Ted DiBiase on If Vince McMahon Made Hulk Hogan or If Hulk Made Vince
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- 'The Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBiase looks back at his Hall of Fame career, from Mid-South, to Japan, to WCW, to WWF, and everywhere in-between! Join Ted and Marcus every Friday at 6am ET on all podcast platforms or if you want early access, get it commercial free on Premier+ with Premier Streaming Network!
Hogan and Hulkamania was a thing before he even returned to the WWF, so this isn't even a question. Hulkamania started in the AWA, everybody (hopefully) knows that.
Actually, Hogan was in the WWF before he was in the AWA. He was a Heel but that's where he built up his star power.
@@GraemeCree Hulkamania started in AWA tho
@@rubenarriaga3029 Yeah, the word "Hulkamania" did, that's true. But I don't think that word is responsible for Hogan getting over. If Vince had called it Hulkapalooza, it probably would have been just as big.
Vince hired some great heels to wrestle Hogan from 1984-1992.
Who were already established heels in other territories.
And another question is would Hulk Hogan been as over as he was if not for his appearance in Rocky 3. Part of his attraction early on was "hey that's the guy who beat up Rocky."
Not really. He had traction before that movie.
@@vcvortex6356 he did but the movie sure put him over the top.
@@Rob78169 While Rocky 3 enabled Hogan to become more of a publically visible figure, i think what pushed him over with a nationwide audience wasn't the movie, it was his appearance at the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, because that was watched by millions (it drew a 8.0 one of the ratings that year for the show) and he left a really good impression there, basically the opposite of the "big dumb brute" stereotype wrestlers had.
I'm pretty sure that even without Rocky and Carson though, Hogan would've become a big star. Let's not forget that even before all that he was the second biggest foreign superstar in japan alongside Andre. He also was responsible for the big wrestling boom here in Europe starting around 1989. So as long as he either ends up in Georgia (first nation wide wrestling promotion) or with Vince (and him still forcing the national expansion of the WWF) he would've been a huge superstar. The guy is simply way too charismatic, too irresistible and knows how to catch the attention and draw in a crowd.
@@ShadowAngel-lt8nw haha, remember the Richard Belzer apperance!!
And that's what I meant. The Rocky movie got him recognized by the mainstream. I know the wrestling marks knew who he was.
It was the perfect marriage at the perfect time.
Vince needed Hulk.
While Hogan became bigger than life because of Vince, Hogan would have been a massive hit no matter where he went. The same can't be said for Vince, there really wasn't anyone aside from maybe Sarge that could have filled Hogan's shoes. Perhaps ironically, 7 years earlier there was a person who could have been as massive as Hogan, and that was Superstar Billy Graham. Unfortunately Vince Sr. refused to change his plans and Billy only had a year long reign before dropping to Bob Buckland.
Vince tried it with Lex and the Ultimate Warrior. Neither of those guys were close to Hogan.
It was a mutual making. Vince made the platform, Hogan made the character.
Perfectly stated!
Yeah, Vince tried to do that with Lex Luger and it flopped.
Putting him in the red white and blue. Then sending Lex out on a bus tour.
You have to put someone in there that will connect with the audience.
The funny thing is Wrestling has come full circle, The Territories, atleast in a way, would work again because Wrestling has such a wide fanbase now that if someone went around the countries and bought up several Indy promotions and operated them as Independant "territories" within a one large company it would work BIG TIME. It's been 40 years or so since the "Territories Died" and people are wanting that again where they get see their "heroes" in the ring on regular basis and they would be willing to drive a couple hours every Friday and Saturday Night to do it.
As a fan for 50 years , Terry ( the actor ) portrayed the hulk character well , the fans made Hulk Hogan , Vince was just the man behind the company . The fans made Hogan and the W W E
Fans came because the WWF was great. Fans wouldn't be there otherwise...
Yeah, right!
I can understand when people in the audience cheer for this corny carny pandering, they are on adrenaline, in the moment. But off the needle, in day to day life...
No, businesses exist to relief you from the burden of your money. One guy had a vision, another had the means to embody this vision. You just were board and with too much cash on your hands. That's your only active role in the matter.
They were symbiotic in creating something greater than its parts. Vince could POSSIBLY have used someone else (not just anyone, but the right mix of charisma and look) to succeed, but Hogan was larger than life and charismatic as anyone in the business. And, since he was aiming at kids rather than adults, Hogan did look like a superhero, and the plan of feeding him monsters was long established by Vince's father with Bruno, Pedro, and Backlund. Hogan just took it up to a global level, rather than Northeast US level.
A lot of so-called wrestling leaves me cold … but there was something about Hulk Hogan that was charismatic and captivating. You knew it was scripted but you still rooted for the guy. People who have trouble naming a wrestler, can name Hogan in an instance.
