80's Hulkamania vs 90's Austin 316

[Guest oldschoolwrestling]

I was thinking about this the other day, and with SCSA possibly gone, it made me think of it a little more.  

 

Hogan took wrestling to a level never before seen back in the 80's.  He was considered wrestling.  Austin in the late 90's created a boom of his own, but as a longtime fan, I don't think he reached the levels of Hulkamania.  Hogan was far and above the biggest star.  SCSA, although the biggest star, shared some of the limelight with Undertaker, Rock and Mick Foley.  

 

So for those fans like myself who witnessed both, I was wondering how close you think SCSA came to the levels seen in the 80's by Hulk Hogan.

[Guest AM The Kid]

Well, normally I would go with Hogan. But since I was actually born in 1987, I never got the full Hulk Hogan effect. The Austin era was huge for me, but I think I prefer the Hogan era...no crash tv.

[Guest]

I'd say, first of all, that Hulk Hogan was a bigger "Cross-over" star the Stone Cold - the Hulkster was kind of like Mickey Mouse, everyone could get behind him ... Austin was more of an Anti-hero and didn't have a look that was incredibly popular with "everyone" (don't forget Hogan was huge in the era where Stallone and Schwarzanegger were huge movie stars, too).

 

But I think the wrestling scene was the inverse of what it was during the Austin era.

 

During the Hogan era, lots of really talented guys like Bret Hart, Ricky Steamboat, Kerry Von Erich, were putting on great undercard matches but never making it to the top of the game because the main events were full of Hogan and whatever huge monster they decided to build up as a threat to the Hulkster at that time.

 

During the Austin era, the main event matches were by and large really good. Although he was not the unquestioned champion for years at a time like Hogan, Austin looked like a better athelete because he had to contend with the likes of Foley, Rocky, HHH and Undertaker (ok maybe not a great athelete but at times a great ring general).  While the lower card was full of crash-tv and good wrestlers putting on bad matches, and bad wrestlers putting on AWFUL matches and backstage sketches.

 

Austin-era was probably the better of the 2.

[Guest areacode212]

I'm old enough to have seen both, and since I don't have a lot of time to type, let me just say that Hulkamania was cool...if you were 10 years old. By the time I was in 6th grade, it was considered very uncool to be a Hulk Hogan fan. We were all Savage marks and fans of the 4 Horsemen.

 

On the other hand, Austin's 1996 character was by far the COOLEST wrestling character ever.