Hulk Hogan Says Many Modern Wrestlers “Look Like They Should Be Bagging My Groceries”
Hulk Hogan had some strong opinions about the state of modern professional wrestling and the people within it.
Many people consider Hulk Hogan to be the single greatest professional wrestler in modern times. In his prime he was an immense draw for WWE, so much so that the company was able to expand from a regional territory into a national and then international sports entertainment powerhouse.
Hogan was one of the first pro wrestlers to reach major and widespread pop culture recognition. As such, many people still give incredible weight to his opinion on pro-wrestling. And it’s with that in mind that Hulk Hogan has taken aim at today’s wrestlers and looks at some of them with disappointment.
On a recent episode of the Full Send podcast, Hulk Hogan was asked to describe what led to the larger-than-life atmosphere back when he was in his prime. It was during that discussion that he began comparing the 300-pound big men that were all over the place during his era and the smaller and more athletic wrestlers of today.
According to Hulk Hogan, the wrestling business as a whole was much different from today. Wrestlers were bigger, meaner, more cutthroat, had more legitimate backgrounds and more battle scars, while some of today’s wrestlers lack that aura of intimidation.
“It wasn’t the WWE, it was the wrestling business. When I walked in a dressing room, there were like six guys sitting there. They’re all 300-pounders. I was a medium-sized guy, and I weighed 300-plus.
When I got in, if you wanted to be a wrestler, okay, there’s a guy there. He’s got two big cauliflower ears, his nose is broken, his teeth are knocked out, he’s got four kids at home. This next guy over here was an NCAA Champion. He’s got a steel plate in his forearm, his name’s Harley Race. Good luck with him. Then the other two guys, they look like serial killers, and if you wanted to be a wrestler, you gotta take their job and take the food out of their family’s mouth. That’s the difference. Everybody I wrestled looked like monster-sized men.
Nowadays, there’s a lot of guys that look like wrestlers, there’s a lot of guys that don’t. A lot of guys who look like wrestlers and a lot of guys who look like they should be bagging my groceries. So the difference is how athletic the guys are. Smaller guys can do all kinds of crazy stuff. They do so much stuff, so much impressive stuff in one match, I wouldn’t do that much in a year. What does it mean?”
Additionally, Hulk Hogan noted that the modern wrestling landscape has changed significantly for a number of reasons. To him, the two biggest factors that changed it were the internet, which made wrestling less special, and how most promotions have shifted away from having one or two wrestlers as the attraction and instead having several similar and replaceable wrestlers available should one get hurt.
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h/t Fightful for the transcription