Who Meant More to Pro Wrestling: Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair

[Veritas]

Two of the biggest stars in the history of pro wrestling, two men who carried companies on their backs, two men who have literally conquered the world in their genre, two men who have, plain and simple, put lots of asses every 18 inches.

In the blue corner, standing 6'7", weighing in at 302 lbs, he is a former 12x Heavyweight Champion of the World - Hulk Hogan!

Leading his army of Hulkamaniacs with his battle cry of "Say your prayers and eat your vitamins!" he carried the WWF nationwide in the 1980s at the forefront of the Rock N Wrestling Connection and then, in the 1990s, completely transformed himself in a new company as the epitome of sleaze and corruption, going "Hollywood" for the first time in almost a decade - and bringing alot of his fans to the "cool" side with him. The 2000s saw "The Immortal One" return to the promotion he helped build and, in what can only be looked at as a symbolic gesture, helped Vince McMahon "Get the F Out!" and usher in the Entertainment Era during his final World Championship reign.

And in the red corner, standing 6'1", weighing in at 243 lbs, he is the only 16x World Heavyweight Champion (give or take) in the history of pro wrestling - Ric Flair!

Mirroring his opponent here in virtually every way, he was the "Limosine Riding, Jet Flying, Kiss Stealing, Wheeling Dealing" walking, talking definition of the RockSTAR in Wrestling of the 1980s. Leading his 4-strong stable of what can best be describe as perfection, he was the absolute peak of the NWA for an entire decade and beyond before those letters became WCW in the '90s and he became the true Franchise throughout the company's tenure, at both the height and depth of the Monday Night Wars. "The Nature Boy" of old seemingly returned in the 2000s again as part of a goon squad, a 20-year Evolution from his Four-days. For a man who's career is filled with memorable moments under basically the "enemy" banner, The Greatest Wrestler of All Time's most emotional night may have been his likely final appearence at WrestleMania 23.

So, the debate is now up to you. Using any criteria you see fit, decide which of those two men were more important to the history of Pro Wrestling and tell me why.

 

[Montana]

There is no debate.

Hogan revolutionized wrestling and is a worldwide household name. He took wrestling from a terrioritory to a national scale. He put two major #1 promotions on the map. And is the most famous wrestler of all time, and will likely be for quite some time to come. Not to mention Hogan put asses in seats.

Ric Flair is simply a much better wrestler. To say Ric Flair meant more to wrestling than Hogan is kinda nutty.


That's almost like saying who's done more for wrestling John Cena or AJ Styles.

 

[CMS]

Did you copy this from another place? And if you did, it was really, really old...

The Greatest Wrestler of All Time's most emotional night may have been his likely final appearence at WrestleMania 23.

Not only is this factually wrong but somebody in this day and time would know WM24 wasn't Flair's last appearance.

I get picky because this is no debate. Hulk Hogan. You want to make it interesting, make it Hulk Hogan vs Stone Cold.

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

There is no debate.

Hogan revolutionized wrestling and is a worldwide household name. He took wrestling from a terrioritory to a national scale. He put two major #1 promotions on the map. And is the most famous wrestler of all time, and will likely be for quite some time to come. Not to mention Hogan put asses in seats.

Ric Flair is simply a much better wrestler. To say Ric Flair meant more to wrestling than Hogan is kinda nutty.


That's almost like saying who's done more for wrestling John Cena or AJ Styles.

It goes way deeper than the way ou're looking at it. Hogan meant more to mainstream wrestling and was a bigger draw. But if you're calling Flair simply a better wrestler, you don't have the proper grasp for both Flair and pro wrestling history. I'd like to get deeper into this but I'm vacationing this week so I'll just give the nuts and bolts:

Flair and Hogan are from two different schools of wrestling. Hogan is influencial in the mold of being the original sports entertainment pioneer. Flair was THE premier star in the pro wrestling world 4 years before Hogan took off. Hogan made one man money and then got hot for a year and a half before burning the biggest promotion on the globe to the ground. while Flair made promoters across the country money. And if you match their global appeal at their peaks, Flair kills Hogan. Flair sold out shows not only across the country, but incited riots in Puerto Rico, headlined against the biggest draws in Japanese history and was asked personally by Antonio Inoki to wrestle him in front of 150k Koreans and the fact that Flair basically put an entire nation of promotions on his back while Hogan had an All Star cast from all the promtions that Vince raided. So to play down Flair's draw card is beyond absurd. Behind the marketing genius and cut throat tactics of Vince, Flair was the second biggest draw in the industry doing it the way it had been done in PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING history the way it had been done for 70 +years.

