WWE brings out Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania for no reason
KofiMania is expected to run wild near the end of WrestleMania 35, but the WWE made a weak attempt at reviving Hulkamania as the show opened.
WrestleMania is always an event where the WWE tries to bring back aging stars to pop some nostalgia for the crowd. There’s arguably not a bigger nostalgia act in the company than Hulk Hogan. Despite all his faults, the company trotted him own to solid cheers to open WrestleMania 35.
Hogan was suspended for three years by the company after a sex tape featuring racist language was released in 2015. He was reinstated to the company on a limited basis in July of 2018. He’d made appearances in other countries and during Hall of Fame proceedings prior to showing up on stage with Alexa Bliss, but his WrestleMania 35 appearance marked his first return to a live WWE ring inside the United States.
The MetLife Stadium greeted Hogan with cheers, but it certainly wasn’t the type of ovation he received in previous years. There were no audible boos, and perhaps the WWE will be satisfied with that sort of reaction for their Hall of Famer.
The real question is why WWE chose the biggest show of the season to bring Hogan back. Perhaps they did it because they could count on fans to pop for Hogan given the optimism surrounding the rest of the card. Trotting Hogan out in front of a smaller crowd would have risked the chances of the crowd turning on him.
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The unfortunate truth is that the WWE was always going to bring Hogan back. The fact that they did it without forcing him to really apologize to the WWE Universe is a real disappointment. Hulkamania will never run wild as it once did. Perhaps that’s a sign of maturity for WWE fans in the year 2019.