Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Love him or hate him, Hulk Hogan was one of the biggest attractions in the history of professional wrestling. Hulkamania was much more than just a catchy slogan to sell merchandise. It was a groundswell movement that captured the imagination of millions of wrestling fans world wide. While many associate Hulk Hogan and Hulkamania with the WWF/WWE, the fact is…it started in the mid west of the country for an organization called the American Wrestling Association or AWA for short.
It all began when Hulk Hogan was working for Vince McMahon Sr in the WWF in the early 1980’s. Hogan was working as a heel and managed by ‘Classy’ Freddie Blassie. He had the look, tall, blonde and muscular…but was somewhat green inside the ring and on the microphone. His look was what was going to help him reach the top of the wrestling mountain. Then, his big break happened. Sylvester Stallone offered Hulk a small, but pivotal role in a movie called Rocky III.
Hogan approached McMahon Sr with the wonderful news, but Vince Sr was less than pleased over it. The elder McMahon thought a pro wrestler doing a movie was bad for the business and refused Hogan to take the role. Hulk knew the movie role was a huge opportunity that he couldn’t pass up, so depending on who you believe…Hogan was either fired by Vince Sr or Hogan quit the territory. Either way, Hulk did the film and soon after became an extremely familiar name.
Before the movie premiered, Hulk joined Verne Gagne’s AWA promotion. According to Verne’s son Greg, Verne wasn’t completely sold on Hogan because of his lack of wrestling skills. Despite that, the Gagne’s gave Hogan a shot and made him a heel managed by ‘Luscious’ Johnny Valiant. The thing was, Hogan was becoming more and popular with the AWA fans. Verne was initially resistant to turning Hogan as a babyface, but the fans were making it more and more difficult for Hogan to be a believable heel.
With Hogan turning babyface, it allowed fans to cheer for him freely. His popularity truly exploded when the Rocky movie debuted in 1982. It was only natural that Hulk would be moved up the card and become a serious contender for Nick Bockwinkel’s AWA world title. A series of matches were booked between the two wrestlers across the mid west. Everywhere the AWA went with that main event…the arenas sold out. Fans were truly clamoring for Hulk Hogan to win the AWA world title.
Everybody was seemingly ready for Hogan to finally become the world’s champion…except for the promoter Verne Gagne. He was somewhat resistant to Hogan being his champion and never could quite pull the trigger on doing so. There were at least two times Hogan defeated Bockwinkel in matches to become the champion. Hogan pinned the champ and was awarded the belt, but kayfabe AWA president Stanley Blackburn reversed both decisions.
The excuses that were given by Blackburn was Hogan used a foreign object to beat Bockwinkel and the other excuse was Hogan threw the champion over the top rope and was disqualified. Each time the AwA title would be returned to Bockwinkel. This left both the fans and Hogan legitimately frustrated. Greg Gagne insisted that this was onlya tease to see how fans reacted to a Hulk Hogan world champion and that Verne finally relented to making Hogan the champion.
Verne’s issue was he didn’t let Hogan know of these plans. He kept the plan extremely tight lipped and allowed Hulk to become disenchanted with the promotion. The other back breaker in their relationship occurred when Hogan went on tour in Japan. While he was away, Hogan found out that Verne began selling tee shirts with Hogan’s likeness on them. Hulk wasn’t paid a dime in revenue for the sale of the shirts. When Hulk approached Verne and asked for a cut of the money…Verne allegedly refused…stating that he as owner of the AWA…had every right to sell the shirts and keep the profits for himself.
Around this same time, Vince McMahon Jr had bought the WWF from his father and set up a secret meeting with Hogan in Minnesota. Vince Jr convinced Hulk to jump ship back to the WWF and become his champion. Hogan agreed and according to Greg Gagne…sent Verne and telegram that simply said, “I’m not coming back.” Verne thought it was a joke and threw the telegram out. It all didn’t become apparent until Hulk no showed an AWA event.
Verne had booked a series of sold out shows headlined by Hulk Hogan…none of which Hogan appeared in. Verne called Hogan and asked where he was and Hogan told Verne over the phone that he had quit the company and was joining the WWF. Not only did Hogan quit and leave the AWA, he gutted the company by taking several other AWA talents with him including Gene Okerlund, Bobby Heenan, Jesse Ventura and David Schultz.
The AWA was never really the same after that. Greg Gagne revealed that Hulk Had become so popular within the AWA, that CBS network once offered to air a match featuring Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant as the main event. When Hogan left, the deal was broken and the rest as they say is history. What a difference the pro wrestling landscape would have been if the AWA was able to keep Hulk Hogan.
David Fullam
Greg Gagne has said and done some questionable things lately (Power Town Wrestling anyone?). I have problems with the CBS Television match. Not saying it’s untrue, just saying I’m a little suspicious. Had Hogan gotten the title, I could fully see him jumping to the WWF with the belt. Vince wanted Hartley Race to jump with the NWA Title after all. I could certainly see Hogan doing that. Vince offered far too much. Verne could never promise all that Hogan got.