This Day in Wrestling History (August 11)

Just for today, I'm going to break format for TDIPW. This time, I'm going back to the old method where we focus on one event. But it's a pretty significant event in pro wrestling. So significant, they're scheduling a whole episode of Monday Night RAW around it. The RAW before Summerslam, no less.

61 years ago today, Terry Gene Bollea was born in Augusta, Geogia. To his many fans, he is known by another name: Hulk Hogan.

The son of a dance teacher and a construction foreman, he turned to professional wrestling when his baseball career came to an early end. Before being bit by the wrestling bug,  he was bit by the music bug, playing in several local bands down in the Tampa area for a decade, including Ruckus. He soon caught the attention of the Brisco Brothers, not for his music, but for his physique, as he worked out at a local gym in his spare time. Mike Graham, son of Championship Wrestling from Florida promoter Eddie Graham, turned down Hogan at first, but Hogan got in the door at the Briscos' request.

After a year of training with Japanese wrestling legend Hiro Matsuda (including according to legend, breaking Hogan's leg on his first day of training), he wrestled his first match against Brian Blair just a day before his 24^th birthday in 1977.  Hogan found Matusda to be an overbearing trainer, so he left wrestling altogether and opened a club and gym in Cocoa Beach, Florida. His friend Ed "Brutus Beefcake" Leslie would come down to Cocoa Beach to manage the gym, and the two worked out together. However, Hogan wanted to wrestle again, so after putting in some calls, he found himself in the Alabama territory along with Leslie and they worked together as Terry and Ed Boulder, but they wouldn't stay long. After working a show in Memphis, Jerry Jarrett offered more than quadruple their weekly earnings down in Alabama to come work for him; they jumped all over it.

It was in the Memphis territory, he got the Hulk nickname. When he appeared on a local talk show, the host commented on how Hogan, 6'7" and 295 pounds with 24" biceps dwarfed Lou Ferrigno, star of TV series The Incredible Hulk. Mary Jarrett noticed that it was actually the other way around, and Terry Boulder became Terry "The Hulk" Boulder. He even found a bit of success, briefly holding the Northern Division of the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship.

While wrestling briefly for Georgia Championship Wrestling, Terry was brought into the WWF by another Terry: former NWA world champion Terry Funk. Terry was given the last name Hogan because then-owner Vincent J. McMahon wanted to use an Irish name and even dye his hair red. Hogan was not down with the red dye. He quickly moved up the ranks, wrestling Bob Backlund for the WWF Championship and feuding with Andre the Giant. The feud culminated at Showdown at Shea in August 1980, an event main evented by Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko.  Hogan also found some success in New Japan Pro Wrestling in the early 1980s, winning the first IWGP tournament in 1983, defeating Antonio Inoki in the final, and the MSG Tag League tournament in 1982 and 1983 with Inoki. His popularity grew in part due to his appearance in Rocky III as Thunderlips. McMahon didn't like it too much, so Hogan left for the AWA. He was managed as a heel by Luscious Johnny Valiant, but his popularity and presence caught on with fans, and eventually became the top face of the company.

In December 1983, Hogan had returned to the WWF; this time with Vincent K. McMahon in charge, having bought the company from this father a year earlier. Hogan was to be the centerpiece of McMahon's WWF expansion from regional territory to national promotion, and Vince wasted little time. Backlund was to have dropped the title to Hogan, but refused, saying he wouldn't drop the title to anyone that didn't have a legitimate wrestling background. Backlund dropped the title on the day after Christmas 1983, just one day before Hogan's return to the company to the Iron Sheik. Newly turned face Hogan would win the WWF title on January 23, 1984 in Madison Square Garden (in storyline, as a last minute replacement for Backlund), the same place where Backlund won and lost his championship. Immediately after the title win, Gorilla Monsoon declared on commentary "Hulkamania is here!"

