Hulk Hogan Had to Pay Marvel Royalties for the Use of His Name
Pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan has died at age 71.
WWE Hall of Famer Hogan – whose real name was Terry Gene Bollea – became a pop culture icon in the 1980s, when he helped propel wrestling into the mainstream of American entertainment. He also appeared in movies like Rocky III and with his family on the VH1 reality series Hogan Knows Best.
Hulk Hogan recalled how he got his wrestling name
Hogan’s memorable wrestling persona came about thanks to an encounter with Lou Ferrigno, who starred as the title character in the TV show The Incredible Hulk.
“I started off as the ‘Super Destroyer,’ and they had me under a mask … I went through a couple of name changes, including ‘Terry Boulder,’ and ‘Sterling Golden,’ and different promoters gave me different names,” Hogan recalled of his early wrestling career in a 2011 interview with Forbes.
“Then I was wrestling as Terry Boulder. I was on a talk show with Lou Ferrigno, and I was actually bigger than he was! I went back to the dressing room that night and all of the wrestlers go ‘Oh my God you’re bigger than the hulk on TV’ so they started calling me Terry ‘The Hulk’ Boulder,” he said. “Then when I went to New York, and wrestled for the WWF with Vince McMahon Sr. before he passed away he had different names for different groups … He wanted me to be an Irish-American so he gave me the ‘Hulk Hogan’ name and it symbolized me being ‘Irish.’ That’s how the name came about.”
Hulk Hogan paid Marvel just $750,000 for the rights to his name
Hogan was unique among wrestlers, and not just because of his outsize personality. Even though he developed the Hulk persona with the help of the WWE, he owned all the rights to his name
“I own everything. I own Hulk. I own Hulkmania. I’m one of the few guys that owns their name and the rights and the trademarks and licenses. I own everything,” he explained during a 2023 conversation with Theo Von.
How did Hogan become the sole owner of his wrestling identity? It was all due to a dispute with Marvel Comics.
As Hogan’s wrestling star rose in the 1980s, Marvel took notice, Hogan told Von.
“When this Hulk Hogan thing takes off, we get a call from Marvel Comics,” he explained. “[They said]. ‘You’re infringing on our mark, reasonably similar … we’re gonna sue you and put you in litigation.’ So we went ahead and let them have the name … But I only had to pay them one-tenth of one percent. So out of a dollar, I only had to pay them one-tenth of a penny. And that went from ‘85 to 2005.”
“Fast-forward to 2005,” he continued. “It’s over. Now I can’t use Hulk Hogan anymore and I’m red hot in 2005, man. I’m still jamming. So I went to my attorney and I said, ‘I don’t give a damn what deal you make, you’re going to make that deal because I need the name.’ So what happened was we went [and] I got a one-year extension. I had to pay them 30% of everything I made. Movies, TV, wrestling, they got 30% of everything. But if they decided to sell the name, they had to give me first shot at it.”
According to Hogan, Marvel then made a strategic error.
“All of sudden, Marvel Comics gets in a bitch-fest with WWE about intellectual properties, that they can’t re-air old Hulk Hogan matches. They lost. Marvel Comics lost.”
Marvel was ordered to pay the WWE $35 million, Hogan said. They countered by offering the WWE the Hulk Hogan name instead. At that, Hogan’s ears perked up.
“I heard about, and I went, ‘You guys screwed up now,’” he said. “Because now I don’t have to pay $35 million for the name. You have to sell it to me for fair market value. Which is only like, $750 grand. So I bought the name back … I just own everything.”
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