Posts like this make me glad that that wasn't my experience: I was raised on Georgia Championship Wrestling, and I never watched the cartoon because it came on at the same time as Superfriends. I didn't start watching WWF until I was already a teenager (followed Arn and Tully up north), so Hogan was always a prick, as far as I was concerned. I distinctly remember asking my Hulkamaniac classmates in junior high why they thought that Hogan was the good guy when the Mega Powers exploded.
Hogan says in one of his books his idea was just the opposite. He wanted Vince to re-ignite Hulkamania by pushing him even harder in 1990. Think 1995/early 96 Nitro shit.
It isn't a wrestling thing, it's a childhood figure thing. Hogan was not only a constant figure growing up, but was without fail on top. Dude's got some moments that definitely mean a lot to me. Never, ever thought he was an overly good person even before I knew how shitty he really was. But seeing an icon, a superhero who was just this huge presence forever and who I have so many memories of both good and bad, show up doing the same shtick at a glorified Nazi rally is very hard to deal with. I think that's a huge part, honestly: he's doing the gimmick that was all about positivity and all this shit in the most hideous context imaginable.