And it was. Hogan became the face of pro wrestling in the "Rock ‘n Wrestling Connection" era; record crowds at shows and record television ratings and buyrates at home launched the WWF into a pop-culture phenomenon. Hogan was the star of his own Saturday morning cartoon, was on the cover of many magazines including People, TV Guide, and Sports Illustrated (to this day, still the only wrestler to get an SI cover). He also was the first wrestler to host Saturday Night Live, doing so the night before the first Wrestlemania in 1985. Speaking of Wrestlemania, he would main event the first three events as the WWF Champion, defeating Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in a tag match in 1985, King Kong Bundy in a steel cage in 1986, and, in perhaps his signature moment as a wrestler, bodyslammed the 520-pound Andre the Giant en route to a successful title defense at Wrestlemania III in 1987 with over 93,000 fans in attendance (the actual number--some say 78,000--is disputed to this day). Hulk would finally lose the WWF Championship to Andre the Giant on the debut episode of The Main Event (a Friday night spinoff of Saturday Night's Main Event) in February 1988 after holding the championship for just over four years. The Hogan-Andre rematch from Wrestlemania III remains the most watched wrestling match in American television history with 33 million viewers watching, a mark likely never to be broken.

Hogan would hover around the WWF Championship picture for most of the next four years. He was the deciding factor in Macho Man Randy Savage winning the finals of the WWF Championship tournament at Wrestlemania IV. Savage, his manager Miss Elizabeth, and Hogan would form the Mega Powers and feud with (and defeat) the Mega Bucks at the first Summerslam in August 1988 and the Twin Towers in the fall and early winter. An errant collision and jealousy lead to the Mega Powers EXPLODING at Wrestlemania V, where Hogan would regain the title.

During his second run as WWF Champion, he got his first starring credit in the mostly-WWE funded No Holds Barred. The film served as feud fodder for his rival for the second half of 1989, Zeus, aka Tom Lister, Jr. Though his feud with Zeus was originally scheduled to extend all the way to Wrestlemania VI, Hogan defeated him at Summerslam in August and at No Holds Barred: The Match/The PPV in December, both in tag team matches. Hogan would go on to win the 1990 Royal Rumble match as the WWF Champion, the only man to do so to this day, but in that bout, he would find not only his next challenger for the title, but apparently the heir apparent to the WWF throne: The Ultimate Warrior. In a match dubbed "The Ultimate Challenge", Warrior (at the time the Intercontinental Champion) defeated Hogan in a winner-take-all title for title match at Wrestlemania VI.

The loss, combined with a crushing assault by new monster heel Earthquake, caused Hogan to question his three demandments: train, say your prayers, and eat your vitamins. In reality, Hogan was taken off television to film Suburban Commando. He returned at Summerslam and defeated Earthquake, and with it, added a fourth demandment: self-belief. Following a second Royal Rumble win in January 1991, he challenged WWF Champion-turned Iraqi sympathizer Sgt. Slaughter and went on to defeat him for the title at Wrestlemania VII. With NWA world champion Ric Flair coming to the WWF in the fall of 1991, fans salivated at the idea that the two most prolific champions in the sport would finally clash. And they did, albeit on the house show circuit. The response was less than overwhelming, but it didn't stop the WWF from trying. Flair helped The Undertaker defeat Hogan for the WWF title at Survivor Series, but Hogan would win it back less than a week later at This Tuesday in Texas. Due to the controversial nature of the two title changes, the WWF Championship was made vacant, with the winner of the 1992 Royal Rumble to be declared the new champion.

The Rumble would set up what was originally Hogan's final feud. Hulk, nearing a third consecutive Rumble match victory, was eliminated by Sid Justice, who would then be eliminated by Hogan himself, giving Ric Flair the WWF title. After being ditched in a tag team match by Sid at Saturday Night's Main Event in February, the two met at Wrestlemania VIII in what was billed as Hogan's final match, with Hogan winning via disqualification. Hogan would leave again with intense heat on him and the WWF surrounding alleged steroid distribution charges against a Pennsylvania doctor. Hogan denied taking steroids on the Arsenio Hall Show, but would admit under oath two years later that he had indeed taken steroids to gain muscle mass and weight his entire professional career; however, Vince McMahon never sold him the drugs, nor ordered him to take them.

