Hulk Hogan death unleashes mixed bag of emotions

Hulk Hogan died, and no one knows how to respond. Here are the unbiased facts.

Hogan was born Terry Gene Bollea in 1953. He pursued music for ten years, playing bass guitar for numerous rock bands before forming Ruckus in 1976. Many wrestlers frequented the bars where Ruckus performed, which was fortunate because two wrestling brothers (Jack and Gerald Briscoe) noticed Hogan’s impressive physique.

They encouraged Hiro Matsuda (renowned wrestling coach) to train him, paving the way for a historic career in the industry. Hogan is still hailed as the biggest athlete in professional wrestling, which speaks volumes about his considerable impact because he technically peaked in the early 2000s.

The wrestler first made his mark in the 80s. Mainstream audiences from that era believed professional wrestling was real, and they perceived him as a genuine fighter who repeatedly overcame impossible odds in the ring.

Unfortunately, the same attributes that made him appealing to children in the 80s (colorful outfits and family-friendly quotes) extinguished his star in the 90s. Wrestling was moving forward, and Hogan had seemingly failed to evolve.

But then he reinvented himself with the NWO and won even diehard critics over with that legendary match against Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson at Wrestlemania X8. And for a time, it felt like Hogan would always dominate the wrestling scene.

We were starting to believe that Terry Gene Bollea was truly immortal. But eventually, time caught up to the man.

A new crop of athletes emerged, and Hogan could no longer compete, which meant nothing in the long run because his decades-long career had already cemented his legacy. This brings us to his recent passing.

If your understanding of Hogan’s life and career is restricted to what you see on mainstream TV in Uganda, you are probably wondering why so many online entertainment pundits are tiptoeing around the conversations surrounding his death. Well, Hogan was a renowned liar.

He routinely exaggerated his achievements, such as claiming that he wrestled 400 days in one year, Metallica and The Rolling Stones tried to recruit him (Both bands have rejected this assertion), he turned down several acting offers from director Darren Aranofsky (Darren has never considered him for any role), Mike Tyson was scared of him, Elvis Presley (who was dead before Hogan became a wrestler) was one of his biggest fans, etc.

His backstage antics were even worse. The wrestler had a reputation for getting ahead by burying his colleagues. The internet is saturated with lists of wrestlers who hated Hogan.

Many of their grudges revolved around storylines writers would concoct that should have ended with a younger, less popular wrestler beating Hogan, only for Hogan to back out in the last minute, lobbying the writers to make him the winner. Hogan made enemies in every wrestling promotion he visited.

Surprisingly, even after drawing the ire of the likes of Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, Hogan’s star remained strong. Then the racism allegations came to light, and everything changed.

The avalanche began with a publication leaking the wrestler’s sex tape. Before he could recover from that scandal, Hogan used a problematic racial slur (about black people) while complaining about his daughter’s decision to date a black man.

There were also audio clips in which Hogan said he was concerned about dying and reincarnating into a black family. The last time Hogan appeared on WWE TV, his presence made headlines because the entire arena booed him.

By the time he died, the masses had grown to hate him. But that has not stopped his peers lamenting his death and praising him as the greatest wrestler of all time, triggering a backlash from Hogan critics. So, how should we talk about Hulk Hogan in this day and age? We have yet to identify a fitting answer.

katmic200@gmail.com