WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan was recently interviewed on the Mr. SantiZip YouTube channel. Hogan talked about his own career and he praised some of the current WWE stars.
Hulk Hogan on wrestling Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III:
“That night he weighed 660. If you watched Andre’s career, sometimes they would say 500 pounds. He was never 500 pounds. He was always 550. That’s as light as he ever was. Sometimes when he ate and he drank too much, you’d see his belly swell up like a balloon and everything else kind of swelled, so he got really heavy when his health wasn’t that great. He was coming off a huge back surgery. So that night, actually in ’88, it was over 30 years ago, 33, 34, 35 years ago, I was a lot younger back then and I was actually training with heavy weights and I didn’t think I could slam him. At WrestleMania III, about 30 seconds into the match, I went to yoke him up and I got him chest high, that position you’re talking about, and I fell back. I almost lost the match in the first 30 seconds. He got like a two and a half count, but as he got tired and I started feeling better, the longer the match goes, it’s almost like the more energy I would get from the people, you know, I would start shaking and go crazy, that I found the perfect spot where he was kind of off balance. He was kind of floating towards me. I happened to get underneath him and when I got to that position again that you’re talking about, I just said, ‘The heck with it.’ I turned him and he went down. It was a one time deal brother, never, to happen again. I didn’t think I could do it, but when you’re in front of 94,000 Hulkamaniacs, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do, brother.”
On carrying the WWF when he was champion:
“It was scary. It’s not like it is today where it’s a fine oiled machine where you know who’s running the game. Back then it was kind of like the fastest draw, so I had a target on my back all the time. So if I was wrestling around the WWE guys, I was really comfortable, but when I go out and do one offs, like go to South Budapest Swana or go to Germany to wrestle the heavyweight champion of Germany or go to Austria and wrestle Otto Wanz, if they were to break Hulk Hogan’s arm, their career was made, so not only being the number one guy I had this target on my back internationally, and when I would come home, all the guys that were my friends were trying to one up me and take my spot and you know, they were saying, ‘Well, Hulk is gonna go do a movie for Mr. nanny for eight weeks. Maybe if we,you know, make people forget about him, he’ll come back and he won’t be the champion anymore.’ It was always pressure. It was always push, push, push, but I was always in the gym, and a lot of guys weren’t so it all worked out.”
Hulk was asked, ‘If we were to put you in a scenario where it’s in front of 94,000 Hulkamaniacs, it’s the Silverdome, who do you want to be main-eventing with if it was somebody from today’s landscape of wrestling?
Hulk responded, “That is a tricky, tricky question because things have changed so much. There are very few attractions in the business, you know, there was Stone Cold Steve Austin. There was Andre the Giant, John Cena. There are very few guys that become attractions, but there are some really good main event players that are right there at greatness. They’re right at the greatness level, and for me to pick one guy out, I figure it just wouldn’t be fair. So choices would be Roman Reigns, of course. Seth Rollins, I’d love to rock him one time. He’s a little cocky for me. I’d like to get up in Seth Rollins face, and somebody that I did wrestle one time before that it could have been a fluke that I got the victory, I would love to wrestle Randy Orton. Those would be the three guys. The new guy on the scene, this LA Knight guy, I think I’d have to get really ugly with him, man. He’s getting way too big, way too fast, but he’s a rising Superstar and I love the guy to death, man. I love watching him on TV too.”
Hogan on the rise of LA Knight:
“LA Knight has a lot of old school in him. He goes in there and he grinds and he stays on it, but his cadence is what attracted me. It’s like, ‘Well, let me tell you something, brother.’ He’ll say, ‘Well, let me talk to you.’ Same thing. ‘Well, let me tell you something brother.’ ‘Well let me talk to you.’ It’s the same cadence. It’s the same vibe and he’s got it down. He learned quick. He’s a quick study and man, the application, the practical application, the way he nails things, his placement in the ring, his timing is impeccable. He’s a heck of an athlete. Good looking kid, man. Built like a Greek god, so it’s all coming his way and he’s very consistent. I haven’t met him, but he seems like a really, really, really good person.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit MrSantiZip on YouTube with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
