Pro Wrestling breakdowns by Peter Klein - Dailymotion

Peter Klein

Step into the ring with the ultimate Pro Wrestling playlist! Get in-depth analysis, match breakdowns, and hot takes on all things wrestling from the Couch Potato Diary—from WWE and AEW to the biggest events and storylines. Whether you're a hardcore fan or new to the world of wrestling, this playlist covers it all: pay-per-view previews, post-show reviews, fantasy booking, and deep dives into wrestling history. Stay up to date with the latest news, surprises, and drama inside and outside the squared circle!

Transcript

00:00A legend in the pro wrestling space and a complicated figure outside of it, Hulk Hogan

00:06has passed away at the age of 71. There's a lot of different ways you can talk about

00:14Hulk Hogan, and so we will try to do justice to all of them right now. For the wrestling

00:24aspect of this, it's tough to really talk about one without the other because

00:29you have this person who was the first global icon in professional wrestling, and we can talk

00:37about important figures in wrestling, but you have to start with or at least very quickly get into

00:45the discussion of Hulk Hogan. He was massive as a human, as a personality, and his impact in the

00:53world of pro wrestling. When Vince McMahon wanted to take wrestling into the national space,

00:59he pinpointed Hulk Hogan as the guy to do that on, and they rode his broad shoulders all the way to

01:07the top of the mountain. And being able to, however many people you think they put into the Silverdome

01:12back at WrestleMania 3, they put that many people in there. 93,000, 85,000, whatever you want to say,

01:19they had a lot of people in there watching pro wrestling. It became mainstream. They got onto NBC,

01:25when before it was just from smoky ballrooms and placed on different television networks regionally.

01:32Hulk was a big part of the expansion, and whether we like it or not, he is a big part of the national

01:39spotlight that pro wrestling has on it today. Um, this is, like, he is still probably the most famous

01:49wrestler of all time. Um, Arne Anderson had the comment on that Monday Night Wars, um, DVD, where

01:55it's like, if you ask people to name one wrestler, most are going to name Hulk Hogan. That's, that,

02:00that is where he was at. And so when you look at where the pro wrestling world is, there's, you do not

02:06get to this point without him. Um, and like, that is what made the stuff after his career and in his

02:15personal life so difficult to deal with. It's because it was the, the training, the prayers,

02:20and the vitamins, brother. And he, he would go up even at six foot seven, 300 pounds, and just looking

02:26like a very tanned Greek God out there. Um, he still somehow found a way to be the sympathetic figure,

02:36the, the underdog going up against King Kong Bundy or Andre the Giant or Earthquake. Um, and then

02:42coming back and he's, he is the good guy in a story where, uh, his presence is splitting up a

02:48marriage with Macho Man Randy Savage and, um, and Miss Elizabeth. And then he is coming back to fight

02:54for the honor of his country, going up against Sergeant Slaughter, um, at, at WrestleMania seven,

03:01and then later against Yokozuna at WrestleMania nine. Um, boy, you wonder where he got his worldviews

03:06from, but you can, like you, it is a very difficult thing to take someone who looks that big and that

03:14imposing and have them be the underdog, the sympathetic figure, and then the relatable figure.

03:21And he was able to do that. And it is, if you just, if you even go back now, what, knowing what,

03:27you know, it's tough to not get sucked back in when you watch a promo and he is talking about,

03:33um, again, like, uh, this is where the power lies, brother. And like all those, like so much of it,

03:38if, if I read it, it sounds like a crazy person, but it is the delivery. It's the look, it's the

03:44muscles, it's the everything about him that just draws you in. There is a charisma that brings you

03:50into his space and it just, it enthralls you. And then to be as big of a part of the NWO as he was

04:00and to, to be like, still with the John Cena heel turn, um, it was, it had to live up to that one.