Hogan would return to the WWF in February 1993, helping out his longtime BFF Brutus Beefcake (himself returning after a long absence) in a feud with Money Inc. The MegaManiacs, with manager (and another Hogan BFF) Jimmy Hart would feud with his former charges through Wrestlemania IX. Though Hogan and Beefcake failed to win the tag team titles, Hogan would still leave a winner that night by winning the WWF Championship for the fifth time just two minutes after Yokozuna had defeated Bret Hart for the title. The bout would was to set up a "passing of the torch" match at that year's Summerslam between Hogan and Hart, but Hogan felt Hart couldn't draw as a world champion due to his size, so he instead dropped the world title at King of the Ring that June to Yokozuna in a less than clean fashion. During his brief fifth run as WWF Champion, Hogan returned to New Japan to face IWGP Champion The Great Muta, then faced him again in the fall of that year in singles and in tag team matches.

After more movies and TV and some family time, Hogan signed a lucrative deal to work for World Championship wrestling in June 1994 and was thrust immediately into a feud with Ric Flair. In what was billed as a dream match, the two finally met in a televised bout at Bash at the Beach in July 1994 for the WCW world heavyweight championship. Hogan won and would hold the title for the next fifteen months (the longest championship reign in WCW history), thwarting challenges from Flair, Vader, former BFF Brutus "The Butcher" Beefcake, and the Dungeon of Doom, before losing the title via disqualification to The Giant in October 1995. After reforming the Megapowers in early 1996, Savage and Hogan defeated the Alliance to End Hulkamania (The Dungeon of Doom plus The Four Horsemen) at Uncensored.

Hogan appeared only occasionally on WCW programming until a career-altering heel turn at Bash at the Beach 1996. After dropping a leg on Randy Savage near the end of a six-man tag team match, Hogan joined with recent WCW additions Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to form the New World Order. Dying his newly forming beard to go with his trademark mustache, he traded his red and yellow for black and white with lightning and renamed himself Hollywood Hulk Hogan. At next month's Hog Wild, Hogan defeated The Giant to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and spray painted the belt with the nWo logo upon winning it. Just as Hogan had in the WWF, he had a death grip on the WCW world title, holding it for 500 of the next 505 days, losing the title to and regaining it from Lex Luger in August 1997. During his reign of terror, longtime WCW loyalist Sting, himself ditching the bright colors for all black garb, was trailing Hogan, eliminating nWo members any and every chance he got. Eventually, the two faced off at Starrcade in December 1997, a bout in which Sting submitted Hogan. Just like Hogan's loss to the Undertaker, it came amidst controversy, and the title was declared vacant following a rematch. Sting would win the title at Superbrawl VIII in February, but would lose the title to Randy Savage two months later at Spring Stampede, who would then lose the title to Hogan the next night on Nitro. Hollywood would hold on to the title until July when then-United States Champion Bill Goldberg defeated him in his hometown of Atlanta. With the nWo splintered, he spent the summer in celebrity bouts with Karl Malone, Dennis Rodman, and Jay Leno, and rematched the Ultimate Warrior in October's Halloween Havoc. While the original can be argued as one of the great bouts in wrestling history, the rematch is often listed among the worst matches ever.

During his second run as WWF Champion, he got his first starring credit in the mostly-WWE funded No Holds Barred. The film served as feud fodder for his rival for the second half of 1989, Zeus, aka Tom Lister, Jr. Though his feud with Zeus was originally scheduled to extend all the way to Wrestlemania VI, Hogan defeated him at Summerslam in August and at No Holds Barred: The Match/The PPV in December, both in tag team matches. Hogan would go on to win the 1990 Royal Rumble match as the WWF Champion, the only man to do so to this day, but in that bout, he would find not only his next challenger for the title, but apparently the heir apparent to the WWF throne: The Ultimate Warrior. In a match dubbed "The Ultimate Challenge", Warrior (at the time the Intercontinental Champion) defeated Hogan in a winner-take-all title for title match at Wrestlemania VI.

The loss, combined with a crushing assault by new monster heel Earthquake, caused Hogan to question his three demandments: train, say your prayers, and eat your vitamins. In reality, Hogan was taken off television to film Suburban Commando. He returned at Summerslam and defeated Earthquake, and with it, added a fourth demandment: self-belief. Following a second Royal Rumble win in January 1991, he challenged WWF Champion-turned Iraqi sympathizer Sgt. Slaughter and went on to defeat him for the title at Wrestlemania VII. With NWA world champion Ric Flair coming to the WWF in the fall of 1991, fans salivated at the idea that the two most prolific champions in the sport would finally clash. And they did, albeit on the house show circuit. The response was less than overwhelming, but it didn't stop the WWF from trying. Flair helped The Undertaker defeat Hogan for the WWF title at Survivor Series, but Hogan would win it back less than a week later at This Tuesday in Texas. Due to the controversial nature of the two title changes, the WWF Championship was made vacant, with the winner of the 1992 Royal Rumble to be declared the new champion.

