My first exposure to Hogan was actually through film. When I was toddler, Hogan was making admittedly mediocre family films. Still, they didn't cast average joes in the lead, so I could appreciate Hogan as a big deal. Plus once I started getting into the Rocky movies I always dug Thunderlips.
I became a fan of Pro Wrestling right around the build-up to Road Wild '99. It's a PPV that hardly anyone ever talks about, but it featured one of the biggest matches in WCW history between Hogan-Nash. It's a rivalry nobody talks about and when they do it's all about the Fingerpoke of Doom, but it's a rivalry that had been brewing for two years and marked an end of an era for the company.
By this point Bischoff was well and truly burnt out and would ultimately be let go. This saw Russo come in and the first thing he did was take Hogan off of TV. Then Russo would lose his position for a time and suddenly the focus would be back on Hogan as they were building towards a Hogan-Sid match, only for WCW to hit another reset under Bischoff-Russo. It was a discombobulating time to be sure so when Hogan walked out on WCW at Bash at the Beach 2000, it didn't feel like as big a deal as it should have.
I was excited to see the nWo in the WWF but the company was in a weird place after the botched Invasion angle and it seemed like the poor creative that hurt that angle was still alive and well. I actually wasn't too keen on turning Hogan babyface, I saw how well it went in WCW and while it hit different with Wrestlemania being a homecoming, I didn't think it would last and sure enough the big babyface push only lasted a month.
I never thought much of the Mr. America gimmick. The Hogan/McMahon rivalry led to a perfectly fine sports entertainment match at Wrestlemania XIX but it just felt like such an unnecessary turn of events and was a dull way to end Hogan's second stint in the company.
The actual highlight for me was his 2005 run where he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame, takes down the evil foreigners one last time before having a dream match with HBK. I also thought it was one of the few interesting things Michaels did and while everyone remembers Shawn's ridiculous bumps, I thought it actually served the match. Shawn already took some crazy bumps, if ever you were going to dial it up, it'd be against Hogan.
I barely remember the 2006 program with Orton and he wouldn't resurface again until 2010s TNA. I was really active on here around that time and I remember with TNA we all wanted it to be the sports-based alternative to WWE that showcased the athleticism of it's performers. There were a few who were optimistic about Hogan-Bischoff but it was pretty obvious they were going to take the company down a different path. Still, I don't buy that they killed TNA - it was more a case of nothing ventured nothing gained. Hogan lending his name to TNA gave them a lot of stroke, the issue was that he was limited in what he could do and you still had that Russo/Bischoff creative that was like oil and water.
While the show was a mess, it was still note-worthy and every now and then you'd get a quality MCMG, Beer Money, Kurt Angle, Mr. Anderson, AJ Styles etc. match to get into.
So I may have only caught the tail end, but even then he was still able to have a big impact and commanded interest on a level very few performers are able to.
