Hogan says he was excited for Flair to come to the WWF because he had been trying for years to get Flair to NY. He says he wanted Flair to get over because that meant more money in Hogan’s bank account. “At the same time, not to put myself over but I was selling out everywhere with Kamala and Paul Orndorff, guys like that so….”
Hulkster says he could work like Bret Hart “Just watch my Japan tapes”
Matsuda taught him how shoot because in the 70s you couldn’t lose a fight in a bar or you’d be out of the business.
“I wasn’t an elite athlete but I had a baseball background, I didn’t play in the MLB…I had a couple of things that stopped that….” LOLOLOLOLOL
“In the 70s, if you wanted a job (in wrestling) you had a 300 pound guy across from you and you had to take the food from his wife and kids mouth…it isn’t like today at the Performance Center where they have 40 guys waiting to be a replacement” I listened to this twice and I’m not sure what he means exactly. There was a lot more main event slots in the 70s (which is different than “big money” slots) to be had than today given the amount of promotions running. You came in had your run and moved on. His analogy really fits more to his WCW run where he protected himself to keep the mega money slot.
Hulk delivers his usual “I was influenced by Dusty Rhodes and Superstar Graham watching them growing up” which is always a little funny as Dusty became a hero in 74-75 and Graham was a star slightly before that… mean while the Hogan/Matsuda incident would have been around 1976 if not 75 as Hogan broke in during August 1977.
He says he quit 3 times while breaking in the southern territories (which is 2 more than the standard Hogan story) because “I was working 12 times a week for 125 dollars” For the record, Wrestlingdata has Hogan’s biggest active month as March 1980, with 30 WWWF matches.) He had 27 matches in May 83 working for Inoki right after the Super Sunday mess.
Hogan was in rock and roll bands at the same time as he was working in wrestling. He joined a union as a long shore man (“I was the only white guy on the whole crew”) where he worked 15 hours a day and made 400 dollars daily. LOLOLOLOL We are only 10 mins in and I’m loving this! I’ve paused almost every sentence he speaks so I can fact check and/or type without missing his next fib.
Hulk figured out the business when he slammed somebody and made a face to the crowd, which got a bigger reaction than his physical effort.
“I went to Minnesota for 3 years after the WWWF fired me. That’s where I figured everything out” Hulkamania was born as Hogan started ripping his shirt and what not.
Theo was a fan as he name dropped the AWA and watching SNME as a kid, which helps this interview dynamic.
“I came into the WWWF in 1977 and sold out Shea Stadium in 1978 with Andre. I wrestled in Japan for 20 years, 6 months out of the year” LOLOLOLOL
“I went and worked for Ted Turner for 10 years. I got the tingling to do something evil and that got red hot”
Hogan implies he went to Japan and met Hiro Matsuda, which is where his leg is broken in this version of his life. He learned how to shoot. He says he got over in Japan because he bleached his hair and played rock and roll and the fans compared him to Elvis. AMAZING.
Hogan says he was manged by Fred Blaisse in Japan and the fans all knew Fred from his wars with Rikidozan, so Hogan was over right away. I’m not sure Freddie ever appeared in NJPW w/ Hogan(?)
Hogan says a sumo wrestler was brought into NJPW and was told to shoot on Hogan but then put him over, and the sumo guy refused to lose. “There was a big guy there named John Tenta…” Oh god, he’s putting himself in the middle of the infamous shoot story with Koji 10 years before it happened I guess. Tenta was a former sumo and told Hogan he was fighting instead. Tenta almost had his eye taken out but he fought the sumo off. Hogan spent the rest of the tour hiding behind Tenta. I love this man.
Hulk would work for the AWA Mon-Fri and fly to Japan for the weekend for the big payoffs.
Swede Hansen and Angelo Mosca are cited as the burly, stiff workers that were typical of the 70s business. Hogan was “mid size” and had to leave bruises when he punched guys to put over the realism.
McMahon had Hogan wrestle the South American champ overseas and warned Terry not to let himself get shot on and lose the WWF title. (Closest to this would be El Canek I assume?)
