Ask some of the oldheads who didn’t die young, as many did—due, in part, to Hogan’s quashing of workers’ rights in pro wrestling—and they’ll say Hogan was the greatest of all time because he made the most money. That is “success.” Vague gestures toward “performance” and the crowds aside, pro wrestling success boils down to money, no matter who gets crushed to get it. Not being good at your job in any sort of mechanical sense and certainly not generosity or comradeliness, because Hogan rarely if ever gave much to those he performed with. All that we have is filthy lucre as a quantification of worth.
What an ethos for the age. What an aspirational mode of living. And it was all there from the 1980s onward, for anyone to see, a precursor to the terrible now of 2025.
— Flaming HydraReplicated under Fair Use from Heel, down by Flaming Hydra.