04:07It had to live up to Hulk Hogan, the, this guy who was the red and yellow and, um, to this guy who

04:12everyone believed in. Now he has turned his back on all of us. And like, again, wrestling wise,

04:19was he the best in ring? He was not. Um, but was he even the coolest in that group? He wasn't.

04:25Were there some times where it didn't seem like it fit? There absolutely was. That,

04:30that, that story doesn't get over as well without him there. It just doesn't. Like if Sting's the

04:36third man, if Mabel's the third man, you know, like if anyone else is the third man, it doesn't,

04:41it doesn't work nearly as well. You don't get all the shirts. You don't get the 83 weeks of WCW

04:46beating the WWF in the Monday Night Wars. You don't get a Monday Night Wars at all. Um, it is just

04:52Hogan against the Dungeon of Doom until that fades away. And then they kind of just go away.

04:56But it was his presence in that, that made it so big. And then he comes back to the WWF

05:01and he has the one more big moment with The Rock at WrestleMania 18. And then even the match with

05:08Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 19 and the stupid Mr. America stuff and all of that, like it just,

05:12a lot of it worked. And it was just because of this natural charisma and everything that he had,

05:18which is why all the stuff after sucks so bad with the, um, just blatantly racist comments in the,

05:27the tape with, uh, bubble, the love sponge. And then afterwards, the just refusal to take

05:35accountability. And once that came out, then it was just, it was, cause there's, there'd always been

05:41a lot of like, Oh, well, Hulk didn't want to do this. Hulk didn't want to do that. Like he was an

05:44easy target and he was, Oh, well, he has creative control and he has this, that, and the other thing.

05:51And that's why, um, we're not supposed to like him because, uh, he just, he, he, he, he kept all

05:57these good wrestlers down. He wasn't even that good of a wrestler and everything like that on that part of

06:02it. And I know I'm going off on a bunch of tangents right now, but on the wrestling part of it, I think

06:06he was what he needed to be. Um, cause you go back and you watch some of the stuff of him in Japan

06:10and he is, he's doing, uh, drop kicks and arm drags and everything like that. He could have done all

06:14of that. So I don't think he could have done it. Like, I'm not saying like, well, if he would have

06:18applied himself, he could have been Bret Hart. Um, I'm not saying that certainly not, but it would

06:23have been more than just a shoulder tackle test of strength. Now I'm hulking up brother. And now it's

06:27big boop leg drop and we're off to the next town. Um, but that there was a little bit more

06:31wrestling skill in there, but he just kind of learned what he needed to do. And so why would

06:35he do anything extra from that? But that always had a little bit of resentment from the wrestling

06:40world. And so you always had all these negative stories and then it turns out it's this, and

06:45it was an, it was the lack of accountability that came out of that. That was so infuriating

06:51and so frustrating. Um, like it was, it was obvious that no lessons were learned and that there was no,

06:59that there was nothing, that there was nothing that like happened to him that he learned from,

07:06that there was no growth as a human being. Like, man, maybe these are some very hateful,

07:12very antiquated views that I have. I should look inward and try to fix this or heaven for like,

07:19you hope this wouldn't have been the case, but I need to look inwards. Oh no, still didn't,

07:23still in the right. Um, but there was just, there was obviously no introspection at all.

07:27It was just, I'm just going to do this and I'm going to say, oh, well, basically,

07:32sorry, I got caught. And that was the extent of it. And people were so willing to let him come back

07:40into like life, basically the, the, the public spotlight and so willing to just be like, okay,

07:49look, you said this awful thing. If you could just apologize and say that you've learned from this,

07:55a lot of people would just be willing to move on and we can have a bigger conversation of whether

08:00that's right or wrong. But so many people, if it just like, it was just a, could you just let us

08:04love you please? And he couldn't even do that. He couldn't go out and take accountability. He

08:09couldn't apologize. Heaven forbid there was any personal growth with this guy at all. And so it

08:14just kind of, well, guess he's a scumbag. And so that's why it's not political views or anything

08:20like that. But when he comes back at the, the, the, the raw thing and he gets relentlessly booed,

08:26it's not because of the Trump stuff. It's not because of political leanings or anything like

08:32that. Undertaker, same thing was on a podcast with Donald Trump and didn't like, he got a smattering

08:38of it maybe, but he didn't really get that. It was because this guy just couldn't take

08:44accountability for anything that he did for these incredibly hurtful things that this man

08:50said and did not recognize that what he was saying was wrong and just couldn't take that

08:58accountability. It became so, so obvious that this was just not the dude that people had.

