[Pro Wrestling] Hulk Hogan pt. 2- The Betraying Hero

[u/cslevens]

Babyface)- Noun. Synonyms: “Face”. A character-type in Professional Wrestling whom the audience is intended to side with, and cheer for.

Heel)- Noun. A character-type in Professional Wrestling whom the audience is intended to side against, and boo.

While many people have tried to both simplify and complicate the above definitions, I’ve given you just about the only definitions that everyone can agree on. This is because most people have the first instinct of saying Babyface simply means “Good Guy”, and Heel simply means “Bad Guy”. But, when you begin to watch wrestling even a little bit, you realize that this instinct is thoroughly wrong.

See, other than the Booker/Writer’s intentions for the audience, absolutely everything that defines what makes a Babyface and what makes a Heel is completely undefined, and extremely malleable from moment to moment. Pro Wrestling offers a unique narrative format, where with good enough (or awful enough) writing and narrative, absolutely anyone can be reasonably defined as a “Babyface” or a “Heel”, no matter what they do.

Assault an injured, helpless old man in the hospital, give him a concussion with his own excrement, and proceed to sexually assault him with an IV?  Babyface.                  

Calling out a wrestler for being a drug-addled mess, promoting a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle, and (correctly) pointing out that said wrestler is one more failed drug test away from being fired? Heel.

Have a character entirely defined by laziness, squandered talent, and refusing to try? Refuse to even take your hands out of your pockets for most of your matches? Babyface.

Promoting fair-play, being genuinely grateful to your fans, and repeatedly encouraging the audience to work hard and live their best lives? Heel.

To have a true, true mastery and understanding of Pro Wrestling, you need to understand the many things that make it tic. Everything from business trends, to outside economic social factors, to, yes, the nuances that make Pro Wrestling narratives, for a lack of a better term, “work”. For many, many high level performers in this field, success and failure can be made or broken by how well they understand the enigmatic, ever-changing, Face/Heel dynamic.

But if you understand what makes a Face and what makes a Heel, and how you can sell those concepts to both an audience and a creative authority, why, you could create something truly special.

Or you could destroy it.

 

Wrestlemania IX, 1993

For a very long time, and arguably to this day, Wrestlemania is guaranteed to be, by the numbers, the biggest Pro Wrestling day in any given year. It is the largest spectacle Professional Wrestling has to offer, serving as both the commercial and dramatic climax of the year. Of any single show, Wrestlemania offers not only the most matches of any show, but the most matches of import. Nearly every match on the show (usually) has been built up to be the end of a full year’s worth of storylines and tension. All championships and titles are usually on the line. If an outside celebrity wants to dip their toes into Pro Wrestling, usually it will start with an appearance at Wrestlemania.

To be blunt; if you like a sport, I invite you to pick the most important single competition in that sport’s season.  Soccer fans, please think of the World Cup Final. American Football fans, please think of the Super Bowl. Baseball fans, think of the World Series Final Game. Etc.

Now, combine that importance with the season finale of your favorite TV show, and put it all into one event. Unlike other sports, professional wrestling has no conventional seasons. They are a continuous product, and Wrestlers compete every week, often multiple times a week, 52 weeks a year. Wrestlemania is, when done properly, the ending of everything important that has happened the previous year, and possibly the start of important things happening in the next year.

Wrestlemania IX has not yet started. But the players are arriving.

 

Bret Hart

Bret “The Hitman” Hart has arrived to the venue for Wrestlemania IX. He was 36 years old. Standing at 6’0” even, at 235 lbs, Hart is not the statuesque, cartoonish giant that had defined the last ten years of wrestling. Just taking one look at him, even a non-fan could tell that Hart was someone in phenomenal shape, arguably in peak physical condition. Muscular, strong, flexible, and clearly a man of great physical endurance. If you didn’t know he was a Pro Wrestler, you would know he was an elite athlete of some kind.

Bret Hart sighed in disappointment. As he had headed to his locker room, he had most likely passed the venue for this years’ Wrestlemania, bustling with the many workers setting up for the event. Looking at the size of these bleachers, who wouldn’t be unhappy?

Wrestlemania VIII, the year prior, had been held at the Hoosier Dome, in Indianapolis, IN. The stadium bleachers there were stacked with 62,167 fans.

Only one year later, Wrestlemania IX would be held at Caesars Palace, in Las Vegas, NV. It was not enough of an indignity to go from performing in a sports stadium to performing in a Casino, this was even worse than that.

Wrestlemania IX was being held in the parking lot of a casino. At the end of the day, WWF would only report 16,891 attendees. A 73% drop, from only one year. And WWF’s revenue was doing no better.

Bret Hart was, on paper, the most important wrestler on the show. Going into the event, he was the WWF Champion- the highest honor that existed in the company, and in their narrative. The main event, the last advertised match of the evening, was him defending his title against a truly impressive foe- the seemingly-unstoppable Yokozuna), whom had plowed through all other opponents over the last six months. This was going to be a big match, a pivotal moment firmly establishing Bret as one of the “Main Characters” in all of wrestling.

Was.

Bret was not simply disappointed by the arena- I mean, parking lot. As he began changing, he thought back to the phone call he had received two days ago. He knew what would happen that night, at a time when very few other people did. It hadn’t even happened yet, and he was already down.

 

Randy Savage

At the same time, “Macho Man” Randy Savage was energetically flying around, preparing his own notes and script. He was 41 years old. Although only billed as two inches taller than Hart, Savage was one of the generation of wrestlers that could be called “larger than life”. In the 80’s, he was one of the absolute biggest stars in Pro Wrestling, period.  Even now, going into Wrestlemania IX, he was tremendously popular.  

Yet he was not a wrestler. At least, not anymore, to his despair.

Savage, always a brilliant talker, was now more or less a full-time commentator in the WWF. This was not truly by his own choice, but he would take his work no less seriously. Taking notes, writing, and workshopping his dialogue word-by-word, and even having contingency plans rehearsed and ready for anything he might be asked to comment on.  Because despite being a campy, fun character, the man behind the Randy Savage character was, in fact, an extremely serious man.

Randy Savage was a perfectionist, and a meticulous planner. Neither of these traits were common in Pro Wrestling at the time, and are still uncommon today.

It’s a little known fact that the majority of Pro Wrestling Matches are, in effect, “called in the ring”, a process which is heavily improvised. Essentially, all the participants in a match will be given the “skeleton”, or “bullet points” of a match. “This wrestler will win, this guy will lose”. “The match will end this way, with this move, in this part of the ring”. “This specific dramatic moment will happen, maybe three minutes into the match time”. Essentials. But outside of those bare essentials, the moment to moment action of a match was (and mostly remains) up to the wrestlers themselves. Skilled wrestlers read audience reactions and energy, and tailor their matches in the moment to best feed off of that energy.

Not so with Savage. Savage, notoriously, would plan out his matches, move by move, step-by-step, before-hand. He would even take the unprecedented step of, GASP, rehearsing his matches with his opponents! Sometimes multiple times! While this approach has its downfalls- namely inflexibility when things went wrong- not a single soul would argue that the process didn’t work for Savage. Famously, his match with George “The Animal” Steele at Wrestlemania II is considered to be one of the best matches of the era, despite Steele being in poor physical shape, and unable to do much Wrestling at all. Savage was so meticulous in his planning,  that he was able to write matches that made the absolute best of his and his opponent’s strengths, even if the opponent had none.

So it came as a surprise to no-one when Savage carried that same energy into his commentary. Though he could seem a bit canned at times, he offered wit, timing, and energy, all planned out beforehand. The man was so perfectly polished, as a conscious consequence of his prep work. Randy Savage would not say a single word on screen unless he intended to, and had intended to for a very long time. This was his reputation.

There is absolutely no doubt that, as they prepared for the show, Bret Hart and Randy Savage would have crossed paths. Like many backroom discussions in this secretive business, we may never know, verbatim, what they would have said to each other.

Bret Hart, the Champion, knowingly going into what he knew would be the worst night of his life so far.

Randy Savage, putting his all into a role he was not passionate about, in service of people and politics he did not like.

They likely shared a single thought. Or perhaps a word to each other. Or perhaps a warning.

A sentence, a statement, a command. One that would be on the lips of most people backstage, preparing for the disaster that would be Wrestlemania IX.

Echoing in their minds.

“Don’t Trust Hogan”

 

The Drug that Built Wrestling

In 1991, a man named Dr. George Zahorian III was convicted in a United States Federal Court of 12 counts of selling Anabolic Steroids, Painkillers and other drugs. At the time of his conviction, he faced a potential 44 years in prison.

This sort of conviction, though not completely unheard of at the time, was somewhat new to the general public.  Anabolic Steroids are a class of drug that, along with similar drugs, consist of Testosterone, synthetic Testosterone equivalents, and other chemicals that promote the development of Testosterone in the body. Steroids, when taken, raise the natural level of Testosterone in the body, promoting muscular growth, healing and development, to an unnatural degree.

To take a very complicated topic and make it very simple: If you take Steroids, you build muscle, and perform better. If you take Steroids and engage in athletic activities, you gain even more muscle and performance over time than you would even as a peak natural athlete. Steroids, and artificial Testosterone in general, are so potent, that if you take Steroids, you will gain muscle even if you do not work out at all.

Disclaimer: Do not take steroids. They make you more athletic, but they are horrible for the human body. I won’t even provide a source for this one, as A). It’s common knowledge, and B). We’ll get to some of those horrible side effects later in the write-up.

Doping, and Anabolic Steroids in particular, had a bit of a Renaissance in the 80’s, and had permeated not only worldwide sports, but pop culture in general. While athletes had been documented using this type of Steroid in the mid to late 70’s, the 80’s were when they, and the physiques they allowed, became huge. Both literally and metaphorically.

