The Piledriver Report 09.09.10: Right Place. Right Time

Both men were the key figures for the World Wrestling Federation’s two boom periods. Hulk Hogan was the main cog during the WWF’s “Rock n’ Wrestling Connection” era in the mid-eighties. Steve Austin was the central figure for the WWF during the Monday Night Wars’ “Attitude Era.”

Using the “right place and the right time” philosophy, you have to wonder if both men becoming the top star in the history of the business was just fate and timing, or was it more then that? I also wonder if the World Wrestling Federation would have reached the heights they did at the time if it wasn’t for the performances of Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin.

THE HULKSTER

Hulk Hogan started his career in the World Wrestling Federation back in 1979 as a heel. After landing a role in the film, “Rocky III,” Hogan left the WWF following a disagreement with Vince McMahon, Sr. Vince Senior would not allow the Hulkster to do the movie role, because he was “a wrestler, not an actor.” Hogan gave his notice, and left for Hollywood.

This was perhaps the greatest career move that Hulk Hogan ever made. After a stint in Japan, Hogan joined up with Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association. It was here that Hogan’s popularity started to skyrocket. While Hulk Hogan had a tremendous amount of charisma, it can be argued that his appearance in “Rocky III” helped Hulk Hogan in his raise in popularity.

Around this time, Vince McMahon Jr. was in the process of purchasing the World Wrestling Federation. Vince had a vision. His vision was to take this Northeastern promotional wrestling territory, and turn it into a national wrestling company. To do this, Vince needed a headliner that would capture the attention of the country.

Hulk Hogan was the perfect choice. He had the look and size that Vince Junior loves. Hulk had a charisma that drew people towards himself. Plus, with the being a part of a movie that drew over $125,000,000.00, Hulk Hogan was recognizable to the mainstream, casual audience that Vince would need to make the national expansion move a success.

There were two performers in the WWF at the time who had the Hollywood connections that Vince needed in order to make his “Rock n’ Wrestling Connection” storyline work. The first was Captain Lou Albano, who appeared in Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” music video. The other was Hulk Hogan. Vince used these two Hollywood connections to give the WWF more visibility to the non-wrestling fan. He arranged for Hulk Hogan to accompany Cyndi Lauper to the Grammy Awards show. Vince used the popularity of M-TV to air two of the most important pre-WrestleMania matches in the “Rock n’ Wrestling Connection” era. The first took place on July 23rd, 1984, which saw Wendi Richter with Cyndi Lauper in her corner take on the Women’s Champion Fabulous Moohla with Captain Louis Albano in her corner. The second time the WWF appeared in M-TV was on February 18th, 1985, which set up the angle that led to the main event of WrestleMania I. Hulk Hogan beat Roddy Piper in a match that saw Cyndi Lauper, her manager David Wolfe, and Mr.T each get involved.

During the early years of Hogan’s first title reign, the WWF experienced their first boom period since the days of Bruno Sammartino reigned as the WWWF World Champion. Hulk Hogan was the face of the company. The media, sports and entertainment, covered the WWF with different stories. Each month at Madison Square Garden, you were guaranteed to spot at least one celebrity or sports star in attendance. Hulk Hogan was featured on the cover of “Sports Illustrated” magazine, which included a several page article inside. The WWF was the “in” thing, and were drawing fans across the country. At the time, it seemed that everybody watched wrestling, more specifically the World Wrestling Federation.

The question in the beginning of the article asks was Hulk Hogan in the “right place, right time” or would he have still achieved the popularity that he eventually ascended to? I do not think Hulk Hogan would have reached the heights that he did without the WWF run from December 1983-June 1993. After all, he became a household name. You could walk down the street during that time, and ask anyone to name one professional wrestler, and their answer would be Hulk Hogan (if they didn’t follow pro wrestling).

He may not have reached the mega-popularity that he currently enjoys as the most famous name in wrestling history. However, I still think that Hogan would have become one of the most popular wrestlers inside the industry. In the AWA, Hulk Hogan was already on his way to becoming the most popular star in wrestling. In 1982, he placed as the second runner-up in “Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s” Year End Awards. When you look at the stars of the eighties, the most popular wrestlers of that era was Andre the Giant, Dusty Rhodes, and Kerry Von Erich. At the rate the “Hulkster” was going in the AWA, combined with his appearance in “Rocky III,” Hulk Hogan was probably going to exceed them all in popularity. Being in the WWF in the mid-eighties, with the McMahon marketing machine pushing him, Hogan’s popularity exploded further then what was ever thought possible for a professional wrestler in the United States.

Another reason why I believe that Hogan would have reached great heights in popularity, is because he led two separate boom periods in two different wrestling organizations. Aside from the WWF run, Hulk Hogan was one of the central figures in World Championship Wrestling’s only boom period. With Scott Hall and Kevin Nash as part of the New World Order group led by Hulk Hogan, WCW helped overtake the WWF in popularity. Sure, one of the reasons why the group got over huge to the casual fan was because of Hogan’s past as the WWF’s golden boy babyface. However, Hogan still had to make being a heel work, or else the n.W.o angle would have crashed and burned quickly.

