Wrestling has taken place in front of onlookers since before the Ancient Greeks made it an Olympic sport, but at that time, no one expected that wrestling had the means to become a global business that literally attracts the eyes of millions of people. Professional wrestling is now a billion dollar industry, with numerous promotions all over the world, and there is no denying that the promotion which stands at the absolute top in terms of popularity, history, and talent, is World Wrestling Entertainment. The WWE has been entertaining audiences since it was originally founded in 1952, and throughout the decades, it has produced several iconic and legendary wrestlers, and amongst all those individuals, Hulk Hogan stands as one of the very best.

Hogan started wrestling professionally in 1977, and first joined the WWE in 1979, but it was not until 1983 that he truly started to make a name for himself with the rise of Hulkamania, and his first Heavyweight Championship win against the Iron Sheik . In a career that spanned over 35 years, Hogan managed to win multiple World Championships, and participated in a multitude of great matches that took place within both WWE and WCW; and in 2005 his career was properly recognized with his induction into WWE’s Hall of Fame. It is true that Hogan has a lot of things to be proud of, but just like any other person, he has also done some things that he wishes he and the fans could forget, and the purpose of this list is to identify 15 of the things that Hulk Hogan wants us to forget about him.

15 15. That He Fought Andre The Giant Before WrestleMania III

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Every single wrestler dreams about having a match at WrestleMania, so that they can have their own WrestleMania moment, a moment that will be remembered for years, and Hulk Hogan is of course a part of one of the most iconic moments of all time. The moment in question came at WrestleMania III, and involved Hogan delivering a body slam to Andre the Giant, a move which not only made their match one of the most iconic in all of wrestling history, but which also helped to create and cement Hogan’s legacy. Hogan may want you to believe that that WrestleMania match was the first time he and Andre fought each other, but in reality the two had several matches prior to WrestleMania, including one in 1980 at Shea Stadium, as well as several in Japan, and a few WWF matches that many people do not know about or remember.

14 14. The Monster Truck Sumo Match

Monster Truck match

Hogan’s match with Andre the Giant was legendary, so much so that no one thought that such a memorable clash would ever happen again, but WCW tried very hard to do just that during Hogan’s stint with the company. In 1995, Hogan was put into a feud with The Giant (otherwise known as Big Show), who WCW made out to be Andre’s son, even though everyone knew that that was a lie, and the two faced off against each other in a match that made no sense and which should not have had any tie-in whatsoever to a championship match. The match in question was a Monster Truck Sumo match, which did in fact involve them both driving monster trucks, a contest which Hogan won and resulted in Giant going after him, with the two eventually brawling on the roof of the stadium. Later that same night, Giant ended up beating Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight title, which essentially meant that Hogan winning the monster truck match earlier that night was pointless, and only served to give him a win before losing the belt.

13 13. Hogan Knows Best

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There is no denying the fact that the current television landscape is better than any other in history, seeing as there are hundreds of different shows available that deal with all kinds of stories and genres. Unfortunately, one of the more popular genres is reality TV, a genre which includes shows that follow families around in order to give viewers a look at what goes on in their ‘everyday’ lives, and these types of reality shows are the worst because they are in fact heavily scripted. There are currently a few reality shows centered around former and current wrestlers, like Total Divas and Holy Foley, but before these shows, we had Hogan Knows Best. Hogan’s reality show ran for 4 seasons and consisted of 43 episodes, and focused on Hogan trying to manage the careers of his two children while still raising them with his then wife. Like all reality shows, this one featured pointless fabricated drama, which made members of the Hogan family appear very obnoxious, and it ultimately did very little in terms of helping to launch Hogan’s daughter’s acting and singing career.

12 12. His Feud With Bad News Brown & Ted DiBiase

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The entire wrestling industry revolves around feuds, and sometimes these feuds involve great segments and matches, but most of the time, feuds fail to hit the mark and end up providing fans with a mediocre and boring storyline. There are also feuds that introduce specific items that get incorporated into a wrestler’s character, and as evidenced by Hulk Hogan, these items sometimes look downright silly and serve no real purpose within the feud itself. For a short time, Hogan got into a feud with both Ted DiBiase and Bad News Brown, and during this feud, Hogan came out wearing what is known as the “War Bonnet”, which was essentially a gladiator-style helmet with a fist on top of it. This bonnet looked absolutely ridiculous, and basically served as a ploy for the WWE to sell some more merchandise, but it was not well received by fans at all, which led to the bonnet disappearing into obscurity.

