Could it of been anybody (Hulkamania opponents)
 

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King Kong Bundy is one of my all time favorites and in this interview he talks about his Wrestlemania 2 payday. In reference to working with Hulk he says "well, anyone else could of done it" and it made me think, about Hogan's opponents during the days of Hulkamania. Do you think that Hogan needed guys like Bundy, Earthquake, Andre, etc to get him and his gimmick over or could they of just put him in their with anybody and "because it was Hogan" they would of still had the same success?

As long as they were big and looked mean

Dude seems cool.

Erick Rowan would've done very well for himself as a Hogan foil.

He got over originally working with guys like Piper, Shiek, Muraco, Orndorff, and Schultz. The whole Hogan vs Monsters didn't really start until late 86-early 87.

The bundy match was 1st quarter 86...

It's a weird one, but Hogan was so protected that they didn't let anyone in his orbit that wasn't a well planned out major priority. So they can say "anyone", but with the asterisk that if it was a program, they never just stuck him in with a bum, it was always a winning streak or an injury angle or something that gave the guy credibility on some level first. Hogan did draw better with some opponents than others, and his sellout percentage for house shows was not as great as some people think it was.

Yeah but they went into the feud with Orndorff after. The Hogan formula pretty much began with Kamala in later 86 into the Andre feud. Bundy was basically a one off. They didn't do a loop with Bundy vs Hogan after or before Wrestlemania

Big Bossman made some of Hulk's biggest shows.

Monsters were the exception more than the rule with Hogan for the first half of the boom, funnily enough. After Mania 3 the big program on the house shows was Hogan Vs. Harley Race which did really well. DiBiase came in and was the real top heel, even with Andre still in the mix.

He pretty much didn't have a long term T.V feud until Orndorff in 1986. It was more or less the old style of how they presented Backlund and Bruno where the champion would fight thr challenger 3 straight MSG shows. Usually the first two would end by a count out with the challenger winning, maybe a double dq in the second with the Champ going over in the 3rd. They did this twice if I recall: once after Wrestlemania 1 with Muraco and in late 85/early 86 with Macho Man. He was more or less just facing random challengers until Orndorff and if you look post Wrestlemania 3, he's pretty much just facing randoms again. Hogan's first title reign didn't have a ton of T.V programs.

Sorry I was getting dates mixed. The Hogan vs Monsters really came into effect in 1988, not late 86-early 87.