One of the most heated conversations many of us had during the 1980s was who was better between Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan.
It’s a debate that continues to this day, and recently Jim Cornette weighed in and explained the difference between the two on his podcast, Jim Cornette Drive Thru.
It was a good listen as he explained why Vince McMahon isn’t a “Ric Flair guy” and McMahon’s approach to the business.
One thing he noted as potentially being the main reason is McMahon is and wants to be an entertainer, and Hulk Hogan is more of an entertainer than wrestler, while Flair was more of a wrestler than entertainer.
The difference
Cornette said it best when he talked about how Flair was an old school guy that wanted to make the matches appear as real as possible.
It’s the same realistic approach Bret Hart and others exemplified and it allowed the sport to be taken seriously by fans all over the world for decades.
While Flair and others worked hard to protect the business and give it a sense of reality, others like McMahon and Hogan looked at it as more of an entertainment business.
A perfect example of this is the punches they threw. Flair reportedly said one that a great exercise is to punch the ring ropes, and when the ropes don’t move he knew he had it right.
Hulk Hogan on the other hand, liked to place his left hand on his opponent’s forehead and then punched his hand to protect his opponent.
While Hogan’s method made it tough to argue realism, it was still entertaining and the fact he’s the biggest draw in history shows he knew what he was doing.
A little of everything
Social media is full of the old school guard and the new school as they wage a verbal war back and forth.
It can be entertaining depending on the subject matter, but in the end professional wrestling is like any other form of entertainment or sport as it’s appealing to people in various ways.
The WWE was awesome with Hogan being anything but realistic thanks to other greats like Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Jake Roberts, and so on.
The NWA/WCW was just as awesome with Ric Flair, Sting, and others keeping it realistic with flashes of the unbelievable to get us out of our seats.
Who was your favorite and which style do you prefer, realistic or entertainment? Let us know in the comments below.
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