How Hulk Hogan Made Me "The Boss" My trek into the world of professional wrestling was not even a planned one. Like everyone involved in the business I began as a fan. Each week I watched all of the wrestling programs in television, I went to all of the events when they came to town, I bought the Pay Per Views, collected all of the action figures and I read all of the magazines in order to keep up even with the companies that were not broadcast in my area. Like all children I dreamed about becoming a wrestler one day but, I was actually quite content with being just a fan. That however would change as the decade of the 80s passed and the 90s began... With live broadcast televised events (first Pay Per Views and later weekly television) becoming a bigger and bigger part of the Pro Wrestling experience, magazines were quickly falling behind and fading into obscurity as fans found themselves in need of a faster source of information. Enter the call in Hotline. Every promotion began promotion it's own 1-900 number (such as Mean Gene Okerlund's WCW Hotline: 1-900-909-9900) which would charge fans a fee to call to hear prerecorded information and promos from the wrestlers. While this may have worked for the bigger promotions, the vast majority of fans didn't have money to spend listening to recordings designed to keep you on the phone (and thus keep the charges coming) for as long as possible while sometimes not even delivering the information the caller was waiting for. Furthermore, fans of local promotions did not have the money to spend on a 900 number and thus was not even worth the money a local promoter would need to spend to have a 900 number. Another option was needed. The answer was found through the usage of stand alone voice mailboxes. For no cost whatsoever anyone could start up their own local hotline and talk about wrestling, promote upcoming events and give results to those events. In my area call in hosts such as "The Informer" and "Joeberg" became early favorites. I myself would call them and others to keep up on local wrestling. One thing that I noticed however is that none of the hotlines that I called gave me any reason to attend any events. Their delivery was IMO incredibly boring. One day I decided that I could do this better myself. So, I called the local telephone company, set up a box and began preparing for this new venture. A little known secret is that I happen to be a talented vocalist. I was once referred to by Noel Blanc (son of legendary voice actor Mel Blanc) himself as the most talented living voice actor that he knew of. When your father is Mel Blanc that is one hell of a compliment. I figured that I could use my talents to create a larger than life personality that would bring in callers not only to hear about pro wrestling but to hear ME delivering said information. The first thing I needed was a name. In high school I was referred to by my classmates as "The Boss" because of my name, abilities on the football team and popularity with my schoolmates. I decided to go with that. I next developed a personality. With the nWo being the hottest thing in pro wrestling at the time I decided that I would be a heal and deliver all of my information as would a any good heel in the business. Doing so already made me different than other local hotlines but, I wasn't finished yet. I still needed a gimmick. As I mentioned earlier, the nWo was the hottest thing in pro wrestling at the time. Hulk Hogan's heel turn, flipped the sport upside-down and started an all new boom. I knew that the best thing to do was to play off of that so, my character became THE BIGGEST Hulk Hogan that I could muster. Part of the entertainment was how I always gave Hulk Hogan credit for anything and everything that happened not only in wrestling but all over the world throughout history. Here's an example; callers would leave questions and comments after the beep and I would reply to as many as time would permit. One of those questions was to challenge my claim that Hogan was God and controlled anything and everything. The caller asked how Hogan could be God and created the world if he wasn't even born until August 11, 1953. My answer was quite simple; "August 11, 1953 will go down as the day when HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN created himself. Over the next 6 days he created the universe, then the stars, the galaxies and then the planets. On the 7th day he rested. He looked around at his great work and decided that he deserves to be praised for his creation so, on the 8th day he created man but, it was clear than man was so unbelievably inferior to himself that it would takes millions if not billions of years of evolution before man was smart enough to worship their creator. Rather than wait, HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN decided to speed up the process by creating history and the amount of history that it required to evolve man to the point when he knew to worship their creator cause his own day of creation to land on August 11th, 1953." Makes perfect sense right? lol In a way it did. It may have been absurd but, on it's own level - much like Bugs Bunny plugging Elmer Fudd's gun with a carrot to cause a backfire - it was not beyond one's ability to accept. If for no other reason, the shear creativity