Hoax Hogan

Whatcha gonna do when Muscle Power runs wild on you, brother?

Hulk Hogan was one of the few men who crossed over from Professional Wrestling to movies and animation in the U.S., and was also the poster boy of the American Wrestling Association when it was the territory with the most surface area, the WWF as it was monopolizing the business in the country, and WCW when he had one of professional wrestling's most famous face heel turns when he became the leader of the nWo. Though he was ultimately defeated by Antonio Inoki, Hogan was also the first man to win the IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament to become the number one contender for Inoki's belt, and became infamous for his chants of "Ichiban" even after his loss in Japan. Since The '80s, he's made a mark on the wrestling industry and on pop culture as a whole, being the subject of many expies, parodies, and homages, especially during The '90s, though this trend continues even today. This trope is about all of the Hogan-like characters who show up in media.

Common traits of these expies include:

• First of all, being a pro wrestler; a big, strong, muscular one. Or at least can fight as one.
• Having blond (and sometimes long) hair and Manly Facial Hair, similar to those sported by Hogan himself.
• Having the habit of Battle Stripping, usually by ripping off his T-shirt before a fight or as a presentation.
• Being an Eagleland good representative or otherwise, a known patriot for their country. They may have a Flag Speedo or Wearing a Flag on Your Head as part of their outfit.
• Having a big ego (of small name or hidden depths variant), of course.
• Having some of the poses or mannerisms as part of their personality, like Hulking Up and/or Giving Someone the Pointer Finger.
• In some cases, their clothes are colored as his Face/Hulkamania/AWA/WWE persona (red and yellow), or as his Heel/Hollywood/WCW persona (black and white). Red and yellow are still evil if based on his run in New Japan.

Sub-trope of Stock Parodies and No Celebrities Were Harmed. Compare All-American Face.

Even though his stage name is allegedly based on him, he should not be confused with another Hulk. Also, despite having the same surname, shouldn't be confused with Australian actor Paul Hogan, nor the title characters of the Hogan's Heroes or The Hogan Family series.

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Say your prayers and read these examples, brother!!

Anime & Manga

• Neptuneman from Kinnikuman. Originally appearing as a villain, like many such characters he turned over a new leaf after losing to Kinnikuman. He was modeled after Hogan and even used an Axe Bomber-type clothesline (which Hogan was more known for using in Japan) as his trademark move. Different from him, he comes from the UK instead of the US. The American Tour arc briefly featured a minor character named Hulk Dogan who bore a similar moustache but existed only to job to Beautiful Rhodes.
• A Hogan-like fighter appeared briefly in Dragon Ball as one of the participants of the World Tournament along with Son Goku and Yamcha.
• Bask from Fist of the North Star was an area governor for Jakoh's Tentei Empire, who fought Kenshiro and was killed by him. Bask's design is based on Hogan, mostly having his trademark mustache.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, the man impersonating Captain Tennille bears a coincidental resemblance to Hulk Hogan, being a blond muscleman with a mustache and a red-white-and-blue outfit. The English dub of the anime adaptation capitalized on this coincidence by having the captain address Jotaro as "Brother" at one point.

Comic Books

• The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk easily defeated a wrestler who claimed to be the one, true Hulk and was a clear Expy of Hulk Hogan in Marvel Comics Presents #45.
• One of Robo-Robotnik's Body Backup Drives in issue 75 of Archie Comics Sonic The Hedgehog is clearly based on Hogan, muscular with a handlebar moustache and sunglasses.

Films — Live-Action

• The Wrestler: The main character, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, is an Expy of Hulk Hogan.
• Rocky III has Hogan Adam Westing as a parody of himself called Thunderlips who fights Rocky in a charity match.

Literature

• In Parasite Code, Wolf Rogan is a literal Hulk Hogan impersonator, with long, blonde hair, a yellow-and-red color scheme, a propensity to call people "brother" and go for big boots and leg drops, and a power that enables him to force a fight to follow the rules of pro wrestling.