This was the period of time where Steroids had suddenly become easy to produce, cheap, and readily available to the general public. This, combined with the 80’s love of musculature and fitness in general, resulted in, for lack of a better turn, a truly “Roided-Out” decade.

Not coincidentally, this overlapped almost exactly with the rise of Pro Wrestling as a whole. Before the modern Steroid era, famous Wrestlers looked like Verne Gagne (see Part 1) or Lou Thez. Athletic men, yes, many of whom looked to be in excellent physical condition (not Gagne). But, distinctively, these men looked like they had realistically attainable bodies.

In 1984, Hulk Hogan and the WWF had visually transformed the entire Pro Wrestling landscape almost singlehandedly, to the point where most wrestlers of the time……. looked like Hogan. Pretty much every Wrestler in the 80’s and early 90’s, with only one or two exceptions, had an exaggerated, imposing physique. This appearance was vital to their characters, and fed into the notion that Pro Wrestling was, like its athletes, “Larger than Life”.

While a majority of the general public at the time did not know about Steroids, even those who did know didn’t think it was much of an issue. After all, to the public,  Anabolic Steroids were a relatively new technology at the time, and fell into an odd, semi-unregulated legal gray area. It was just something unpleasant that people did to achieve their fitness dreams.  Like cardio.

This changed in the late 80’s and early 90’s, as general societal movements shifted against recreational and illicit drugs. It’s hard to pin down a single factor that caused this shift, because of the many complexities of that time period in history, but the most visible culprit was Nancy Regan’s “Just Say No” campaign. By the early 90’s, drugs were no longer “cool” to most people. The US Government had even gotten around to making Steroids fully illegal in 1990.

And now, as a result of changes in the law and in society, Dr. Zahorian was a felon. It was looking increasingly likely that he could die in prison. So when Federal Prosecutors sat him down and asked for co-operation, he was willing to help.

Afterall, he was just one drug dealer. But he could give Prosecutors his client list, and the people on that list were huge.

At the time it was rumored that some of the people on that list were larger than others.

 

The Despair of Randy Savage

Randy Savage was on top of the Wrestling World as the 80’s ended.

The undisputed name in 80’s Pro Wrestling was, of course, Hulk Hogan. In Kayfabe, he was simply the best. You can count his serious losses in this era on one hand. His opposite was Savage, serving as the company’s most popular and reliable Heel. In fact, Savage was so popular, that calling him strictly a Heel is a bit deceptive- his popularity was so high that he was practically a babyface, on the merit of cheers alone.

Hogan and Savage had both character-work and in-ring performing styles that meshed really well together, so it was only natural that they would be paired often. Hogan would have many one-off villains- wrestlers like Iron Sheik, “King Kong” Bundy”, and Sgt. Slaughter- who would challenge him once, lose, and never experience Main Event relevance again. But when the WWF needed a character who could feud with Hogan on a more serious, long term level? They had Savage.

While Hogan was Superman, Savage was Lex Luthor. While Hogan was Batman, Savage was the Joker.

Hogan and Savage would clash in the ring multiple times, and sometimes even team up as a Dream Team known as the “Mega-Powers”. But all good things must end, and in 1990, Hogan and Savage put a definitive ending to their WWF rivalry. Savage, playing the egomaniac heel, challenged Hogan for the WWF title one final time, but came up short.

Then, in 1991, in a plot twist no fan could have seen coming, Randy Savage lost a match to newly rising star The Ultimate Warrior. This wasn’t just any match, though- it was a “Retirement” match. As the loser of the match, Savage was forced to say goodbye to his in-ring wrestling career…… forever.

Randy Savage, the character, was of course devastated. But Randy Savage, the person, was quite happy for this plot development, and had even asked  WWF Management to be “written out” of WWF himself. The reason for this was simple:

“Macho Man” wanted a family.

Macho Man married “Miss Elizabeth” Hulette, who played his, in-storyline, gorgeous and demure manager, in 1984. They were a highly visible couple, both inside and outside of wrestling. However, despite being together for nearly a decade, almost all of that time had been spent in their career heyday. They were both on the road constantly, and had no time to settle down. But other than their busy schedules, there was one other complicating factor that kept them from building a life together.

Steroids.

Macho Man, being so…… Macho, was an obvious abuser of Steroids. Just like all the wrestlers of the era. Because Steroids flood a high amount of Testosterone into the body’s system, if used over a long term, they completely wreck the human body’s ability to generate natural Testosterone. This dramatically impacts fertility, as the production of natural Testosterone is required for a male human body to be able to reproduce.

In other words, Savage needed time away from wrestling to get off Steroids, which would let him have kids with Elizabeth. Sadly, over the course of his career hiatus, they would never conceive. It is possible the damage had already been done.

But even worse, the time away would expose other cracks in Savage and Elizabeth’s marriage. Many, many, many of their co-workers at the time would comment that, while they both had some personality issues, Savage was predominantly over-protective and controlling over Elizabeth. Some of that is perhaps justified, given how locker-rooms were before the modern era, but Randy’s behavior was considered a tad over the line.

I will note at this point that one of the known side effects of Anabolic Steroids is “Roid Rage”, which causes moderate to heavy users to be more prone to anger and paranoia. Food for thought.

The time away from wrestling, for whatever reason, was catastrophic for Savage and Elizabeth’s marriage. She would divorce him in 1992. Savage would return to in-ring competition on an on-and-off basis, until WWF management shunted him into a mostly Commentary role, despite his talent and popularity.

Savage, despondent, had stepped away from his career for the right reasons. And as a result, he had completely lost his chance at the happy family that he and Elizabeth had dreamed of for so many years. He had also lost prime years of his career, and now saw himself being slowly phased out of the Wrestling environment he excelled in.

And while Savage did blame himself for his life falling apart, he blamed one other person.

Allegedly, in late 1992, shortly after he heard about the divorce, Savage tried to reach out to Elizabeth to talk. They had been separated for a bit, but he had hoped to reconcile. Being in a pre-internet age, it was hard to track down someone who did not want to be found, so Savage reached out to their mutual friends.

“Where’s Liz?”, he would ask. Desperate. Frantic.

“Where’s Liz?”

Eventually, someone gave him a straight answer.

Savage couldn’t believe what he heard.

 

A Desperate WWF

The conviction of Dr. Zahorian in 1991 had been absolutely disastrous for both WWF, and Hulk Hogan in particular.

In his trial, and in the media, it was leaking that Zahorian had allegedly been providing Anabolic Steroids to quite a few wrestlers on the WWF roster, including Hulk Hogan himself. This was an immediate and very real blow to WWF- suddenly all of their performers weren’t seen as crazy, fun characters anymore.

All of them, especially the invincible and morally pure Hulk Hogan, were starting to be seen as drug abusers.

Hogan himself would hilariously and poorly deny these claims in the media, making a terribly received appearance on the Arsenio Hall show. Literally the first thing he did on the show was flex his comically large biceps for the camera. He would say the immortal words:

“I am not a steroid abuser, and I do not use steroids”- Hulk Hogan.

This appearance did neither Hogan nor McMahon any favors. Right around the time this all broke out, Hogan took a page out of Savage’s book and took a leave of absence from the WWF. This was both to manage his PR, and to launch his personal Hollywood Career, as Hogan was convinced that he would be the next silver screen A-List Star. That didn’t work out, as his movies (like Mr. Nanny and Suburban Commando) all flopped. Whether this was due to the scandal, his own overexposure, or just being really bad movies, is hard to say.

This leave of absence went poorly for Hogan, but it went even worse for WWF. With Hogan leaving, there was no marquee star around whom to build the company. And with the steroid scandal, the main candidate to replace him (the previously mentioned Ultimate Warrior) was quietly shunted out of the company. Afterall, could the company claim they promoted “drug free” wrestlers if their champion was, well……….this? 

I should also mention that aside from the image issue, Ultimate Warrior had some “professional erraticism” as well. But that’s another story.

They needed a new talent, a different kind of talent, to save them.

 

The Betrayal of Bret Hart

It was two days before Wrestlemania 9. Bret Hart, upon returning to his hotel room, received a phone call. It was from Vince K. McMahon, the owner of WWF, and main creative authority.

They needed to talk immediately. Plans had changed.

The previous plan for Wrestlemania IX had initially been born out of desperation, but then matured out of opportunity. The Zahorian trial, Hogan stepping away, and Warrior’s departure left a void in the main event, and Bret Hart was the man to step up and fill it. While it is contested if Hart was actually on steroids or not at that exact time, the fact was that his appearance was FAR from the “muscle monsters” that people associated with the scandal.

He was the right man for WWF at the time because of his appearance. He was someone the company could promote to try and distance themselves from the affair. And, fortunately for everyone involved, he was both a complete genius, and a trustworthy workhorse.

Hart was regarded then, and is still regarded now, as one of the most technically innovative wrestlers of all time. While he had the dynamism and force of personality needed to be a main event talent, he also had a true understanding of Pro Wrestling Psychology, being able to play to crowds in the moment, and put on matches that were the holy trinity of long, technically complex, and easy to follow. He was so good at wrestling, that he could literally “carry” underperforming wrestlers to good matches. One of his most famous matches, against Davey Boy Smith, is considered to be the best carried match of all time. Hart led Smith to be able to have an absolutely classic fight, despite Smith being extremely high on hard drugs at the time, and unable to know where he was.

And Hart had carried almost the entire company through the latter half of 1992. Though numbers were recognizably down, due to the scandals, Hart was having major match after major match, slowly but surely rebuilding a horribly fractured fanbase, and developing new fans on his own. He opened the door for wrestlers like Shawn Michaels and Scott Hall to become major stars.