The question must also be asked, would the WWF have attained the heights they did if Hulk Hogan did not return to the company in December 1983? This question is a lot hard to answer. According to rumors that I have heard over the years, the WWF had two other choices if they couldn’t get Hulk Hogan. They were Dusty Rhodes and Kerry Von Erich. Sorry, but I can’t either man being able to lead the WWF to the places that Hulk Hogan took them.

Vince has this thing about “southern” wrestlers. It’s not a good thing, either. He always had a bias against guys from down south, that they sound too “southern.” Dusty Rhodes definitely had that southern drawl. Plus, look at his body. Dusty’s physique wasn’t one that Vince had in mind when trying to come up with his vision of what a wrestler should look like. The one thing that Dusty did have was charisma. He was loaded with it. However, his physical presentation didn’t give off the super hero vibe that Hogan was able to give off. Dusty also didn’t have the Hollywood tie ins that the Hulkster had. I don’t think that Dusty could have pulled off a storyline like the “Rock n’ Wrestling Connection.” Maybe the “Country n’ Wrestling Connection,” but not “rock.” Dusty just didn’t fit the part. More evidence is that when Dusty finally arrived in the WWF in 1989, he was a polka dot wearing, son of a plumber, common man. He was more a comedy figure, then someone who would lead a company. As great as Dusty was in the National Wrestling Alliance, could you honestly see him headlining the very first WrestleMania?

Unlike Dusty, Kerry Von Erich had a physique that could rival Hulk Hogan’s. However, he definitely didn’t have the same type of charisma. Plus, there was something missing with Kerry Von Erich. He wasn’t on the same level as Dusty or Hogan. The only reason that Kerry was given the NWA World title is because his brother, David, who was supposed to get the title, tragically past away. There was also the father factor. Kerry’s father owned World Class Championship Wrestling. If Kerry was the WWF Champion, and Fritz needed his son back home because his business was done, Kerry probably would have come back home to dad. Therefore, he probably wouldn’t have been the most reliable choice to fill in for Hogan.

The bottom line is that Hulk Hogan probably would have been one of the most popular wrestlers in the business without the WWF. However, he wouldn’t have become the superstar that he became. At the same time, the WWF probably would not have taken off like it did in 1984. It would have taken more time, but eventually the WWF would have become hugely popular. Vince McMahon was too smart and creative not to have turned the World Wrestling Federation into the sports entertainment giant that it became.

STONE COLD! STONE COLD! STONE COLD!

In the WWF’s boom period of the eighties, the WWF used Hulk Hogan as its centerpiece in its family friendly environment. He was every kid’s super hero, who told his fans to “train, say their prayers, and take their vitamins.” Fast forward to the year 1996. Enter the anti-hero, Steve Austin. Austin was a no-nonsense, beer drinking, middle finger waving, son of a gun. Steve Austin was everything that Hulk Hogan wasn’t.

Steve Austin was the poster child of anti-authority. He would tell his boss to go to hell, and then would hit him with a Stone Cold Stunner. The fans would live vicariously through Austin. How many people reading this column would have loved to have told their boss off every day, and feel no repercussions? Probably, everybody.

Like with Hulk Hogan, the same question must be asked. Was Steve Austin just in the right place at the right time? Let’s look at the time period that we were in. It was the late-nineties. The days of the squeaky clean hero were over. Fans were starting to question if there were even heroes in wrestling anymore. After all, the biggest hero in wrestling, Hulk Hogan, was shown to be a liar when it came to admitting his steroid use. Promotions like Extreme Championship Wrestling, which featured a harder style of wrestling. Gone were the days of wrestlers portraying cartoon super hero characters for children. ECW was geared towards adults. A typical ECW show would feature blood, violence, cursing, scantily clad women, and cutting edge wrestling. Fans started to take notice. They weren’t the only ones. As the top two promotions in the United States also had their eyes on the South Philadelphia promotion. World Championship Wrestling tried to sign away their talent. The WWF, on the other hand, tried to steal their concepts.

Slowly, the World Wrestling Federation went from a children-friendly organization to ECW Lite. Cursing, women in little clothing, and adult humor started to become the norm on WWF television. Gone were the days of good guys versus bad guys. Instead, the WWF presented several shades of gray amongst their various characters.

WCW, while still trying to go with the eighties WWF formula, also had their biggest success using an anti-establishment storyline. They created the New World Order. The n.W.o featured ex-WWF wrestlers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, along with the newly turned heel (former Mr. WWF) Hulk Hogan. Together, they destroyed the best that World Championship Wrestling had to offer. They were the biggest heels in wrestling, but then a funny thing started to happen. The fans were cheering the bad guys, and booing the faces. The WWF faced the same dilemma. Fans started to embrace “Austin 3:16,” and were booing babyfaces, like Bret Hart. In the late nineties, it was good to be bad. Rooting for bad asses was the “in” thing to do.