Live-Action TV

• Cyndee in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt suffers from 'Hulkamania'', a condition that causes her to occasionally act and speak like Hulk Hogan. She was believed to have been cured until becoming enraged at the Reverend's trial and it suddenly manifested.
• The episode "Basher Malone" of Tales from the Darkside tells the story of an All-American Face with blond hair and a mustache taking on a demonic luchador. Considering it was the series finale, it had to end with a happy note.

Professional Wrestling

• A Ur-Example is "Superstar" Billy Graham, a famous wrestling legend from The '70s and The '80s who has a great charisma and flamboyant outfits and personality, as well having a mustache in the 80s until today. He not just inspired Hogan's look and mannerisms, he was also his mentor and inspiration to other wrestlers like Randy Savage. But for those ones who don't know him, he could be considered as a Hogan expy for them.
• Jesse Ventura took the look and gimmick after Billy Graham but still used it before Hulk Hogan. Ventura was simultaneously more macho and more camp than Hogan.
• Lex Luger started off by subverting this as he's a big jacked up blonde wrestler to begin with, then started playing it a little straighter in Jim Crockett Promotions (the company that would later become WCW), since they wanted their own Hogan. This didn't pan out, mainly because Luger isn't a very good Face, and he'd leave WCW to join the real Hogan in the WWF. Not long after he got there Hogan left under acrimonious terms and here began Vince McMahon's quest to find the next Hogan in "Made in the U.S.A." Lex Luger, playing this trope completely straight against the "evil Japanese" WWF champion Yokozuna^note Who was actually part of the Samoan Dynasty and from San Francisco. This didn't work either, mainly due to plain old bad booking.
• Scott Steiner copied the the Billy Graham super star gimmick after Hogan had, specifically to antagonize Hogan in WCW.
• The Velveteen Dream had some attires that resembled Hogan, usually having the colors of the Hulkamania Era (yellow and red), as well some mannerisms as ripping his t-shirt and even using the Leg Drop as finisher sometimes. This was even the subject of a fan-made custom titantron for him.
• In WrestleMania 36, The Firefly Fun House match between Bray Wyatt and John Cena had a section when both were part of The '80s Saturday Night Main Event show with Wyatt in his Gym outfit mimicking and quoting Hulk Hogan in his Hulkster persona. Later in another section, they recreated WCW/nWo Monday Nitro where Wyatt became Eric Bischoff and now Cena appeared as Hogan in his Hollywood persona (including his "belt guitar" intro).
• In 2015, after being eliminated from Royal Rumble before entering the ring, Curtis Axel received a lot of supports from fans and even fellow wrestlers. After that event, he created an angle of being "the real winner of Royal Rumble", since he wasn't eliminated from the fight, which led to his own trend as #Axelmania. After becoming face, he continued the trend posing as Hogan, also making team with his friend Damien Sandow (posing as "Macho Mandow") as "The Meta Powers" (parody of The Mega Powers). Sadly this was killed off a few months later after the real Hogan was kicked out for a leaked racist rant, ending the Hogan/Savage expies.
• "Stone Cold" Steve Austin impersonated Hogan in his ECW debut, mocking his mannerisms and wearing a "Steve-a-mania" shirt.
• Prior to the match between Kurt Angle and The Big Show at Backlash 2000, Angle cut a promo declaring himself to be the only hero the audience had left. Cue Show coming in to "Real American" and doing a spot on Hogan impersonation, even using his moves during the match.