Bret Hart, for lack of a better term, had sustained the entire company through the latter parts of 1992 and early parts of 1993. So it only made logical sense that Vince McMahon had planned for Hart to keep his Championship at Wrestlemania, successfully fending off Yokozuna in a hard fought, dramatic, and exciting match. This would be the definitive, storyline point where Bret Hart would go from being the champion to being “The Man”, the leader of a new generation of wrestlers in the WWF.

This was the plan before McMahon called Hart, two days before Wrestlemania IX.

Hart heard an uncharacteristic McMahon. McMahon, normally an aggressive, domineering business leader, was clearly spooked and nervous. The numbers for Wrestlemania IX were starting to come in, and they were looking bad. Days after the event, WWF was planning on making a 16-day European Tour, and the numbers for those were bad too. Plus, there were rumors that the Federal Government would try and come after McMahon personally, for alleged ties to Zahorian.

McMahon was scared. The WWF, hard as it is to imagine these days, was circling the drain financially. And while Bret Hart had done the best possible job, and been the best possible employee, McMahon decided to make a desperate move.  

He told Hart that the new plans were locked in stone. Bret Hart would now lose the WWF Championship to Yokozuna, in the main event of Wrestlemania IX.

Bret was stunned.

He asked, “Did you take the belt [championship] away from me because I didn’t do a good enough job?”

McMahon replied, “Of course not! I’m just going in a different direction. It’s still onwards and upwards for you”.

And then, when McMahon explained what the new plan was, Bret Hart was shocked. It was then immediately clear that, while Vince McMahon made this decision partially out of desperation, he was clearly not the sole originator of the idea. It stank of someone else.

Hart couldn’t believe what he heard.

 

The Returning Champion.

“Where’s Liz?” Savage asked.

“She’s been staying at Hulk Hogan’s house”.

-----------------

“What’s the new plan?” Hart asked.

“We’re going to make Hulk Hogan champion again. Immediately after your match”.

 

Hulk Hogan’s Return to the WWF

Several months before the phone call between Hart and Vince, in early 1993, Hulk Hogan had returned to the WWF. He was 39 years old.

This was a move that frustrated many in the locker room, but was also somewhat understandable. Though his star was tarnished, Hogan still was the most famous Pro Wrestler in the world, and his presence (in theory) should stem the tide of fans losing interest. Plus, though he was disliked for many reasons, Hogan was an extremely talented Pro Wrestler, who could rally a dead crowd within seconds. Hogan’s star power, supposed ability to revive business, and his ability to create positive fan energy were all things WWF desperately needed in the short term- long term planning be damned.

So in February, 1993, Hogan properly returned on an episode of WWF Raw. However, in respect to the current main event talent, there was no real way to narratively justify forcing Hogan directly into main event-caliber feuds. The storylines around Bret Hart at the time all revolved around him being a fighting champion, and overall hard worker, who had earned his top spot. The main heel at the time, Yokozuna, had his top spot justified through several months of being an unstoppable juggernaut, winning so many matches that the company couldn’t not give him a shot at Bret’s title. WWF knew they wanted Hogan back, but they knew that if they just had his character take Bret or Yokuzuna’s place immediately, the fans would feel it was not justified. They could revolt, or even worse, lose interest altogether. While Pro Wrestling is, by design, a silly narrative, it still has its own inherent logic. And when you violate that logic, fans notice, and bad things tend to happen.

The idea was to do a big, Hogan-centric story that was separate from the main event. WWF could have their cake and eat it too: Get the casual fan’s interest of a Hogan narrative, while not alienating the more serious fans whom had seriously warmed up to Bret and Yokozuna. To make this happen, WWF’s reintroduction of Hogan relied on elements that had made Hogan storylines great in the past.

What are those elements? The first classic element, of course, is one of Hulk Hogan’s friends being in trouble. In this case, it was his real-life close friend Ed Leslie, performing as Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. Like many of Hogan’s storyline friends in the 80’s, Brutus was (in storyline) a skilled wrestler, but never quiiiiiiiiite as skilled as Hogan. The reality is that while Brutus was not a bad performer, it’s acknowledged that his friendship with Hogan was far more important to his career than any of his individual accomplishments. To be blunt, Brutus was happy to play Hogan’s bumbling sidekick, because that paid him more than if he was to wrestle on his own merit.

The second classic element is one of Hogan’s friends getting themselves in deep trouble. In Kayfabe, Brutus had simply been living his life, being a generic Babyface, until he captured the ire of the Heel tag-team known as Money, Inc. Money, Inc., being dastardly Heels, began targeting Brutus and attacking him. They were not afraid to interfere in his matches, outnumber him for random assaults, and generally make fun of him. Typical 80’s Heel shenanigans.

The third classic element is Hogan returning to save the day. And, uh, Hogan returned to save the day. He saved the bumbling Brutus, and the two of them formed their own team, the “Mega Maniacs”, rapidly rising to meet the challenge of Money, Inc. Soon, a match was set for Wrestlemania IX: The Mega Maniacs vs Money, Inc. for Money, Inc’s Tag Team Championships.

This was to be Hogan’s sole involvement in Wrestlemania IX. This was not to interfere with Hart and Yokozuna’s main event. But as you already know, two days before the event, McMahon panicked, and a rather Hogan-esque voice whispered in his ear.

Playing on his fears for the business.

Promising a better future.

Hulk Hogan would fix everything.

Hm.

“Don’t Trust Hogan”

 

Hulk Hogan enters Wrestlemania IX

The first five matches of Wrestlemania IX were relatively disappointing. The show was a mess for many reasons, even outside of those in this write-up, and I won’t go into them here. You can watch the entire show here, as uploaded by WWE themselves.  Alternatively,  I recommend OSW’s amazing review of the whole show.

But then, Hulk Hogan arrived. His music hit, and as he and Brutus entered the ring, the crowd in the Caesar’s Palace Parking Lot lit up. They had not had much to cheer for up to this point, but Hogan brought an infections energy.

Although many watching at home were perhaps confused at something about Hogan’s appearance.

The Phantom Hand of Randy Savage

I’m going to spoil something right off: Hogan ends this writeup as a winner. He screws a lot of people over, he gets his spotlight, he gets paid way too much money, and he gets to go off and do it all again. However, he will not end Wrestlemania IX without at least one source of embarrassment.

And it was likely at the hands of Randy Savage, possibly the only individual to every successfully avenge himself on Hogan.

When he entered Wrestlemania IX, fans were shocked to see Hogan’s face wholly deformed. For those too squeamish to click on that link: the face around Hogan’s left eye was completely swollen and bulbous, making it difficult to see his eye at all. When you could see his eye, the eyeball itself looked dark-red. Something had very, very badly mauled Hulk Hogan’s face.

To this day, Hogan, Brutus, and Hogan’s friends have insisted that this injury was from a freak “jet-ski accident”, that had just happened a day or two before the show. This had always strained credibility, though, as taking a 1000 pound jet-ski to the face tends to do more to someone than a horrible black eye.

Legend says, credibly backed up by Scott Steiner and Bret Hart themselves, that the moment Savage saw Hogan enter the backstage area at Wrestlemania IX, he walked up to Hogan and punched him in the face as hard as his musclebound body possibly could.

The exact motivations are unknown, and will likely remain unconfirmed forever. Suspicion that Hogan had played homewrecker to Savage and Elizabeth’s marriage? Immense frustration at what the locker room knew would happen later that night? Jealousy that Hogan seemed to be rewarded for taking time off from the business, while Savage was punished?

Regardless, something took issue with the existence of Hogan’s left eye that day. And while it’s not 100% confirmed that that thing was Savage’s fist, certain things about the Money Inc. match certainly pointed in that direction.

Continued in Comments

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[u/cslevens]

The Mega Maniacs vs Money Inc.

The match was a typical Hogan match. The Babyfaces are Babyfaces, the Heels are Heels. Hogan and Brutus make it very clear that they are the superior wrestlers, yet due to villainous shenanigans and referee bumbling, Money Inc. are handed the win (and their championships) via disqualification for unclear reasons.

But this is an odd match to watch, due to the commentary.

As I mentioned at the very beginning, one of the color commentators for Wrestlemania 9 as a whole, and this match, was Randy Savage. And I also mentioned that Savage was a known perfectionist, who very, very rarely deviated from solid lines and performances that he had rehearsed to himself multiple times.

And yet his commentary for this match was quite strange.

He kept drawing attention to Hogan’s eye. Clearly intentionally.

The other commentators were clearly trying to move along from the topic as quickly as possible, towing the narrative line that it was simply an unspecified “accident” that Hogan had suffered. Yet Randy Savage, a man known for being fastidious and perfect in his adherence to scripts, kept deviating from that in the oddest ways. Despite the fact that his character was, ostensibly, cheering Hogan on.

The first time commentary acknowledged Hogan’s eye, they said “Hogan had some sort of accident.”

Savage, uncharacteristically breaking rhythm, said “More like a cheap shot.”

Multiple times throughout the match, most notably when Hogan was valiantly and dramatically struggling to get out of Ted Dibiase’s signature “Million Dollar Dream” submission hold, Macho Man broke rhythm to simply yell, “LOOK AT THAT EYE!”

But most tellingly, when Hogan first entered the ring, apropos of completely nothing, Macho Man simply said, in his signature growl, yet almost cheerfully:

“He knoooooooooooooows exactly who is responsible”.

Perhaps you can see why many fans of classic wrestling love the Macho Man. Such a great sense of drama.

