Casting the Hulk Hogan movie

7. Ed O’Neill as Verne Gagne

Ed O'Neill could play AWA patriarch Verne Gagne in compelling fashion.

Verne Gagne plays a deceptively important role in Hulk Hogan’s story. Gagne employed Hogan for the AWA run that preceded his Hulkamania push in WWE, and many attribute Hogan’s most successful persona and mannerisms more to Gagne’s mind for wrestling than Vince McMahon’s creative contributions.

Moreover, Gagne was a key business rival in the aftermath, who legend has it went so far as to offer The Iron Sheik money to legitimately break Hogan’s leg to kill his momentum in WWE.

Gagne is best remembered as a traditionalist and elder statesman of the wrestling business and that’s a gravitas that Ed O’Neill could tap into well. Putting aside his comedic work in Married… With Children, his character on Modern Family exhibits more of the curmudgeonly tendencies to successfully portray Gagne, not to mention that O’Neill has proven his more dramatic chops in roles like his recurring part on The West Wing.