Hulk Hogan WWF Interview

Interview with Hulk Hogan
by Phil Speer WWF.com February 2002

MILWAUKEE -- Hulk Hogan agreed to an interview Sunday afternoon with WWF.com prior to No Way Out. He clearly had a lot on his mind ...

WWF.com: How does it feel to be here? How does it feel to be back?

Hogan: First off, I'm totally blown away, excited, happy to be home. To digress, as Vince McMahon would say, I went through a really weird period in WCW towards the end, where I started second-guessing everything -- from my age to my knee to my place in the business. And then to add salt to the wound, the creative team down there in WCW didn't have a clue what this business is about. They didn't even know what to do with the young guys, much less a guy who had been around for 20 years and still had value -- that could pass the torch and make the transition if done the right way. They really didn't have a
clue how to handle anything.

I hurt my knee real bad and I was sitting at home for about a year and a half. The first surgery didn't work; the second surgery didn't work. Finally, a guy named Dr. Picci in Buffalo, N.Y., took my kneecap off, reshaped it, put it back on, and aligned it. Then I wrestled Curt Hennig a couple of months ago in Orlando. They had an XWF taping. I wasn't a part of it, but in between the tapes, the crowd stayed inside. And my son talked me into climbing in the ring. Curt Hennig said, "What's wrong Hogan? You don't got no guts?" So I got into it with him. We wrestled for about 15 minutes and my knee felt great.

Then to talk to Vince on the phone, to hear his creative ideas, and to be around somebody who actually knows this business and have him -- because sometimes I got too close to Hulk Hogan -- explain to me my worth in this business, and how the transition should go. From being a hot box-office attraction for a little while, to coming back to the Federation and staying hot, and then all the transitions, and then fading away into the Babe Ruth and still participating. To hear how positive he was and what should really be done with me, it put me on Cloud 9.

My knee feels better than it has since 1993 when I was here. When I left here my knee was hurt real bad. So my knee is back on track. I feel really great. My workouts are coming along. The really cool thing is, everybody here in the Federation family -- guys I didn't know, guys I thought I had heat with that might not like me -- has been so kind to me and so nice. Then they put me on an ego trip. They say, "Oh man you're in great shape. You look good." I'm ecstatic about being here. I really am. My wife knows it. At home, she says, "Oh my God, you're happy again!" For a while I was lost. I was just like, "Now what am I going to do with my life? Ride around in a Jet Ski all day again?" After a while that gets old. So it's unbelievable just to be here. I almost want to cry.

WWF.com: What do you mean when you say you were "too close to Hulk Hogan"?

Hogan: I was around people who didn't know this business.

They hadn't been around for too long. They didn't see the full picture. They were trying to book from week to week and they were hot-shotting, panicking. They had no credibility. They hadn't been around the business long enough to know how to make things work and how to hang on. You might have to take one step back, but you end up taking five steps forward. They didn't know how to really do this business. Vince McMahon can make chicken salad out of chicken ... you know. He knows how to make things work. I just needed to be around somebody who knew this business. When Vince and I were together throughout the 80s, we were a very dangerous team when we were thinking together and working together. It's great to be back here and see all the other people such as The Rock -- I thought I was running 100 miles an hour, he's running 150 -- and to see Stone Cold at the top of his game. Undertaker just commands respect and knows everything about this business. It's great to be around people that you have to stay on your toes to keep up with. It's a nice change to have a challenge. It's unbelievable.

WWF.com: There were rumors that you were going to come back last year for WrestleMania.

Hogan: Yes sir. Vince and I were talking last year. To tell you the honest truth, that whole thing was really my fault. I talked to Vince about coming back. We had some good intentions about doing business.But at the end of the day, if I could really back away from myself and Vince McMahon and tell you what the problem was, I wasn't ready on two levels. Mentally I wasn't ready because Vince and I hadn't talked enough. Mentally I wasn't in sync with him. And physically my knee was only about 60 percent. And actually the day of WrestleMania, I came in on my boat at low tide. It's a 40-foot boat. And I looked at the end of the dock and said, "Oh, I could make that jump." Instead of climbing off my boat and walking through the mud to get to the dock, I said, "To hell with it. I'm going to be lazy." I backed up -- on the day of WrestleMania, when I should have been working with whoever I was supposed to be working with -- I ran all the way to the end of the boat and I jumped off to go to the dock. I was leading with my left foot and as I hit the deck, it felt like a shotgun shell exploded in my knee. Two days later I had another surgery.

WWF.com: You must be very excited to be back now.

Hogan: Yeah. To tell you the truth, I got here today and I was cool. As soon as I started talking to Vince, and we started talking about our battle plan, I got so darn nervous I had to run to the bathroom. He got me excited again. I was sitting in the WCW for five and a half years and I never got excited once. There was no challenge there. There was nobody there to test me. I was the only one there with Titan Training. That's what I call it. Guys would go out to do interviews, and Vince McMahon (would tell them), "Look at the hard camera! Turn this way! Know where you're at at all times!" You get an education here. I was in the WCW. There were guys at the top and they had their back to the hard camera. They wouldn't know which way that the guys were coming down the aisle, or which way the special effects were. It's just so nice to be back somewhere where everything is a challenge and everyone is professional.