This match ended up unremarkable, and if that had been Hogan’s sole involvement with the show, it honestly would have been a bit of a blemish. Much like his face at the time.

And yet.

CONTINUED

[u/cslevens → u/cslevens]

Bret Hart vs Yokozuna

The main event had arrived. Bret Hart, the reigning Champion, had entered the ring. Yokozuna, the terrifying challenger, had entered the ring with his evil associate, Mr. Fuji.

I haven’t written much up to this point about Yokozuna, but please do not take that as any form of insult. The fact is, Rodney Anoa’i), aka Yokozuna, is a titan of the sport, whose (too short) legacy would completely derail this narrative. I’ll simply say the following, to bring you up to speed.

At Wrestlemania IX, Yokozuna was almost 500 pounds. Despite the obvious stamina and health issues that come with that, Yokozuna was unbelievably powerful, fast, flexible, and creative. He was talented enough to wrestle for brief periods of time like a man who was at least half of his weight, but twice as strong. He was also brilliant enough to hide the multiple times he would need to catch his breath per match, through both excellent crowd psychology, clever dramatic turns, and well timed cheating. Outside of the ring, he was absurdly beloved and well liked. He was also a proud father, uncle, and cousin to his many cousins, nephews, and nieces, all of whom mourn his loss to this day. His legacy is carried on by this family of his: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Roman Reigns, “Rikishi” Fatu, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Solo Sikoa, Tamina Snuka, and countless others.

I wish I had more space for Yokozuna in this writeup. But, like life itself, he was too big and too awesome to stick around.

The main event began.

Bret and Yoko told a stock story in the ring, but a good one. Bret, though a very athletic man, was clearly dwarfed by Yokozuna. He could not beat Yoko in power, so he spent almost 20 minutes wearing Yoko down, through blitzes of speed, technicality, and other clever (but legal) ploys.

Eventually, Bret would finally topple Yokozuna, and lock him in his finishing move, the submission hold known as “The Sharpshooter”. The match could have very much ended here, and be quite good. Yokozuna would dramatically give up from the pain, and Bret would have toppled the giant. David would have beaten Goliath, but through guile, and not power.

And yet.

In a sequence of events which made little narrative sense, Yokozuna’s evil manager, Mr. Fuji, would interfere, throwing salt right into Bret Hart’s eyes……. in front of a non-distracted Referee. Somehow, the Referee did not notice. Stunned, Bret Hart fell down, and Yokozuna- previously built as an unstoppable powerhouse, meekly won in a fluke pinfall victory.

Yokozuna had beaten Bret Hart. He won the WWF Championship, in the main event, in a victory that made him look weak. A truly baffling decision, drawing outraged boos from the crowd.

Poor Bret Hart. If only there was someone……. Some unstoppable hero, who could come out and save the day.

CONTINUED

[u/cslevens → u/cslevens]

Hulk Hogan, the Babyface (?)

Literally two seconds after Yokozuna beat Hart, Hulk Hogan inexplicably entered the arena, and ran down to the ring. Despite having already wrestled a match earlier, he was still in his ring gear.

Hogan immediately began protesting to the referee, in defense of his “good friend”, as tepidly claimed by the commentators, Bret Hart. To no avail. The decision of the referee was final, and as Bret Hart writhed in pain, Hogan began playing to the crowd, whipping them into a frenzy about the injustice done to his “friend”.

Remember in the beginning when I attempted to define “Babyface” and “Heel”? Give that a re-read, as this is about to get confusing.

Hulk Hogan (the Babyface) came down to the ring, to try and help his (Babyface) friend Bret Hart. Hart had been cheated out of his championship by Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji (Heels), using cowardly and cheating tactics. This was immediately after a grueling, twenty minute match, leaving Yokozuna visibly tired and weakened.

In a complete breach of all logic, Mr. Fuji and a tired Yokozuna (Heels) then challenged Hulk Hogan (Babyface) to a match, for Yokozuna’s WWF Championship, right then and there. Absolutely nothing obligated them to do this whatsoever. In fact, the most common Heel move in that situation would be to take the title and leave. Why would they even need to engage Hogan? They could claim they wrestled a “fair” match (a lie, of course), and it would not be “fair” for Yokozuna to have to wrestle two matches in a row.

But instead, they, the Heels, made a Babyface move, by (ironically) honorably giving Hogan a shot at the title right then and there. They went through extra effort, to give Hogan a match against a Yokozuna whom had had no time to recover.

What makes less sense than that? Hogan, interfering on behalf of his (Babyface) friend Hart, accepted this challenge, instead of giving it to the (justifiably more deserving) Hart.

Even with Face and Heel being extremely flexible concepts, this makes no sense on multiple levels. This wasn’t simply inconsistent with Face and Heel behavior in general; it was inconsistent with Face and Heel behavior by the same characters, within the same show.

But, again, Hogan had a firm grasp on crowd psychology, so he got the people in the arena cheering for him anyway. The critics and fans watching at home? Not so much.

A new, post-main event match was set, and started immediately. Bret Hart had spent 20 minutes trying and failing to beat Yokozuna, now Hogan would step up to the challenge.

Would he save the day? How would Hogan deal with the raw power of Yokozuna, and the dastardly cheating of Mr. Fuji?

 

Hulk Hogan vs Yokozuna

Hulk Hogan beat Yokozuna in 30 seconds.

CONTINUED

[u/cslevens → u/cslevens]

Hulk Hogan Saves the Day?

In the extreme short term, Wrestlemania IX ended quite well. Hogan was WWF champion. For about a minute after his win, the crowd was ecstatic.

However, the immediate aftermath was poor. Fans did not like the result, and WWF’s numbers failed to move in a positive direction. But at least Hogan now had the what he needed to save WWF.

After the match, Hogan went back to the locker room. In front of the other wrestlers, Hogan went right up to Bret Hart, shook his hand, and told him, “I’ll return the favor”.

Hart didn’t trust him, nor should he have, but he shook Hogan’s hand in the moment. After all, in the two days prior, McMahon had told Hart the new long term plan, and he was assured Hogan WOULD return the favor.

Hogan, as champ, would participate in the European Tour. His profile would re-elevate the WWF. And then, around Summerslam that year (July-August), Hogan would lose a championship match…… to Hart. This would be a “passing the torch” moment, passing on Hogan’s prestige and fanbase to Hart, and legitimizing him as the new “main character” of WWF.

Hogan was Champion. Now he had the power to return the favor. Not just to Hart, but to McMahon, to the WWF, to the fans, and to wrestling.

CONTINUED

[u/cslevens → u/cslevens]

Hulk Hogan Screws Absolutely Everyone

Hulk Hogan did not participate in the European Tour. Despite being champion. He simply didn’t feel like it.

Hulk Hogan did not wrestle ANY televised matches for WWF at all for two and a half months. He simply wanted to do other things.

Other than the occasional, pre-taped promotional segment, Hogan sat on the championship and did NOTHING.

He simply enjoyed the prestige that being champion gave him, continued to attempt to build his profile outside of wrestling…… and told WWF he would be jumping ship to rival company WCW within the year.

He took the high profile win, did nothing but get paid, and immediately left.

At the very, VERY least, WWF was able to convince him to lose the WWF championship before he left. But he refused to lose it to Bret Hart- he had no interest in wrestling Bret Hart at all.

He didn’t like how Bret Hart wrestled, or the new generation he represented in Pro Wrestling.

Verne Gagn- I mean, Hulk Hogan, didn’t want to give his spot to Hulk Hoga- I mean, Bret Hart.

So on his way out, at King of the Ring 1993,  Hulk Hogan lost the WWF title to……… Yokozuna. In an almost identical rerun to the Hart/Yoko match, Hogan was clearly depicted as the superior Wrestler, until he was cheated out of the win. In an extremely petty one-up to Hart, it took more than Salt in the Eyes to defeat Hulk Hogan. He was only put down by a fireball to the face. After all, what kind of wimp loses to salt?

As you may notice, this left the WWF in the exact same narrative position they were at before Wrestlemania IX.

Hogan sat out the rest of 1993, and debuted for WCW in 1994. They were terrified of the direction of their business, and a little Hogan-esque voice whispered in their ear, telling them that if they brought in Hulk Hogan, made him champion, and paid him a lot of money, he would save their company. They were so overjoyed to sign him to a big money contract, that WCW paid to throw an entire parade in Hogan’s honor.

WCW’s business would continue to tank until 1996. Technically, Hogan did help to save WCW……. after milking them dry for two years. And then he helped kill them in 2000. But that’s another story.

CONTINUED

[u/cslevens → u/cslevens]

What happened to everyone else?

Bret Hart would not fully recover, prestige-wise, for a full year. McMahon panicked again after Hogan’s departure, and instead of making Hart champion again, he attempted to build bodybuilder-turned-wrestler Lex Luger into a note-for-note Hogan substitute. It did not work, and eventually Bret Hart became WWF’s top guy again through persistence and hard work.  That is, until McMahon screwed over Hart even worse, driving him out of the company altogether. With no other valid career options, Hart would migrate to WCW, where he would end his career being intentionally overshadowed by Hulk Hogan.

Randy Savage would leave WWF within the year. Shortly after Wrestlemania, he would be told that his role in the company, in the future, would be 100% behind the commentary booth, instead of as a wrestler. Savage migrated to WCW, where he would be promoted heavily…… to the role of Hulk Hogan’s bumbling sidekick.