The Rumble would set up what was originally Hogan's final feud. Hulk, nearing a third consecutive Rumble match victory, was eliminated by Sid Justice, who would then be eliminated by Hogan himself, giving Ric Flair the WWF title. After being ditched in a tag team match by Sid at Saturday Night's Main Event in February, the two met at Wrestlemania VIII in what was billed as Hogan's final match, with Hogan winning via disqualification. Hogan would leave again with intense heat on him and the WWF surrounding alleged steroid distribution charges against a Pennsylvania doctor. Hogan denied taking steroids on the Arsenio Hall Show, but would admit under oath two years later that he had indeed taken steroids to gain muscle mass and weight his entire professional career; however, Vince McMahon never sold him the drugs, nor ordered him to take them.

Hogan would return to the WWF in February 1993, helping out his longtime BFF Brutus Beefcake (himself returning after a long absence) in a feud with Money Inc. The MegaManiacs, with manager (and another Hogan BFF) Jimmy Hart would feud with his former charges through Wrestlemania IX. Though Hogan and Beefcake failed to win the tag team titles, Hogan would still leave a winner that night by winning the WWF Championship for the fifth time just two minutes after Yokozuna had defeated Bret Hart for the title. The bout would was to set up a "passing of the torch" match at that year's Summerslam between Hogan and Hart, but Hogan felt Hart couldn't draw as a world champion due to his size, so he instead dropped the world title at King of the Ring that June to Yokozuna in a less than clean fashion. During his brief fifth run as WWF Champion, Hogan returned to New Japan to face IWGP Champion The Great Muta, then faced him again in the fall of that year in singles and in tag team matches.

After more movies and TV and some family time, Hogan signed a lucrative deal to work for World Championship wrestling in June 1994 and was thrust immediately into a feud with Ric Flair. In what was billed as a dream match, the two finally met in a televised bout at Bash at the Beach in July 1994 for the WCW world heavyweight championship. Hogan won and would hold the title for the next fifteen months (the longest championship reign in WCW history), thwarting challenges from Flair, Vader, former BFF Brutus "The Butcher" Beefcake, and the Dungeon of Doom, before losing the title via disqualification to The Giant in October 1995. After reforming the Megapowers in early 1996, Savage and Hogan defeated the Alliance to End Hulkamania (The Dungeon of Doom plus The Four Horsemen) at Uncensored.

Hogan appeared only occasionally on WCW programming until a career-altering heel turn at Bash at the Beach 1996. After dropping a leg on Randy Savage near the end of a six-man tag team match, Hogan joined with recent WCW additions Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to form the New World Order. Dying his newly forming beard to go with his trademark mustache, he traded his red and yellow for black and white with lightning and renamed himself Hollywood Hulk Hogan. At next month's Hog Wild, Hogan defeated The Giant to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and spray painted the belt with the nWo logo upon winning it. Just as Hogan had in the WWF, he had a death grip on the WCW world title, holding it for 500 of the next 505 days, losing the title to and regaining it from Lex Luger in August 1997. During his reign of terror, longtime WCW loyalist Sting, himself ditching the bright colors for all black garb, was trailing Hogan, eliminating nWo members any and every chance he got. Eventually, the two faced off at Starrcade in December 1997, a bout in which Sting submitted Hogan. Just like Hogan's loss to the Undertaker, it came amidst controversy, and the title was declared vacant following a rematch. Sting would win the title at Superbrawl VIII in February, but would lose the title to Randy Savage two months later at Spring Stampede, who would then lose the title to Hogan the next night on Nitro. Hollywood would hold on to the title until July when then-United States Champion Bill Goldberg defeated him in his hometown of Atlanta. With the nWo splintered, he spent the summer in celebrity bouts with Karl Malone, Dennis Rodman, and Jay Leno, and rematched the Ultimate Warrior in October's Halloween Havoc. While the original can be argued as one of the great bouts in wrestling history, the rematch is often listed among the worst matches ever.

