Hulk Hogan was one of the biggest merchandise movers in the 1980s, but imagine if WWF had the internet to help with sales.
This was the topic of conversation during Hogan’s recent interview with Alfred Konuwa of Forbes, where the former world champion predicted what wrestlers would have been on social media, specifically Twitter. Hogan thinks that Roddy Piper and Randy Savage would have done quite well on the platform, but believes Andre The Giant would have disliked it.
Well, Piper would’ve been brutal on Twitter. Piper would’ve been giving everybody the middle finger on Twitter all the time. I think, “ooooh yeah, the Macho Man Randy Savage! Dig it!” He’d have been great on Twitter. God, there’s just a bunch of guys that would’ve been. I don’t know about Andre. His whole thing was, “no!” He was always—everybody came up for autograph—“no!” I don’t know how Andre would’ve been on Twitter, but I know Piper and “Mach” would’ve been great.
Shifting back to the original topic, Hogan broke down the business of the 1980s and how WWF at the time was outselling the car industry at the time. He wonders how much bigger the numbers could have been had the internet been around.
Well, I know we had three years in a row where with Hulk Hogan merchandise and all the stuff that WWE was rolling out. We had a couple billion-dollar years and we beat the car industry back in the day in the ‘80s; Chrysler, Chevrolet and Ford. We generated more revenue than they did, and that was with no internet. That was mail-in stuff, 1-800-numbers, 1-900 numbers, venue sales and stuff in all the major stores like Walmart and Target. I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like back in the day. I’m still working with WWE of course, and I’ve got crazy licensing deals and it’s kind of like what’s old is new again. Everybody wants the Hulk Hogan gear.
Elsewhere in the interview, Hogan gave his thoughts on Cody Rhodes losing to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 and how he thinks the American Nightmare will eventually get his revenge. You can read his comments by clicking here.