A lot of Hulk Hogan tributes have dropped the leg over the last day or so, but none have hit me harder than what The Rock posted this morning. The biggest movie star in the world just posted a video and lengthy tribute to his WrestleMania X8 opponent, and as a huge wrestling fan, it’s difficult to get through without getting emotional.
For those of you outside the wrestling bubble, Hulk Hogan and The Rock had one of the most famous and beloved wrestling matches in the history of the business all the way back in 2002. The Rock was the ascending star, in his prime and ready to become the face of the entire business. Hulk Hogan was nearly fifty and slowing down. The two put on a classic that’s still cited as the WrestleMania standard for crowd reaction to this day. You can check out The Rock’s post below…
Whenever anyone asks me to explain professional wrestling and why I love it so much, I use this match, Hulk Hogan and The Rock at WrestleMania X8, as the example. In one corner, you have The Hulkster, the 1980s icon who made professional wrestling cool but by 2002, was well past his prime. In the other corner, you have The Rock, a mega-star very much in his prime but who hadn’t yet reached the heights of Hogan.
Wrestling is at its best when it gives you these clear contrasts, when it makes you choose between two competing visions of where things are going to go. Do you want to see The Hulkster stay on top a little longer and relive the nostalgia, or do you want to see the torch passed to the next generation and The Rock become the face of professional wrestling?
You can hear in the video how much fans care. You can hear how many in Toronto that day and millions more watching at home wanted to hang on to The Hulkster for just a little bit longer because they knew, in some small way, if he lost, it would be over. He did lose, and while he wrestled for many more years, he never wrestled in a match that mattered that much on a stage that big. It was the end of an era, and The Rock has frequently referenced it as one of the moments that made him.
That’s professional wrestling, and no one will ever represent wrestling more than Hulk Hogan. Ric Flair may have won more world championships. The Rock and John Cena may have achieved a lot more in Hollywood. Many, many guys may have surpassed his technical in-ring skill, but no one has ever made more people turn and look at professional wrestling than Hulk Hogan. No one has ever been able to get more people to tune in and care about what’s happening. More than 30 million people watched The Hulkster and Andre The Giant on network TV in the late 80s because he made people care.
The Rock grew up in the wrestling business, but you can tell from his story about catching Hulk’s headband that, like millions and millions of kids in the 80s, he was in awe of Hulkamania. Hogan was on a different level. He was the main event and the attraction people came to see, and he built a special bond with a significant percentage of kids of a certain age. He made them feel something watching wrestling, and ultimately, that’s the entire point.
If you read a lot of tributes from fans, so many of them are the same. They were a kid in the 80s, they went to a live show and they had some tiny interaction with Hogan that mattered so much. They caught his headband or gave him a high five or saw him at the grocery store and he took a moment to be kind and interact. Decades later, they still remember, and as wrestling fans, we’ll never forget how he made us feel.
I can’t wait to watch The Rock and Hogan at WrestleMania X8 and relive the glory later today.
