This weekend is Backlash, which is the WWF Pay-Per-View after Wrestlemania. I hope to have not caused people to turn away just because I mentioned wrestling, although following wrestling, is one of my passions. The reason I bring up Backlash is because 49 year old Hulk Hogan is wrestling in the main event for the belt, against Triple H. I started doing the math. I was 9 years old when I started watching Hulk Hogan. Now I’m going to be 26. I have been watching that guy for 17 years and now my 2 year old son can say that he saw Hulkamania run wild like his dad did. Once I thought about that, I went back in time. This post is not simply about wrestling. It’s about a kid’s relationship with wrestling, and Hulkamania.

The year was 1986. I was watching Saturday Night’s Main Event (once every two or three months, taped WWF matches would air in place of Saturday Night Live) and my hero, the Hulkster was wrestling Magnificent Muracco. As I watched, King Kong Bundy interfered in the match and went on to splash, perform a running Avalanche, and basically leave my hero for dead. (Obviously, Hogan was fine, but the WWF really tugged on a 10 year old kid’s emotions.) That one segment of television would set up the main event for Wrestlemania 2. I begged and begged for my father to buy me that event on PPV, but to no avail. He was a wrestling fan in his younger days as well, telling me about “real wrestlers” such as Pepper Gomez, Kenji Shibuya, Ray Stevens, and Bobo Brazil. But, even though he knew I was really into the stuff, he wouldn’t buy me the PPV because it was pretty expensive. Luckily, my friend David Fortson was able to get his family to buy it for him, and soon enough, I had a copy. I could really care less about the other matches, although my favorite tag team, The British Bulldogs, won the straps that night over The Dream Team of Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and Brutus Beefecake, because I wanted to see the Hulkster get his revenge on Bundy, in the steal cage match main event. I hoped he would keep his belt against the rotund bald headed challenger, and I knew it would be brutal. Bundy was over 400 pounds and just snarled and looked angry. He would beat people and make the referree count to five instead of the regular three for the victory. I was scared of Bundy, but knew, Hulkamania would be too strong for that guy. The match was brutal, with blood and although Hogan won, I thought Bundy’s manager, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan would interfere and might make Hogan lose. My dad would always look at me weird because I studied the matches like I would baseball games on TV. Even though he knew, that I knew they weren’t beating each other up in real life, he thought I bit too hard on the drama aspect of it.

I was a full fledged Hulkamaniac. It was a Hulkamania Christmas for me that year. My parents bought me the Hulk Hogan Workout Set which came with dumbells, Hogan shirt, headband, jumprope, and theme music. Sure, I felt like an idiot when I put that stuff on, but if no one knew I had it on, I was the Hulkster. My grandfather even purchased the WWF Album which had a version of “Real American” on it for me for Christmas. And my parents bought me about 8 of the wrestling figures as well.

The next year, Hogan’s best friend turned on him. Bobby Heenan was in Andre “The Giant”‘s ear about how Andre never received a title shot, and Andre bit it, hook, line and sinker. Soon, Andre would turn on the Hulkster and they would showdown at Wrestlemania III. I had never been so nervous about the Hulkster’s chances in my life. Andre was 7’4 (really closer to 6’10) and over 500 pounds (probably not a lie) and I thought the Hulkster was doomed. Again, my father wouldn’t purchase the PPV for me, but this time, he had his friend (who had an illegal box) tape it for me. Man, those three hours seemed like three days. I waited for that PPV to end and made my dad race over to pick it up. My dad kind of spoiled it for me when he said he heard that someone had actually bet their house on Hogan winning. Even then, I was still nervous, but I was patient. I could’ve just fast forwarded the tape to watch the last match to see if Hulkamania was still alive, but I watched the entire PPV all the way through. It’s a good thing too because I witnessed in my opinion, the best match in WWF history with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat beating Randy “Macho Man” Savage for the Intercontinental belt. But even as great as it was, I couldn’t wait for the main event. The match was slow, plodding, and damn near unwatchable, but when your hero is in the ring, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that Hogan got Andre up for a body slam, hit the leg drop and scored the victory, and I silently jumped up with my arm in the air and probably even flexed my newly worked out muscles a little.

I was absolutely hooked. Every morning at 10AM on KTVU I had to watch WWF Superstars of Wrestling. I couldn’t miss one. It was like my true passion. For the rest of the year, Hogan kept his belt, and I was a happy boy. However, in February of 1988, it all changed. There was a special Friday Night’s Main Event, in prime time where Hogan and Andre would have their first rematch. Wrestling was one of those things back then in school where everyone watched, but didn’t want anyone to know they watched. I quickly found out one of my friends, Mike Torio was a fan too. My buddy Edson and I were the only two hardcore guys I knew that watched every show. But because it had been pretty mainstream, especially with this prime time event, people were coming out of the woodwork.

It wasn’t all that happy a time for me though. Wrestling had been my fantasy with Hogan, being my fantasy hero. I never thought he would lose. I didn’t understand wrestling as a business back then. I didn’t understand about making new stars so the product wouldn’t get stale. And I didn’t know that’s what the WWF was about to do. My dad had told me that he heard Hogan was going to lose. Well, it’s not like he had to go based purely on rumor, because the match was taped ahead of time. As I woke that Friday morning, I checked out the sports page and I couldn’t believe it. The WWF was actually in the sports page. They never posted anything WWF related in the sports page. But because of this huge event, they posted a column by Mark Purdy and he gave it away. What did he give away? He gave away the outcome of the show. At the same time I was excited to see my main man talked about in mainstream press, I was saddened to see that Hogan would lose because of crooked twin referees. Damn that man Mark Purdy. Damn him for giving it all away. Damn him for killing my day before it even started. I took all my information to school and decided to give all my friends an option. Do you want to know what happens or not? I wouldn’t spoil it like Purdy did. And just about everyone wanted to know about Hulkamania. And I let them know the exact finish and everything. I was the smartest guy in school that day.

