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HULK HOGAN IS THE RIGHT GUY TO CHALLENGE VINCE MCMAHON'S EMPIRE

By Doug Brown

Since ECW and WCW folded in 2001, Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment has been the dominant promotion in professional wrestling.  The XWF and the World Wrestling All-Stars tried to start up, but both efforts were short lived.  TNA has been successful at staying out there despite losing tons of money.  They are still a long way from being able to compete.  Wrestling Society X managed to get a deal with MTV, but with no big names other than Vampiro and Syxx-Pac, they too wound up with the plug being pulled.  There is hope.  That hope may come from the most well known name in the history of the industry, Hulk Hogan.

For those of you who have not kept up with the story, Hulk Hogan was originally slated to face the Big Show at this year's Wrestlemania on the 20th anniversary of his legendary match against Andre the Giant.  The plans for the match were cancelled after a falling out between Hogan and McMahon.  

This past week Hogan was in Memphis to promote an upcoming indy show match against Jerry Lawler at the Fed Ex Forum.  Lawler is under contract to WWE as an announcer, not a wrestler.  WWE still pulled Lawler out of the match, and tried to get Memphis promoter Corey Macklin to cancel the show, even offering to refund his deposit on the building.  Macklin refused, and the former Big Show, Paul Wight, was inserted as Hogan's new opponent.  The excuse for pulling Lawler was because there were going to be portions filmed for Hogan's VH-1 series, and Raw is a property of the rival USA network.  This is in spite of the fact that clips from Raw, and many WWE personalities, including Vince himself, appeared on the program.

Vince must be really scared of Hogan's potential if they are willing to go to such extremes.  Hogan has been talking about starting his own promotion or even doing a legends tour.  Maybe it is time he did.  Hogan has the notoriety.  He was the WWE's top guy from 1984-1993.  He was arguably WCW's top draw from 1994-2000.  Hogan has made numerous TV and movie appearances.  You can go up to the average person on the street, whether a fan or non fan, and ask them to name a wrestler, and I can guarantee that the bulk of the responses will be Hulk Hogan.  By having his name attached to a promotion, it gives that group instant credibility. 

There is definitely talent out there should Hogan wish to get a new promotion started.  Here is a list of names of people who are not attached to WWE or TNA that could be used either as wrestlers, agents, managers, announcers, etc.

Goldberg, the Big Show, Diamond Dallas Page, Rick Steiner, Ken Shamrock, Chris Jericho, Sid Vicious, Syxx-Pac, Vampiro, Rikishi, Nathan Jones, Buff Bagwell, Scott Hall, Randy Savage, Scott Norton, D-Lo Brown, Steve Corino, Vader, Matt Morgan, Lex Luger, Ultimate Warrior, Test, Dustin Rhodes, Marc "Muhammed Hassan" Copani, the SATs, the Shane Twins, Ahmed Johnson, Stevie Ray, The Powers of Pain, Greg Valentine, Brutus Beefcake, David Flair, Devon Storm, Tracey Smothers, Samu, Carl Oulette, A1, the Rock "n" Roll Express, the Midnight Express, Lance Storm, Justin Credible, the Nasty Boys, Mark Jindrak, Sean O'Haire (if he can stay out of jail), Kronik, Mike Sanders, Reno, C.W. Anderson, Simon Diamond, Kenzo Suzuki, Keiji Sakoda, Danny Doring, the Blue Meanie, Ro-Z, Tito Santana, Johnny B. Badd, Tully Blanchard, Luther Reigns, Rico, the Cat, Orlando Jordan, Sylvester Terkay, Road Warrior Animal, Johnny Stamboli, Shawn Stasiak, King Kong Bundy, Bull Buchanan, Typhoon, Jake Roberts (if he can stay sober), Tatanka, A-Train, Barry Windham, Meng, Heidenreich, the Godfather, Rodney Mack, Joey Mercury, Maven, Koko B. Ware, Mr. Hughes, Butch Reed, Paul Roma, La Parka, Marty Jannetty, Kamala, Honky Tonk Man, Glacier, Brian Lawler, Norman Smiley, Gangrel, Mideon, Alan Funk, Tajiri, Kid Kash, Red, Billy Kidman, Juventud Guerrera, Lash Leroux, American Dragon, Ultimo Dragon, Roderick Strong, Tony Mamaluke, Elix Skipper, Scotty Riggs, Molly Holly, Ivory, Dawn Marie, Francine, Jazz, Sable, Trish Stratus, Lita, Tony Schiavone, Scott Hudson, Chris Cruise, Terry Funk, Kevin Kelly, and Tom Prichard

 There are a lot of other factors that go into making an organization successful.  Factors include financing, a TV deal, marketing, and of course fans willing to spend their money.  Hogan has already been involved in many of those aspects in his career so it is not like any of that would be new to him.  One of the important things from my prospective will be to study where groups like the AWA, the UWF, ECW, WCW, the XWF, WSX, and the WWA failed.  This is so that they would not make the same mistakes. 

I really would like to see this become a reality, because competition is good for business.  I encourage all of the PWInsider readers in the Memphis area to send a message to Titan Towers by getting out and supporting the show mentioned above.  WWE was doing good heading into Wrestlemania, but so far since the big dance finished, it's back to same stuff, just a different day.  Under Vince Russo's booking, TNA has become unwatchable.  A Hogan-led promotion might be just what the industry needs to kick start the next "boom period."

 Feedback may be sent to Doug at brownsbros3@yahoo.com.