The Hulkamaniac! I consider this guy to be one of the most overrated wrestlers in the history of the bussines but let's see what the WWEF crew and Crow fully thinks.
His in-ring skills were strongly below average. I mean, he had one of the most boring movesets out there and it wasn't the case because of persona or anything, he simply wasn't able to perform anything better. He even made a simple legdrop look bad, and the other moves he was performing were basically what rookie first learns when becoming a wrestler. Some of Hogan's matches earned a very good reputation but all that was is because of other things, not necessarily wrestling(charisma, character work, presentation). I honestly think that 80% of 80s and 90s locker room would be able to do exact same what he did in-ring but significantly better. He was a powerhouse with very limited moveset and still botching from time to time. Only thing he was able to do decently was grappling, he even sometimes made it look above average but it was mostly a typical big guy skill he performed in a non-special way. Even among powerhouses solely, Hogan was still below average overall and an ok grappling didn't help at all. Not to even mention technician skills, he was down right terrible at that. His striking, excluding the cringy taunts in between, was really unbeliavable looking, it was just visibly fake and not even entertaining to watch. Even Moxley in WWE was a better striker, and we all know how shitty he was.
When we bring out charisma it is important to mention the WWE presentation of him. Basically if they put an other guy his size out there and gave him an exact same attire, reaction would be the same. Crowd will cheer for nearly every Vinnie Mac face of the company if you just give him a nice presentation and boring typical persona for that which average wrestling fans(marks) generally like. The only very good wrestling quality of Hogan are the mic skills. Let's face it, there is no denying that the Hulkster knew his thing during promos no matter how generally boring his character work was. One of those guys with boring text to say but still said perfectly right, if that makes any sense. I'm not saying that I liked his promos subjectively, but they really were executed nearly perfectly. Speaking of character work, it was really one of the worst in history. 80s Hogan was a snooze fest. It's like a very lame generic superhero persona that no-one who trully knows wrestling likes. I know 80s and early 90s weren't really creative when it comes to that, but superhero shirt-ripping Hogan was the cringiest shit of that century that I've seen. Anyways, Hollywood Hogan was the first good character that he pulled up. It actually had a decent heel heat to it, the real crowd reaction, not the one where marks and pre-puberty kids cheer for their yellow superhero. That heel role perfectly suited him at the time, it was genuinely entertaining to watch. I still wouldn't say main-event entertaining but for the first time he really compensated for his lack of in-ring ability. He still wasn't the best thing of NWO in my opinion but I still liked him there. Was Hogan a good babyface? In my opinion hell no. I don't really count mark and kids' reactions to a face persona that incredibly sucked, and I don't think die-hard wrestling fans of the time could possibly like that charade. Was Hogan a good heel? Definetely yes. His first and only role that I liked.
My honest grade for Hogan is 5/10, and it's a very weak 5. He just sucked in-ring and didn't really compensate enough in other fields. Pushing Reigns to the top is far better decision than pushing Hulkster, it really looks far less bad overall. The one and only thing that Hogan ever did above average was the heel role, literally everything else was at best average and a big percentage of it significantly below average. In short, one of the worst main-eventers in the history of WWE.
Let us hear what you think about this wrestler in a comment and cast a vote in the poll if you want.
