Whether you grew up a prayer saying, training, eating your vitamins Hulkamaniac or were a fan of great rival heels like Rowdy Roddy Piper and The Macho Man Randy Savage, the fact is incontrovertible. Hulk Hogan is the number one icon in all of professional wrestling. Even top technicians like Arn Anderson know full well without Hulkamania taking off, the wrestling industry stays stagnant.
With Vince McMahon at the helm steering the red and yellow ship, Hulk’s undeniable charisma brought wrestling out of smoky VFW halls and into arenas. But to help electrify the process and further get the crowds into it, The Hulkster had several different theme songs over the years and even across various media he has appeared in. With someone as iconic a figure as Hulk, each and every theme he's used over the years is pretty iconic in their own right.
9 TNA Themes
Hulk Hogan headed to TNA and much like WCW in 1994, he immediately garnered some more eyes on the product. The problem with that is by this point in history, wrestling fans as much as they love Hogan had seen the dog and pony show before. Also, this is lulz-TNA we're talking about here. No matter how could the in-ring action or the big signings were, the tail was always wagging the dog, so to speak. Bringing Hulk in and immediately pairing him with Bischoff felt like a complete rip on the nWo. Even Hulk's TNA themes all seemed like recycled versions of some of the themes that already made him famous.
8 Rip ‘Em By Jim Johnson
It certainly wasn’t much, but we’d be remised if Rip Thomas’ theme, Rip ‘Em wasn’t included on this list. Rip Thomas was of course, who Hogan played in the WWE's first ever movie, No Holds Barred. As with the rest of the music for No Holds Barred, the song was composed by WWE’s greatest maestro, Jim Johnson.
It’s certainly not near as good as popular, it certainly helped set the mood that the champ was coming to the ring and coming for Zeus.
7 Snake Bit By Jim Johnson
There was a brief moment in time where Jake The Snake Roberts’ slow-tempo but intense Snake Bit theme might have gone on to The Hulkster instead of Jake. Instead, the song was used to highlight a Hulk Hogan workout vignette during Saturday Night’s Main Event. This footage is still on Peacock and is unchanged with different music, making for an interesting head scratching Easter Egg.
6 Hulk Hogan’s Theme By Jim Steinman And The WWF All-Stars
As far as rock composers go, Jim Steinman is a god among men. Serving as a long time collaborator of the late, great Meat Loaf, Steinman also worked with countless names, including eighties songstress, Bonnie Tyler. The eighties hit maker had a song called Ravishing. Steinman took the music of that hit dropped the lyrics and including a chant of “Hulk! Hulk!” to repurpose the song as the theme song for Hulk Hogan’s Rock N Wrestling Cartoon. In what will on theory become a fun easter egg, the song was also part of Thor: Love And Thunder, starring the once and (hopefully) future Hulk Hogan himself, Chris Hemsworth.
5 American Made By Hulk Hogan And The Wrestling Boot Band
The zombies must have been ice skating in hell when it was announced that Hulk Hogan had signed with WCW back in 1994. The promotion had a huge coup on their hands and treated it as such - ticker tape parade and everything.
They even created a new theme song for the Hulkster - “American Made.” While is certainly wasn’t “Real American," it was still a catchy rallying cry to get the WCW fans behind Hogan during his early WCW run.
4 Eye Of The Tiger By Survivor
With Jim Johnson and Rick Derringer composing “Real American” for Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda’s US Express. Hulk needed his own pulse-pounding theme song that screamed of Hulkamania. Hogan tapped into his inner Thunderlips and used Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger” as his original rallying cry. Can’t blame the WWE either - besides “Gonna Fly Now” it is the quintessential song associated with Rocky. However, it was always going to be associated with Rocky Balboa and not Hulk Hogan. It wasn’t long before the change was made.
3 Voodoo Child (Slight Return) By Jimi Hendrix
When you’re the biggest star in the business and almost single-handedly the reason that WCW became marketable, you’re allowed to get certain provisions. Despite costing a very healthy, hefty chunk of change, Eric Bischoff forked over the money to the Jimi Hendrix estate for the classic Voodoo Child (Slight Return) to use solely for Hulk Hogan’s nWo theme. It certainly helped to separate him from the pack to make sure the world knew he was leading the charge.
2 NWO Theme, “Rockhouse” - Focus Music
As for the nWo as a group, the now iconic “Rockhouse” theme was nothing more than Focus Stock music that was in the Turner catalog of songs. Eric Bischoff was trying to find a theme that matched the rebellious nature of the New World Order.
Thanks to the theme being found in their own catalog, the theme was easy to come along with the purchase and has remained a huge constant theme to the entire nWo.
1 Real American By Rick Derringer
Was there ever any doubt? When the glass shatters, you know Stone Cold’s coming to open up a can of whoop ass, but when it comes crashing down and it hurts inside, that’s when Hulkamania starts running wild! Much like Hulk became wrestling’s first pop culture icon, “Real American” by Rick Derringer became wrestling’s first iconic song. Even now, no matter how tarnished you might feel his legacy is, when that song plays, we’re all transported back in time to a classic Hulk Hogan pose down.
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