This new development in the business led to professional wrestling’s biggest boom period since the mid-eighties. Both companies decided to run with it. For the WWF, Steve Austin was the ringleader of the WWF’s “Attitude Era. Like Hulk Hogan in the eighties, when someone mentioned wrestling to a non-wrestling fan, chances are that the novice would talk about Steve Austin. “Stone Cold,” with a pre-WrestleMania XIV rub from Mike Tyson started to become a household name. Then, like Hogan before him, Austin started to get seen by Hollywood types. He even landed a role in television’s “Nash Bridges,” where he did such an impressive job, that there was talk of a spin-off series with Austin as the star.

However, unlike Hulk Hogan, I believe that it really was a case of “right place at the right time” for Steve Austin. Austin would have had a successful professional wrestling career regardless. He was just too talented not to be a success. However, if you look at Austin’s career, it was littered with “right place at the right time moments.”

Just look at his nickname. For months, Steve Austin was known as the “Ringmaster” in the WWF. He was trying to come up with a new persona. He wanted to take on the characteristics of a serial killer, but could not think of a name. While at home, his wife gave him a cup of hot tea, and told him to drink it before it got “stone cold.” Thus, his nickname of “Stone Cold” was born. Right place, right time. In 1996, Steve Austin won the King of the Ring tournament. If you remember, 1996 was the year when Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley gave their famous “Clique Good-bye” in Madison Square Garden. Since two were leaving the company, and one was the WWF World Champion, that meant that only one person would get punished for the incident. That person was Hunter. Triple H was forced to job throughout the spring and summer. Worse yet, Hunter was scheduled to win that year’s King of the Ring tournament. The WWF decided to take away Triple H’s run of “king.” Instead, they booked Steve Austin as the winner. After winning the tournament, he new king had to cut a promo. The lines Austin delivered that night, “You sit there and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn’t get you anywhere! Talk about your psalms, talk about John 3:16… Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!” The next night the phrase “Austin 3:16” started to take off, and “Stone Cold” never looked back. While Austin was on the path to the WWF World Championship, Bret Hart left the WWF. However, before he left he wasn’t able to come to an agreement with Vince McMahon on dropping the WWF title. This led to the infamous Survivor Series Screwjob. At the time, this should have been the final nail in the World Wrestling Federation’s coffin in their war against World Championship Wrestling. What happened instead, was the greatest heel character of the era was created: Mr. McMahon. Mr. McMahon was the evil owner of the WWF, who screwed Bret Hart. Steve Austin, whose gimmick was to make life miserable for the “establishment” was the perfect foil for Mr. McMahon. Together, the Austin-Mc Mahon rivalry propelled the WWF past WCW as the eventual victors of the Monday Night Wars.

If you look at Steve Austin’s pre-“Stone Cold” career, he was always talented, and always pushed. However, he was never pushed above a certain point. Austin was not a main event level competitor. He was always just a step below. Even in the WWF, it wasn’t until he became “Stone Cold” that his career started to take off. If he was in the WWF in the early nineties, or the WWF wasn’t starting to slowly move to a more adult oriented product, the “Stone Cold” gimmick would have probably been watered down to a modern version of Skinner. Austin was always talented, and should have been a main eventer. However, it wasn’t until Austin changed his persona, and the WWF changed their business philosophy that Steve Austin became a mega-star. In this case, Austin was definitely in the right place at the right time.

At the same time, would the WWF have reached its greatest boom period since the Hogan Era without “Stone Cold” Steve Austin? This is easy. Give Me a Hell No!!!! In 1996, the WWF was losing talent and viewers to WCW. The WWF was becoming wrestling’s second citizen to World Championship Wrestling. The WWF still had some talent, but the talent they had wasn’t going to swing the pendulum in their favor. The WWF needed to do three things. They needed a change in philosophy to differentiate themselves from WCW. They needed to create new stars, as opposed to WCW’s rehashing of former WWF stars from the eighties and early nineties. They needed a killer storyline to put them over the top. Austin vs. McMahon was that storyline. The two characters were complete and total opposites. Austin was anti-establishment. Vince was the establishment. Mr. McMahon told his talent what to do. Steve Austin told Vince where to go. It was the perfect rivalry, and would not have been able to work with any other duo. Sure, The Rock probably became more well known in the long run, because he became a movie star. However, a feud between The Rock and Mr. McMahon using the same dynamic as Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon would not have had the same effect as the Austin/McMahon feud wound up having. The Rock wasn’t the type of character that Austin was. Was The Rock/McMahon feud entertaining when they went at it at times? Yes, was it ground breaking? No. Very few feuds in professional wrestling history were on the level of Austin/McMahon. In the end, Austin was at the right place at the right time to get over, and he was also at the right place at the right time to get the WWF over WCW. Both Austin and Vince needed each other like no other wrestler and promoter have ever before or since.