Hollywood in Hulk

   Remember back in the '90s, when Hulk Hogan turned heel (bad guy wrestler) and reinvented himself as "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan? Well, neither do I. But I've read about it (it didn't last for very long.) But it turns out that there was a very, very good reason for that. Hulk Hogan debuted in 1979, back when the Hulk TV series was still on. Ah, so you can see where this is going. Well, very good.

   At that time, Hogan had to LICENSE (yes, in all caps like that) LICENSE his name from Marvel (his real name's neither really Hulk, nor Hogan) or at least his wrestling agency did. It was Ed McMahon (Sr.)'s idea, and it was he and the World Wrestling Federation to whom the name was LICENSED. This probably must have made it a bit of a hassle whenever he switched agencies (he had switched from WWF to AWA then back to WWF and then to WCW by the time he re-branded himself with all that new World order stuff in '96,) but I'm no expert in how wrestling agencies buy rights so I wouldn't know.

   I guess, to get out of that, so he wouldn't have to keep on paying LICENSING fees, he turned heel, called himself Hollywood Hulk Hogan, and shortened it to Hollywood Hogan. What a complicated and nefarious scheme. It didn't work, but, uh, there you go.

   (postscript: in 2005, he just bought the rights to the name "Hulk Hogan." If he could've done that all along, makes you wonder why he didn't.)