With WWE now releasing all 26 episodes of the cartoon classic, Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling, on their YouTube channel, fans can enjoy the full program for the first time in decades
By Ryan K Boman | April 12, 2026
For kids in the 1980s, church sometimes seemed to come a day early. Saturday mornings were our sanctuary, and cartoons were a form of religion. Many an early AM on the weekends started with a big bowl of cereal and the sound of the TV coming on.
In those days, we had the greatest kids’ shows, and the classics still hold up to this day – either for nostalgia or absurdity. And right smack dab in the middle of the decade, young viewers who also watched the WWF and their menagerie of characters were soon treated to a cartoon crossover.
Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling debuted on CBS in 1985, as part of the network’s block of programming. And while it only lasted for two seasons, it remains a huge part of recent wrestling lore. Fans who emerged from Generation X still remember specific episodes to this day.
World Wrestling Entertainment still owns the footage of the original program, and they formerly had episodes uploaded on The Network. (Remember the Network?) However, they were eventually pulled and haven’t been available for years. But in recent weeks, the company added all 26 episodes of its classic 80s animation series to its WWE Vault channel on YouTube. So, kids of all ages can now see this cartoon chaos for free, anytime they want.
The show’s original release was a snapshot of the wrestling industry in the mid-1980s, when it stopped being confined to arenas and late-night television slots and exploded into something much bigger. Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling was another example of how the focus was to push the product more toward a younger demographic. The bloody brawlers of the past were being pushed out the door in favor of sanitized superstars who looked ‘neat’ on a lunchbox.
Premiering in 1985, the cartoon arrived at the height of Hulkamania, when Hogan wasn’t just a champion — he was a larger-than-life superhero in the eyes of millions of kids. The show took that perception and made it literal, albeit in an odd alternate universe. Alongside animated versions of WWF stars like “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, André the Giant, and Junkyard Dog, Hogan battled classic villains in stories that leaned more toward slapstick and silliness than slams and suplexes.
What made the show so significant wasn’t its storytelling—it was its existence. Wrestling, long viewed as niche or regional, suddenly had a place alongside superheroes and toy-driven cartoons. It blurred the line between sport and spectacle in a way that hadn’t been done before.
The promotion’s crossover events with MTV and its working partnership with pop star Cyndi Lauper helped catch the young teens’ attention.
Now, the animated series would educate every kid in the country on who the company’s cast was and what side they were on. For Vince McMahon, it was a chance to capture an entire generation of lifelong consumers. And in many ways, it worked.
Looking back 40 years later, Hulk Hogan’s Rock ’n’ Wrestling feels like both a time capsule and a turning point. It captured the excess and optimism of the 1980s, but it also helped lay the groundwork for what wrestling would become: a global entertainment machine driven as much by personality as performance. It was an era that changed everything in the world of pro wrestling, and this cartoon was one of its earliest, most colorful chapters.