Friday 25 January 2019 12:17, UK
Thirty-five years on from his era-defining first WWE World title win, Hulk Hogan is happy to call it the best day of his life.
Hogan changed the course of wrestling history when he took the championship from The Iron Sheik in front of a frenzied Madison Square Garden crowd 35 years ago this week.
It took his popularity to new heights and provided the starting point for Hogan and the WWE to conquer the wrestling world with their combination of rock and wrestling - the perfect concoction to secure that crossover appeal and alter the industry forever.
The business was not the only thing which would never be the same again.
"It was the night that changed my life," Hogan said. "The crowd was magic. It was the first time that I had wrestled and everyone was stood up, everyone was screaming at the same time.
"I was a bad guy when I'd been with the WWE before, so I wasn't sure how I would be received when I came back, but it was the greatest day of my life.
"It set a precedent, because from that day forward, every time I stepped into the ring - and it didn't matter if I was against John Studd, or King Kong Bundy or Andre (the Giant), Macho, or Piper - the crowd was that intense."
Prior to 1984, wrestling had been presented as exactly that - a legitimate sport between rugged competitors. And while it is fair to say other territories were starting to change their styles at the same time as the WWE, it was Hogan who added that sprinkle of showbiz-infused star dust to spearhead Vince McMahon's national expansion.
"Vince McMahon and I dug in really hard and wanted to change this business for the better," he said. "We wanted to make it an international phenom - a juggernaut, as Vince would say. And we did that."
Hogan is also comfortable in the legacy he provided for today's competitors; how, despite a chequered recent past, he is still universally accepted as the man who changed everything.
"When I think of all the superstars now, like John Cena, Seth Rollins, who were Hulkamaniacs - the Rock caught my headband when he was 10 years old - we made them want to get into this business," he said.
"We flicked a switch in those guys. When I think back about the ride, it's been a wild one, a great one."
And it all started in 1984.
