How Hulk Hogan Made Me a Fan of Wrestling for Life

For those of us, like myself, that grew up in the '80s, there is one name that is synonymous with wrestling. That name is Hulk Hogan.

So on the news that Hulk Hogan may or may not be appearing at Wrestlemania this year, on what is the 25 anniversary of the first event, I thought what better time to write about my journey as a fan of pro wrestling and how Hulk Hogan and some others effected me for live and gave me a life long love for wrestling.

If you grew up in the '80s and watched wrestling, unless you were an odd child, The Hulkster was probably one of your favorite wrestlers. Ok I admit, in 1985 when I first started watching wrestling, Hillbilly Jim was my favorite.

But I was only 10, and I had just gotten into watching reruns of Beverly Hillbillies on TBS Superstation, and well I don't know if it was Ted Turner's magical color enhancement or that down-home hospitality of Jed Clampett, but my love for hillbillies crossed into the word of wrestling.

But that's another story alltogether, and involves me not getting the rubber LJN Hillbilly Jim action figure for that Christmas. The result was I soon made Hulk Hogan my favorite.

Like many kids from the 1980s, I became hooked to Saturday Night's Main Event.
Once a month NBC pre-empted Saturday Night Live for an edition of SNME. Which is impressive seeing SNL was actually still good back then.

From the opening music of "Obession" to the build up before the theme song started of the featured wrestlers selling what they were going to do that night, there was something magical about Saturday Night's Main Event.

That's where I discovered Hulk Hogan for the first time. Sure, Hillbilly Jim could do an awesome hoe-down, but The Hulkster could get you to hang on every word.
And if selling their product at 11:30 PM on Saturday Night's Main event was what it took to get you to watch the whole show then Hogan was a huckster.

Maybe it's no coincidence then that when I started to watch wrestling on Saturday mornings with my grandmother later that year, she would confusingly call him "Huckster."

Sure, she got names mixed up but maybe she knew what she meant. It only took 30 seconds of promo time at the top of SNME for Hogan to wield his magic and python's and you'd be hard pressed find someone changing the channel at that point.

Mad TV alum Will Sasso said it best once when he said Hogan was like a giant red-and-yellow street light.

With yellow and red colors. When you saw him back in the 80's you stopped and he had your attention.

Sadly, 22 years later Hulk had got our attention again, this time though not for what he says in a prematch interview or what he does in the ring but what happened to his family.

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