Vince was told about selling merch and playing music by the Hulk when he came back from the AWA. Vince took to the idea and implemented both ideas.
Hogan lived next to Vince and went to the office everyday to help Vince build the WWF brand. That kind of contradicts his world wide travel 30 days a month story.
The only match Hogan ever planned out was with the Rock and they ended up not doing any of the plan anyway.
Now he puts Verne and Greg over as teaching him everything.
Andre didn’t like Hogan for the first 7 or 8 years. Hogan brought a flight attendant to the Cap Center one night and once Andre figured out Hogan was showboating for her, he stiffed Hogan and then pulled his junk out and dragged him around the ring.
Hulk would fly out of NY with John Belushi to the west coast and often catch the same flight back at the end of the weekend. Hogan claims he flew back and forth from the east to west coast daily to wrestle, meanwhile Belushi spent 3 days in Hollywood. Mind you Belushi died when Hogan was in the AWA, so if any small part of this was true, this would have been 1980 when Hogan was working WWWF and NJPW.
Hogan makes fun of wrestlers who live their gimmick “All the crazy crap these guys believe…" without a hint of irony.
So many guys have died that Hogan has stopped going to funerals. "I got sick of walking into hotel rooms and seeing dead guys on the road"
Flair talks a big game, but Hogan outlasted Flair whenever they partied. Flair has to go to bed at 9pm. He ghosts you at the bar and sticks you with the tab. Perhaps the most truthful story we will hear today.
Hulk claims he fronted the money for the Australian tour where he and Flair wrestled every night in the mid 2000s. Flair got his money upfront and then hit Hogan up every night for another $5000 so Flair could go party.
The Brisco Bros hooked Hogan up with a gig in the WWWF. On his first night there he got lost looking for the locker room and wandered out to the arena wearing a tye dye shirt. The crowd went nuts as they thought Supersrar Graham had returned. Vince Sr chewed Hogan out.
Tony Altimore was a shyster. He taught Hogan tricks like how to take a bump in a grocery store to get free food.
Marvel sued Hogan for the name “Hulk” but settled to on only taking 1/10th of a percent of his earnings. Hogan claims a lawsuit over the name happened again in 2005 involving Hogan matches airing on WWE 24/7 and Hulk duped Marvel and paid them 750K to forever own his own gimmick instead of millions of dollars.
Jon Gruden lives down the street from Hulk. Hogan puts him over as a “good guy”, which is accidentally cringey/funny since Gruden is now infamous for racist comments, much like the Hulkster.
The Miz is put over by Hogan as somebody who gets the business.
Hogan talks about how his brother and sister in law were into gangs and drugs. His sister in law was shot to death at a bar and “they killed my brother a little later on” “No wait, that’s not true…he OD’d and nobody helped him”.
Vince and Hogan were given a chance to buy the UFC, but they decided it was too violent and they passed on the deal.
WTF… Hogan was talking about working out in Minnesota in the AWA and he’d see pre-wrestling Hawk training at the gym, and Kevin Kelly pressing weights and…. BROCK LESNAR?!?!?!?!? LOLOLOLOLOL Brad Rheingans did train Brock, but that was almost 20 years later.
Hogan and Beefcake aren’t close anymore due to issues with Beefcake’s wife.
Some guys over used steroids. Not Hogan. Yes, he said this with a straight face and without a hint of irony. Hogan says Bob Backlund was the only wrestler not using roids.
During the steroid trials of 1994, Hogan double crossed the Feds and told the truth on the stand, helping to keep Vince out of jail. They got Hogan back by banning him from wrestling in NY for the next 5 years.
We get on the subject of Michael Jackson. I was terrified at what Hogan was going to come up with when he started his story, but it turned out to just be a story about the Hogans getting shuttered to the side at Disney to let Jackson’s troupe come through.
Mean Gene moved in with Hogan while they were both in the AWA. Gene was married but he just lived with Hogan anyway for a year and a half.
www.reuters.com
