Hogan Takes Shots at Triple H

In an interview with www.Eagle1057.com out of Atlanta, GA, Hulk Hogan discussed Vince McMahon's negative reaction to his Celebrity Championship Wrestling program on CMT.

"All of a sudden, Vince McMahon raised his ugly head and thought we were threatening his company and he's been doing everything he can to shut us down," Hogan told the radio station. "We're just a reality show."

Hogan said he was worried the celebrities signed on for the show wouldn't take wrestling seriously because they were paid upfront, but he was positive about the experience.

Hogan claimed the likes of Regis Philbin inquired about being on the series when it was first announced, and now people from "all of the major companies" are calling wanting to be part of Celebrity Championship Wrestling.

Hogan mostly hyped CCW during the interview, but managed to take a shot at Triple H. When asked about the wrestling business' history of exposing its inner workings, Hogan said McMahon smartened up the public in the 80s when he said pro wrestling isn't a real sport, and then created the Tough Enough series on MTV. However, Hogan believes the worst offense of exposing the business is Vince McMahon keeping the WWE Title on Triple H for so many years, and that it exposes the wrestling business more than Celebrity Championship Wrestling does. "The biggest expose is putting the World Title on your son-in-law for the last five or six years," Hogan said. "That's probably the biggest expose I've ever seen keeping Triple H as champion." Triple H has taken a number of unwarranted shots at Hogan over the years (usually when Hogan's been out of favor with Vince), even though Hogan was mostly positive when talking about him.

During the interview, Hogan also said he will be in New York this weekend with Steve Austin doing promotional work for liveautographs.com, which films celebrities signing merchandise that customers are buying to authenticate the merchandise.

I sort of get what Hogan is saying but to say that Triple H holding the title is a bigger expose of the business is just rediculous. Showing people how to train to be a wrestler and all the inside stuff is way bigger then a guy like Triple H who is still in shape and close to 40 holding the World Title. Not to mention 6 years ago in 2002 Hogan was 49 and holding the World Strap.

Well, in that case, both parties would be in the wrong. Hell, I remember when watching Tough Enough, Triple H wasn't looking too thrilled to be actually there and he told many times how he felt Tough Enough was exposing the business so to me, if it comes down strictly to the "exposing the business" part, both Vince and Hogan are in the wrong.

I'm 50/50 with Hogan about Triple H holding the World title for the past 5 or 6 years. Vince was justified to put the belt on Triple H because he was the #1 man on RAW but the ratings didn't improve at all so to me, his long and multiple reigns were unjustified. If Vince had to resort to constantly putting the title back on Triple H, it shows that he had a weak roster with the brand extension. I don't want to bring that up again but perhaps it could've been avoided if the brand extension wasn't existing at all.

Also take into consideration that he was the # 1 man on Raw because of the push to have him there. He could of just as easily been on either of the brands. I think Hogan does more harm because the people who think wrestling is real can't comprehend that Triple H being Vinces son in law has something to do with HHH's rule. Hell a lot of the people that knows its fake still don't comprehend that.

I certainly won't disagree with you on that one as history showed us that lots of promoters will put the top title of their company on somebody with whom they feel safe to carry it. Case and point, (although maybe a lil' sloppy), the AWA with Verne Gagne putting the AWA title on his son Greg or his son-in-law Larry Zbyszko. Greg Gagne, although a fantastic tag team wrestler, never had what it takes to have a promotion centered all around him. The down point for him was that he had unfairly to deal with all the accomplishments of his father, who was deemed one of the greatest World Champions of all time. As for Larry Zbyszko, I believe that he added a certain amount of credibility to the promotion but it was too little too late.

Back to the point itself, I think that it's always very hard for a promoter/booker to be 100% objective in regards to certain workers, especially when it all comes down to family. Triple H's reigns never proved to be the solution to the ratings tanking, even though at first, Triple H's heel runs were running along pretty well but fans got sick of it. I think it's pretty much the same thing that's been going on for John Cena as a babyface champion. Triple H was stuffed in our throat as the heel champion for so long and I think that Vince has to be held responsible for that because with Triple H burying every possible talent in the back, he wasn't able to build proper opposition who could take away Triple H's championship. Shawn Michaels did, but he's a member of the Kliq. Chris Benoit also did, but it was because he wasn't a threat to Triple H's spot. Bill Goldberg did beat Triple H but it lasted what...one month?

We shouldn't discredit what Hogan said, although we know how hypocritical it is from him to take shots at Triple H when he's without a doubt the most political SOB this business has ever known.

I did a piece about this somewhere else but I can't remember. What I said was that the majority of the biggest wrestling fans (children) don't understand that the marriage between Triple H and Staphanie has an affect on the decision. I mean a lot of the adults don't believe that it does. But with Hogan he is exposing that its all gimmick to children getting them to start to rue wrestling in early childhood. I mean thats if they even watch his show. Plus, the reason its so hard to convince some Triple H fans that his marriage is the reason why he is so successful is that HHH is really good. I mean he would of accomplished some of the things he did without help. He does excellent promos his intro is exotic and he has moves that wows the crowd (didn't say he was a technician). But I really think that the fight with Koslov exposed a lot with the booing and chants of we want Hardy. Smartly though they gave the belt to someone else.
Back to the topic. Hogan is only taking shots really because he wants to spark interest in his show which is gaining popularity among adults and children viewers. I mean he is getting some well known stars to participate. This isn't good for not only WWE but TNA either and also the up and coming brands.