Hulk Hogan Recalls Contentious Battle With Marvel Securing Trademark On His Name
Hulk Hogan is many things; WWE Hall of Famer, one of the biggest stars in the history of wrestling, storyteller, and a man who probably regrets ever associating with Bubba the Love Sponge. He is also fortunate enough to own his own intellectual property, allowing him to use his name for outside projects. Hogan owning his ring name is a fairly rare thing in wrestling, and something that took an exceedingly long time to attain.
On "This Past Weekend," Hogan detailed everything about his moniker, even mentioning previous names he used before getting the name "Hulk Hogan" from Vince McMahon Sr., which he says was due to McMahon wanting to have Hogan appeal to Irish-American wrestling fans. Hogan used the name for several years with no difficulty, until things changed just as he was about to take off into superstardom.
"Vince [Sr.] dies, his son takes over, and right as this Hulk Hogan thing takes off, we get a call from Marvel Comics," Hogan said. "'You're infringing on our mark. Reasonably similar ... We're going to sue you, put you in litigation.' We went ahead and let them have the name. We didn't license the name, but I only had to pay them 1/10 of 1%. So out of a dollar, if I get a penny, I only had to pay them 1/10 of a penny. And that went from 1985 to 2005, 20 years."
Hulk Hogan Reveals How He Got The Rights To His Name
The roadblocks then hit in 2005, when Hulk Hogan claims Marvel no longer allowed him to use the name. Through his attorney, Hogan was able to work out a one-year extension of the deal, with a sweet pay raise for Marvel involved. There was a loophole, however, that Hogan claims he exploited to ultimately get his name back.
"I had to pay them 30% of everything I made; movies, TV, wrestling," Hogan said. "They got 30% of everything. But, if they decided to sell the name, they had to give me the first shot at it ... So all of a sudden, Marvel Comics gets in a b****fest with the WWE about intellectual properties, that they can't re-air old Hulk Hogan matches, which Vince was re-airing all my stuff. They lost, Marvel Comics lost to Vince, like $35 million."
"And they made a huge mistake, and they said 'No. Instead of paying you $35 million, how about if we give you the Hulk Hogan name?' And I heard about it and I went 'You guys screwed up now.' Because now, I don't have to pay $35 million for the name. You have to sell it to me at fair market value, which is only $750 thousand. So I bought the name back. And Vince wanted to buy the name for me, and I said 'Nah, I've got this.' So I bought the name back, and I just own everything."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "This Past Weekend" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.