Hulk Hogan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Hulk Hogan

• He hailed from Panamanian, Scottish, and French descent.

• During his school days, he played a pitcher in Little League Baseball.

• At the age of 16, he started watching professional wrestling matches.

• He played fretless bass guitar for a decade with Florida-based rock bands before choosing wrestling as his career.

  

• He played baseball and football in high school due to which he was offered a football scholarship to the University of South Florida.

• In 1976, he formed a band called Ruckus with two other local musicians.

• Two wrestlers from Jack and Gerald Brisco suggested him to train under Hiro Matsuda who trained wrestlers for Championship Wrestling from Florida.

• On August 10 1977, he started his wrestling career with the persona of The Super Destroyer in Champions Wrestling in Florida (CWF).

• Thereafter, he started managing a private club known as The Anchor Club in Flordia for a man named Whitey Bridges. Later both of them opened a gym known as Whitey and Terry’s Olympic gym.

• Thereafter, he and Ed Leslie wrestled as The Boulder Brothers in Louie Tillet’s Alabama territory.

• Later they joined the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) in Memphis to earn $800 a week.

• In 1979, he wrestled at the Georgia Championship Wrestling (GWC) territory as Sterling Golden.

• He was paired with “Classy” Freddie Blassie during his beginning matches at WWF.

  

• In 1980, he started wrestling in New Japan Pro-Wrestling where got nicknamed Ichiban by his Japanese fans.

• In 1981, he started wrestling at the American Wrestling Association (AWA) with “Luscious” Johnny Valiant as his manager.

• In 1982 and 1983, he partnered with Antonio Inoki and won the MSG (Madison Square Garden) Tag League tournament.

• Later, he became the most requested celebrity for the Make-a-Wish Foundation children’s charity.

• Thereafter, he was featured in magazine covers such as Sports Illustrated, TV Guide, and People.

• He defeated Bockwinkel and his manager Bobby Heenan in a non-title handicap match at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois in 1982.

• In 1983, he signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

• In 1996, He started using the Hulk Hogan persona after getting inspired by the Marvel comic character Hulk.

• On 5 February 1988, his match with Andre the Giant in WWF The Main Event Wrestle Mania III got the American Television viewership record for wrestling with a 15.2 Nielsen rating and 33 million viewers.

  

• Later, he suffered a back injury after slamming Andre the Giant in the match.

• In 1990, his ribs were crushed by John Tenta in The Brother Love Show.

• At the end of 1991, he was challenged by Ric Flair, who was new in WWF at that time. Later, he did not get to wrestle as Hogan lost the WWF championship to The Undertaker at Survivor Series.

  

• In 1993, he took a break from wrestling matches to pursue his career in films and television.

• In 1994, he returned to the ring after signing a contract with the World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

• In 1994, he admitted to using steroids.

• Some of the films in which he appeared are Suburban Commando (1991), Spy Hard (1996), and Muppets from Space (1999).
  

• Some of the TV shows in which he appeared are Space GhostCoast to Coast (1995), Suddenly Susan (1999), Robot Chicken (2006-2016), and The Goldbergs (2019).
  

• He defeated Bockwinkel and his manager Bobby Heenan in a non-title handicap match in Chicago, Illinois, in 1982.

• His parents didn’t approve of his wrestling career until he won the WWF Heavyweight title in 1984.

• In 2002, he returned to WWF and won the Undisputed WWF championship.

• After he retired from wrestling, he suffered various health problems such as back pain due to heavy weight training as a wrestler.

• In 1995, he opened a restaurant known as Patamania in Bloomington, Minnesota and had dishes such as Hulk-U’s and Hulk-A-Roos. Some of the other restaurants that he opened were Hogan’s Beach in Tampa area and Hogan’s Hangout in Clearwater Beach.

  

• Between the 1980’s to 2010s, 171 action figures of him were made by different companies which were recorded by the wrestling Figure checklist.

• In 2010, he underwent a spinal fusion surgery after which he was not allowed to wrestle.

• On 27 February 2015, during a WWE live event known as Hulk Hogan Appreciation Night, he was honoured at the Madison Square Garden with a special commemorative banner for his legacy in wrestling.

• Hogan, Savage, and manager Miss Elizabeth became partners known as The Mega Powers.

• In 2018, he returned to the WWE as the host of Crown Jewel.

• He was an avid lover of animals and owned dogs, cats, birds, chinchillas, ferrets, turtles, iguanas, rabbits, fish, and a frog.

  

• Initially, the theme song Real American was written for WWF tag team champions Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda which later became his theme song.

• Some of the matches in Wrestlemania where he lost are The Ultimate Warrior’ James Hellwig’ at WrestleMania VI (1990), as a teammate of Brutus the Barber Beefcake against Money Inc. Ted DiBiase and Mike Rotunda at WrestleMania IX  (1993), and Dwyane Johnson at WrestleMania X8 (2002).

• The character “Hawk” from the arcade game Vendetta (1991) was created after him.

• In 1987, he appeared in the music video Piledriver recorded by Koko B. Ware.

• Some of the books written about him are Hulk Hogan by William R. Sanford (1986), Hulk Hogan: Eye of the Tiger by Barry Janoff (1986), Hollywood Hulk Hogan: The Story of Terry Bollea; a Real-Life Reader Biography by Susan Zannos (2000), and Hollywood Hulk Hogan by Hulk with Michael Jan Friedman (2002).
  
• In 2003, he was ranked no. 1 among the 500 singles wrestlers of the PWI (Pro Wrestling Illustrated) Years.

• He had a beverage brand known as Hogan Energy.

• He had a well-known catchphrase that he used while wrestling “Watcha gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on you?”.

• He held a Guinness World Record for most leg drops performed in one minute.

• He trained and mentored several WWF wrestlers such as Kevin Steen and Ed ‘Brutus Beefcake’ Leslie.

• He wanted to join the music band Metallica as a bassist and went to give an audition for the band.

• He maintained his fitness by working out at the gym.

  

• According to sources, in 2023, he claimed to get into cannabis, THC, and mushroom business as he believed the drugs had helped him heal after various surgeries.