Hollywood Speaks

Hollywood Hulk Hogan by Hulk Hogan and Michael Jan Friedman

I picked this one up as an Audio Book from the remainder table at Hastings yesterday, and let me tell you, brother, it exceeds every expectation that I had and moves into levels of pure unadulterated egomania--excuse me--Hulkamania, that I could never have imagined.

The audio book is an abridgment, but I doubt that I really missed that much from the actual 'book.' What I got instead was a dose of the Hulkster reading words that were only partially the Hulkster's, in a halting, I'm reading a book report that my mom wrote for me, kindof voice.

But that's good, because that lets me know that the Hulkster can actually read. (ba-dum-dum, thank you folks, I'm here all week).

This one starts the same as all of the WWE ghost-written memoirs, with a big match in the guys career and then flashes back over his life and times. The Hulkster recounts his childhood as a tormented fat-kid and lightly touches on the different eras of his wrestling career, all the while making sure that he is the center of the story and the engine driving sports entertainment.

There are some erroneous assertions here, such as Hogan saying that the Rock is the first wrestler to star in a film other than him (Piper did it as well), and he gives the impression that he was acting in the best interests of the wrestling industry in his last stint in WCW. He talks about how Vince Russo tried to downplay the older, established wrestlers in WCW in the Millionaire's club and wanted to push new guys (I would argue that some of the 'new' guys that Hogan was talking about, such as Booker T, Benoit, Chris Jericho, Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, and others, were just as established there as Hogan, some had been wrestling with WCW longer). He complains that Russo had him lose three weeks straight to Billy Kidman and that he was only able to eke out a win at a PPV, but then Russo wrote Kidman out of storylines the week after and as a result weakened Hogan's character.

I think that it probably is true that Russo had it in for Hogan, but one thing that he doesn't seem to get, even after all these years in the business, is that it doesn't matter if you win or lose in the ring. You can lose nearly every big match in your career (much like Mick Foley or Sandman) and still remain a name, and have the fans care about you. It doesn't even really matter who you lose to, but rather how the match plays out and the quality of the work involved. Look at all the big guys that Spike Dudley beat in his Giant-Killer schtick from ECW, none of them lost heat because of it. If he had been game for it Hogan wouldn't have lost heat from losing to Kidman. The fact that Hogan himself didn't believe that it was possible for Kidman to beat him was the biggest detrimental factor to the program. If he doesn't believe it and make it work, it won't work.

Just because the guy is smaller or younger, or newer doesn't mean that he shouldn't be able to go over an established star. Benoit isn't a big guy, nor is Tazz, but we, as fans, wouldn't lose respect for someone like Hogan if they were beaten by them.

Oh, the book itself is so-so. It's alot like Piper's book, it makes sure to try to convince you that the world of wrestling would not exist if it were not for the titular character. I think that Hogan was a primary reason that wrestling boomed in the 80s and 90s, but I think that it was a combined effort of many factors. Hogan was a part, so was Piper, so was Flair, so was Jimmy Snuka, so was Vinne Mac. No one of them could have made everything work, but the combination of all of them (and Andre the Giant) made things work.

All in all I'd suggest you read the Freddie Blassie book instead.