Vastardikai |
01-21-2004 10:46 AM |
I hate how people seem to over-estimate the character's Shelf-Life. I was a little Hulkamaniac, a Warrior, and a little Stinger in my earlier days. I'll admit it. I got sick of Sting when I realized he that he was acting like a dork. Warrior was good, but he couldn't hold people's attention for long, which is the same problem with Goldberg, more or less. I got sick of Hogan when I really started getting into Jake "the Snake" Roberts. If Jake of the late '80s could hop into a time machine, and showed up on Raw or Smackdown, he'd be just as over now as he was then. He had the ring psychology, he had an Anti-Hero mystique, and he wasn't really trying to instil virtues that he himself didn't believe in (the "Just Say No" poster aside). He was just believable.
Another issue is his impact. Did he get new folks into wrestling? Yes. Did he keep them wanting to WATCH wrestling? Not really. All of the kids wanted to be Hogan growing up at some point, but I can all but guarantee that, for ever Wrestler today who is influenced by Hogan, there's at least a dozen influenced by Ric Flair. On a Raw Rant one time, Jim Cornette said that the "True Icons" of Pro Wrestling were the likes of Ric Flair and Mick Foley, who busted their asses and put people in the seats and weren't saying that they were the "Icon."
The other thing that I noticed was wrong with Hogan was during Bret's first WWF Title Reign, and he defended against Virgil on WWF Superstars. This was something that threw me off guard, as I was used to Hogan Wrestling on TV 12 times a year, tops. and He seemed to only Defend the WWF title about 2 or 3 times during that period, when he held it. With Hogan, the belt was more a prop. With Bret, it meant something. Again, he was believable.
Maybe I'm just jaded by what I've seen lately, but I think that, in the greater scheme of things, Hogan was the hook, but the Flairs, Harts, Roberts' and all were the rich plot that kept people interested in the book that is Professional Wrestling. (is that a metaphor or a simile?)
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