Hollywood Hulk Hogan

It's the plain truth, brother--Hollywood Hulk Hogan went from a fat, wrestling-obsessed schoolboy to a wealthy, wrestling-obsessed grown man. And it's as plain as back surgery after a body slam that Hulkamania has made its mark on wrestling history. Hulk and his producers seem to have had younger listeners in mind in this breathless telling of Terry Bollea's life as truly foul language and explicit details of violence are skimmed over. Hogan does cop to the entertainment aspect of the matches, after learning the hard, bone-breaking way of the tough gyms. But brother, if you've ever wanted to hear a fun, sanitized view of the wrestling world, give the Hulkster a listen. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

October 28, 2002
If the career of any single individual could serve as a microcosm of the changes in the "sport" of wrestling over the past 40 years, it would have to be that of Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea in real life). His autobiography is an honest, albeit incomplete, look at the many phases in Hogan's career that will be fascinating only to Hogan's many fans. Hogan covers all the key moments in his long career: his early incarnation in the late 1970s as "Super Destroyer"; the birth of the good-guy Hulk Hogan persona; joining forces with Vince McMahon Jr. in the hugely popular WrestleMania events of the 1980s; his admission in the early 1990s of his steroid use; and his current reincarnation as a good guy with McMahon's sleeker World Wrestling Entertainment. To their credit, Hogan and co-writer Friedman do provide some glimpses of the often seedy world of "professional" wrestling (fights are staged and scripted; wrestlers often cut themselves to produce bloody wounds), but it isn't anything that everyone doesn't already know. While Hogan has come out against what he calls "Jerry Springer tits-and-ass style wrestling," he never explains why he has spent the last few years reviving his career with the man who invented, and continues to actively promote, that very same style—Vince McMahon Jr. (Nov.)Forecast:This will be an appealing read for Hogan's still-sizable fan base, and sales should be helped by promotion on the publisher's popular cable TV wrestling shows.