As I watched in horror what would happen, my dad told me, “Now don’t get all caught up in this because you already know what is going to happen.” I said I wouldn’t. But I lied. As Hogan had the belt stolen from him because of crooked referees, I was pissed. I asked my dad why they would do that to him. He looked at me like I wasn’t his child. I realized what I was doing. I was treating the WWF like a regular sporting match. So I stopped. But it didn’t stop hurting. The only thing that stopped the hurt was that I was all of a sudden like Nostradaumus at school. Everyone wanted to know what was going to happen next. And that’s where I started to follow the WWF as a business.

I would listen to wrestling radio shows and learn new terms like work and shoot (fake and real) and understood what booking a match meant (formulating the outcome). And that’s where my love for Hulkamania died. Oh, I was still a fan, probably one of his biggest. But I started to look at wrestling differently. I would look at it as trying to figure out what they were going to do, rather than simply watch what they were doing. I looked at everything like a work, instead of as a shoot. Even though I understood that it was predetermined in my younger days, I watched it like it was real. But that had all changed based off one event. And it hit me like a ton of bricks.

But I still watched. I saw Randy Savage win the title in a tournament at Wrestlemania IV, where Hogan got disqualified and was out of the tournament. I watched Hogan get the belt back from a now evil Savage at Wrestlemania V, and then finally lose the belt to the Ultimate Jackass (I mean Ultimate Warrior) at Wrestlemania VI, thus passing the torch. But Warrior was no good as the champ and Hogan won the belt back at Wrestlemania VII against a now Saddam Husein loving Seargent Slaughter. Wrestlemania VIII and IX were nothing to be proud of for Hogan as you could tell that his pull was coming to an end. And soon he was gone. He was in the middle of a steroid scandal for the federation and basically lied on the Arsenio Hall show about his own steroid usage. Hulkamania was dead, and not only that, for a man whose motto was “say your prayers and eat your vitamins”, he lied on national television which was even worse for the fans.

My love for wrestling dampened a bit. And it wasn’t only because of that. I was now in high school and had other things going on. My dad thought I would stop following when girls came into my life. Nah. I still followed. And when Hogan went to the other federation (WCW), a little bit of my interest was reborn. But it wasn’t the same. He had the same look, but he didn’t have the same fire. He quickly won the belt by beating Ric Flair, but it wasn’t like beating Bundy. The fantasy that I loved wasn’t there. I could call out the spots and the winners of each match before it happened. It got boring for me. And then, on one night, I was hooked again.

Scott Hall and Kevin Nash came over to WCW from the WWF and used their real names, instead of character names. They said they were going to take over the WCW and they had one mastermind behind it. I never thought it would be Hogan. Not in a million years. And when Hogan came down and leg dropped the now babyface Randy Savage, I shrieked. I was absolutely and totally suprised. Hogan was a bad guy. He was the leader of the New World Order, the NWO. For the next year or so, I would be at Billy and Michelle’s every 3 or 4 weeks, watching the NWO run rough shot over the federation. I never rooted for “bad guys” before, but now, I was an NWO’ite and still a mark for Hogan. It was fun while it lasted, and as fun as it was at it’s peak, it was extremely dumb soon there after. They tried to turn Hogan back to being a good guy, but it didn’t work. I didn’t even watch Hogan all that much, because I was into Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, and Mankind. I would quickly turn Hogan off if Austin or Rock was on the other channel. To me, Hulkamania was dead and I didn’t think it would rise again.

Just recently, the Hulkster came back to the WWF to reprise his NWO role that he played so well in WCW. I didn’t buy it and actually hated it. I wanted the Rock to kick Hogan’s behind so I would never have to see Hogan again. But as I watched Wrestlemania X-8 (yes, that’s 18) I watched the fans cheer Hogan, and boo the Rock. I couldn’t believe it. Even though the Rock won, the fans wanted to see Hogan. And just like that, Hogan was a good guy again. He’s not a shadow of what he once was, even though he’s in much better shape than he ever was. He can’t run, and can’t really do much in the ring, but there he was, in the red and yellow, and I actually was looking forward to watching him again. It was unfathomable for me to even think this would ever happen. And then I thought about the fact that I was now married and had two young sons, and this son of a bitch was still wrestling. And it hit me. I would be a Hulkamaniac for the rest of my life. And even though I don’t let my young kids watch the stuff, I taught my 2 year old to say, “Whatcha gonna do!” like I did when I was younger. And now, this Sunday, he’s in the main event again, in a match to win the WWF World Championship Belt. I never thought I’d see it again.

While I watch this Sunday, I’ll be rooting for Hogan, even though I don’t think he should and probalby won’t win. I am now a bigger fan of wrestling than I ever was as a child. But I’m a different fan. I watch the shows for the athleticism, the excitement, the turmoil, the drama, and anything else you associate good television with. But this weekend, I’m going to watch it like I was 10 years old again. I can just hear Hogan’s voice. “Triple H, whatcha gonna do, when these 24 inch pythons and all the little Hulkamaniacs, run wild on you!” Whatcha gonna do this weekend? I’ll be rooting for my hero.

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