Why Hulk Hogan’s moviestardom imploded

polygon.com:

With WrestleMania 39 set to kick off on April 1, and Polygon contributor Abraham Josephine Riesman’s new book Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America set to enter the ring on March 28, we’re spending the week grappling with pro wrestling — and everything it’s shaped.

Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea is one of the most recognizable cultural figures of all time, and not just due to fame accrued as the figurehead of the World Wrestling Federation in the second half of the 1980s. His iconic physical features during that heyday — the golden blond hair and mustache, the hot dog tan, the ketchup-and-mustard color scheme on his easily-tearable shirts, the biceps and chest that made him a hazard to doorways across America — established his place in history as more mascot than man.

So, when it came time to cash in on that notoriety in a series of movie roles that would take Hogan out of the squared circle and put him in front of Hollywood cameras, a grand experiment occurred. Could Hogan, the pro wrestling star known for riling up the crowd and then dropping a meaty thigh on a downed opponent’s throat, translate his popularity to film? The answer would soon reveal itself in the resoundingly negative. Hogan was never quite meant for the red carpet, and the results of trying to put him there show the limits of translating a very specific character into another medium.

In a way, it was his first shot in the movies that proved to be the best exercise of his potential, one that took place a few years prior to him becoming professional wrestling’s most recognizable figurehead. In 1982, Hogan was working for the American Wrestling Association, first as a heel and then as a beloved face, a representative of pro