There’s no denying that Hulk Hogan is one of the biggest names in the history of professional wrestling, and there’s also no denying that the business has changed quite a bit since Hogan was on top. During Hulk Hogan’s time at the top of the industry WWE was the land of the giants, but during the modern era wrestlers of all shapes and sizes can make it in the business with the right mix of talent and opportunities.
Hulk Hogan recently talked about how much wrestling has changed since he was coming up on the Full Send Podcast, and he also shared his take on smaller sized wrestlers breaking into the business.
“It wasn’t the WWE, it was the wrestling business. It was, when I got in, man, when I walked in a dressing room, there were like six guys sitting there. There all 300-pounders. I was a medium-sized guy, and I weighed 300-plus. When I got in, if you wanted to be a wrestler, okay, there’s a guy there. He’s got two big cauliflower ears, his nose is broken, his teeth are knocked out, he’s got four kids at home. This next guy over here was an NCAA Champion. He’s got a steel plate in his forearm, his name’s Harley Race. Good luck with him. Then the other two guys, they look like serial killers, and if you wanted to be a wrestler, you gotta take their job and take the food out of their family’s mouth. That’s the difference. Everybody I wrestled looked like monster-sized men. Nowadays, there’s a lot of guys that look like wrestlers, there’s a lot of guys that don’t. A lot of guys who look like wrestlers and a lot of guys who look like they should be bagging my groceries. So the difference is how athletic the guys are. Smaller guys can do all kinds of crazy stuff. They do so much stuff, so much impressive stuff in one match, I wouldn’t do that much in a year. What does it mean?”
The former WWE Champion was also asked about the biggest difference between wrestling today and wrestling during his era. The Hulkster indicated that he doesn’t think the business has a big attraction anymore while also saying that he thinks a lot of wrestlers from the Performance Center look the same.
“Instead of having that one attraction, like a Hulk Hogan or a Rock or an Andre the Giant or a Stone Cold Steve Austin, instead of having that one guy that’s really the attraction, I think the star now is the production of the show. I see the guys wrestle, and if one guys is hurt, there’s another one from the Performance Center that slides right in and takes his place, and they’re all the same size and pretty much have the same color hair and their clothes are made by the same seamstress and they learn how to wrestle from the same group of trainers.”
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H/T Fightful