WWF.com: We did an interview with Big Show last year, and he mentioned that you told him a few years back that he too needed "Titan Training."

Hogan: Yeah. I was around Andre (The Giant) probably more than anybody. Probably the only person who was around Andre as much as me was Vince. Andre was a very good friend of both of ours. When I saw the Big Show, he was very Andre-like. The first thing I did with him was take him out to the ring and wrestle him like he was a giant. Which he was -- 550 pounds at the time in WCW. Then, after me, everybody else treated him like just another guy. I said, "Brother, you need to go to New York and get some Titan Training and learn how to handle yourself in the ring." I pushed him really hard to get the hell out of there, even before Vince and I started talking again. I knew that was the place for him to go was up here.

WWF.com: Big Show has had his ups and downs since coming to the Federation. Do you think he made the right decision?

Hogan: Yes.

I think this is a test for him. Everybody has to focus. You can't worry about what's going on at home with you're wife while you're here. You can't worry about getting a workout in because you didn't get it done before you got here. You have to be dialed in when you're here. That's one thing I've learned. If you're going to run with Hunter, if you're going to run with Vince, if you're going to run with The Rock -- the way Hunter moves in the ring and everything -- you've got to be dialed in. Sometimes Paul [Wight, aka Big Show] is there. Sometimes he's not. And I think it's just a matter of adjusting his focus. Business has to be taken care of before you get here. You can't have anything on your mind. The one thing I worry about is that Paul needs to stay focused. I think he made the right decision. I think that the more he works hard, the more he takes the gun out of everybody's hand, he's going be prove he's The Giant. I believe in him. He's getting back in shape. He looks good. He had a little knee problem a few weeks ago. I think he's OK now. I'm on Paul's team. I hope it works out for him.
WWF.com: Right when you got back, in Los Angeles, I heard you went out with him. Are you the guy that's going to help him get where he needs to be?

Hogan: I didn't go out with him in L.A. He just rode to the airport with him. When we got to L.A., Big Sexy (Kevin Nash) was sitting down in the sports bar. I said, "I'll just sit down with Kevin for a minute. " The bottom line was I had double-digit beers -- 10-12 beers -- and I went straight to my room. I came to LA, and I knew I didn't have to wrestle. I knew I was only doing a digital scanning thing for toys and games and merchandise. I was very excited to be here. And I'll tell you the truth: I was breathing fumes the next day. I wasn't totally hung over, but I had a few beers in me. I was fine. I was great. I wasn't happy with myself, but I didn't have to wrestle or perform. But all I knew was that I was running 100 miles an hour and I was in good shape and I felt good, and all of a sudden The Rock came around the corner. And he stared me in the eye. And I said, "Oh my God, this guy is running 150 miles and hour." Boy did I learn a lesson. Thank God I didn't have to wrestle. Thank God I didn't have to do an interview. I swore to myself, the next time I showed up, there's not going to anybody running faster than me. That's my attitude. And that's going to be my attitude in the ring because there has been questions about, "Well, these guys -- the older guys -- can they keep up with our pace?" My goal is to not only keep up, but to be very competitive in there, and hopefully they can keep up with me as far as storyline and creativity and getting the fans on the edge of their seats, like they should be. It's all positive. I may sound hypocritical a little bit, but it's all positive stuff

WWF.com: Why do you say you sound hypocritical?

Hogan: Because I'm dissecting stuff now. I'm very sensitive. The problem is, brother, I'm not used to sitting in the back. And now all I've done is sit in the back. I want to go through the curtain. I want to get out there so I can feel like I'm part of the team. Once I go through the curtain and things are cool, and I earn my props or my stripes, I'll feel more comfortable.
WWF.com: Why did you leave the World Wrestling Federation back in 1993?

Hogan: It was a bunch of things. I had the greatest run anybody has ever had here. I was here 1978-80 with Vince's father and had a tremendous run. Then I went to AWA for three years. Then I came back in '83 and had a run until the end of '93. I had a great run. Sometimes you don't realize how valuable something is until you let it go. The whole thing revolves around Hulk Hogan's karma. Anything you said to me I was negative about -- "Oh my God, we have to go to that town tomorrow? Oh my God, we have to get up that early?" I was negative. I had a bad attitude. I was actually hurt. I had wrestled more than anybody. I was flying 300 days a year for many, many years. I was wrestling sometimes -- not all the time, but sometimes -- twice on weekends, twice on Wednesday, twice on Sunday. The bottom line is, we didn't have Stone Cold Steve Austin. We didn't have Hunter. We didn't have the Undertaker. We didn't have The Rock. We had Hulk Hogan. We had the Ultimate Warrior, but then he disappeared after a few months. He'd come back, and then he'd disappear. So basically -- I'm not saying the show was all me -- but if Hulk Hogan was there, it made a difference. I was running hard, and every night I was last. So no matter what these guys did -- jumping off the top rope, diving through the ropes, tremendous wrestling moves -- whatever they did, not that I could wrestle better than them, but I had to entertain the crowd more. And at that time, there was a transition in the business, going towards entertainment more than just wrestling. And no matter what I did, at the end of the night, I had to go out there and outdo that volume that everybody else did. And at the end of the day, I was tired, I was burnt out, I had a bad attitude and Vince wasn't going to put up with it. And on top of that, there was the steroid controversy. And they were trying to accuse Vince McMahon of a lot of things that he was not. And trying to say Vince McMahon did a lot of things that he did not do. And they thought if they took Hulk Hogan -- the No. 1 guy, who had used steroids or experimented with them, or however you want to put it -- and pulled me away from Vince and drove a wedge between us, that might help them earn a victory over what they thought Vince was. Well, it wasn't true. There was a lot of tension there -- no communication there between Vince and I. Plus my attitude was terrible. You couldn't communicate with me anyway. So, the reason that I left, to answer your question, is because it was my own fault. All of the above: hurt, the attitude. I just got too used to driving around in a nice car. I took it for granted. I just took the Federation for granted. But now more than ever, being away from this machine and realizing how hard everybody in the Federation works and how valuable this is, it won't happen again.

