Jesse Ventura defends Hulk Hogan over Stone Colds Comments

And Hogan wouldn't be anything without those before him. That's a horrible way to say he's better.

I have to agree.......who knows where the business would be without Hogan. But then again who knows if the company would still be around without Austin.


I'd say they are both equal. They certainly have their own category in the business. They will forever be the two biggest stars in this industry.

It's absolutely disrespectful to claim Austin is in the same league as Hogan. I can't and WON'T with the attitude marks.

I could not care less about what either Hogan or Ventura have to say. Both are fools.

That said, Hogan's the bigger star.

Plan and simple the WWE wouldn't be a fraction of what it is today without BOTH Vince McMahon & Hulk Hogan.

Bruno was the biggest star in the NORTHEASTERN Territory that the WWE had when Vince Sr ran things.

Vince McMahon took that small Northeastern Territory and ran on the popularity that Hogan had coming off or Rocky III, plus the national exposure Vince got by pairing with MTV and other networks. The popularity of Hogan during the 80's easily eclipses the 4-5 year run that Austin had. In the 80's the WWE was EVERYWHERE. Rating weren't as big of a deal back then as there were only a few Television networks, compared to the dozens upon dozens that have come and gone since the 90's.

Sure WCW came close to possibly putting Vince McMahon out of business, but he was saved more by Mike Tyson than Steve Austin. The Tyson deal brought the WWE some very much needed main stream attention during a time they desperately needed it. That main stream attention also brought back a lot of casual fans who had gone over to the WCW side of the war because WCW had the names they knew (Hogan/Savage/etc).

When those casual fans saw that WWE was producing a higher quality program that had multiple levels of storytelling, where as WCW was always WCW v NWO with some random cruiserweight matches thrown in, they stayed and brought there friends with them. If you follow the entire history of the WCW v WWE war (not just the Monday Night part) you can see that the WWE always had a long term vision while WCW always seemed to throw a tonne of crap up against the wall just to see what would stick.

WCW's biggest problem was always Time Warner. Sure Ted Turner wanted to own a Wrasslin company. Sadly he didn't have the passion the McMahon's have when it comes to actually running said wrestling company. After Turner bought out Jim Crokett WCW had NUMEROUS executives in charge and when things started to south during the Monday Night Wars they once again fired the man at the top and then went threw several more department heads before ultimately folding.

When your opponent is putting in 100+ hours a week to your 40 max then the competition is eventually going not only come up with original idea they are going to eventually blow you away. That is what happened during the Monday Night War.

Austin did NOT have a way higher peak than Hogan. That's just absurd. This isn't even an argument. Hogan drew higher ratings, sold more tickets, etc. The only thing that Austin "won" on was higher gates (thanks to inflated ticket prices that they didn't do in the 80's) and merchandise (because they made 500 Austin shirts as opposed to Hogan's handful of shirts) and when you level those out, Hogan clearly wins out. Not to mention Hogan's face and heel runs in WCW and AWA, which were also huge successes in their own right. Austin, with the help of the Rock, had a nice little run at the top, but it in no fashion compares to Hogan's in any way. The entire Austin being the "biggest" is a complete fallacy manufactured in the Attitude Era by WWE revisionists.

Very well said. If this was the tail end of the attitude era, I would have said Austin would emerge as a higher peak and logevity as a bigger star. HOWEVER, as much as I hate to admit, not only has Hogan kept himself in the wrestling world and some main stream sportlight.....he continues to draw no matter what his role. Austin has kind of faded away for a bit and peaks his head out every once in a while.


That being said....THE ROCK is the biggest name to come out of professional wrestling, as he is box office in Hollywood and still continues to draw big numbers in wrestling.

...because that's the only possible outcome to the situation.

You factor in inflation Hogan is still WAY ahead of Austin in every single category. Autin NEVER once came close to drawing 93,000+ to a single event. Hogan was a phenom in his hay day, same as Austin. But Austin's gate numbers were no where near what Hogan was drawing. Hogan was drawing in thousands without the benefit of several hours of live television each and every week. Hogan also drew some of the biggest numbers in Professional Wrestling History in the days before PPV.

Hell the Big Event in Toronto, which drew 67,000+ to an aging Exhibition Place in Toronto was long before the days of PPV.

Austin had the benefit of coming into a well oiled machine that Vince set in place with the help of Hogan as the main draw. Quite simply without Hogan the WWE would probably be one of several smaller territories as those days probably would never have ended.