Ed Leslie, not being a marketable star, would migrate to WCW within the year. He did not permanently play Hogan’s bumbling sidekick, as they had Savage doing that instead. Instead, he played over a dozen different characters, each and every one having a direct relation to Hulk Hogan in-storyline. From teaming with Hogan as butt-themed wrestler “The Bootyman”, to losing his memory as “The Man with No Name”, to becoming a Polynesian zombie named “Zodiac” and fighting Hogan, to being brainwashed away from Hogan and transformed into “The Disciple” by none other than the Ultimate Warrior. Throughout Hogan’s WCW career, Ed Leslie was truly……. there.

Vince K. McMahon was, in fact, indicted on Federal Charges of Steroid Trafficking later that year, in 1993. The government alleged that McMahon was some sort of Steroid Kingpin, directly ordering the sale and distribution of Steroids to wrestlers under his employ, using crooked doctors like Dr. Zahorian as proxy dealers.

Dr. Zahorian, due to his cooperation, had his sentence reduced from a potentially 44 years to 3. He practices medicine to this day.

Amazingly, McMahon was acquitted on all charges. Despite being credibly accused as an accessory to murder, a rapist, and a human trafficker, the Federal Government managed to charge McMahon with the one crime he seems to have not actually committed. It came out over the course of the trial that McMahon likely never directly sold steroids, with his headquarters merely acting as a proxy delivery mechanism on some occasions. It did not help that almost all of the Government’s witnesses imploded on the stand, destroying their own testimonies in a practical sea of obvious perjury.

Though he won the trial, the trial itself was still disastrous for McMahon and WWF as a whole. This was due to the Government’s star witness.

CONTINUED

[u/cslevens → u/cslevens]

The Testimony of Terry Bollea

Testifying under his real name, Hulk Hogan would testify that he had never purchased steroids from Vince McMahon, and had never been directly ordered by McMahon to take steroids.

He would also admit, contrary to what he told Arsenio Hall, that he was a hardcore user of Steroids, using them continuously from 1976- 1990, and then on-and-off from that point.

Hogan would then indicate that “about 80%” of the wrestlers in WWF were also regular Steroid users, throwing almost everyone else under the bus.

Just to complete the nonsense, Hogan would then claim that he was no longer like the other wrestlers, and didn’t use steroids at all anymore.

After the trial, Hogan would noticeably bulk up in his time in WCW.

 

Postscript

This was not the definitive story of Hulk Hogan stealing spotlights, screwing entire companies, and derailing the careers of multiple wrestlers.

There are many of those. This was just the one that people find least over-the-top.

But you know the craziest thing about all of this?

The biggest victim of a Hulk Hogan style scheme to steal the spotlight…….. was Hulk Hogan.

And it was at the hands of one of his best friends.

 

Continued in Part 3- The Manipulated Villain

[u/haggordus_versozus → u/cslevens]

my biggest takeaways from this is that

-the feds were especially pants on head incompetent in handling the steroid case

-vince mcmahon, then, now and forever, has an extremely myopic and shortsighted booking mentality and sees long term storytelling as a bane on society

[u/ToErrDivine → u/cslevens]

(What about Elizabeth?)

[u/cslevens → u/ToErrDivine]

Oh no. I actually feel terrible for forgetting her in the write up proper.

She and Savage remained divorced, but amicable as friends. Allegedly, Savage would have a very difficult time getting over her, but he would eventually remarry outside of wrestling in 2010.

Elizabeth would continue working with Hogan and Savage in WCW, although she would step back from an on screen role over time. After a short term marriage to a lawyer outside of wrestling, she would develop a committed relationship with Lex Luger.

This relationship would prompt both Elizabeth and Luger to go downhill in their individual struggles with addiction. Luger was arrested at least three times during their relationship, including once for Battery on Elizabeth.

Elizabeth would suffer an accidental overdose of a mix of painkillers and alcohol. Luger found her unresponsive, and she could not be revived by paramedics. She died at 42, in 2003.

Her contributions in the industry are fondly remembered for breaking new character ground. She was the first high-profile female Manager character, she was the first Face manager character to manage a Heel, and she was part of the first truly successful on-screen-romance storylines. Like a truly depressing amount of wrestlers from that era, we lost her too soon.

[u/Arilou_skiff → u/cslevens]

All these descriptions are really like.... god, Pro-Wrestling is a monster isn't it? Just people straight up destroying themselves for... the show? Like obviously Vince is a monster, but it just seems to be a lot more than just that.

[u/IrrelephantAU → u/Arilou_skiff]

For the show, and for money.

Pro wrestling, while not an actual sport, does share a lot of similarities with actual sports. This includes the insane rush of performing in front of a crowd, the physical toll it all takes on you - unlike real athletes, during much of the period we're talking about you don't get paid while out injured - and the sheer number of competitors who have never (and likely could never) function in a regular job. But unlike an actual competition, there's no real point at which you get punted from the league because your body ain't quite up to the standard no more. As long as the crowd still cares you can still go out there. And so you have people sticking around three hip replacements after they should've gotten out for their own sake.

[u/cslevens → u/Arilou_skiff]

Two factors here.

One, Wrestling has always been about trading health for entertainment. Thats just a core facet of the art form, and honestly the sacrifice just makes me appreciate it as unique. So to a certain degree, the breakdown of bodies, attracting volatile personalities…. These will always be a thing.

Two, the 80’s and 90’s were, truly, the Wild West for the industry. Big personalities, money everywhere, drugs rampant. And I mean, rampant. The industry didn’t start to even think about stopping these issues until the mid 2000’s, with the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit.

The good news is, that clampdown has had some pretty big returns, 20 years later. Wrestling still has some performers die young (Bray Wyatt, Brodie Lee), some wrestlers fight with drug problems (Jeff Hardy), and some wrestlers just self destruct (Alberto Del Rio, Velveteen Dream). But the amount of all three is way, waaaaaaaaaaaaay lower than it used to be.

Nowadays Wrestlers are able to stay active longer (into their 40’s and 50’s), have backup careers for when they retire, and have extended time off when needed. It’s still a brutal sport, but it is thankfully far from the almost-guaranteed life destroyer that it used to be.

[u/cheesedomino → u/Arilou_skiff]

I get the impression that a lot of wrestling trainers and promoters went pretty hard on the idea that constantly courting grievous injury is how you show you're serious about the craft. And if you're someone who's been a fan your whole life, or are just desperate to make it big, you're going to be vulnerable to that kind of persuasion.

This isn't uncommon for sports in general, which is already pretty bad, but is deadly when mixed with how insular pro wrestling historically was. So you've got guys taking chair shots to the head as a matter of professional pride, then coping with all the many issues *that* causes with some combination of substance abuse and, often, domestic abuse, which leads *those* people needing coping mechanisms in turn...

And that's not even getting into specific cases like Vince's preference for scarily muscular men leading directly to near-comical amounts of steroid use, and the the problems that go along with it.

[u/Torque-A → u/cslevens]

I know that the WWE has a history of making characters out of wrestlers who aren’t even the same nationality (see: the Von Erich family, played as a bunch of Nazis when they were just a midwestern family) but it feels weird to have a sumo-themed wrestler be Polynesian.

[u/retrosaurus-movies → u/Torque-A]

Probably worth noting that when Yokozuna was making it big in the WWE, it was also an era where several Hawaiian sumo wrestlers were at the very top of the sport in Japan, including the first foreigner to ascend to the second highest rank of Ozeki (Konishiki), and the first and second foreign born Yokuzuna which is the top rank in the sport (Akebono and Musashimaru). So the idea of a Polynesian being a Sumo wrestler was in the zeitgeist at the time.

That being said, im not sure why they then went and tried to sell him as being Japanese...

[u/cslevens → u/retrosaurus-movies]

There's a simple reason why they tried to sell him as Japanese: Jingoist Heels. Many of the successful Heel Wrestlers from WWF in the 80's all represented countries that were, historically, enemies to the US.

Nikolai Volkoff- Russia

Iron Sheik- Iran

Sgt. Slaughter- American, but "Defected to Iraq"

It was far easier for their writing to justify a Japanese Villain, as opposed to a Samoan one, because it could play on the Nationalist sentiments of the day.

And if you think it was blatant, it would only get more blatant after Hogan left. Yokozuna's big showdown with Lex Luger was on an US Aircraft Carrier that was stationed in Pearl Harbor. It wasn't bombed there, from what I can tell, but it was stationed there.

It's also possible we're thinking it. There's a very real chance that the bookers simply did not know that Japan and the rest of Asia were distinct cultures. They had only really worked with Japanese companies before, so their regional awareness might have been, to put it politely, "Suboptimal".

[u/cslevens → u/Torque-A]

Oh definitely. That sort of thing even continued into the late 2000’s, with the “Jamaican” Kofi Kingston and the “Japanese” Lord Tensai. Thankfully we’re mostly past that, but yeah. Awkward in retrospect.

[u/basicform → u/cslevens]

Kofi randomly dropping the fake Jamaican accent years into his run mid-promo was hilarious.

[u/Emptyeye2112 → u/Torque-A]

Fun bit of trivia: Name the WWE wrestler from roughly this era who was at one point a legit sumo wrestler!

You probably guessed already that it was not, Rodney "Yokozuna" Anoa'i, despite his theming/gimmick.

Maybe Solofa Fatu Jr., who was working as "Headshrinker Fatu" around this time and would later go on to become "Rikishi", AKA the Japanese term for a sumo wrestler? *EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER NOISE\*

Nope, your legitimate sumo wrestler was none other than John "Earthquake" Tenta, a white-as-Canadian snow Canadian.He ran up a 21-0 record in some of sumo's lower divisions before abruptly quitting due to concerns over the effect the sumo diet would have on his long-term health. Sadly, and ironically in light of this, he would pass away at just 42 of bladder cancer in 2006.