09:04And he, he's a childhood hero of so many and you can hear it like until this last one,

09:12it had like, it, the, obviously the, the, the racial slur and everything like that happened

09:17a long time ago and he had come back for different things and there had been booze all the time

09:21and they would grow each time really. But the first reaction, every time the first couple

09:27of guitar notes hit the bam, bam, the first time those hit the initial reaction. And I was like,

09:33I, I don't love myself for it. But the first reaction I have, because I've had it my entire

09:37goddamn life is Hulk Hogan. And then it's like, Oh fuck, this guy sucks. I forgot. He's an awful

09:45human being, but so bad that he sucks so bad. Um, like I said, there was just a, can you please

09:50let us love you from a lot of people in the wrestling audience? And he just, he would not

09:55recognize the people that he hurt. He would not recognize that these are hateful views that he has

10:01and that his words matter. And he would not take any accountability for that. And then you see

10:08some of the other stuff and he is just like, he basically felt like a pathological liar saying like

10:13he discovered Brock Lesnar. Um, and he wrestled, he knew that he would be a hit in the UFC, even

10:19though they read like the timeline on nothing he talked about lined up ever. Right. And so it just,

10:26it, it really did kind of come across like this guy really does just kind of suck. Right. And so

10:34you get this weird mix where he was so important to so many people growing up and to this business

10:42getting to the level that it was. And the person behind it is just so the opposite of everything

10:51that we held and everything that we believed for him to be. And look, that's it. Like that is a big

10:55standard to, to live up to is just this American hero who, um, does everything right always and saves

11:03the day. That's that, that is a lot to expect of a human being, but we didn't even expect that from

11:08him. We just wanted him to come out and just be like, Hey, by the way, said a racist thing.

11:13Shouldn't have said it really regret it. I'm very sorry. I, I will learn. I will grow from this and that.

11:19And if he would have just said that, I think 98% of the population forgives this guy. And he just,

11:26he couldn't, he couldn't bring himself to admit any kind of wrongdoing ever when it came to that

11:34incident or several others after. And so it, it makes it a complicated story to talent. That's why

11:40I started by saying you cannot, you really can't have one without the other. You can't talk about

11:47how important this man was to so many people growing up, like a legitimate inspiration for

11:53so many that people looked up to where there's a letter writing campaign after earthquake squishes

11:59him a few times and genuine heartbreak. And you see people's reactions when he comes out like this

12:06is someone who meant a lot to a lot of people. And you can't tell that without being like, but

12:11behind the scenes, maybe not an awesome dude. And you can't tell the heartbreak of warning how

12:17much this dude sucked without recognizing how important he was to so many people for so long.

12:25And so that is, that is the thing because this, this last part of his life where he is in obvious

12:32pain always, because it turns out jumping up and landing on your tailbone a million times in your life

12:38is detrimental to one's quality of health in the back nine of your life.

12:43Turns out the guy who was the safest in the ring to not go out and to take that much damage ended up

12:50doing the most damage to himself, which I think is a pretty good summary of the life of Hulk Hogan.

12:58He was so meticulous to not do damage that in the end, he wasn't recognizing that the one who was doing

13:06the most damage to him was him.

BREAKING: Hulk Hogan Dead at 71 | Trying to understand his complicated legacy

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Pro Wrestling breakdowns

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