What does Hulkamania have to do with booing Sidney Crosby?

OK, I should warn everyone that before you read this article there’s a lot of wrestling talk in it…but there’s also some Sidney Crosby bashing. So try and keep an open mind.

A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to WGR, and Mike Schopp discussed how he didn’t understand why so many fans disliked Sidney Crosby. A few of the callers made the case that disliking Crosby had everything to do with him being the best player in the NHL. Schopp, of course, bemoaned the opinion, saying that fans were just jealous because he wasn’t on their respective teams. Which may be true. However, when it comes to me not liking Crosby, it goes beyond jealously and being the best in the world.

You see, if I were watching a Caps vs Penguins game, I’m booing Crosby over Alexander Ovechkin. To be frank, it has absolutely nothing to do with Ovechkin’s dirty play, Crosby’s whining, or anything having to do with their style of play. Why do I hate Crosby so much? I think it’s a combination of two things:

1) I just didn’t appreciate the NHL taking “The Next One” and shoving him down my throat.
2)That cookie cutter image that Crosby pulls off, just doesn’t impress me.

All of this marketing talk and having the “right” company spokesman at the helm, reminds me of my childhood from the 80’s. I’m not talking about cheering for Gretzky or Pierre Turgeon. I’m talking about Hulkamania, Brother!!!

You see, back in 1985, the WWF (Now the WWE) reached main stream entertainment by having Hulk Hogan as the focal point of their company. Hogan was classic Americana (With the steroids). Hogan and WWF teamed up to make millions of dollars off the American public. He was a folk hero, whose motto was the following:

Hmm…doesn’t that sound like something Crosby would say in a commercial? Hogan was the good guy; fighting for truth, justice and the American way. In the WWE’s eyes, Hogan represented what the American public wanted as their hero. Lets be honest, the 80’s were a cheesy time period in America, and an even cheesier wrestler was at the top of the mountain. People that lived during the 80’s were all about feeling good about themselves.

It may have been attributed to the drugs, Huey Lewis, Ronald Reagan’s trickle-down economics, or beating the Russians in the Olympics. Hey, you pick the reason. All I know is everyone seemed really, really happy.

Unfortunately when the 90’s hit, things started to change for the Hulkster, WWF and society. In the mid 90’s, the wrestling boom of the 80’s were at a standing eight count with the American Public. Hogan was still doing his shtick with the say your prayers crap, but it just wasn’t getting over with the fans. Wrestling was dying a slow death.

Pop culture started to change as well. Huey Lewis (Absolutely no clue why I’m using him as an example) and the cheesy 80’s bands were replaced in mainstream music by edger groups. Bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam performed songs about not taking s#$t anymore and revolting against anyone that said the word “no” to them.

Even athletes that most fans would have grown up hating in the 70’s and 80’s were becoming idolized. Deion Sanders, Dennis Rodman and Charles Barkley were becoming fan favorites because of their “I don’t give a s$#t” attitude. It seemed like being outspoken and rebellious were ideal traits for America’s youth. Those rebellious traits made fans look towards “the bad guy” as being their new hero. The anti-establishment had legs.

As for Hogan’s good guy image…it wasn’t going over too well with the fans. Most of them started booing him or just stopped watching wrestling. To get even more deep in the wrestling analogy, around the same time fans were booing Hogan, The Rock debut for the WWF. The company tried to do the same thing with the Rock as they did with Hogan in the 80’s. They tried marketing him as the good guy that smiled at the crowd and was all about preventing injustice.

Well, the fans decided to pass judgement of their own and booed the crap out of the Rock; almost ruining his career. It wasn’t just his cheese ball persona that perturbed fans, it was the fact that the WWF was saying, “Hey! This is who we want you to cheer for. He’s good looking and has all the traits to be a real American hero.”

This was exactly what the company did with Hogan and the birth of Hulkamania in the 80’s. “Well f$@k that! You can’t tell me who to cheer for! Especially if the good guy image is so passe,” echoed wrestling fans.

Fortunately for the Rock, he was able to turn the fans booing into a positive for himself, as he was able to insult them for ridiculing his on-air persona. Lone and behold, The Rock’s insults and being a bad ass to the wrestling public, caught the eyes of most fans as they started cheering for him.

It only took about five years for The Rock to reach Hollywood super-stardom. The cheering for Rock wasn’t just an isolated incident for wrestling fans. You started seeing the same trend with fans rooting for the bad guy. Steve Austin, The NWO and even Hulk Hogan’s heel turn (Becoming a bad guy) got over with the fans. Wrestling went through a renaissance and made more money than ever.

Wrestling fans changed their tune. They went from cheering the 80’s cheese balls to cheering for the 90’s bad asses. They wanted to embrace athletes who reminded them of…well, themselves. Society didn’t want to drink their milk and say their prayers anymore. Instead, they wanted to drink a pint of Guinness and say “my god” after checking out the hot girl that walked past them down the street. Sure, that stuff has always been around, but it became more excepted in the mainstream entertainment. You know, The Real World TV show crap.

Now, back to reality…and please, I know using wrestling in a sports article is considered taboo and hockey fans are different from wresting f
ans. I know that my credibility (Like I even had some) will go down the toilet. However, I think it works with this comparison. Crosby represents a combination of what Hulk Hogan was in 1985 and what The Rock was when he debut as a hero. Sidney has the nice image, boyish good looks and always seems to say the right things. More importantly, Crosby had the marketing machine of the NHL behind his back. Lets not forget, Crosby was being touted as an all-star type player even before he played a professional hockey game.

I think fans resent how they were kind of given an ultimatum by the NHL to cheer for Crosby. The NHL went with a guy they believed was the ideal pick for the future. The believed that the fans would rally around Sid the Kid (Which most of them have). However, I think some fans are annoyed that the league decided to make the decision for them; without having Crosby play an NHL game. Plus, his squeaky clean persona is just dull, which I think makes him not an ideal fit for fans.

On the other hand, Oveckin represents what Steve Austin and The Rock became during the late 90’s. Fans embrace Oveckin because he’s a bad ass superstar. He’s a player that rebelled against the traditionalists, who think that celebrating a goal is juvenile and don’t appreciate his bravado or arrogance. Maybe, the league not having Ovechkin as the focal point of their marketing campaign made fans embrace him more than the force fed effort of Crosby.

In the end, I think fans are going to cheer for the player they relate to the most. Honestly, who would you want to have a beer with at a bar? Ovechkin or Crosby? Sorry, but I’m going with the guy that would have my back in a bar fight over the soft spoken squeaky clean dude. More importantly, I think fans want to make their own decision without having the input of the NHL marketing wizards. Anyways, that’s why I’d boo Crosby over Ovechkin.