Hulk Hogan Explains What's Changed About The Pro Wrestling Business Since His WWE Days

Hulk Hogan was recently a guest on the Full Send Podcast, where he discussed various aspects of the pro wrestling industry and how it compares to his days as the top star in both WWF and WCW. As is often the case with wrestlers from Hogan's generation, "The Hulkster" remarked on just how different the average wrestler looks in terms of size and athleticism. Hogan's in-ring career lasted from 1977 to 2012 and resulted in 12 world championship reigns, two WWE Hall of Fame inductions and the record for most WrestleMania main events.

"It wasn't the WWE, it was the wrestling business," Hogan said (h/t Fightful). "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," he continued. "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?"

He also echoed a sentiment that's often used as a criticism of WWE's presentation in that the company is often positioned as a main attraction rather than the wrestlers themselves — "I hink the main thing with the product is that it has had an attraction, like a Hulk Hogan, who you could put with this guy or that guy or him or you or One Man Gang or that guy, and just sell out anything. 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."