part that was not free,
and all of this stuff, and man Hulk Hogan made
no bones about how much he loved this country and
(03:54):
what this country did for him.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I will say this, and you can't tell the story
of Hull Cogan and not tell what happened in his
later years. There's a lot of you know, a lot
of celebrities we can think of like this. I mean,
even like a Michael Jackson, for example, who also was
a name I should have added in that mix if
you're talking about kind of the Mount Rushmore or the
number of names you can name on you know, on
(04:19):
one hand of people that defined the eighties. But you know,
Michael Jackson in the early eighties could do no wrong.
If you compare that Michael Jackson to the one that
we knew in a few years before he died, completely
different situation. Paul Cogan in the last fifteen twenty years
at a very very checkered past. I mean, he had
(04:40):
a situation where he was involved in a scandal where
he had had a racial slur that he said in
a video, and then there was a there was a
sex tape scandal that also followed him around, and he
even got sort of banned from the WWE for a
spell there, although he'd repaired things in recent years. And
then there's you know the Hogan that had the persona
(05:01):
where we saw him at the the RNC last number.
He was talking that his new beer. He was always
doing something and and so you can't talk about Hulk
even the people that worked with hul Kogan. If you
and I followed wrestling for a long time, I haven't
you know, in a long time with kind of what's
going on in modern day, but you know, for a
(05:22):
spell there when I was a kid growing up, and
then again when I was a young adult in the
in the late nineties when when Hogan was kind of
back in vogue, when he was a bad guy, but
he was working for the other you know, the w
c W right, But here there's a if you if
you read stuff about behind the scenes, I wouldn't say
Hogan was one of those popular wrestlers ever in the eighties.
(05:44):
But then as time went on, he fell out of
favor with a lot of people. And if you talk
to a lot of people that worked with him during
those times, he wasn't very popular backstage with many people
because a lot of people said that he sort of
was a me guy who sort of worked the system
from else But what I think all wrestlers and all
wrestling fans would say is, whether you loved him or
(06:05):
you hated him, you can't deny that that wrestling would
not be in the mainstream, and I mean pro wrestling
would not be in the mainstream the way it is
today and the way it was then without Hulk Hogan
sort of understanding and capturing the attention of people at
a moment. And you know, basically everybody kind of jumped
on his bandwagon back in the eighties and wrote it
(06:25):
to what it became at its heights and still what
it is to a large degree today.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And you get to this place where where he's speaking
for Donald Trump at that convention, that incredible convention because
it had all of its other underlining stories including President
Trump getting shot and who do we have as the
Secretary of Education now? Right, it's like the circle of
the circle of life. I guess to a certain degree,
(06:52):
and I look and I'm with you, man. The very
first thing that went across my mind thinking about Rocky
three was Thunderline. Just that's One of the greatest names
for a for a put On character ever was Thunderlips.
I thought that was that was just a phenomenal touch
in that movie.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Oh yeah, and that when he was in Rocky three,
that changed everything. I mean that that took him from
a guy that's been on TV on wrestling to uh,
who is this guy? Let's let's like I said, let's
jump and ride this wave. And you mentioned you mentioned
Rocky three and Thunderlips, and I think again one of
the all time greatest broadcasters what happened to be a
(07:31):
professing professional wrestling announcer named Mean Gene Oakerland Oh yes,
and Means would stand behind him beside him in his
w w F and WWE interviews and he'd say, he'd say, oh,
here's hul Cogan. He say, let me tell you something,
Mean Gene, and then he would go off and do
his things, and it would always end with what you're
gonna do when hul Comania rides wild on you?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Brother? So great man, that's awesome. Well, look, I know
you're going to be doing a whole bunch of this
tomorrow on the program as well, and and everything else
that's moving out there in the same way. What do
you got planned for tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, we have obviously John Hancock on the show tomorrow
as usual, we have Sean O'Connell with this big Fantastic
four movie opening up today. And then, like you said,
I mean thinking back on the week that was with
all the Chuck MANGIONI pe. So you know, now you're
talking about four people from the world of celebrity and
and everything. Of course that's going on with politics that today.
(08:35):
The breaking news during my show was of course, as
I was talking to you about Michael Watley running for Senate.
So all of that to react, A big week of
a lot to talk about and a lot to recap.
So we'll get it cranking at six am.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Enjoy the night and stay cool man. I appreciate you
being here.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Thanks Brett.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Hey, you got it.
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