Then there's the fact of who was the better worker and Flair had more great matches in one week than Hogan had in his entire career and we'll just leave it at that.

The there is the influence factor and again Flair butt rapes Hogan in this. So many people decided to become wrestlers because of Flair. HBK, Triple H and Jericho amongst others have cited Flair as the greatest of all time and a major reason they decided to become wrestlers. Nobody has ever cited Hogan as their influence to do anything.

I can get really deep into this but besides being a bigger draw Hogan doesn't got shit on Flair. Not to mention all of Hogan's contributions have been to main stream sports entertainment and contributed nothing to honest to god pro wrestling. There's a reason Flair's got a spot in the Thesz/Tragos Por Wrestling Hall of Fame (the authoritative and legit pro wrestling hall of fame) and has been inducted into the Cauliflower Ear Club. True pro wrestling legends dont respect Hogan, he was never a pro wrestler, just a sports entertainer that took and never gave back.

From Flair being the prototype heel, the founder of the essential heel faction of all times, a global icon and having an influence that still spreads to this day, it's really not even close to who meant the most to PRO WRESTLING. Flair by a far margin, a timeless classic. Hogan has his proper spot, but he's not in Flair's class.


And really comparing Flair/Hogan to AJ/Cena...that is so sad. Flair's one of the 5 most important figures in wrestling history and AJ isn't even one of the 5 most important figures in wrestling this year.

 

[Montana]

So let me get this straight, you really think Ric Flair meant more to wrestling than Hulk Hogan?

We can go deeper if you like, and i didn't mean to discredit Ric Flair in any way as he is one of the best like you mentioned. I just feel like with the way the question was worded, as in "Who meant more" Where would wrestling be without Hogan, and where would wrestling be without Flair.

No Hogan, there might not have been a Wrestlemania, No WWF/WWE today, wrestling as mainstream pop culture entertainment with a national audience. If Ric Flair never wrestled, there might have been the four horseman. But other wrestlers could have filled his role. (maybe not as good) That's what i meant by revolutionizing wrestling. That's the biggest factor when comparing these two and answering this question i feel. You are right, Flair did it the same way for the previous 70 years, but Flair didn't revolutionize wrestling.

To use Flair's international appeal is fine, but to make it seem as if Hogan didn't exist outside the US is nuts. Hell look at Inoki's profile....http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/a/antonio-inoki.html no mentioned of the new Japan supercard in 1995 which featured WCW vs. New Japan. Hogan beat Inoki back in his prime 1981 as well. Muta in 93 as well. Long story short....who made more money?


As far as Pro wrestling Hall of Fame and the cauliflower club, that's great Flair was recognized. Hogan was in Rocky 3 and a cast of other movies bringing mainstream attention to wrestling.


Ric Flair having more of an influence i can see as a valid reason, but to say no one got into wrestling because of Hogan that's a lie. I don't know who everyone's influence is but Edge, and Big Show have been quoted as Hogan folllowers, and got into wrestling business of him.

Flair had the original four horseman....Hogan had the NWO which has been a arguement for a while, which was better. They are about the same, but the horsemen were the original, and the NWO was better at their peak.

It's a good topic for debate, but maybe the question should have been worded a little differently. Perhaps who's done more "Good" for the wrestling business and it's fans.

 

[Veritas]

Did you copy this from another place? And if you did, it was really, really old...

I get picky because this is no debate. Hulk Hogan. You want to make it interesting, make it Hulk Hogan vs Stone Cold.

No, I didn't C&P, I typed this on the fly just to get it up. This was a discussion topic in a debate league I used to be part of. I just posted the original question and typed out a quick rundown. What would make you think I C&P?

And there's a reason I skipped the current parts of BOTH guy's careers. I hate TNA. I think it's a shit company and, no matter how big a Flair fan I am, I don't think anything he's done in that company is worth my time typing.

As for the part about Flair's last appearence, it was a typo. I meant to refer to it as likely his final WrestleMania appearence, not his final match. Simple mistake on my part.

It's a good topic for debate, but maybe the question should have been worded a little differently. Perhaps who's done more "Good" for the wrestling business and it's fans.

I don't see how you can say it's a badly worded question when it's all based on opinion. I mean there is no right or wrong answer and your answer depends entirely on your interpretation of the question.

