JBL has given his thoughts on the greatest of all-time debate between Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin. Speaking on Something To Wrestle on 3:16 Day, JBL was asked to compare Hogan and Austin as business generators. JBL named three performers he believes genuinely changed the wrestling business rather than simply being its biggest draws, placing Jim Londos, Hogan, and Austin in that category. On Austin’s drawing power, JBL was emphatic.
JBL acknowledged that Austin may have been the more transformative figure in terms of rescuing a struggling company. However, JBL gave the overall edge to Hogan based on longevity and impact across two distinct eras.
“That’s close. I think three guys that you got to say, change the business. Not just were the biggest draws, but change the business, or save the business. I think we’re obviously Jim Lando’s back in the 20s and 30s, saved the business at times after Gus Sonnenburg had the expo, say, and then you had Daniel Mahoney with the screw job, and you needed a guy to step back in and save the business. Landos did it. I think the second guy, and I’m not putting them in any order here, just chronologically, is Hogan. You know, I don’t know. You know, WrestleMania one and three aren’t successful. I think Vince probably still makes it, but it takes a long time, and it goes a complete different route. But because you had Hogan, they were successful. Now that roster was absolutely loaded, just like it was when Steve was there in the 90s. Hogan was the guy, and Steve was our guy. And business, you know, it may have come up, and things might have we still might have had the war, but business was going to get hot, like it did without Steve. I mean, you put any building in the world, you put Stone Cold’s name on, we sold out. I don’t care if you’re in an armory in Perth, Australia, you put Stone Cold Steve Austin on the Billboard outside that place. Sells out. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, and I don’t think I ever will, especially because what it came from. You know, that’s why, you know Steve is such an important part of the business. There were guys who drew a lot of money that you could argue, like The Rock, that may have drawn as much. I don’t know. That’s a matter of looking through numbers and subjective, I believe. But as far as changing the business, I mean, Steve was the one that took us (to) the lead. We had a good roster, great roster. From selling arenas at half full, selling everything out. So I don’t know who would be the most important. I think I may give it to Steve. You know, it’s a toss-up to me. You know, Hogan had two runs, though that’s, that’s one of the things that makes, maybe makes Hogan the GOAT, because Hogan had to run in WrestleMania era, his era. Then he had the run, also that he set on fire down there with Scott and Kevin. I mean, that Hogan poured gasoline on a freaking Inferno that was already down there because of Scott and Kevin. And so Hogan had those two great runs. The two the best times in our business, Hogan was the main guy. So I guess, greetings to Hogan.”
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