Hulkamaniacs look back fondly at Hulk Hogan's ties to Long Island

Brian Vitko still remembers the moment Hulk Hogan — who died Thursday at age 71 — popped through the curtains at the Nassau Coliseum for his main event match against Bad News Brown in 1989.

 "It was amazing ... Here’s this larger-than-life guy walking out, doing the finger-point. And everybody’s going crazy," said Vitko, 47, who grew up in Elmont as a huge "Hulkamaniac." 

"That’s what got me into wrestling," said Vitko, who performs for the Deer Park-based New York Wrestling Connection as Mr. Entertainment. "You had Superman. You had He-Man. And then you had Hulk Hogan. And only one of them was actually living and breathing. He was the real life superhero."

Hogan’s death Thursday was deeply felt on Long Island, where many a milestone in the history of "Hulkamania" played out in the 1980s and 90s. Hogan regularly headlined wrestling cards at the Coliseum, including the first Saturday Night’s Main Event airing on NBC on prime-time in 1985.

 From the Rockville Centre offices of London Publishing, it was Stu Saks’ job throughout the 1980s to decide who would be on the cover of the next issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. And if the goal was to sell the most magazines possible, the choice was obvious.

"If we had the ability and the resources to put Hulk Hogan on 75% of the cover, we would have, because he was a huge seller," Saks, who served as editor-in-chief for London Publishing, said Thursday. "You cannot overstate how important Hulk Hogan was to the expansion of wrestling … to becoming a global entity." 

Long Island also hosted one of the darker chapters in Hogan’s history, when he appeared as the star witness in former World Wrestling Entertainment chairman’s federal trial on steroid distribution charges in 1994. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, testified to using anabolic steroids for years, dealing a major blow to the squeaky-clean, Saturday morning cartoon image he fostered for years.

"I think he was under this impression that, ‘I’m so high up that, no matter what I say to people ... I can kind of get away with anything," said journalist James Guttman, of Massapequa, author of the 2006 book "World Wrestling Insanity." "He started to realize that he wasn’t infallible. It was more than his wrestling ability. You had to go out there and be honest with people."

 Hogan parlayed his damaged reputation into more wrestling success, as the villainous "Hollywood" Hogan during a stint working Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling. His last match on Long Island was under the WCW banner, wrestling fellow legend Ric Flair at the Nassau Coliseum on Feb. 14, 2000. 

Veteran independent wrestler Jimmy Papadoniou, of Oceanside, who interacted with Hogan backstage while working as an extra for WWE, said Hogan was both the "Babe Ruth … and the Darth Vader of wrestling."

"Usually, you get a guy, he’s such a great baby face, but he’s not a great heel," Papadoniou said. "This guy hit a grand slam from both sides."

While working for video game company Acclaim Entertainment in 2001, Rockville Centre native Brian Shields worked closely with Hogan on the development of the game series "Legends of Wrestling," and later wrote about Hogan in the WWE Encyclopedia, which Shields co-authored.

"He had a very special talent and ability to connect with the audience in a heightened way, whether it was live or through the television," said Shields, who teaches digital marketing and social media at LIU Post in Brookville. "When Hulk Hogan was at his best, there were very few people that would be able to compare to that."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.