The 30th Anniversary of Hulkamania

On Jan. 23, 1984, Hulk Hogan defeated The Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden in New York to win his first WWE Championship.

Hulkamania was born, and the rest is history. 

By "taking his vitamins and saying his prayers," the Hulkster sold out arenas all over the world for years and defeated challengers like King Kong Bundy, Andre The Giant, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper along the way.

30 years later, Hogan is in the WWE Hall of Fame and Hulkamania may just live forever,

But should it have ever happened?

I believe on that day in 1984, The Iron Sheik was robbed of his championship. 

As the video below shows, Hogan attacks The Iron Sheik from behind before he can even manage to take off his robe.  Hogan then uses the robe as a weapon and blatantly chokes The Iron Sheik with it in clear view of everyone in attendance, including the referee.

Hogan's dirty tactics and cowardly rule-breaking should have led to an immediate disqualification. The Iron Sheik should have remained champion.

Perhaps Hogan would have gone on to win the title at a later date.

But on that night 30 years ago, Hulkamania was born as a result of the same thuggish behavior in the ring that Hogan often accused his "bad guy" opponents of displaying.

Watch the match and judge for yourself.  Also, notice that The Iron Sheik for some unknown reason is sporting some major wood while putting Hogan in the camel clutch.