Video Games

• Muscle Power from World Heroes series is a blatant rip-off of Hogan, having not just the look but the personality and even the intro of ripping off his T-shirt before a fight. Even when the developers said he wasn't a Hogan expy and changed some of his attributes (like shaving his mustache since World Heroes 2) to avoid copyright suits from the WWF/WWE, he's still considered his expy, and one of the most famous of them.
  • In an interesting case, there's a M.U.G.E.N recreation of Hulk Hogan where the creator used Muscle Power as a base.
• Fire Pro Wrestling series had various Hogan expies under names as Axe Duggan and Ichiban (Hogan's Red Baron when he wrestled in Japan).
• The '80s Konami's wrestling game The Main Event had Conan The Great, a Hogan expy that also sounds like Conan the Barbarian. His portrait was just a drawing (possibly a digitized image) of Hulk Hogan, but with white hair and mustache.
• Sega's Arcade and Mega Drive Wrestle War had Titan Morgan as the Hogan expy of this game.
• Street Fighter:
  • Alex from Street Fighter III doesn't share as many obvious physical similarities as most examples on this list, but was confirmed by the developers to be directly inspired by Hogan and still has some elements of him. He rips his t-shirt off before fights, and has a special intro against with André the Giant expy Hugo — a nod to Hogan and Andre's staredown during their iconic fight at WrestleMania III.
  • Zangief's Battle Outfit in Street Fighter V is a clear reference to "Macho Man" Randy Savage. However, one of his palettes is a Hogan reference with blonde hair and beard instead of brown. As referenced on the CFN website:
    Sgt. Ashida: For color 12...looks like he's ready to rip his T-shirt off.
  • There is also an extremely minor background character by the name of Pulk Hogen, who appeared in a single piece of supplementary material for Street Fighter III, which details him losing a match against Zangief, going on a rampage in the audience, and getting knocked out by Sean, who was in attendance. Later, he received a character profile on the Shadaloo CRI, which gives him a backstory that is basically identical to Hulk Hogan's, including being a former bodybuilder, being in a rock band before becoming a wrestler, being from Florida and having the birthday of August 11.
• Bass Armstrong from Dead or Alive series is a big pro wrestler who is very famous in-universe and has a daughter, Tina, who inherited his wrestling skills, being mostly his participation in Dead or Alive tournaments a way to stop her from her desires in every tournament. Bass is a clear expy to Hogan in many aspects, especially that he mimics the Hollywood Hogan persona. Tina also seems based on Hogan's daughter Brooke, but it's more a coincidence than a real expy.
• The sequel to the first Crime Fighters called Vendetta (1991), has a Hogan expy on Hawk, a former pro-wrestler part of the Cobras, a gang that antagonizes the Dead End Gang, who has to rescue his protegee Kate from them.
• Victor Ortega in Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II is the Final Boss, appearing as a cameo in previous games. The Capcom Wrestling Association's original founder and owner who had also doubled as its first undefeated and undisputed champion. Even when he's more based on "Superstar" Billy Graham (Hogan's mentor and trainer), Ortega has some of Hogan's mannerisms and poses.
• Gigas-type Shadows from Persona 3 and onwards are giant wrestlers sporting Hogan's signature hairstyle and mustache wearing a poorly-sized Shadow mask that still leaves their mouth and mustache visible. Their skill animation is Giving Someone the Pointer Finger and their attack animation has them performing the Axe Bomber.
• Mister Torgue High-Five Flexington (yes, that's his name) from Borderlands, the founder of the Torgue corporation. Said company specializes in explosive weapons, and the character is full of Testosterone Poisoning and censored profanity. He also has a sensitive, chivalrous side. That said, he's more of a "Macho Man" Randy Savage parody that of Hogan.
• Dickson from Xenoblade Chronicles 1 looks just like the Hulkster. Since the game's English dub was done in England, he's basically a Cockney version of Hulk Hogan. He's also a grouch and an undercover villain.
• Rawk Hawk in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a muscular anthropomorphic bird who is the champion of a Glitz Pit, at least until Mario shows up. He's yellow, has a huge ego, and in battle will point to the sky before performing certain attacks. In fact, he's called Hawk Hogan in Spanish.
• Max Morgan is one of the opponents of the wrestler Masaru in Live A Live. Max stands out with his blond hair and moustache, red do-rag, and American Flag pants. His quick backstory even says he became a Hollywood star after conquering the wrestling ring.
• Vince from Dragon Quest XI is a downplayed example. His physique, long hair, dew rag, and accent in the English dub make him resemble Hulk Hogan, but he's brunette, squinty-eyed, and has a mostly calmer demeanor.
• One of the Mid Bosses of Burning Fight is Tom Anderson, a blonde wrestler that fights the player characters with wrestling moves. He's a direct expy of Hogan, having the same haircut and even the colors of the Hulkamania era (yellow and red), as well having the Axe Bomber as one of his attacks.
• In Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance, you meet the Throwing Overlord Logan in Chapter 1. While he's a Palette Swap of the Wrestler class, he's got a default color palette to match and he likes to call others "brother". His Overload is "Largest Throw XXL", which doubles his already impressive throwing range for 3 turns, making him a great Utility Party Member just for moving your units across the map.
• The Wrestler class's victory speech upon completing Streets of Rogue is a nod to Hogan, telling the crowd to stay out of trouble and eat their broccoli. He then does Hulk's iconic "I can't hear you!" before admitting he really can't hear due wrestling injuries.
• Beowulf from Skullgirls has a fair bit of Hogan about him. He's a professional wrestler, he adopts a number of Hulk's mannerisms (up to and including "Wulfamania"), and just like Hulk and André the Giant at WrestleMania III, his most famous match saw him take down a giant - though in Beowulf's case, that's where the story diverges into a Whole-Plot Reference to his namesake. Incidentally, Beowulf also pastiches a number of other wrestlers: he does his own version of Big Van Vader's "Vader Time" catchphrase, he can reference The Rock's "Finally, the Rock has come back to [X]" line with the location being whatever stage he's fighting on at the time, and one of his moves alludes to Shawn Michaels.
• The Brooter, a party member from Wrestle Quest is basically a black Hogan. His quotes parody Hogan's bragging about his 24 inch pythons, the size and breed of snake changing constantly and he uses a variant of Hogan's big boot as one of his gimmick moves.