Hogan made the WWF (now WWE). That said, Vince deserves credit for seeing the potential.
Vince had the vision for what Hogan became as the face of the WWF, but Hogan still had to be the right guy to carry out this vision. As much as I loved the Ultimate Warrior, to Dibiase's point, Warrior couldn't handle the role the same way Hogan did. So Hogan was definitely the right guy at the right time, but it was Vince's vision.
Exactly. Ditto undertaker, Austin etc
I think Hogan and McMahon played parts in the success of each other..I remember Hogan when he wrestled by the name of Sterling Golden and also went by Terry the Hulk Boulder before going to New York and Vince dubbing him as Hulk Hogan..I think alot of the marketing then played a part when Hogan then went to the AWA and him getting to play the role of Thunder Lips in the movie Rocky 2 which of course made him that much more popular
Vince made Vince and WWE a success
They both were good for each other. One needed one more than the other. Vince McMahon could find another Hogan. Hulk Hogan couldn’t find another Vince McMahon.
If anybody made Hulk Hogan, it's Sylvester Stallone.
I think that's why McMahon pushed the Ultimate Warrior - I bet there were a lot of naysayers that said Hogan was Wrestling and not McMahon, so Warrior was his way of saying "ok fine I'll do it again with somebody else". We all saw the results, both good and bad.
I thought Ted for a second might be saying Lex Luger but when saying Warrior I remembered he didn’t like him one bit. I think Luger was worse than Warrior as he couldn’t really get over at all. Luger was more of a success and actually wrestled better in WCW.
Lex was over in 93, he had his fans for sure, problem is that Vince expected to get Hogan-like numbers which wasn't realistic at all (particularly in 93 when business was going down drastically). The story repeated itself for Luger, in 88 he got a Hogan-like push by the Crocketts and he got plenty of fans, but numbers weren't strong enough for him to reach that World champion status. Still, Lex had his fans for sure.
Yeah I guess Lex had fans around in some numbers not mega numbers the way pushed by Vince for high pedestal level. Same with Jinder Mahal who they tried to push super high but never had much over success to be worthwhile, only champion for one big 4 PPV event, missing out on WM before and S.Series after. Warrior was at least extremely popular with fans and was champ for 9 months. Popularity fell and roid use well out of control by end.
Vince has Howdy Doodee for a good year and did none of those promotional things with him.
Tough question
St. Louis didn’t know about Hogan. I watched NWA. WWF wasn’t being broadcast there yet. Rocky 3 was the first time I saw him. Stallone made him look good. It was right before or after he beat Iron Sheik and was heavyweight champion. After Rocky 3 the world knew who he was. So I would say a combination of the movie with that huge push. Push so huge he refused to share the belt unless he wanted to go make a movie. How were Piper, Orndorff, Snake, and Million Dollar not WWF heavyweight champions back in the day?
To say Hogan "refused to share the belt" is ridiculous, the money was on Hogan as the WWF champion and that's the bottom line. No money whatsoever would have been made by having Hogan beat over and over, him getting a lenghty title run was the best business decision by far as the WWF grew and expanded amazingly during the 4 years he was World champion, like it or not it was the smart thing to do. I absolutely love Piper and Jake the snake but both of them didn't need a title to be on top, in fact they were above it and were their own walking championships. The only one that should have had a run with it was DiBiase in 1988, but we all know what happened (Macho demanded the title or else he could have left). Ted should have had a run during that summer for sure.
And Orndorff? Please. Why wasn't Orndorff a World champion in Mid-South, or NWA Florida, or in WCW in 92-93 after he left WWF? Paul was midcard at best, definitely not World champion material.
Jake was completely wrong here. Vince tried many times to capture Hogan's success and failed many times. He tried with Tom McGhee before Warrior.
Rocky Balboa and Mr T made Hulk Hogan in Rocky 3
Definitely, that's the main reason he was all in behind Mr.T. He wanted to get in to Hollywood, both he and Piper. They really didn't wan't to too much be bothered with wrestling.
@@snoplau9994 Well said
Ted should have been wwf champ hogan played the politics and Vince McMahon spoiled hogan for years
Really Vince scooped up all your opportunities so there's not promotions worth a damn that he can't totally control your career through.
Vince made Hulk. Vince is da man! Still is, no matter what the white knight, nerd-marks say.😂😂
I preferred the heals over Hogan never liked hi the turn off you had to have the ppv channels to see him other than that he did his promos and built the matches up on TV but that's about it. Besides Hogan's ego got inflamed got bigger than his very limited wrestling ability which was pretty much just kicking and punching and a cloths line thrown in for good measure. So many much more talented wrestlers had t o put him over when they could have easily ran over him.
Heels