Hulk Hogan only truly recognized how big Hulkamania had become when he was out of the ring, the WWE Hall of Famer has claimed this week.
The birth of Hulkamania is often cited as January 23, 1984, when Hogan defeated The Iron Sheik to win his first of several World Championships.
On a recent edition of the “PBD” podcast, Hogan recalled being interviewed by John Stossel, who wanted to test if Hogan was as popular as he claimed. He said,
“The first time I really became real, real, real aware of it — people kept saying ‘Oh my gosh, you don’t realize how big Hulk Hogan is, there’s Hulkamania!’ I was just working, I had my head down.”
Stossel wanted to test the claim that Hogan couldn’t walk down the street without being thronged by fans eager to meet him.
Just as the pair began, fans gathered in Fifth Avenue hoping to catch a glimpse of the Hulkster, which proved how popular Hulkamania was. He said,
“[That was] the first time I realized — that this wrestling had gone mainstream, that this ‘Hulk Hogan’ character had crossed these imaginary boundaries and became a media star, not just a wrestling star.”
Hogan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 but was removed in 2015 after racist comments came to light. He was welcomed back in 2018.