11 11. Poking Kevin Nash With His Finger

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Every single sport has to deal with teams or individuals who intentionally throw matches and competitions, and in every case in which this happens, it is shameful due to the fact that fans pay good money to see real entertaining competition. Wrestling has seen its fair share of throws, but the worst throws come when there is a championship on the line, and Hulk Hogan was involved in such a situation during a match with Kevin Nash. On a 1999 taping of Monday Nitro, Hogan faced Nash for WCW’s World Heavyweight Championship, and instead of having a full blown match, Hogan simply poked Nash in the chest, and Nash fell to the mat as if he were hit by a big boot, and Hogan immediately went for the victory pin. Considering how close this incident was to the demise of WCW, some can make the case that it was this match that started the end of the company; plus fans were not all that thrilled by how the match unfolded.

10 10. Most Of His Acting Roles

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In order to become a success in the wrestling industry, a wrestler not only has to possess some actual wrestling skills and a great persona, but they also need to be able to act a bit, and sometimes wrestlers use these acting skills to move on to television and movie roles. We all know how successful The Rock has become in Hollywood, but being a phenom within the ring does not guarantee that a wrestler will be a successful actor on screen, a statement that has been proven by Hogan. The Hulkster has appeared in several movies, such as Suburban Commando, Santa with Muscles, The Secret Agent Club, and Mr. Nanny, all of which were utter and total trash, especially No Holds Bar, which is by far his worst movie. Not all of his acting jobs were bad though, as his role in the third Rocky movie was not that bad.

9 9. Being Mr. America

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Gimmicks are incredibly important in wrestling, as a good gimmick will often always help to get a wrestler over with the fans, and if the gimmick is bad, than that wrestler will likely go on to crash and burn. Hogan had Hulkamania, which propelled him in popularity, but after his match with Vince McMahon at WrestleMania XIX, Vince wanted to put an end to Hulkamania, which is why Hogan debuted as Mr.America a month after WrestleMania. Essentially, all WWE did was give Hogan boots and tights branded in USA colors, along with a star-spangled mask, and not only did they call him Mr. America, but everyone acted as though Hogan was taking time off. All the fans knew that Mr. America was Hogan, and he was put into a feud with a heel Vince and Roddy Piper, but the entire angle abruptly ended a few months later, and Hogan was not seen in WWE again until 2005. If Mr. America was supposed to push a young wrestler called Sean O’Haire, it was unsuccessful, in fact nothing about Mr. America was good as the segments and matches were almost all terrible, making this one of the worst storylines ever done by WWE.

8 8. His 1993 WWE Return & Exit

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We all know that the WWE has a top guy mentality, what with John Cena still being the current guy and Roman Reigns trying to be molded into one, but before either of those two stepped foot into a WWE ring, Hulk Hogan was a top guy. Hogan’s run as a top guy lasted from the early 1980s to 1992, when fans started to get bored of him and actually began to boo him, and they would even cheer whenever something bad happened to him. This, as well as the steroid allegations, led to him taking some time off from the company, but he ended up returning in 1993 just in time to take part in WrestleMania IX. At the end of that show, Hogan came out after Bret Hart lost the WWE Championship to Yokozuna, and subsequently won the title in under a minute, which left many including Hart upset, because Hogan was supposed to put Hart over, but chose not to. Later that same year, everyone knew that Hogan was leaving WWE, and usually, a wrestler who is leaving a promotion would do a clean job for another wrestler who is staying with the promotion, but Hogan did not want that, so in his title match with Yokozuna, he lost after being blinded by a photographer.

7 7. The Rematch With Ultimate Warrior In WCW

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When you have a career that was as long as Hulk Hogan’s, then it should come as little surprise that he has had quite a few great matches, and earlier on this list his match with Andre the Giant was mentioned, but he also had a great match at WrestleMania VI with The Ultimate Warrior. The two would eventually meet up again for a rematch, but it was not until they were both a part of WCW, but it was nothing like their first encounter, in fact the argument can be made that their rematch was one of the worst matches of both their careers. The rematch took place on Halloween Havoc in 1998, and for the first 15 minutes, they basically did nothing, with the finish being a complete nonsensical mess, as Eric Bischoff put the referee in a headlock, while Hogan’s nephew hit Warrior in the back with a chair, and for some reason, the ref did not disqualify anyone, allowing Hogan to pick up the win; which more or less put an end to a terribly awful feud.