involved permitted a pass to anything I said by the listeners who found my daily updates to be extremely entertaining as I always emphasized entertainment over anything while not sacrificing substance. During updates I always referred to Hogan by full name, "HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN" to show how much better he was than all of us. He always warranted being referred to by full title and nothing less. I even claimed that my name of "The Boss" had nothing to do with school or my last name but, simply "'Cause Hollywood Told Me So!' That commitment to character was noticed by not only by wrestling fans but, wrestlers and promoters as well. My hotline was also unique in other ways. In addition to having 10 minutes of main box time (which itself was different to other hotlines that had a max of 2-3 minutes) I had 10 sub boxes of 3 minutes each which allowed me time to cover more information than anyone else while still allotting for plenty of time for entertainment. The main box was mainly dedicated to what was happening on TV and my twisted take on it (always in character lol), hints on what would be found on the sub boxes and finally answers to questions and comments. The sub boxes were dedicated to individual subjects. One was of me singing a song about Hogan in Wierd Al Yankovic fashion which I would update as quickly as I could write them. Another box was dedicated to "today in wrestling history" where I would talk about major events that took place on that date. Another was "today in HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN History" where I would talk about what Hogan had done on that date, what titles he won and whom he faced. The amount of information that I acquired doing this research would later lead to yet another project the "Hulk Hogan History" information website which you can access from this site or by clicking here. Another box was dedicated to local wrestling results. Yet another was for wrestling trivia where I would read questions and hold contests. Eventually I set up one sub box for special guest hosts which would become the standard prize for callers who won the contest. After I announced the winner they would leave a message with a code of their choice which I would put in. They would then have access to the box for a week to do their own hotline updates. My hotline was quite fan interactive. All of these features plus my character made my hotline a lot more popular than I ever imagined. Soon I was getting callers from all across the nation and even at least a few in Canada. Keep in mind that this was in the 1990s, back before everyone had internet access so getting this much exposure through word of mouth was almost unheard of. As I mentioned earlier, local wrestlers and promoters would also call my hotline and notice how big it was getting and how (although I never made a public appearance) I came though as larger than life. As a result I started to get offers to appear at wrestling events. Some just wanted to meet me and buy me a beer, some would ask me to make a minor appearance on the show such as drawing and announcing the raffle winners, acting as special guest ring announcer for one match or saying that anyone who mentions me at their show gets in free. Little stuff but it was fun. Eventually I was contacted by promoters about doing commentary for their events. While I looked into several offers, I took the offer from legendary wrestling promoter Johnny Diamond. Johnny was famous in the Cincinnati area for bringing in the World Wrestling Federation, his "Make A Wish" like celebrity work and for founding what is now the oldest wrestling company in the area the Northern Wrestling Federation (which I now announce for). He had recently come out of retirement to form a new promotion known as the Dynamic Wrestling Alliance. I started off as the color commentator and interviewer. I soon began training and became a referee and eventually a wrestler while still occasionally doing commentary and began filling in as ring announcer. Johnny began teaching me the secrets of promoting as I became one of his top creative men. He informed me of a few secrets that had been in development for some time. Sadly his sudden passing prevented these plans from seeing fruition but he taught me a lot and I hope that one day to tackle this project myself as I truly believe there is money in this. Stay tuned... Since Johnny's passing I have worked for multiple other companies and have been extremely fortunate to have found a home in the very promotion founded by Johnny himself, the Northern Wrestling Federation. I continue to push myself to always be the best that I can be in order to do my part to make whatever project with which I am involved is the best that I can make it. 'Till Next Time My Friends
-- The Boss
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Sean Bossman: Author Throughout my 22 years experience I have had the privilege of contributing on several different levels. From hosting my own wrestling hotline, to column writer, to interviewer, to commentator, to ring announcer, to referee, to wrestler. I've always striven to put forth the best effort that I can in order to help augment the show in any way that I can. Archives
December 2020
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