SNEAK PEEK: A Real American

Rest in peace, Hulk Hogan

Rest in peace, Hulk Hogan.

There was another wrestler who called himself “the American Dream”—the great Dusty Rhodes—but it was Hulk Hogan, born Terry Gene Bollea, who more than any other star of sports entertainment embodied the colossal hopes, aspirations and absurdities of the United States of America, those wonderful things that have made America what it is and not Canada or Mexico or Liberia or any other nation on earth.

In every aspect, across every dimension, Hulk Hogan was larger than life. Standing six feet seven inches tall and weighing over 300 pounds, boasting enormous 24-inch biceps he referred to as his “pythons” and wearing a trademark bleach-blonde skullet and handlebar moustache, Hogan was instantly recognisable. Unmistakeable.

THE WWF WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION!

In an arena packed with freaks, oddities, oddballs, showmen and showgirls, Hogan still managed to stand out from the crowd.

In England in the early 1990s, you had to have satellite television to watch the World Wrestling Federation, as it was back then. My best friend’s parents had a dish and a subscription to Sky, which was as good a reason as any to spend all my spare time at his house. We’d stay up well past our bedtimes and watch in awe as the Undertaker walked the ring ropes and Shawn Michaels delivered another dose of Sweet Chin Music, right to the kisser.

But it was Hulk Hogan we really wanted to see. From the first strains of his iconic “Real American” entrance, through his trademark shirt rip to his finishing move, the atomic leg drop, we just couldn’t get enough.

For us, the Hulkster was the WWF. In his person, he represented a world of bombast, bravado and badassery that was a million miles away from our sleepy little Dorset village, with its thatched cottages and medieval church and library on the green. It might as well have been another planet.

I’m not ashamed to say my lifelong fascination with America I owe to Hulk Hogan as much as anybody else—William Faulkner, Marlon Brando, Metallica. Donald Trump.

So if a little bit of the American Dream has just died, and it has, it’s worth remembering too, what Hulk Hogan did in his final year of life to ensure the American Dream will live on—or, at least, that it still has a fighting chance of doing so. There are too many great deeds to list, too many iconic moments in a career spanning five decades, but this one, I think, may just be the most important of all.