6 6. His 2002 Feud With The Undertaker

via WWE.com

Hulk Hogan and the The Undertaker are icons in WWE and the wrestling industry, which is why the idea of them facing off against one another has always been met with enthusiasm from the fans. When Hogan returned to the WWE in 2002 with his fellow nWo members, he went on to win the WWE Championship, and after going over with the fans during his title run, it came time for him to lose the belt, which is when the feud with Taker began. The feud itself was not all that bad, as it even included Taker tying Hogan’s legs to the back of his motorcycle for a backstage joyride, but the feud did not end well at all. They faced off at Judgement Day 2002, and as it turns out, the match was more or less a complete let down, as it was by far one of the worst matches that either man had had in all of their time with WWE; which made Taker’s championship win kind of bittersweet.

5 5. His Time With TNA

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Anyone who is a true die hard fan of Hulk Hogan, knows that he has wrestled for companies other than the WWE, companies that include WCW, NJPW, and Memphis Wrestling, but he has also spent time working with TNA. In all, Hogan worked with TNA for a total of four years, which is a bit surprising considering that TNA is viewed as a sub-tier promotion by many, but seeing as Dixie Carter offered Hogan millions of dollars per year to essentially have his name associated with the company, it is no wonder he agreed to go there. In truth, Hogan did little-to-nothing to help TNA in terms of making it a true WWE rival, because TNA just continued to be squashed in the ratings despite his presence, and for some reason, his contract made it so that he was actually heavily involved behind the scenes, so heavily involved in fact that if something went very wrong, he could easily put the blame on someone else.

4 4. His Reason For Leaving WWE In 2005

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For fans of the WWE, it always sucks when a popular wrestler ends up leaving the company for any number of reasons, and Hulk Hogan has left the company several times, but his 2005 departure stands out because it involved Shawn Michaels. That year, these two wrestling icons started a feud which saw them face off against each other at SummerSlam, a feud which was supposed to consist of several matches, with the game plan being that Hogan was supposed to win the SummerSlam match and Michaels winning the next meeting. Hogan though, apparently refused to put Michaels over, which then led to Michaels ripping into and mocking Hogan, and during their SummerSlam match, Michaels oversold bumps to a ridiculous degree and made a mockery of Hogan’s big boot to the face. Hogan must have been incredibly angry about this because he left WWE shortly after this match was in the books.

3 3. His "Love" Tape

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We all get involved in intimate relationships during our life, it is just the natural order of things, but with the invention of digital cameras, it has become much easier and more common for people to record their intimate moments. In April of 2012, a sex tape featuring Hulk Hogan appeared online, with a short clip being released by Gawker, and the tape featured Hogan, who was then in his late 50s, with the estranged wife of his friend Bubba the Love Sponge. This sex tape led to Hogan having to deal with several legal issues, including a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Gawker which saw Hogan get awarded $31 million, and which also saw Gawker have to declare bankruptcy. It is true that this tape made Hogan get a boatload of money, but the entire ordeal was utterly embarrassing, and even caused him problems professionally as well.

2 2. His New Wife

As it currently stands, Hulk Hogan has been married twice, with his first marriage being to Linda Claridge, which lasted for about 24 years and which produced two children, including their very attractive daughter Brooke. After getting divorced, Hogan did what anyone else would do, he met someone else and moved on, which is how he went on to meet his current wife, Jennifer McDaniel, and if you see Jennifer, you can tell that Hogan obviously has a specific type when it comes to women. Jennifer is a young and attractive blond who looks very similar to his daughter, which is actually a bit creepy, especially when you look and see that the two women do in fact look alike. Sure older men sometimes go for younger women who look like their ex, but very few men become attracted to women who look like their own offspring.

1 1. The Racist Comments

In 2015, WWE made headlines when it was announced that the company was terminating Hulk Hogan’s contract, with the reason stemming from some unsavoury comments that he made in the aforementioned sex tape. According to media outlets like Radar Online and the National Inquirer, Hogan made some kind of anti-black rant in his sex tape, and he even allegedly used some homophobic language, which left WWE with no choice but to immediately cut ties with him. These comments have basically left a stain on Hogan’s legacy, and rightfully so because we live in a time when such language should not be used by anyone, especially public figures and role models, but at the same time, these comments were made in private, and only came to light as a result of a tape being released without his consent. Since 2015, Hogan has not appeared anywhere on WWE television, but with everything with Gawker now resolved, the door is very much open for his eventual return, a return that he hopes will be a forgiving one.