After briefly retiring and contemplating a run for President of the United States, Hogan returned to WCW in January 1999 and immediately won the WCW world title for the fifth time in another one of wrestling's infamous moments, the Fingerpoke of Doom. The two nWo factions reunited, albeit briefly, but Hogan and Kevin Nash would feud again that summer after Hogan had won the WCW title for a sixth time in July (again from Savage). Hogan returned to his red and yellow Hulk colors that August and defeated Nash in a retirement match at Road Wild. At Halloween Havoc, Hogan laid down for Sting in a WCW world title match, then left the company. Hogan had clashed with new head of creative booking Vince Russo, a clash that would continue until Hogan left WCW for good following a scathing worked shoot promo (that turned into a shoot) in July 2000.

After successful knee surgery, Hogan returned to his former employer, the World Wrestling Federation, in 2002, again as the leader of the New World Order. The NWO would feud with The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin until Wrestlemania X-8 where Hogan and The Rock faced off. The adulation for Hogan during the match the post-match handshake turned Hogan face. At Backlash just over a month later, Hogan defeated Triple H to win the WWF (soon to be WWE) Championship for the sixth time. He would lose the title to The Undertaker a month later at Judgment Day, then feuded with and lost via submission to Kurt Angle at King of the Ring. Hogan briefly was a WWE Tag Team Champion for the only time in his career when he and Edge defeated The Un-Americans on the July 4, 2002 Smackdown. After losing the tag titles at Vengeance, he briefly feuded with Brock Lesnar, who became the first man defeat Hogan via TKO. Hogan left the company until early 2003, feuding again with The Rock and Mr. McMahon. McMahon's storyline frustration with killing Hulkamania by forcing Hogan to sit out of his deal brought on Hogan as Mr. America, complete with Hogan theme, mannerisms and all. McMahon spent two months trying to prove that Hogan and Mr. America were one and the same, and finally done so in July (in reality, Hogan had quit the WWE due to creative and pay issues).

After returning to New Japan in late 2003 and briefly flirting with TNA in 2004, Hogan returned in 2005 as a WWE Hall of Fame inductee. Hogan briefly teamed with Shawn Michaels for a few matches in the spring and early summer, then Michaels turned on Hogan, leading to a classic, yet infamous Legend vs. Icon match at Summerslam, which was won by Hogan. It was to be the first of a three-PPV series between the two, but it never materialized. Hogan returned again in the summer of 2006, this time feuding with Randy Orton, defeating him at Summerslam. It would be, at least for now, Hogan's final WWE match.

In October 2009, Hogan along with Eric Bischoff signed to join TNA full-time. Before joining TNA, he headlined a four-show tour in Australia called Hulkamania: Let the Battle Begin. The shows were headlined by Hogan taking on longtime foe Ric Flair. Hogan defeated Flair on all four shows. Hogan debuted on the first Impact of 2010, and it didn't take long for his fingerprints to be all over the show: longtime Hogan BFFs such as Bubba the Love Sponge and the Nasty Boys got prominent spots, the six-sided ring was ditched for the traditional four-sided ring, and Hogan himself was in a main event program. He led the heel Immortal stable for much of 2011 before becoming Impact general manager for most of 2012 and 2013 before leaving the company when his contract expired.

Hogan returned to WWE in February 2014 as an ambassador for the company and served as the host for Wrestlemania XXX. His misnaming the Superdome (where the event was actually held) the Silverdome became the butt of jokes throughout the night and in the months since. Hogan shared the ring with WWE legends The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the show's opening segment and appeared in a backstage segment with Mr. T, Paul Orndorff, and Roddy Piper, all of whom were involved in the first Wrestlemania main event.

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Say what you will about Hulk Hogan; I'm sure a lot already has and will be for a long time to come. He is inarguably the most influential pro wrestler in the history of America, maybe the world. He's been at the forefront of the two biggest wrestling booms in the last half-century. It will take a Herculean effort to match the impact a former guitar player who was once talked out of the business has.

Happy birthday Hulk Hogan. You've earned it. Just some advice from uncle Eddie: no more "one more match". Your body does not need it. Neither does your legacy.