A large part of my childhood is gone.

Hulk Hogan, who was the face of professional wrestling throughout the 1980s and 1990s, passed away after suffering cardiac arrest in his home.

He was 71.

Born Terry Bollea, Hulk Hogan began his professional wrestling career in the late 1970s and quickly found his way to the WWF, where he wrestled Andre the Giant in Shea Stadium.  He left the WWF when he won the role of “Thunderlips” in Rocky III (WWF owner, Vince McMahon Sr., would not sanction his decision), and when the film came out, he was pushed as a top star in the AWA.  The WWF, now run by Vince McMahon Jr., brought Hogan back in late 1983, and within a month, he was crowned the WWF World Heavyweight Champion.   The rest, as they say, is history.

The WWF boomed with Hogan on top, and he became a household name.  Headlining the first nine Wrestlemanias, Hogan transcended the industry, and though his foray into acting generated mixed results, he was the face of the most considerable boom period of pro wrestling. 

Hogan left the WWF in 1993 and, in 1994, signed with its rival, World Championship Wrestling, where he again was a main event talent.  The early results were mixed, but in 1996, Hogan shocked the wrestling world by turning heel and forming the New World Order. This faction was so successful it propelled WCW to become the premier wrestling organization in the United States for two years. 

Hogan controversially left WCW in 2000 and returned to the now-named WWE in 2001 as part of a rebooted NWO.  He headlined Wrestlemania X8 against The Rock, and would appear sporadically for the organization afterward.  He found a later career as a reality star in “Hogan Knows Best”, but was involved in a scandal where he used the “N Word” on a leaked tape that led to his temporary “cancellation”.  While he would be welcomed back into the WWE, his revisionist history of sorts cost him fans, and in his last WWE appearance, the inaugural Netflix Raw debut, he was booed mercilessly. 

Regardless of the complexity of his life, his worldwide impact was undeniable. 

We here at Notinhalloffame.com

The WWE Hall of Fame has rectified one of their biggest omissions as Lex Luger will be part of the 2025 Class.

It was announced by WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, who visited Luger while he was working on his mobility with Diamond Dallas Page.  Rhodes surprised Luger with the news, much to his delight.

After his professional football career ended, Luger was trained for wrestling by Hiro Matsuda, and he would shortly join Championship Wrestling from Florida where he wrestled for nearly two years before joining Jim Crockett Promotions and adding “The Total Package” to his already colorful name.  Luger joined the Four Horsemen, and would win the United States Championship, by beating Nikita Koloff, though he would lose it to Dusty Rhodes due to a mistake by his own manager, J.J. Dillon.  This led to an eventual face turn for Luger, who formed a tag team with Barry Windham, and they won the World Tag Team Titles, only for Windham to turn on him.

Luger spent most of 1988 chasing Ric Flair for the World Title, but was unable to unseat the Nature Boy, though he beat Windham for his second United States Title.  He turned heel again, but that was brief as his close friend Sting was injured, and he subbed in for him in multiple World Title shots against Flair.  Luger dropped the U.S. Title in late 1989 to Stan Hansen, though won it back two months later.

In 1991, Luger finally became the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, defeating Windham for the vacant strap following Ric Flair’s departure from the company.  It was the beginning of a lackluster title run, as Luger never beat Flair for the belt, and the roster was depleted.  Rarely defensing the title, he lost it Sting in 1992, and finally he was WWE bound.

Luger was originally slated to compete for Vince McMahon’s World Bodybuilding Federation, though that was a way to have him appear on TV without breaking his no compete clause.  He finally made his in-ring debut in 1993 as “The Narcissist”, a vain heel character, but on July 4 of that year, he body slammed Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid, catapulting him into an All-American baby face.

Luger was unable to unseat Yokozuna in title shots at Summer Slam ’93 and Wrestlemania X, and he would slide down the card, eventually settling in a tag team with The British Bulldog.  His contract expired, and after appearing at Summer Slam 1995, he appeared at the debut of WCW’s inaugural Monday Night Nitro.

Luger remained with WCW until it folded and was purchased by the WWE.  His lengthy second run in WCW was fruitful, generating many main events, titles and copious high-profile matches.  Following the death of WCW, Luger would work on the independent scene, but tragedy best the “Total Package.”

In his personal life, Luger suffered a drug addiction, which was passed on to his then girlfriend, Liz Hulette who passed away from a drug overdose.  In 2007, he served a nerve impingement in his next that led him to paralysis, which he has dealt with since.

While Luger’s run in WCW far surpassed his time in the WWE, his overall body of work is worthy of this induction.  He will be removed from our notinhalloffame.com list of those to consider for the WWE Hall of Fame following the revamp of the list after this year’s Wrestlemania.

We here at notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Lex Luger for his impending WWE Hall of Fame induction

Buff Bagwell’s one week stint in the WWE may have been a disaster, but Buff Bagwell had a ten year run in WCW where he won many titles, became an entertaining performer and was on the cusp of main event stardom. It didn’t happen, but he did a lot more in World Championship Wrestling than most people remember.

Should Konnan ever get into the WWE Hall of Fame, it certainly won’t be for his handful of matches as the original Max Moon.  The Cuban born wrestler achieved his first level of super stardom in the AAA promotion of Mexico where he excelled as both a heel and a face.  He would later join WCW and after a few years there became one of the more popular stars there.  Konnan has always been outspoken and though his has caused him issues in the past, he often raises questions that should be brought to the forefront.  It will be interesting to see if there will ever be a groundswell of Hall support for one of the most over Latin wrestlers of all time.

Brian Adams was brought in as “Crush” to replace an ailing Ax in Demolition.  The last incarnation of Demolition just wasn’t the same, but Brian Adams would remain tied to the WWE for years after with various incarnations of the Crush gimmick and had a stable role in mid card feuds.  He was big enough to work as a monster yet not too big to work effectively with smaller wrestlers in even give and take contests.  Adams would later go to WCW where he languished until his Kronik pairing with Bryan Clarke.  That tandem had a failed final run in WWE and Adams wasn’t seen after.  He has since passed away, but he had a very solid career in pro wrestling.  It may not be Hall of Fame material though.

How did Scott Norton never work for the WWE?  With his size and power, he would have seemed like he would have fit in brilliantly with some of the other power based wrestlers that Vince had.  Don’t weep for Scott Norton though…although he was not pushed to the extent of his abilities in WCW, he reached the highest level in New Japan Pro Wrestling winning the World Title there and becoming one of the top American draws for that company.  Still, would Norton have been one of those many wrestlers that the WWE would make into a huge American star, or would he have been in the lot that saw the WWE turn a brilliant performer into a laughable cartoon?  Looks like Scott Norton feared the latter, as he never got a paycheck from Stamford.

Finally wrestling a reduced schedule, unlike many of the stars of the 1990’s from New Japan had more than just an appearance or two in the United States.  The Japanese star wrestled frequently for WCW and was even the NWA World Heavyweight Champion while the legendary promotion was endorsed by WCW.

In some ways Ron Harris & Don Harris were a journeyman tag team, but the identical Harris Twins did have a certain level of success in the two largest wrestling promotions in North America. They were at their biggest in the WWE, as Skull & 8-Ball, members of, and then appropriated the name as the Disciples of Apocalypse. In WCW, they were the unfortunately named Patrick and Gerald (a play of Patterson & Brisco in the WWF) as Creative Control, but under their own names they did win the World Championship there. As they were saddled often with silly gimmicks (Creative Control, Blu Twins etc.) it makes sense that they were just themselves, which was not that far from their DOA persona, they would probably have been more successful.