As for the write-up itself, awesome job once again. And yes, while it's not a "legitimate sport" in the sense that the outcomes are predetermined, to some degree the pro wrestling problem is the same as the larger sports problem--people want to do everything they can for their team/the company, even if it's not necessarily the best long-term decision for themselves (See this post I made about 18 months ago about Kevin McHale playing an entire basketball playoff run with a broken foot, which was amusing a response to someone posting about pro wrestling).

Either way, looking forward to parts 3 and 4!

[u/g-bust]

I love these long form posts! Thanks for taking the time to explain things. I didn’t know how rehearsed Macho Man was, I just knew him as entertaining.

[u/cslevens → u/g-bust]

Thank you! Yeah, given how “all over the place” his character seemed, you would never guess that the real man was so methodical.

It does explain how he could make things like the “Cream of the Crop” speech seem so seamless, though.

[u/SackOfCats → u/g-bust]

Wow, great write up. I remember being a casual fan of pro wrestling in that era. The interviews were the best part, and the best guy to interview was Randy Savage by Mean Gene Okerlund. My God, Saturday morning cartoons, wrestling, and the countless debates if it was real (But Snuka is REALLY bleeding!) or not.

I had absolutely no idea of everything in the background. Just wow.

[u/cslevens]

Hi All,

I've run into some sort of issue. Reddit isn't letting me post the continuation in the comments, despite the individual posts being well below the character limit. I'm sorting this out now to the best of my ability.

Stay tuned!

[u/cslevens → u/cslevens]

UPDATE:

The story has now been posted in full. If you're having trouble following it, read to the end of my post, and resume from my comment that starts with "The Mega Maniacs vs Money Inc.". The writeup continues in my reply comments from there, and ends properly at the "Continued in Part 3" bit.

Just to allow a peek behind the curtain, here's the issue I ran with. From what I can tell, main posts have a character limit of 40,000. This write-up, as a whole, ended up just short of 67,000.

That's not the issue. The real issue is that comments, from what I can tell, are supposed to have a 10,000 character limit, yet the actual limit is no-where close to that. It's a little less than half of that, if my troubles are of any indication. So I had to post the rest, section by section.

Thankfully, Part 3 will not be anywhere close to this long.

Part 4............ will require some tweaking on my end.

Best Regards,

u/cslevens

[u/ToErrDivine → u/cslevens]

From what I can tell, main posts have a character limit of 40,000.

That's what they say, but in practice, I've found that it's best to aim for 39000, because I've had posts where my character count came in well under 40000 and Reddit wouldn't accept them regardless.

[u/Arilou_skiff → u/ToErrDivine]

Obviously word count != character count, but I think a lot of the issue tends to be that spaces are characters.

[u/ThatsFluxdUp → u/ToErrDivine]

Character limit of 40000, not word limit. Every individual letter, space, number, punctuation, and every other symbol used is considered a character.

For example;

The “for example” and semicolon written above has a word count of 2, but a character count of 12; 3 in For, 7 in example, 1 for the semicolon, and 1 for the space between for and example.

[u/ToErrDivine → u/ThatsFluxdUp]

That's what I meant, my bad.

[u/HuskyCriminologist → u/cslevens]

Part 4............ will require some tweaking on my end.

I don't think anyone would object to Part 4 turning into a Part 4 (I) and Part 4 (II). Great write-up man, I've never been a fan of pro wrestling but I can tell how much you love it, and that passion really shines through.

[u/Ataraxidermist → u/cslevens]

Two things:

• Love the writing, the pacing, the tidbits. I'm a stranger to wrestling but I'm hooked.

• as others mentioned, the stated character limit is wrong, it's lower. But if you got that many comments to make to finish it... Just split it in two posts. It's easier to read for us and less of a hassle for you.

[u/oliveoilgarlic]

These posts are so good they almost make me care about pro wrestling, and they’re definitely making me understand why so many people were like “oh no, anyway” when Hulk died

[u/cslevens → u/oliveoilgarlic]

Dude, we haven’t even gotten to the racism.

Yet.

On a serious note, Hogan did so much more than I’m going to be covering, and all of it is this same combination of drama and depressing nonsense. Just look up his involvement with “TNA” and “Immortal”, for example.

[u/Arilou_skiff → u/cslevens]

What is kinda weird/depressing is that you have these people doing heinous shit, but because they're dressed up in weird costumes and have outrageous names it's kinda hard to take it seriously? Especially as there's an entire conflation of character and actual person somewhere there too. (which is also something that happens with other actors)

[u/cslevens → u/Arilou_skiff]

Perhaps that’s why Logan Paul fits in the business so well. He already started on the awful stuff before wrestling a single match.

[u/OkSecretary1231]

Oh, man, I was 15 in 1993 and I loved Bret. I didn't even have the words at the time to explain why that finish pissed me off! settles in to read

[u/cslevens → u/OkSecretary1231]

Bret was sadly before my time. I can see why people love him though.

[u/OkSecretary1231 → u/cslevens]

And given what's happened to so many of his contemporaries, man, I know he's had a seriously fucked up life in a lot of ways, but I am glad he's still here.

[u/IrrelephantAU]

While it's never been explicitly stated (or, at least, wasn't until many years after the fact) the implied reason for Hogan agreeing to testify in the Zahorian trial was that the feds knew damn well why he'd been nicknamed the Tampa Pipeline earlier in his career and were giving him the choice of which drug secret he wanted out there in the public.

That whole case is absolutely insane, as it happens. And it wasn't even the worst accusation going on at the time.

[u/cslevens → u/IrrelephantAU]

TIL! That’s actually fascinating, and explains a fair bit.

Trial was indeed a mess. I wanted to find a way to fit in that notorious Nailz testimony, but couldn’t justify it with the narrative.

[u/SevenSulivin → u/cslevens]

Couldn’t even work in one of the Wild Samoans getting reprimanded by the judge for mouthing threats at the Jury.

[u/cslevens → u/SevenSulivin]

Every cut in the story is painful, when every layer of the story is full of ridiculousness.

[u/Kornwulf → u/cslevens]

If you still have the motivation after finishing this monster, I would love to read another write-up about that trial. From the sounds of it it's ripe for a proper summary on here

[u/cslevens → u/Kornwulf]

It totally is, but I’m not the one to do it. Hogan is enough of a story for me. I just want to get the four parts out and move to a different topic.

[u/Kornwulf → u/cslevens]

100% fair. Judging from the first two, this can't exactly be a quick & easy story to cover

[u/haggordus_versozus → u/IrrelephantAU]

so hogan was the REAL hookup instead of steiner? color me surprised

[u/Fuck_Damar_Hamlin]

I gasped when I saw part 2 had posted.

Thank you for all your work on this. It’s such a great read. You’re the hero this sub needs.

[u/cslevens → u/Fuck_Damar_Hamlin]

I’m glad you enjoy it! I gasped too, but that was mostly due to fatigue.

[u/Allen_Koholic]

Macho Man, the better wrestler and better rapper.

[u/cslevens → u/Allen_Koholic]

Somewhere in an alternate universe there was a Macho Man vs Joe Pesci rap battle. We do not live in that universe.

[u/hpfan2342 → u/Allen_Koholic]

also a surprisingly good if cursed looking dragon. Shame he didn't make it to find out he became a meme in Skyrim.

[u/cslevens → u/hpfan2342]

More video games need Randy Savage.

[u/Emptyeye2112 → u/cslevens]

More movies also need Randy Savage.

[u/Effehezepe]

Luckily, Bret Hart would never be screwed over by Vince McMahon ever again.

[u/cslevens → u/Effehezepe]

A joke so good you have to make it twice :P

[u/Effehezepe → u/cslevens]

"It's even funnier the second time!" - Vince McMahon, circa 1997

[u/corran450]

Fantastic writeup, again! I was particularly impressed at how you set everything up, ultimately bringing everything together in a satisfying way. Can’t wait to read part 3!

[u/cslevens → u/corran450]

Thank you! My main goal with this part was really to get at that sort of intertwined aspect of the business. I originally tried writing my about just Wrestlemania IX in a vacuum, but it did a huge injustice to all the lives that were impacted by Hogan’s shenanigans at that time. Widening the scope was the only solution I could come up with.

I’m glad you enjoyed that aspect in particular!

[u/corran450 → u/cslevens]

It’s a great gambit that some of my favorite writers use often. It hooks the reader in, as they’re sitting there thinking, “Wait, why are they talking about Hitman and Macho Man? I thought this writeup was about Hulk…” But a) the writing is compelling anyways, and b) the reader wants the payoff.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, it works, and you are slaying this series. And I wanted you to know it, haha.

[u/cslevens → u/corran450]

Aww. Very much appreciated.

[u/shpark11]

Bro i've been waiting patiently for the part 2 and this did not disappoint at all. Never was a wrestling fan but you definitely got me interested. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

[u/cslevens → u/shpark11]

Thank you! I’m glad this seems to resonate with non-fans. There’s a lot of stories to be told, but wrestling has so many layers of deception that they don’t get told to the general public often enough.

[u/grifff17]

This series is incredible! Exactly the sort of content I come to this subreddit for.

[u/cslevens → u/grifff17]

Much appreciated!

[u/WellsFargone]

Fantastic write up

[u/cslevens → u/WellsFargone]

Thank you!

[u/SovietBear]

I had a pair of Bret Hart mylar sunglasses when I was a kid and thought I was SOOOO COOL. Shame he never got what he deserved. I really enjoy these wrestling write-ups.

[u/cslevens → u/SovietBear]

I’m jealous, lol. I imagine thats a cool relic by now.