Web Original

• Dice, Camera, Action!: The slightly goofy evil counterparts of the party known as The Awful Crew was sent to cause evil in Port Nyanzaru. They somehow encountered a pasta resturant run by an Expy of Hulk Hogan with an expy of John Cena acting as a bouncer.
• Vinesauce Joel has the recurring character Bulk Bogan, who resembles Hulk Hogan with googly eyes, a smeared-looking face, and an unidentifiable accent. He has appeared in Joel's playthroughs of Hard Time, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and The You Testament before starring as a main character in Meme House.

Western Animation

• While the name may speak of someone else, Thor Throat from ChalkZone had all the mannerisms and personality quirks of Hulk Hogan's heel persona. His ChalkZoner doppelganger turned the bombastic personality up even more so but embodied the more heroic aspects of the Hogan character as a face. Two for the price of one!
• One of the spoof aesops from Space Cats had them introduce a wrestler named Bulk Bogan who looks just like the Hulkster. The point of this Aesop is that you should never call a professional wrestler a "weenie". Then Tom does just that and they quickly end the episode before we see the consequences.
• An odd example in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "Hey, Water You Doing?" where the father of a mermaid princess named Hariel (guess who she's an expy of) resembles and sounds a lot like the Hulkster himself. The king forbids Hariel's love for Billy and has him sentenced to be cooked on a rotisserie, but he was really Uvula the Sea Hag disguised as the king. In another twist, this was all a story told by Billy.
• Ben 10: Alien Force introduces Rath, a tiger-like alien whose personality is based off of Hulk Hogan and fights using wrestling moves like Piledrivers and Armbars.
• One episode of Code Monkeys has Game-A-Vision entering the AVWL (All-Valley Wrestling League), and to hedge their bets (and because most of the employees suck at wrestling), Mr. Larrity brings in a whole bunch of Expys of famous 80s pro wrestlers. One of them is "Bulk Brogan", who ends up being paired with Mary, and ends up cockblocking Dave at a club.
• The Jackie Chan Adventures episode "The J-Tots" involves Chang forming his own Evil Counterpart of the J-Team. The wrestler of the group, Bob "The Bopper" Halfcock, bares a striking resemblance to Hulk Hogan.
• Pound Puppies (2010): A One-Shot Character named "The Smashinator" appeared at the beginning of the episode "Rebound". He could not stand Rebound's hyper personality (having been driven to tears) and brought her to Shelter 17. The wrestler was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
• One episode of Animaniacs had a brief appearance from a blond professional wrestler named Bulk Logan.

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