WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan was recently interviewed on the first two episodes of the new “The Apter Chat” podcast. Hogan talked about several professional wrestling topics, including his WWE return, his journey in the world of professional wrestling, and much more.
In the second episode of his interview, Hogan revealed who taught him to Hulk Up and no-sell his opponents’ moves. It turns out that late WWE Hall Of Famer Verne Gagne was actually the one who taught him to Hulk Up and no-sell:
“Then what happened is I went to Minnesota for three years and I really honed my craft,” Hogan continued. “Verne Gagne actually taught me how to start shaking and ‘Hulk Up’ and Verne actually taught me that, how to come up.
“He could coach me, ‘now you gotta start shaking and if somebody hits you with a lead pipe in the head you act like it doesn’t hurt you. When they dropkick you, you don’t go down… when they hit you with four dropkicks you just wobble.’
“It used to piss off all the other wrestlers cause Verne told me to quit selling,” Hogan said. “I said, ‘Guys! It’s not me! It’s Verne! Verne’s telling me not to do this,’ you know and it was true. Verne didn’t want me to sell. Once I did sell, he said: ‘Once you go down and sell, sell like you’re a 100-pound girl so you get sympathy.’
“That’s why when I did finally sell I’d start crawling around and that building would start rumbling, brother. It would rumble so loud when I started selling, it went crazy.
“So when I went back to [WWE], I finally learned my craft. I learned how to be Hulk Hogan. I was making all my shirts at the mall. I was ripping them off when I was up there, so I had it figured out before I came back this time.
“So when I hit the ring against the Iron Sheik it just took off and it was the most fun time of all for me in the wrestling business because like I said, it was the first time.
“Then the transition into the nWo, I always knew if they would let me be a bad guy again now that I had it figured out I could be the best bad guy ever. The dirtiest, nastiest, most evil bad guy and then when the good guys came at me I’d drop down and beg like the biggest chicken ever like Ray Stevens. I had a blast, but the first run with the red and yellow was the most fun.”
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