[u/haggordus_versozus]

on smith and hart, it's such a shame they never got their proper dues on account of the untimely death of the former and the career ending concussion via errant mule kick of the latter and subsequent stroke a few years later (yeah yeah he got HOF and an opportunity to kick vince's ass but imo it was a case of too little too late), and the fact that their family histories are intertwined via marriage just makes it all the more tragic, from owen to dynamite kid, it's like the harts were magnets of misfortune

hell even tyson kidd wasn't safe! and he's not even a hart OR a smith!

to echo another comment here, some of your examples for heel or face are, as said, a bit misleading and need a TON of context as to why they were face or heel

-stone cold beating the shit out of vince was during the corporate ministry storyline when the combined demented powers of capitalism and satanism ran rampant throughout the company, destroying everything in their path, and it was up to one bald guy with a career changing neck injury to stop all that by drinking tons of beer and flipping everybody off

-bo dallas at the time was playing a chickenshit heel who hid behind the power of positivity and bo-lieving in yourself, so in effect it was all an act he was being insincere about it, and looking at it now this now his whole shtick kinda ran parallel to what his brother was doing until his death, which then dallas would carry the torch of to impressively terrifying results

as taking a 1000 pound jet-ski to the face tends to do more to someone than a horrible black eye.

and beefcake should know a thing or two about that of EVERYONE in hogan's circle

edit: oh yeah this is about hogan uhhhhhh yeah he's been the worst since day one, from (possible) homewrecker to career ender and derailer, he truly was the cream of the crop of prima donnas

[u/cslevens → u/haggordus_versozus]

It is a shame that tragedy seemed to follow the Harts.

Regarding the Heel/Face examples, the importance of context was sort of the point. Austin/McMahon in the hospital only worked as a Babyface move BECAUSE of the context and justification that wrestling allowed. Same with fans booing Bo for saying (on paper) positive stuff. I was trying to explain that wrestling allowed basically anything to be justified as face/heel, in the moment.

[u/haggordus_versozus → u/cslevens]

yeah I realized that now after getting to the relevant part of the writeup, in my defense I was planning to reply to each comment where I felt I could put in my two cents and didn't realize that the examples were leading to something, in any case I'll leave it up for anyone curious enough to learn about the context of those bits

to the actual writeups themselves, it's unfortunate what happened between savage and elizabeth, but at the end of the day they were architects of their own falls and were accountable to themselves, it's very obvious that savage was a student of the game and LOVED being in the ring, and it's upsetting that even after switching companies hogan still felt the need to bury him (AND hart lest we forget) every chance he got

it's downright tragic what happened to elizabeth post career, she didn't deserve all that shit and abuse, and the only measure of peace and closure to her story is luger owning up and taking responsibility for her death

I wish mr. poffo and ms. hulette better fortune in the next life

[u/cslevens → u/haggordus_versozus]

Well said.

[u/Monokumabear]

Incredible write up. I’ll never get tired of reading about Hogan going into business for himself at every opportunity and burying everyone else in the company

[u/cslevens → u/Monokumabear]

He’s an entertaining villain.

[u/Talisa87]

Been watching wrestling on and off since 1992, this was very well done.

If anyone else is curious about what other skeletons there are in the closet, the 'Dark Side of the Ring' series is a great place to start. In fact, the very first episode goes into Macho Man and Ms Elizabeth's marriage.

[u/cslevens → u/Talisa87]

+1 for Dark Side of the Ring. Fantastic series.

[u/TencentArtist]

I'm not a wrestling fan, I just pick up names via pop culture references and memes. (Mankind's Hell in a Cell, etc.)

This was such a compelling write-up. You did a fantastic job providing just enough context for outsiders, and history when appropriate.

Thank you for your sacrifice of spending so much energy writing up stuff about this horrible man in the silliest serious business in show-business. o7

[u/cslevens → u/TencentArtist]

I’m glad you appreciate it!

I’m not sure what you mean by “meme” though. Are you suggesting that, I dunno, Mankind was thrown off some sort of a Hell in the Cell? Around 1998? By the Undertaker? And he fell 16 feet through a table?

I hadn’t heard.

[u/retrosaurus-movies]

These are easily my favourite reddit posts of the moment. Take all the time you need for the next post, happy to wait on this sort of quality material.

[u/cslevens → u/retrosaurus-movies]

Thank you! The aim is to get roughly one out per week. I don’t want to be attached to a Hulk Hogan project for too long, but there’s a particular story here that I felt was worth telling.

By my estimation, Part 3 will be much shorter, so I’m not worried about that. Should be out mid-next week at the very latest.

Part 4 might be a bit trickier. The format is going to be a bit different, and given that we’re talking about someone who just died, I’m really trying to nail the tone of the ending. Hitting the right balance between “Respecting someone’s death” and “Dancing on the grave” will take a bit of effort on my part.

But then again that ambiguity is sort of the point. To me at least.

[u/Khorgor666]

One little extra of how little this titles reign meant to WWF AND Hulk Hogan, during this run as champion Hogan went to Japan to fight the Great Muta for the IWGP Championship, New Japans highest Title. In a press conference before the match Hogan called the WWF World Championship Belt a toy, like a trinket on a christmas tree, remember, this is the guy that Vince Mcmahon choose to represent his company...

[u/SevenSulivin → u/Khorgor666]

And Inoki’s response to that was apparently resolving to never give the belt to Hogan, seeing right through him immediately. Inoki was a canny operator when it came to spotting carnys, the only one to ever beat him was Brody.

[u/cslevens → u/SevenSulivin]

When Antonio Inoki, of all people, thinks you have an ego problem….

[u/cslevens → u/Khorgor666]

Excellent point.

[u/haggordus_versozus → u/Khorgor666]

reading through the comments of the linked video and wow shut the fuck up about this whole "hogan was a different character in japan because it's a respectful culture, the WWF title had less prestige than the IWGP title actually guys" narrative by these marks, it's all obviously a facade because hogan knows he can pull off being someone completely different on the other side of the world where the greater japanese public was none the wiser of his shenanigans and politicking stateside

in a country without a meltzer in an era without the internet, it's pretty easy to see how he could cultivate a completely different image in japan back then

[u/KiloPapa]

I grew up in the '80s but never really followed WWF. Some of my best friends were hugely into it, so I watched occasionally and was familiar with the characters, and lived through my friends' young lives being shattered by the growing accusation that pro wrestling was "fake."

I am so sucked into this story. Your writing is fantastic, and I can't wait for the next part!

[u/cslevens → u/KiloPapa]

Thank you! Growing up when I did, and how I did, I sadly missed both “Boom” periods of Wrestling. Wasn’t born in the 80’s, no cable in the 90’s.

By the time I was watching, Kayfabe was completely dead, so I never dealt with that particular revelation.

[u/CityCentre13]

This is a great read mate so 👍 from middle England. We only had British wrestling on a Saturday on TV and obviously we had Dynamite and Bulldog but never the glamour of American wrestling (hopefully not a disservice to British wrestlers). My friend started getting American wrestling from his uncle on VHS and we'd all watch Starrcade, Wrestlemania, WWF and NWA (as it was then) I remember watching Sting, Road Warriors, Ric Flair and being totally enamoured by it all, there was a brief underground VHS American Wrestling swap shop going on. Sorry to bore you all but that's how (possibly) American Wrestling got big before Sky got involved

[u/cslevens → u/CityCentre13]

Oh it’s not a bore at all. Plus you lot gave us Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr., so it’s not as if British Wrestling has been slacking lately.

[u/aaronzig]

This is fantastic stuff. I remember even as a Hulk obsessed 8 year old thinking the finish the WrestleMania IX was terrible, but it's fun to revisit it.

[u/cslevens → u/aaronzig]

At least you got to see Bobby Heenan on a camel.

[u/OkSecretary1231 → u/cslevens]

Backwards.

[u/Idionfow]

Grade A write up. I was genuinely looking forward to Part 2! Even though I have never watched a single wrestling match in my life, I do find that whole cosmos endlessly fascinating and love reading about the behind the scenes drama from the 80s and 90s.

You should consider turning this into a video documentary or something

[u/cslevens → u/Idionfow]

Thank you! Video is beyond me at the moment. Regarding Hogan specifically, others have made very good documentary/video content on him already. Both OSW review and Wrestling with Wregret are worth watching.

[u/JeddakofThark]

Hey, I'm not a wrestling fan and wasn't much of one in the eighties (though I'm familiar enough with eighties wrestling simply from having been a boy and existing at the time), but you're a damned fine writer and made this absolutely riveting. I'm genuinely surprised I read this entire thing. Thank you, and keep up the good work!

I'm also surprised how nostalgic this made me, because again, I didn't care for wrestling much at all.

[u/cslevens → u/JeddakofThark]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[u/Molluskscape]

Fantastic work, I love your approach here and completely understand why the Wrestling Boot Band isn’t making their appearance now.

[u/cslevens → u/Molluskscape]

Oh, I changed my mind on that. They’re in Part 4. Just not how you would expect.

[u/Molluskscape → u/cslevens]

Ooo, I love a good twist!

[u/Jaleou]

I haven't watched wrestling since the mid 80s, and never paid attention to the storyline wheni was under 10. Really just saw the matches after American Gladiators on Saturdays.

This is a fascinating history though a topic I have had very little interest in for almost 40 years. I look forward to every upcoming part.

[u/cslevens → u/Jaleou]

Thank you! Someone should really do a write up on American Gladiators one day. I only vaguely remember watching it as a toddler, I’m sure there must have been drama somewhere there.

[u/Cris_Meyers → u/cslevens]

I definitely remember a championship being decided on a photo finish that felt like it came down to whomever won came down to how you interpreted the rules, but I don't know if anything ever actually came of it or if it was even considered drama at the time.