WWF.com: Did you envision when you left that you'd one day return?

Hogan: I never dreamed I'd come back. Everybody would always say, "Hulk, we want you back in the Federation. You need to go back." And I just thought that I could never come back here. The more I started watching Vince and knowing what he'd been through, I went from a numb/neutral position to a position of admiration. I said, "My God, they tried to destroy this guy -- on a business level, on a personal level. They put this guy through hell." His business was hurting after all the stuff he went through with the federal government, and all the rumors and all the stuff and all the slanderous stuff they tried to do to him. I watched this guy prove that he was a winner and a leader, and survive on a personal level and a business level. I can say it in all honesty in front of the world -- I'm not kissing his ass -- I admire him. And the fact that Vince McMahon is my friend, that's one of the most important things in my life right now. My wife and my kids are more important than Vince. And my God -- who has guaranteed my I'm going to live forever -- is. But Vince is up there. He's just a very important person in my life now. If you get to know Vince McMahon, and know what he's all about, and he's a friend of yours, you know he'll be there for you, no matter what. They can say, "Vince is evil. Vince is mean. Vince's character is this. Vince's character is that." But if you know Vince McMahon like I do, he's an incredible person. Not because he's my boss -- that's just the way it is. Sorry.
WWF.com: How did you feel when you were in WCW and the Federation poked some fun at you -- the "Huckster" skit, Big Show's impression, Patterson and Gerry Brisco's impression, etc.?

Hogan: This is business, brother. When you're out there trying to survive, you got to do it. I understand everything. As soon as I left for WCW, Vince wrote that stuff about the Macho Man and me "gettin' old, brother." It kind of backfired on the Federation. It made people tune in to the WCW. And the next thing you know, we were beating them in the ratings for a couple of years. But it was kind of hard to watch on a personal level. But I understand this business, and I understand what has to be done when you're on the team, and when you're not on the team.

WWF.com: Do you think we'll ever see Hulk Hogan have one last run as the "Real American?"

Hogan: Well, if that ever happens, I don't think it could be the red and yellow Fred Sanford "yuck, yuck" Hulk Hogan.
I think we'd have to do the red and yellow with an edge -- Hollywood Hogan, repenting, asking the fans for forgiveness for being an evil, no-good SOB. I think there's a chance to do that.

WWF.com: Which superstars are you looking forward to working with?

Hogan: Everybody. Brother, there are so many guys here. There's Stone Cold, there's The Rock, there's the Undertaker, there's Rob Van Dam, there's Jericho. I could go on and on and on. There's so many guys here now. Oh my God, I can't wait to get Vince's ass in the ring and start pounding on him. That'll be a dream come true. Someday. The storyline is unending here. It really is.

WWF.com: What are your goals?

Hogan: It's kind of weird. I'm not trying to be a pompous ass or an egomaniac; financially I'm pretty well set. I had a tremendous 20-year run in the wrestling business, being on top. I haven't done the type of movies that The Rock has done, but I've done 16 motion pictures -- B-movies, where I've been executive producer. I was partners with the guys in "Baywatch" for a couple of years and did great with that stuff. I've made investments and my wife has got a restaurant.

WWF.com: Do you want to mention the name of the restaurant?

Hogan: Yeah, it's called the French Hen. My wife would love me for that. It's the French Hen on Indian Rocks Road in Clearwater Beach, Fla. I'm going to give the phone number -- (727) 586-6316. Call for reservations! I'll arm-wrestle you there! But brother, I've saved my money. The bottom line is, I'm here because I want to be here. I'm not here because I have to be here. I got here at 11:30 (this morning). We're trying to set a good example and get off on the right foot. Nobody else was here but us. I basically am doing this because I want to be here. My wife said, "Are you having fun?" I said, "Yeah, I'm just having fun being around the guys and meeting the people." But I told my wife, "I don't have to do this. I'm missing Nick's soccer game today." I'm here because I want to be here, and that's the bottom line -- because Hulk Hogan said so.

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