As for my answer, I agree with Enzo.

Yes Hogan made more money and was seen as a bigger star but in basically every other comparison Flair trumps Hogan. I can't really go much deeper into the discussion than Enzo did. Something I feel he missed though was the impact each man had on the other men around them at their heights. Hogan made alot of money and got himself over but Flair made alot of people money and got alot of people over. In each of their primes, who did each man really put over? With Hogan you have Warrior, Goldberg, and maybe Lesnar. Those are the only guys that were given clean, decisive wins over Hogan. With Flair the list is about a mile long - Ricky Steamboat, Kerry Von Erich, Sting, Brarry Windham, Mr. Perfect, and Bret Hart. If you want to extend that list to the guys who, while they never defeated the two "top guys," at least managed to hang with them, the results end up the same. Flair made a career on making anyone he was in the ring with seem like a legit threat.

 

[CMS]

What happens if I ask, what meant more to the business, or what had a bigger impact to the business, the territories or WWF breaking apart, ending the territories and bringing us to sports entertainment?

In this point in time, as we stand in 2010 living in full fledge entertainment era, WWE is the most important company in history. You can talk NWA, you can talk AWA, but I believe that had WWE not appeared to break the territories system, wrestling wouldn't have survived to this point in time. And guess who helped practically form the WWE.


As for your explanation Veritas, it really doesnt matter if you don't like what they are doing in TNA, trust me, neither do I, but you're talking facts, so you just can't erase history.

 

[pumpt73]

You gotta love debates like this. From a personal standpoint, I always lean towards Flair. One of biggest reasons Hogan is known was because of him helping to usher in mainstream success in professional wrestling. Once Hogan came to the WWF on the heels of the Rocky film, he became a marketing tool and Vince ran with it. This is something Flair didn't have or had only very little. When Hogan burst onto the scene in 1984 after he beat the Iron Sheik, his face was on everything. Action figures, lunch boxes, bed sheets, tshirts, cartoons, puzzles, coloring books, childrens workout sets, etc. etc. You name it, Hogan was no it. Now, by no means do I fault Hogan for this because any red blooded human would do the same thing, but Flair didn't have this. Flair made his name through his wrestling. When you think of a blueprint for a wrestler, Flairs image appears. The guy was a workaholic. To win the business' most prestigious title at the time as many times as he did speaks volumes.

When you really get down to brass tax, I think they're pretty equal really. Hogan meant so much to the entertainment side of it. How to bring it to fans you have never reached before. Flair kept it more in the sportier side. Both could do promos, but Id put Flair ahead of Hogan in that department. Both lead major factions, but Id still put the Horsemen edition of Flair, Blanchard, Anderson, Windham, and Dillon above any other.

 

[He who knows more than Nation]

The Horsemen > nWo for a few reasons. Very simply, groundbreaking, influencial, and longevity.And the fact they were never over exposed to the point where they brought the company down with them as new stars in Luger and Sting were made where as the entire WCW roster was buried for two years. People want to talk about Triple H in 2002, well nothing can be said about Trips when you consider Hulk Hogan's WCW run, well actually his entire career for that matter.

 

[Veritas]

As for your explanation Veritas, it really doesnt matter if you don't like what they are doing in TNA, trust me, neither do I, but you're talking facts, so you just can't erase history.

Why not, Vince McMahon does it all the time. ;-P

 

[JollyRancher]

I myself voted Flair. Granted Hogan brought wrestling to the big show, but in a way he also ruined wrestling. Hogan along with McMahon made wrestling a grand show that was silly and more about the angles and storylines than it was the wrestling.

Flair on the other hand is the second greatest wrestler ever, in my opinion. Flair is a guy who had the mic skills and charisma to be on the stage that Hogan helped create but at the same time wrestled circles around people. Flair could go for an hour straight with Steamboat and no one got bored, it was renowned.

I mean, am I bias? Yea, a little, I love Flair. but to me Flair is the standard to what all wrestlers should aspire to be. The complete package, not just the look and being able to sell a match. I mean Bobby Heenan could sell any match, it doesn't mean what he sold was going to be amazing. To me Flair could sell the match, and deliver. And I am a firm believer in the best wrestlers should be the main event. I don't care for people like Hogan, Batista, Abyss being in the main event just because they are easy to sell, or they are big. If you don't produce match of the night consistently you should not be the guy. And Flair was the guy because he did just that. Deliver in his matches on top of everything else. The complete package.