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Hulk Hogan has been dead for over a year and is passing left a generation of fans grappling with how to feel about a man who brought them both joy and disappointment. It was hard to separate the charismatic persona from the real-life problematic person. The Ringer’s David Shoemaker attempts to make sense of it all in his new book, Why Hulk Hogan Matters.
We recently caught up with Shoemaker to discuss his book and his reflections on trying to understand Hogan, who was the most important figure in pro-wrestling history, but also a controversial figure toward the end of his life.
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
What led you to write this?
David Shoemaker: “The book opportunity came about just because of the piece I wrote after he died. And that’s how it all started. I think for a lot of fans, there are two ideas you kind of have to hold in your head or in your hands at the same time. One is that he is an incredibly important, influential wrestler. I literally wouldn’t be watching wrestling if it weren’t for Hulk Hogan. And then he managed to find a way to break my heart in his post-wrestling career and even toward the end of his wrestling career, in ways I didn’t think were possible. And does one really materially affect the other? I mean, it’s a tough balance. It’s a tough thing to process. And so part of the reason I wrote it was to relive some of the great moments of his career, but also to process how much he meant to me and how the last act of his life sort of subverted that.”
Why should someone buy this book?
“Someone told me they read the book in one sitting, which is the greatest compliment. It’s not a long book, but I think it’s just a fun read. Every chapter is based on a single idea and a moment in time. It goes through his life pretty directly. The first chapter is about him getting into the business, and then there are chapters on Hogan-Andre, Hogan-Savage, Hogan-Warrior, of course, the big ones, the NWO, all that stuff. And you can just dip in and out.”
How did you come up with the title?
“It’s a reference to Why Sinatra Matters, an incredible book that’s influenced me a lot… That was one of my influences as I was conceptualizing the book. It became the working title, and then it just sort of stuck. Now, I know that you read Why Hulk Hogan Matters, and I think, at first blush, it might seem like this is going to be a relentlessly positive book, which it certainly is not.
“When I first started writing about wrestling, I was doing a column called Dead Wrestler of the Week, which made a lot of people mad because the title was so confrontational. But the pieces were the most loving, heartfelt pieces I could write. And so, this is, in a lot of ways, an inversion of that, where the title might seem a little bit more forgiving than the reality. But I do think it’s important because Hogan mattered my whole life. And even as Hogan disappointed me, that mattered in a really significant way.”
What would you consider the most interesting detail in your book?
“I talked to a lot of people off the record, but I didn’t do a lot of firsthand reporting for this. It was mostly just reliving the moments. So there’s no crazy fact I didn’t know before. In terms of research and stuff like that, I’ll tell you, the most fun and also the most difficult part of the book was the first chapter. It was going through and trying to harness everybody’s separate stories about Hogan breaking into the business and trying to figure out where the truth was, because you never know in pro wrestling history. Everybody’s always trying to put themselves over in the story. In the case of Hulk Hogan, everybody’s trying to put themselves at the center of the story of how Hulk Hogan got into the business. And even Hulk is the least reliable narrator of all time.”
What’s an example of Hogan being an unreliable narrator?
“He’s told the story a million times. ‘Did Hiro Matsuda break Hogan’s leg? Well, most people agree no, but Hogan always insisted yes. So, once you get past that, you’re just like, ‘Well, what do I believe? Anything?’ I don’t know. I mean, there’s some cool stuff in there where I feel like I really tried to travel back in time to Tampa in the 70s and get a little bit of the vibe of what it’s like in the early days of wrestling, but it’s not like news news. It’s mostly just like the experience.”
How risky was Hulk Hogan’s heel turn?
“It was incredibly risky. We look back now, and it’s easy for fans to say he should have turned heel earlier. The WWF was in an active state of growth for so long. Vince McMahon is pitching whatever the next cable station is and on the back of Hulk Hogan. You can’t say, ‘You’re going to get Hulk Hogan. Look how many tickets Hulk Hogan sold last year,’ and then bring heel Hulk Hogan. Whoever you’re trying to pitch is going to be upset. So, there was a lot of necessity just to keep the churn going, I think. And it’s easy to look back now and say that Hogan, when he joined WCW, was just a rehash of a rehash. We were all tired of it, and it wasn’t going anywhere. He really turned heel, and he was getting trash thrown at him.”
Did Hulk Hogan need Vince McMahon more, or did Vince McMahon need Hulk Hogan more?
“It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing. Clearly, there’s a lot of synchronicity there that really mattered. I give a lot more credit to Hogan than I did before, partly because Hulkamania was 100% in place before he came to the WWF, like almost every aspect. Vince is correctly thought of as this creative force. Well, really, he’s more of a sales and marketing force. When it comes to the Hulkamania era, he was a ruthless businessman who turned a regional promotion into a national and then an international promotion that can’t be overstated. Could he have done that with someone else at the top of the card that wasn’t Hulk Hogan? That is impossible to know. I’m sure he would have tried. I’m sure he would have had some measure of success. But like, could he have succeeded to the same degree? I don’t know.”
Hulk Hogan wasn’t the most skilled wrestler, yet he became immensely popular. Why?
“There’s footage of him working in Japan where he is undeniably a better technician. It shows up in some moments, but it’s not like he was just holding back a ton in the ring. There’s a story Jerry Brisco tells about Hogan’s first match. He said Hogan just walked out into the armory or wherever the hell they were wrestling. The whole arena went silent, almost as if there were a moment when you’re like, ‘Oh, maybe they hate him already.’ But then they all started cheering. Something about his aura was immediately knowable to fans. They felt it immediately.”
How much time do you devote to some of the problematic aspects of Hulk Hogan?
“There’s a chapter on politics. It’s not about his RNC speech, but it’s just backstage politics. That’s where Hogan really starts to find himself in the modern era. So many fans like us learned about backstage politics through Hulk Hogan stories. There’s really only one chapter that’s specifically about the sex tape, the racism, and some of the other outside-the-ring stuff that really, really disappointed a lot of fans. I don’t give an undue amount of time to it, but I think that’s part of the experience of being a wrestling fan. There was so much build. Hogan was such a big part of our lives. And then it just sort of came crumbling down a little bit.”
What’s one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
“That it’s okay for our heroes to disappoint us. That doesn’t make them stop being our heroes. You can’t rewrite history, but it’s okay. You don’t have to be frozen in time forever. We can all grow through that.”
The post The Ringer’s David Shoemaker on man vs. myth in new book ‘Why Hulk Hogan Matters’ appeared first on Awful Announcing.
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