Hulk Hogan is a man who cares about the Hulk Hogan brand. The former professional wrestler turned reality TV washout has long been the non-sport’s All-American answer to Krusty The Clown, sticking his name on products that others wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot clown pole: The Hogan name has been on energy drinks (Hogan Energy), microwavable foodstuffs (Hulkster Burgers), and a failed Mall Of America restaurant (Hulk Hogan’s Pastamania, featuring such delectable entrees as “Hulk-U’s” and “Hulkaroo’s”). And if you have any plans to combine, extend or otherwise manipulate the words “Hulk” and “Hogan,” it’s highly likely the bronzed 56-year-old will put you in a legal headlock, because he’s trademarked a bunch of them under liability company, “Hogan Holdings Limited.”
So you can imagine the Hulkster’s reaction to a new Cocoa Pebbles commercial that not only features an animated wrestler that uncannily resembles him, but who also gets his ass kicked by Bamm-Bamm. According to this report in The New York Times, Hogan, under his much wimpier-sounding real name Terry Bollea, has gone all Harlan Ellison on Post Foods, slapping a lawsuit on the company for using his likeness without his permission. Among the charges filed in the complaint is the claim that the name used for his animated likeness, Hulk Boulder, happens to be a name the Hulkster himself wrestled under in the ‘70s, before he changed it into his more marketable nickname. (Hey, would you want to eat “Boulder-O’s”?) In fairness to Mr. Bollea, seems like he might have a case here. We’ll let you play Judge Judy: