''Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling'' is an American animated television series that originally aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

Saturday mornings from September 14, 1985 to October 18, 1986, with reruns airing until June 27, 1987.

History

''Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling'' was animated and produced by

DIC Animation City DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production comp ...

. It featured animated adventures of popular WWF stars from the time, including its title character

Hulk Hogan Terry Eugene Bollea (; born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is widely regarded as the most recognized wrestling star worldwide and the most popular wrestler of the 19 ...

and his group of

face The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may aff ...

wrestlers fighting against a group of rogue

heel The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower leg. Structure To distribute the compressive forces exer ...

wrestlers led by

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper Roderick George Toombs (April 17, 1954 – July 31, 2015), better known as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and actor. In professional wrestling, Piper was best known to international audiences for his ...

. The show followed cartoon archetypes concerning good characters triumphing over evildoers in wacky situations, typical of children's cartoons in the 1980s. Rarely referenced, wrestling was simply a device to determine the good guys from the bad guys. The wrestlers themselves appeared in the live action segments of the show, but due to their busy travel schedules, they did not provide the voices for their animated counterparts. These were instead performed by professional

voice actors Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

. One recurring live action segment was the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

for the

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of copy ...

of "

Land of a Thousand Dances "Land of a Thousand Dances" (or "Land of 1000 Dances") is a song written and first recorded by American rhythm and blues singer Chris Kenner in 1962. It later became a bigger hit in versions by Cannibal & the Headhunters and Wilson Pickett. A ve ...

" recorded by several WWF wrestlers for ''

The Wrestling Album ''The Wrestling Album'' is the debut soundtrack album released by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) on November 9, 1985, at the height of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection era. It featured mostly theme music of wrestlers on the roste ...

''. Due to the show being animated and the longer production times that resulted, it often failed to keep pace with the events of the WWF at the time. This resulted in certain wrestlers turning

(or, in non-wrestling terms, a

villain A villain (also known as a " black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. '' Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a charact ...

) in regular WWF programming, but remaining good guys on the cartoon and vice versa; examples include "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (who was a heel when the show debuted, but became a face in the fall of 1986, despite remaining a bad guy in the cartoon) and

André the Giant André René Roussimoff (; 19 May 1946 – 28 January 1993), better known by his ring name André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. Roussimoff was known for his great size, which was a result of gigantism caused by excess ...

(who was a face in the fall of 1985, but turned heel in early 1987, despite remaining on the good guys' side throughout the series' run). Additionally, the characters of

Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka James Reiher Snuka (born James Wiley Smith; May 18, 1943 – January 15, 2017) was a Fijian American professional wrestler. He is better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Snuka wrestled for several promotions from the 1970s to 2010 ...

and Wendi Richter remained throughout the series' run, despite both having left the WWF in late 1985. WWE currently own the rights to the program. In April 2015, WWE added the show to the

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television t ...

, making its premiere following the April 20 episode of ''

WWE Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show f ...

''. On July 24, Hulk Hogan was fired by the WWE and all references to Hulk Hogan, including ''Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling'', were removed from the WWE Network.

Characters

Hulk Hogan was the leader of the

s, or good guys, heroes, or protagonists; consisting of

Junkyard Dog Sylvester Ritter (December 13, 1952 – June 1, 1998) was an American professional wrestler and college football player, best known for his work in Mid-South Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as the Junkyard Dog (or JYD), a nickname ...

, Captain Lou Albano,

, Wendi Richter,

Hillbilly Jim James Morris (born July 5, 1952) is an American retired professional wrestler and current radio host, better known by his ring name, Hillbilly Jim. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1984 to 1991, ...

, and

Tito Santana Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953), better known by the ring name Tito Santana, is a retired American professional wrestler and middle school teacher. Santana has stayed a babyface his entire career and he is best known for his appearances with ...

was the leader of the

s, or bad guys, villains, or antagonists; consisting of

The Iron Sheik Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri ( fa, حسین خسرو علی وزیری, romanized: Hossein Xosrô 'Ali Vaziri; born March 15, 1942), better known by his ring name the Iron Sheik, is an Iranian retired professional wrestler, amateur wrestler and ...

Nikolai Volkoff Josip Hrvoje Peruzović (October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018), better known by his ring name Nikolai Volkoff, was a Yugoslav-American professional wrestler best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Although Volkoff often p ...

The Fabulous Moolah Mary Lillian Ellison (July 22, 1923 – November 2, 2007) was an American professional wrestler better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah. She began her career working with promoter Billy Wolfe and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mild ...

Big John Studd John William Minton (February 19, 1948 – March 20, 1995) was an American professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring name, Big John Studd. Studd is best known for his appearances with the World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wr ...

