The last thing we need is another Bollea in the business
Look, I enjoy the spectacle of professional wrestling as much as the next guy who spent his late nineties idolizing the nWo. I am all for legacy acts, children of legends, and guys who grew up around the ring wanting to carry on a tradition. But there is a line between keeping a family business afloat and inviting a tire fire into your backyard. The news dropping today that Nick Hogan is receiving offers from various wrestling schools to start training is honestly enough to make me dump my lukewarm coffee into the nearest garbage bin.
Let’s be brutally honest for a second. We have seen what happens when the second or third generation tries to force their way into the squared circle because the name on their driver’s license is famous. Sometimes you get a Cody Rhodes, who eats, sleeps, and breathes the craft until he is arguably the biggest star on the planet. Other times, you get David Flair in 1999, stumbling through segments so awkward they could make a mime cringe. Everything we know about Nick Hogan suggests he falls much closer to the latter category.
The wrestling business isn't a hobby for the bored
There is a massive difference between attending a fantasy camp in Vegas and dedicating your life to learning how to take a proper back bump. You cannot just waltz into a performance center because your dad knew Eric Bischoff or because you have an itch to try a moonsault. The physical toll on the human body is brutal enough when you have dedicated twenty years to the art of working a crowd. If you do not have the genuine passion, you are just a liability waiting to land on your neck or, worse, injure the person across from you.
We are just a week away from WWE Backlash. The company is flying high after a historic run in Las Vegas. The product is sharper than it has been in a decade, and the in-ring work rate is at a point where even the pickiest fans are having a hard time complaining. Do we really want to dilute that effort by entertaining the idea of a reality-adjacent vanity project? It feels like we are inviting a car crash to happen in slow motion, right under the marquee of an industry that is finally hitting its stride.
The history of vanity projects is littered with disaster
Remember when various celebrities thought they could go a round or two? Sure, Bad Bunny actually put in the work and surprised every cynical neckbeard in the building with a phenomenal outing. But that is the exception, not the rule. Usually, when someone with a famous surname tries to play wrestler without the years of grinding in front of thirty people at a community center, the results are catastrophic. It creates a weird, artificial vibe that sucks the air out of the room.
I remember watching the decline of the WCW years, where name recognition blinded management to the fact that their mid-card was becoming a graveyard of vanity. When you start handing out opportunities based on the social media heat of a name rather than the capability to perform a scoop slam without looking like a terrified deer in headlights, you lose your audience. The fans who pay for tickets and subscribe to the network are not stupid. They can sniff out a lack of commitment within two minutes of an entrance theme hitting.
If these wrestling schools are actually sending offers, they need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Are they looking for legitimate prospects who want to tell stories in the ring, or are they just looking for a publicity pop? It feels like the latter. It is the wrestling equivalent of a D-list celebrity trying to drop a rap album just because they have the money to rent a booth and a producer who is too terrified to tell them they cannot hold a tune.
Stop trying to make "The Next Hogan" happen
We do not need a reboot of the eighties. We do not need a half-baked attempt to capture lightning in a bottle that died out somewhere around the time *Thunder in Paradise* stopped airing. Let’s focus on the talent currently cutting their teeth on the independent circuit. There are kids driving five hours in a beat-up sedan to work a six-minute match in a VFW hall, just hoping to get noticed by someone who matters. They are the ones who deserve the training, the eyes, and the opportunity.
Nick Hogan has had his lanes in life, and that is fine. But wrestling is not a place for experimental career pivots. Every time a celebrity decides they want to be a wrestler for a cycle, it cheapens every drop of sweat left on the canvas by those who actually respect the industry. Leave the tights in the box, keep the training gear in the closet, and please, for the sake of everyone watching on May 9th, let the experts continue to fix what was broken for so many years. Do not let the legacy be defined by a spectacle that nobody asked for.
Final thoughts from the bar stool
If he steps into a ring, the internet will tear him to shreds before he even reaches the turnbuckle. It is not going to be a fun, ironic moment. It is going to be a viral disaster that brings nothing to the table but mockery. We are past the era of the low-effort gimmick. The audience has evolved. If he wants to prove me wrong, he can go do it at an under-the-radar school in the middle of nowhere for three years before he even dares to mention he had a famous father. Anything less is an insult to the business.
