Vince McMahon and his wrestling company has been sitting pretty on top of the wrestling world for awhile now and ever since McMahon took over the WWE he has felt the need to have one guy who he and the fans holds above the rest. A performer that the fans will love more than another guy on his roster.
Twenty years ago it was Hulk Hogan and boy did he do his job. Every wrestling fan in America idolized Hogan and McMahon found what he had to do to hold on to his success. He needed someone who could carry his company on their back. Hogan did this with ease, but ever since Hogan left the WWE to defect to WCW Vince McMahon has been on a nearly twenty year mission to find a suitable replacement.
Thus far he has yet to find a man who can win over the entire crowd like Hogan did. Shawn Michaels couldn't do it neither could Hart, Austin, The Rock, Triple H, or even John Cena. I know what you’re thinking:
"[Insert wrestler’s name] was over with the entire WWE audience too"
While that may be true Hogan did it like no one else and Vince McMahon knows that for a fact. Here is where my opinion comes in. I don't think there needs to be a "untouchable" guy like Hogan was back in the '80s. What is having John Cena hold the title for a year and a half going to do? Make everybody else look bad and bore the crap out of everybody over the age of 12.
There is no need for one guy to live above the rest in today’s wrestling world. Sure it worked 20 years ago, but that was a different time. Having an "Untouchable guy" who dominates the Merchandise/Air Time/Ring Time/Title scene and everything else is not good for the future of wrestling.
If McMahon would stop trying to push Cena down our throats and start building up other guys then maybe more people would enjoy watching Raw, Smackdown, or ECW.
I'll be my own example for a moment. Every once and awhile I will be sitting around the house on a Friday night thinking "Do I want to watch Smackdown?" Then I think of all of the reason I would or wouldn't want to watch Smackdown and one time I thought "Hey Brian Kendrick is getting a push. I want to see what they’re doing with him."
Just by giving a under card guy a push WWE got my viewership that night and that concept could be applied to other guys on the WWE roster as well.
It really depends on the person’s taste. The fans know what they like and what they don’t like these days. It is not as black and white as it was it Hogan’s time. Now days just because a guy is a heel doesn’t mean they people will hate him.
Give everyone a chance to showcase their skills and talents and maybe more people will start gaining interest in the WWE which is McMahon's mission and he can do it all without trying to find another Hulk Hogan.
In the end "McMahon's quest" is impossible anyways. Over the years wrestling fans have become smarter and developed different tastes so there is no way McMahon is going to find one guy that everyone will want to see. Sorry Vince.
6 comments Last one added 8 months ago — Leave a Comment
jason savage 8 months ago
as a teen in the 80's i know all about the "hulkamania" era. nothing will touch it. those things happen once in a lifetime.
however, "austinmania" in the late 90's was nearly as big, i remember seing austin 3:16 shirts everywhere! "austinmania" probably saved the WWF from falling to WCW.
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Jake Altersitz 8 months ago
Hogan wasn't/isn't over with EVERYONE in the WWE Universe.... I hate him. Always have, always will. His in ring skills are a joke. C'mon, the big boot and a leg drop? Seriously? And the boot hasn't hit someone in the face in about 20 years. His mic skills are atrocious too, Shawn Michaels showed us that in one of my all-time favorite promos the "brother brother brother" promo from before WMXXIII. At least Cena is an athlete, Hogan is a glorified body builder, and I'll never understand why he's so over with fans
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Shane H. 8 months ago
fully agree with you brotha lol. Worst set up move and finisher, EVER.
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Jake Altersitz 8 months ago
Thank you Shane! I knew I was a fan of yours for a reason! lol.
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Leroy Brown 8 months ago
This guy and many Hogan fans don't seem to understand how different the Hogan era was from the Austin/rock era.
Hogan rarely wrestled on free tv. A few time a years on Saturday Nights Main Event, a few times on Prime Time Wrestling and very rarely did you see him wrestle on the Saturday morning show. If you wanted to see him in action you had to pay for a house show or a ppv when they started up.
When Austin/Rock were huge, they were on tv every week and twice a week when Smackdown started. Plus every month on ppv. Of course their runs were not going to be as long as Hogans run was. Look at the NWO, it was on tv week after week, as great as it was people got tired of seeing it all the time. Had Hogan been on tv every week and on ppv every month in the mid 80's, his run would not have been nearly as long
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Jorge Franceschi 8 months ago
I can easily think of one guy who's been over with THE ENITRE CROWD and is STILL wrestling with the WWE, and that man is The Undertaker. Face it, as long as Taker's been around and doing the same type of entrances and lights out/disappearances, it would be understandable if fans got tired of watching the same thing over and over, but the fans, old and young, ADORE the Deadman. Part of that is due to Taker's reinvention as a WRESTLER (no, not sports entertainer). While I prefered him back in the early-to-mid 90s, he is a much better wrestler now then he was then, much more diverse.
Bret Hart was WAY OVER with all the fans. The problem was he was the main guy during a time the wrestling business suffered a "depression." Had he been the guy in the 80s, he would have sold just as much merchandise as Hogan. He was the best wrestler of his generation and was not as bad on the mic as many like to claim (check out when he turned heel in 1997 - some classic promos there). And, he had one of the coolest gimmicks of all time, much like the Undertaker.
Shawn Michaels was the man in 1996. Unfortunately, wrestling was still in a recession, and once it started coming out of it EVERYONE AND I MEAN EVERYONE focused their attention on the nWo. So, HBK was another victim of bad timing. Had he been the man in the late 80s/early 90s, he would have made more money for the business. Shawn is a unique talent in that he had it all - the charisma, athleticism, wrestling abilities and mic skills. And, much like The Undertaker, he is over with EVERYONE today.
Obviously, the two biggest things to come close to being "the next Hogan" were Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. I don't know what the exact numbers are, but Austin was right there in the amount of money he drew and the amount of merchandise he sold. Rock could have gotten as close but he didn't last as long. Imagine having both of those guys today. They would garner a stronger audience than having Hogan on the full-time roster.
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