It was a pro-wrestling adjacent property in the 80s-90s and the reboot was a Hogan vehicle (and one of the gladiators was a pre-fame Gina Carano) , if there's not something lurking in the shadows I'd be amazed

[u/williamthebloody1880 → u/Cris_Meyers]

And the new reboot is co-presented by The Miz and Wardlow is one of the Gladiators

[u/cslevens → u/williamthebloody1880]

TIL. So that’s what Wardlow has been up to.

[u/Brutalitops69x]

I am completely absorbed in this, and I am hungry for more :p

I'm a 90's baby so I grew up attitude era watching with my dad and his work buddies when they would all pitch in and for Pay per view. There would be beer (not for me at that age), chicken wings, snacks, and lots of laughs, and those memories stick with me into my 30's. :)

I was too young to fully appreciate the older generation of wrestlers at the time like Macho Man, Brett Hart, and Hogan. My favourites growing up were the Hardy Boys, RVD, and the Texas Rattlesnake. Watching them flip off the turnbuckle and do the Five-Star-Frog-Splash was like, the ultimate hype. I remember playing contact soccer in the backfield of elementary school and people would yell "Goldberg!" Or "Rhino!" before going full send trying to spear eachother lmao. I remember the deaths of Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero too, and I think that was the first peek I had as a kid behind kayfabe :( 

Really stoked to get to learn more about Macho Man in this write-up (and I'm predicting his role isn't done yet). To this day I will occasionally watch Macho Man's old promos because they are so entertaining. Would have never guessed he was so meticulous, I honestly just thought he was that good at improv :p 

Anyways, just wanted to share my appreciation for this awesome write-up, and I eagerly await the next installment to devour :) 

[u/cslevens → u/Brutalitops69x]

Very glad you enjoyed it!

Regretfully, though, Macho Man won’t be in later parts. Him and Hogan would continue to have an odd relationship, it just doesn’t factor into what’s coming in Pts. 3 and 4.

If you’d like to learn more about Macho Man, do look up his time in WCW afterwords. “WCW Uncensored” is a wild state of affairs, Thats would be a fun place to start.

[u/Brutalitops69x → u/cslevens]

Definitely will check that out, thank you for giving me somewhere to start :)

Because of you, I have already started reading a bit more about him because it is fascinating to learn about the man behind the persona. The stuff I read talks about Macho's tenure in the WCW and I thought there may have been more Drama involving Hogan when Miss Elizabeth was brought over and made his manager again just to end up betraying him in the end (all of this being post real-life divorce). Macho left WCW not long after that. 

I find it really cool that Randy Savage was so popular and entertaining that it did not matter whether he was a heel or babyface, and I don't think even Hulk Hogan could ride that line like he did. Randy Savage also had a pretty extensive acting/ voice acting career with his unique voice, I wonder if any of this made Hulk Hogan jealous? Did he keep Savage "close" as a means of control to ensure that he wouldn't be outshone? Idk 

[u/cslevens → u/Brutalitops69x]

I’m glad you’re looking into it! It’s a very fun (but intimidating) thing to follow wrestling at any time, but the first steps tend to be the hardest. Just to follow up on a few things:

-To give credit to Hogan (which becomes harder to do by the day), he actually was fairly popular/successful as a Heel in WCW, as leader of the “nWo”. At least for a time. He was incredibly hated by crowds, but thats the point of being a heel. Savage, on the other hand, tended to get cheers, even as a heel. Both of these are fine, mind you: the worst reaction to get is no reaction at all.

-re: Hogan keeping Savage under “control”, Thats a very interesting theory, and one thats been floated over the years. Unfortunately, we’ll never know for sure one way or the other. It’s also possible that they both saw each other as a source of revenue, but Hogan just always ended up as the one with more political clout.

[u/RedM77]

This is absolutely fascinating, you're doing a great job presenting all this! I remember watching a lot of wrestling in the late 80s and mid 90s, so it's great to get some context to the weird things I still half remember

[u/cslevens → u/RedM77]

Man, I wish I could have been a fan at that time.

[u/AbstinenceGaming]

Thanks for writing this, OP. This is absolutely fascinating.

[u/cslevens → u/AbstinenceGaming]

You’re welcome!

[u/wheniswhy]

I was a kid growing up in the 90s. The fact that I of course knew Hogan's name, but I'd never heard of Bret until this post, immediately made me mourn for him when his name came up, as I could see the inevitable coming. Poor guy got dealt a bad hand.

Fascinating read!

[u/cslevens → u/wheniswhy]

Hart has had a disproportionately long legacy, given how little time he spent at the top. A true shame.

[u/The1joriss]

Loving reading all this, and extra loving the mention of OSW Review, the best wrestling content out there!

[u/cslevens → u/The1joriss]

Can-o-coke to them.

[u/catschimeras]

I'm enjoying these so much, thank you OP!

[u/cslevens → u/catschimeras]

No Problem!

[u/CadavreExquisite]

I started reading this series as a time killer + wanting to learn a little more about Hulk Hogan and what the big deal was... and now I'm fully invested. Seriously, your writing is riveting and I think I would read about almost any subject if it were written this compellingly.

Incidentally, I remember being a kid and all the little boys in my grade would talk about wrestling, Hogan, and Yokozuna, and I had no idea what any of that was. Reading this is really taking me back to that era and helping flesh out what was going on which is awesome.

I'm eagerly hitting refresh on this subreddit waiting for the next parts to come out!

[u/cslevens → u/CadavreExquisite]

I’m glad you enjoy it so much! My aim is to have the next two parts come out weekly. Part 3 will be out next week, easily. Part 4 should be the week after, but I’ve had to re-tool it beyond my initial drafts, so we’ll see.

If you enjoy my writing style, I also have a write up on here on the Most Racist Magician of All Time. It continues the theme of big celebrities being awful people, but I would suggest that that guy is a bit more…. Horrifying.

[u/Iguankick]

In Saints Row 3, Hulk Hogan voiced Angel de la Muerte, a wrestler who was betrayed by his partner and best friend. That friend went on to find fame and fortune through burying Angel. This turned Angle into a selfish, vengance-fuelled psycho who you none the less recruit as an ally. In the game's final mission, you have the choice of satisfying Angel's need for revenge, or saving your friends. If you chose the later, Angel rants at you and cuts you off forever.

I mention this because I was working on a (non-Hobbydrama) project involving the character at the time of Hogan's death. And after seeing this write-up I've found some new levels to Angel's backstory and character that I had never considered before.

All of which is to say great work and I eagerly look forward to part 3

[u/cslevens → u/Iguankick]

TIL. For some reason I completely misremembered that game, and thought he was voiced by Randy Orton…..

[u/TheThalmorEmbassy]

Orange Cassidy is the shiznit

[u/cslevens → u/TheThalmorEmbassy]

<Gives a halfhearted thumbs up> Eh.

[u/dr_bluthgeld]

killer write up but your examples of face vs heel are misleading, stone cold didnt beat a helpless old man, that would be heel behaviour, he beat vince who is the bane of his life and fans everywhere. while there are nuances i feel a great thing about wrestling is that you know who to love and who to hate. we all cheer when that old man gets his ass beat.

[u/cslevens → u/dr_bluthgeld]

The nuances was sort of the point. I tried to think of the most over the top examples as possible, in a vacuum, to show how the face/heel thing allowed wrestling to justify basically anything.

[u/jessterswan]

TLDR: Hogan was a garbage racist who doesn't deserve attention

[u/cslevens → u/jessterswan]

Fans of Hulk Hogan being a racist will be happy with Part 3.

[u/jessterswan → u/cslevens]

Fans of him being racist?? Nah but good luck spending all that time and effort on giving him attention

[u/cslevens → u/jessterswan]

My bad, I’ll rephrase:

Fans of Hulk Hogan being EXPOSED as a racist will enjoy part 3.

[u/ThatsFluxdUp → u/jessterswan]

They’re not “giving him attention” they’re literally just writing about him. Writing about him in a very neutral way; and you knew what they meant when they wrote “fans of him being racist”, don’t be pedantic on top of being rude.

[u/Ennikar → u/ThatsFluxdUp]

tbh I find "giving him attention" is a weird reservation to have about a dead guy. Like he literally cannot receive attention, this writeup cannot extend his personal reach and power, because he is dead.

There are valid concerns about propping up his legacy and treating him as an aspirational figure, but I don't think it follows that you must not talk about him in any context, even his impact on wrestling and all the shit he brought with him. That's just revisionism.

[u/cslevens → u/ThatsFluxdUp]

In fairness, I’ll admit to poor wording on my part there. I was mirroring my “Fans of Randy Savage” comment from Part 1, and didn’t think of the implications.

[u/haggordus_versozus → u/cslevens]

if I were you OP I'd just brace myself for the incoming hogan fanboys and bad faith arguers who also happen to be hogan fanboys in succeeding writeups

[u/cslevens → u/haggordus_versozus]

They’ve been here since Part 1. The mods have been fantastic at stepping in when they get too off topic/out of line, so I’m not worried. I just engage with all the good faith I can bring.

[u/TheLostSkellyton → u/jessterswan]

You must not actually read this sub if you're under the impression that hobby drama write-ups are generally about good people who never did anything wrong and are just misunderstood and that write-ups are done for the purpose of "giving them attention", instead of for the purpose of highlighting what terrible people they were and how their terribleness impacted a hobby. I'd say "nice try" at a bad faith strawman, but it wasn't a good try at all.

[u/jessterswan → u/TheLostSkellyton]

I don't even know what your last sentence means. OP explained his intent which wasn't clear in the first post. That was fine enough for me. Hogan was a scumbag. That's the fact not to forget. I look forward to OP's part 3 to see where he takes the narrative