When Hulk Hogan passed away last week, there were a lot of conflicting emotions from fans. On one hand, he is the most famous wrestling star of all-time. He took the business to the stratosphere during the Hulkamania days of the 1980s, then helped change it again during his time as a heel leading the nWo in mid-90s WCW. But to capture the whole legacy, good and bad, you can’t help but look at the man behind the character. Terry Bollea was a flawed man. There was, of course, his racism scandal, which severely hurt his reputation. Beyond that, Hogan loved to tell tall tales about his career so out there that they could easily be proven as lies. Then there was his biggest lie of all. During a TV interview with Arsenio Hall, Hulk Hogan said he didn’t do steroids. When the truth came out, it hurt WWE just as much as it did the man who said it.
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Hulk Hogan Lied About His Steroid Usage On ‘The Arsenio Hall Show’
Vince McMahon Was Upset That Hulk Hogan Didn’t Admit The Truth
- Dr. George Zahorian was being investigated for selling steroids to wrestlers.
- Hogan told Arsenio Hall that he only used steroids a few times to help heal from injuries.
- Vince McMahon mentioned in his Netflix docuseries that he wished Hogan had come clean.
In the 1980s, Hulk Hogan was pop culture. He was on talk shows, he had a cover story in Sports Illustrated, he hosted SNL, and he even had his own cartoon. But in the early 1990s, things began to change thanks to steroids. A story broke about WWE doctor George Zahorian selling steroids to wrestlers. Other stars, such as “Superstar” Billy Graham, were coming out and admitting that they’d done the drug, but when Hulk Hogan appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1991, he lied through his teeth. He told the host:
“I’m not a steroid abuser and I do not use steroids.”
Hogan did say that he’d used steroids a few times to help him heal from injuries, but that was it. Decades later, Vince McMahon spoke about the talk show appearance on the Mr. McMahon Netflix documentary, saying:
“My suggestion to him is to come clean. That’s not what happened. It was like, ‘Oh God, please. Just tell the truth. It’s so much easier… When you do stuff like that and don’t tell the truth then it’s an open door for people to come get you.” (h/t Fightful)
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Hogan Finally Admitted That He Took Steroids In 1994
He Left WWE The Year Before After A Feud With Yokozuna
- Hulk Hogan was much smaller when he returned to WWE at WrestleMania 9.
- Hogan testified in court that McMahon didn’t sell steroids to him.
- The Hulkster’s steroid usage hurt his legacy.
By 1993, Hulk Hogan was rarely appearing in WWE, and despite still getting a pretty big reaction from fans, he wasn’t quite the megastar he used to be. When he showed up at WrestleMania 9, he was significantly smaller than the guy who looked like he was built out of boulders. It wasn’t hard to see that this was because he’d stopped taking steroids, which drastically altered his body. The Immortal Hulk Hogan suddenly seemed very fallible. After a feud with Yokozuna that year, Hogan quietly left WWE, with Vince McMahon thinking that Hulkamania had run its course.
Still, a year later, Hogan was there during Vince McMahon’s steroid trial in 1994 to support his former boss. It was then that he finally admitted that he had taken steroids for years with the intent of getting bigger. Although he protected McMahon, saying that Vince had never given him the drug, the damage was done. The hero to millions of kids who acted like a superhero on TV was a liar who shot himself up with steroids and denied it until he no longer could. It nearly destroyed his legacy and took WWE down with it.
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WWE’s Main Event Scene Suffered For Years
An Era Of Smaller Wrestlers Took Over The New Generation
- Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart became the new faces of WWE.
- WWE lost its larger-than-life era of superstars.
- It took the Attitude Era to bring WWE back.
When Hulk Hogan left WWE, the company needed to find a new way forward. For the first time in a decade, the Hulkster wasn’t the face of the promotion. With steroids now illegal, the era of the musclebound big men dominating WWE was over. In their place were much smaller wrestlers, led by the likes of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. Now, from a pure wrestling perspective, this was a good thing, as the Hitman and the Heartbreak Kid became two of the greatest technical performers of all-time. But WWE didn’t succeed because of wrestling match quality. It worked because of its larger-than-life superstars who were now gone. Wrestlers with a very muscular physique had been looked at with awe, but now they were looked at with suspicion. Everything had suddenly got too real and the men behind the gimmicks couldn’t be trusted by fans.
WWE’s popularity saw a serious decline in the mid-90s, allowing WCW to find an avenue to top them, ironically thanks to Hulk Hogan when he joined the company and formed the nWo as a heel in 1996. The steroid scandal and Hulk Hogan’s lies nearly destroyed WWE. It took a miracle known as the Attitude Era for Vince McMahon’s company to rebound, and although a roster of wrestlers with huge muscles would eventually return, every wrestler who denied using steroids to get there was not believed so easily as before. Hulk Hogan had taught fans not to trust what a superstar said outside of the ring.
