World Mourning Loss of Wrestling Hero, Hulk Hogan

World Mourning Loss of Wrestling Hero, Hulk Hogan - Terry Gene Bollea Today

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the deep dive. Today we're we're grappling with
some significant news. The passing of Terry Gene
Bollea, who, well, everyone knewis Hulk Hogan.
Yeah, passed away July 24th, 2025 at 71.
A huge figure. Huge.
And our mission today really is to try and unravel this, this
complex legacy, you know, the immortal icon versus the, well,

(00:22):
the flawed man. Quite the contradiction, isn't?
It absolutely. Because his impact, I mean, you
can't overstate it. He fundamentally changed
wrestling into this global entertainment machine.
The behemoth. Yeah, yeah.
Merchandise, stadiums, the wholedeal.
So let's start by unpacking how his early life kind of shaped
the icon we all knew. It's fascinating, right?
Cause that physique, that stage presence, it actually came from

(00:45):
some pretty deep childhood insecurities.
Yeah, I. Read He was bullied and like at
12 he weighed nearly 200 lbs andwouldn't even take his shirt off
at the beach. Exactly, and people forget he
spent what, a decade honing thatstage presence playing bass in a
rock band Ruckus? Hmm's.
And then the switch to wrestling.
That wasn't easy either. Was it that story about the
trainer hero Matsuda? Oh.

(01:06):
Yeah, deliberately breaking his leg.
A real like test of toughness. He came back though.
Incredible and the name Hulk. Just a casual comparison to Lou
Ferrigno. Pretty much from just observing
him next to Ferrigno on a talk show, apparently.
Yeah, simple as that sometimes. Wow.
OK, so here's something maybe less known.
His first WWF run on 1979 to 81.He was a bad guy.

(01:29):
He was a villain and he body slammed Andre the Giant back
then too as Shea Stadium big outdoor show.
But then came Rocky the third hetook that role.
Thunder Lips. Against Vince McMahon senior's
wishes. Right.
And that got him fired from the WWF.
Yeah, but ironically, that rockyroll, it made him a huge
babyface, a good guy in the public eye.

(01:51):
So the N.W.A, the other big promotion, then they had to turn
him hero. Exactly.
And that's really where Hulkamania the phenomenon
started. This shirt ripping the
interviews with me and. Gene mean gene classic.
But the AWWA owner, Vern Gonya, he never gave Hogan the belt,
saw him as just a bodybuilder, not a real shooter.
And that's widely seen as just amassive mistake, right?

(02:12):
Oh, absolutely. Probably the biggest strategic
blunder in wrestling history. It basically opened the door for
Vince McMahon Junior to swoop inand build his national empire.
Which leads us back to the WWF in 84.
Hogan returns. What was the spark then?
He beats the Iron Sheik for the title Madison Square Garden.

(02:33):
The place explodes. And that's when Hulkamania truly
went nuclear. Yes, say your prayers, take your
vitamins and believe in yourself.
That whole. Mantra driven by that MTV
connection to The Rock and wrestling thing with Cyndi
Lauper. Right, culminating in the first
WrestleMania. But the peak?
Maybe WrestleMania Third. Slamming Andre in front of what

(02:53):
it reported 93,000 people. The slam heard round the world
and their rematch on TV drew 33 million viewers.
Just think about those numbers. Unbelievable reach.
But then things started to crackthe early 90s.
Steroids, the big federal trial.And Hogan himself admitted under
oath he used them for like over a decade.
Yeah, they're really tarnished, The whole take your vitamins

(03:15):
thing. It was a huge betrayal for a lot
of. Fans, how do you reconcile that?
Right, You're hero preaching vitamins but using steroids and
the character felt stale. He did.
He left the WWF, tried Hollywoodagain.
Suburban Commando. Mr. Nanny didn't quite work.
No, but then WCW. Happened WCW Bash at the beach

(03:37):
96 the turn heard round the world.
Joining Hall and Nash becoming the third.
Man dropping the leg on Randy Savage forming the envelope just
instantly reinvented himself as Hollywood Hogan.
Amazing turnaround. And the, you know, well, I mean,
it was revolutionary. They dominated the Monday Night
War for. 83 straight weeks, hugesuccess.
But like many things in wrestling, it got bloated.

(03:58):
Creatively messy. Which led to the finger poke of
doom, January 1999. Yeah, Hogan, just poke and Kevin
Nash won the WCW title back. That felt bad.
Like, really? Bad.
Oh, it's almost universally seenas the symbolic death knell for
WCW. Lazy self-serving.
It just insulted the fans. So WCW folds.
He eventually goes back to WWE. The new name, yeah, and even

(04:19):
then, another twist. WrestleMania X8 in Toronto
against The Rock. He's supposed to be the bad guy.
Hollywood Hogan. But the crowd cheers him so loud
they had to turn him babyface again practically overnight.
Incredible fan reaction, but thelater years became more about
Terry Bullet the man the realityshow Hogan knows best.
Yeah, lots of family drama played out publicly.

(04:41):
There and then the Gawker lawsuit.
Financially a win for him, but. But it brought out that
recording, the racist tirade. Yeah, which led to his WWE exile
for several years. A really dark moment seeing that
side laid bare. So you look back at Terry, Hulk
Hogan blades just full of these intense contradictions.
Absolutely. The childhood hero, the steroid

(05:03):
user, the family man on TV, the public family breakdown, the
anti racism messages earlier than the racist comments.
It's all there. Yet you still have to
acknowledge the impact modern wrestling this global publicly
traded giant. It's built on the foundation
Hogan laid. There's just no arguing that
Hulkamania was the rocket fuel. So the final thought maybe is

(05:25):
can't really separate them, can you?
The icon and the flawed man. I don't think you can.
There are two sides of the same coin.
Terry Bollea's personal failingsare, well, there's a significant
part of the story, a cautionary tale even.
But the character Hulk Hogan? Hulk Hogan achieved a level of
cultural impact that might genuinely be immortal.
He wasn't just in pop culture for a while there in the 80s and

(05:46):
90s, for millions, he was pop culture.
It's a legacy will be debating for a long, long time.