, and

Mr. Fuji Harry Masayoshi Fujiwara (May 4, 1934 – August 28, 2016) was an American professional wrestler and manager, known professionally by his ring name Mr. Fuji (or Master Fuji to his protégés). He was famous for often throwing salt in the ey ...

Bobby "The Brain" Heenan Raymond Louis Heenan (November 1, 1944 – September 17, 2017) was an American professional wrestling manager, color commentator, wrestler, and comedian. He performed with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation ...

and "Mean" Gene Okerlund appeared animated in a few episodes as well.

Music

The opening theme to ''Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling'' is "Hulk Hogan's Theme", composed by

Jim Steinman James Richard Steinman (November 1, 1947 – April 19, 2021) was an American composer, lyricist and record producer. He also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer. His work included songs in the adult contemporary, rock, dance, pop, mus ...

. It was also used as Hogan's ring entrance theme, before being replaced with "Real American" by Rick Derringer. Steinman later reworked "Hulk Hogan's Theme" into "Ravishing", performed by

Bonnie Tyler Gaynor Sullivan (née Hopkins; born 8 June 1951), known professionally as Bonnie Tyler, is a Welsh singer who is known for her distinctive husky voice. Tyler came to prominence with the release of her 1977 album '' The World Starts Tonight'' a ...

and featured on her 1986 album '' Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire''.

List of episodes

''Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling'' aired for two seasons beginning in 1985. Each episode was 30 minutes in length (including commercial breaks). Some episodes contained one 30 minute cartoon, while other episodes contained two 15 minute cartoons. Over the two seasons, there were a total of 26 episodes with 39 cartoons.

Season 1 (1985)

Season 2 (1986)

Voices

Brad Garrett Bradley Henry Gerstenfeld (born April 14, 1960), known professionally as Brad Garrett, is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Possessing a distinctive deep voice, he has appeared in numerous television and film roles in both live-action and ...

Charlie Adler Charles Michael Adler (born October 2, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director. He is known for his roles as Buster Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Ed and Bev Bighead on '' Rocko's Modern Life'' and Ickis on '' Aaahh!!! Real Mon ...

Lewis Arquette Lewis Michael Arquette (December 14, 1935 – February 10, 2001) was an American film actor, writer, and producer. Arquette was known for playing J.D. Pickett on the television series ''The Waltons'', on which he worked from 1978 to 1981. Life ...

James Avery James La Rue Avery (November 27, 1945 – December 31, 2013) was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Philip Banks in ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'', Shredder in ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', Judge Michael Conover on '' L ...

Jodi Carlisle Jodi Carlisle (born August 28, 1960 in Joliet, Illinois) is an American actress who has appeared in 46 television shows, 5 feature films, 6 videogames and 4 television movies as well as a number of stage plays. Carlisle is perhaps best known as on ...

- Wendi Richter,

George DiCenzo George Ralph DiCenzo (April 21, 1940 – August 9, 2010) was an American actor, and one-time associate producer for ''Dark Shadows''. He was in the show business for over 30 years, with extensive film, TV, stage, and commercial credits. DiCenzo ...

- Captain Lou Albano *

Ron Feinberg Ronald Aaron Feinberg (October 10, 1932 – January 29, 2005) was an American character and voice actor who appeared in films and on television. Career At 6' 7", the towering Feinberg played the character Fellini, opposite Don Johnson, in the ...

Pat Fraley Patrick Howard Fraley (born February 18, 1949) is an American voice actor and voice-over teacher, known as the voice of Krang, Casey Jones, Baxter Stockman and numerous other characters in the 1987 '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' animated te ...

Ron Gans Ronald Kenneth Gans (August 9, 1931 – June 29, 2010), sometimes credited as Ron Kennedy, was an American character actor and voice-over artist, known for portraying Q.T. the Orangutan on The Disney Channel's ''Dumbo's Circus'', the voice of Ar ...

* Ernest Harada -

Aron Kincaid Aron Kincaid (born Norman Neale Williams II; June 15, 1940 – January 6, 2011) was an American actor, known for voicing Killer Croc on '' Batman: The Animated Series'' and Sky Lynx on '' The Transformers''. He also voiced characters for ''T ...

* Chuck Licini -

* Joey Pento -

Neil Ross Neil David Ross is a British-American voice actor and announcer. Noted for his Trans-Atlantic accent, he has provided voices in many American cartoons, most notably ''Voltron'', '' G.I. Joe'', and ''Transformers'', as well as video games, incl ...

- "Mean" Gene Okerlund

References

External links

* *
Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling photo gallery
at

WWE.com World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

profiles on every WWE Employee to be featured on the show
Hulk Hogan website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling 1980s American animated television series 1985 American television series debuts 1986 American television series endings American children's animated action television series American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated comedy television series American children's animated sports television series American television series with live action and animation Animation based on real people CBS original programming Television series by DIC Entertainment Animated television series by WWE Cultural depictions of Hulk Hogan