Who Is The Biggest Wrestling Legend: Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair

Hogan

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by Stephen Kerr-Robinson

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Without a doubt the toughest question posed to any wrestling, who is the bigger legend out of Ric Fair and Hulk Hogan. It will always be one of those questions that will go through endless debate for as long as you can think of. The word legend gets thrown around so much these days that it seems everyone who did anything of value is often thought of as a legend. The real truth to this is that there are only a handful of legends in the history of wrestling, and Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair both fit into that category.

Ric Flair has achieved so much in his long storied career, he has won 16 World titles - an achievement unmatched by anyone. Even winning what many people believe to be the most prestigious title in the history of wrestling on numerous occasions. Beating some of the best that wrestling had to offer from the Dusty Rhodes to the Harley Race's to the Ricky Steamboat's. Everywhere Ric Flair went he became a major player immediately, the most important thing for a wrestler in that time was to put on quality matches and Ric Flair never failed to do that either. He was able to uphold tradition and the old school mentality, which is what the NWA was all about, tradition.

But as much as Ric Flair did, he was unable to compete with what Hulk Hogan did. Not to say that Hulk Hogan is a better wrestler than Flair, because if it was who was the better wrestler it would be no competition. But the shape of wrestling has changed so much over recent years, it's no longer about the quality of wrestling. Some of the finest wrestlers today are unknown by the casual fan, because it's not an appeal of wrestling now. This change of having the wrestling do the talk changed in the early 80's and the man responsible for this was none other than Hulk Hogan.

As soon as Hulk Hogan beat The Iron Sheik an era was born, he changed the shape of wrestling and it's something no one has been able to do since. As good as Ric Flair was he didn't have the ability to change the face of wrestling like Hogan did. It takes a great wrestler to do what Ric Flair did, but it's a whole different playing field to do what Hulk Hogan did. Not only was he a huge wrestling draw, the biggest wrestling has ever seen but he was a cultural icon. Ric Flair was a big draw also, but anyone outside of wrestling never heard of the guy. Whilst with Hulk Hogan if you were to ask anyone if they had heard of Hulk Hogan they would have recognised the name. His fame inside the ring even made people in Hollywood take notice of him, and he starred in several movies.

Hogan is often under criticism for his act that he played out for several years was pretty much the same thing. But, look back at the sold out arenas if someone can do the same act for that amount of time and still get the biggest reactions I have ever seen. When Ric Flair walked down that aisle there is no doubt he was getting huge cheers, but he didn't have the drawing power of Hulk Hogan. At Wrestlemania 3 Hulk Hogan was able to sell out a 93,000 arena. Not one person was sitting down in that arena.

A key piece of evidence into determining who was the bigger legend would be the promotion war in which WWF had with NWA, it was almost like the two biggest stars were facing off then. Ric Flair for the NWA and Hulk Hogan for the WWF, the NWA still had that old mentality and wrestlers who believed in that. NWA was by far the better wrestling product, but thanks to Hogan he had changed the direction of the business. The war was eventually won by WWF, because the NWA couldn't match the drawing power and pure entertainment value of Hulk Hogan.

A key factor into having a long and successful career in wrestling is the ability to recreate yourself as a top star and to stay fresh in the mind of the fans. Because your power as a top draw can really only last so long, its why people fade off into obscurity and find themselves not being in the Main event scene. Hulk Hogan was one of these people who were able to recreate themselves, in 1996 he did the unthinkable and turned heel. Traded in his red and yellow bandana for the black and white of now. A very smart move for Hulk Hogan, he was once cheered to the level that your ears would ring for days, now to be booed to the level that the hatred for this man would make you want to see him get his ass kicked. Which is after all the motivation of the heel - it's their purpose.

Due to this heel turn Hogan was still a top draw, and WCW's best. But not only that, it was proving that after 17 years plus in the wrestling business he was still the biggest draw in wrestling. The WCW was winning in the rating wars against WWF largely thanks to the effect that Hulk Hogan had on the company. It was obvious to see that Hulk Hogan was the man in WCW, and not even Ric Flair was on the level of Hogan. People can put this down to the politics of Hogan, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Look at the facts, before Hogan arrived in WWF he was leading the race for that company. Whilst WCW headlined by Ric Flair was struggling, when Hogan made the jump to WCW that was leading the race as WWE were finding life difficult without Hogan, and after all the years of that we have seen Hogan, even as up to date as 2005 when he returned to WWE, he still got a massive reaction. Whilst it's noticeable in the final years of Flair's career that he wasn't getting the reaction he once did, which never even exceeded Ric Flairs crowd reaction then.

Although most of Flair and Hogan's credentials in the wrestling business are the same, one thing was different between the two. The different thing is that no one could get a crowd reaction that matched up to Hulk Hogan's reaction, and after all it's the fans that matter in wrestling. Simply put Hulk Hogan is a cultural icon and a true wrestling legend.

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