What would the wrestling world be like if Vince said yes?

In an recent interview Hulk Hogan said he wanted to be a heel against Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI

“Vince and I were best friends, but when we talked about money, we were enemies,” said Hogan. “So I went to WCW with the red and yellow, beat Ric Flair, and Hulkamania took off again. Then, creatively, I turned into a bad guy, which I always wanted to do in the WWF, but nobody wanted me to. I always said, ‘I could be the best bad guy ever. Just let me do it’, but no-one wanted me to be a bad guy.

“At Warrior’s time, I really wanted to f–k him as a bad guy; I wanted to beat The Ultimate Warrior in Toronto, but as a heel. I just thought it would be intense, and I would be the best bad guy ever. I could have done it, and then said, ‘Forget the prayers and the vitamins, I did it for the money!’ But it’s just creative differences, and Vince knows what he’s doing, believe me. I just wanted to try something different in the WWF.”

Never heard that before and really interesting.

Good find Mr DT

He's been spouting his mouth off about a few things...



In an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, Hulk Hogan sheds light on original plans for his match with The Rock at Wrestlemania X-8 in 2002.

“Out of respect, I go down there (to Miami), and there’s me and The Rock and his dad Rocky Johnson, and Pat Patterson,” said Hogan. “The Rock starts telling me that we’re gonna lock up, and do this and do that, then start getting some heat on me, and so on. So he talked through the whole match, and I was listening. I respect him, and it kinda made sense, but I’d never done that before. Then they go, ‘Okay, let’s have the match here.’ I said, ‘Whoa! You’re talking about me taking bumps in this ring, with no people? I’ll get hurt, and if I fall wrong one time, then my career is over.’ I’ve got to have the energy of the crowd, so that when I go down, I go down to the mat hard. So instead, we just walked through the match."

Hogan was depicted as the heel going into the match due to his affiliation with the New World Order, and because of his acrimonious departure from WWE years prior. The audience, however, didn't care that Hogan was portrayed as a villain by WWE, instead cheering the wrestling icon and reigning a chorus of boos toward The Rock. Hogan says he had the match changed on the fly due to the crowd reaction.

“The whole issue I had was what if we got to Toronto, and this doesn’t work? So sure enough, when we go to Toronto, I give The Rock one big push, and the place explodes. Then I pushed him again, as we planned, and the place explodes again. [WWE] thought I was gonna get booed. Then I start chopping meat on him, and with every hit the place is going crazy. Then I did what was planned, blocking a punch, and as soon as he started hitting me came the boos.”

“I went down, and looked up and said, ‘You want me to fix this?’ And The Rock says, ‘Yeah, let’s fix it.’ I went, ‘OK, then listen to me.’ But it took him no time to get it right, because he is just so good in the ring. It took us three minutes to get it right, but if we’d done what we had practised, they’d have booed us out of the [expletive] building. I’m not saying I could do it in every instance, but The Rock is so good, we could do that. The Rock doesn’t usually talk about planning his matches, so somebody must have made him worry that I was too old and too slow, and that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the work-rate. But once he got in the ring with me, he knew I had a feel for it, and we got it right. That’s what I wanted to do with ‘Stone Cold’, and Bret Hart, too.”

Keep in mind that this is Hulk Hogan talking so take this and anything else he says with a grain of salt. You guys know that by now!

-----

In a newly published interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, TNA Wrestling Superstar Hulk Hogan discussed his strained relationship with the late "Macho Man" Randy Savage and desire to induct the legendary wrestler into the WWE Hall of Fame.

“I’ve heard all these urban legends about Randy doing something to urine Vince off," said Hogan. "I’ve heard two or three different stories, and I don’t know if any of those are true, but he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and I would love to be the one that inducts him. I’ve got a speech for him ready to go. I just think it’s a must that he’s in the Hall of Fame; he was so influential in this business, especially in the WWF, and in my career.

"You know, he’s the only guy we could pass the belt to, and we wouldn’t lose money. You gave the belt to The Ultimate Warrior - I don’t want to drop a bunch of names - and right away the revenue went down. Give the belt to ‘Macho Man’, and things would stay the same, or get better.”

“For me, it would be cool to induct him. We had a rift for about 10 years, and then right before he passed away, I was getting an EKG, when I hear (mimicking Randy’s voice) ‘Yeah, what’s up, brother?’ And I looked over, and he was there, looking great. I said, ‘Hey Mach, how you doing?’ I shook his hand, and introduced him to my wife, Jennifer. He’s like, ‘Hello lovely lady, how ya doing?’ Jennifer said to him, ‘Oh, Mr. Macho, I’ve heard so much about you. You know, we’ve got three or four lawyers at the house today, so we’re gonna cook up. We’d love to have you over.’ But he just went, ‘I don’t dig lawyers, baby, maybe we could start out with a phone call?’

“I was on a show with Lanny (Poffo, Randy’s brother), Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash in Canada [around the time of Randy's passing], and Lanny had told me that his mom was depressed because his dad had passed away, and would me and Randy come to see her? We were gonna have a barbecue at Randy’s house for his mom, and surprise her. But midweek, Randy passed away. It was tough because we just started talking after all that cowpat; I was excited to talk to him, he was excited to talk to me, and then he passed away. It was [expletive] up. He was a great human being, too. He had a good heart, man. He was a good person.”

Knowing Hogan he probably would have turned heel then refused to job in the rematch

Hogan comes across at least on tv as a very selfish person, let me take the spotlight kind of guy as shown by the recent impact wrestling storylines based around him and his daughter.

Who needs that red and yellow piece of monkey crap?

Carry on playing with sting, and the rest of the 2nd division, were you belong!

I think these interviews go a long way to showing why TNA will never succeed while Hogan is in the promotion. He simply doesn't know how to be selfless. He talks like he's had all these great ideas and takes credit for so many things, yet when given the chance to influence the creative direction of a wrestling promotion, look who gets pushed; him, his family, his mates, and his mates' families.

If he had really wanted to turn heel at wrestlemania 6, would he not have mentioned that in his autobiography? Would it really have taken 23 years for him to tell that story? It's a load of codswallop. The reason he turned in WCW is because the fans were completely rejecting him as a babyface. It's something he was forced into doing by his own failures.

It's no surprise he's so self-absorbed given the success he had in his career and the power he was (and is) allowed to wield, but those very factors are the things that always made him a dangerous and poisonous presence in the business. It was one thing indulging those traits when he was drawing money at a rapid rate, but he isn't any more and hasn't for years and years.

I don't think he's got anything to give the business any more. He should go and enjoy retirement, and take his friend Bischoff with him.

crippledtart wrote:

I don't think he's got anything to give the business any more. He should go and enjoy retirement, and take his friend Bischoff with him.

bischoff has been off tv for a while.....whats he been up to? I know that Hogan is the most selfish person in wrestling like I said in my previous post on this thread but bischoff I think is slightly better with business.......only slightly though

Can't say I've ever heard that heel turn story either, I think if it is true at all then it might have been one last very late desperate attempt by Hogan to hold onto the title, the business was already in decline by the time Warrior became champ, it was on the rise from 84 to 87 then it steadied around 88 and then dipped in 89, it peaked again when they went with Hogan/Warrior at WrestleMania but it was never sustainable.

The fans went nuts when Warrior won the Title and the general consensus was that it was a good move at the time, what they didn't do though was give Warrior a proper World Title Feud to go into, he beat Perfect and Rude, two greats in my eyes but in the eyes of the WWF public in 1990 they where IC level guys, he should have had Earthquake at SummerSlam

Hogan turned heel in 96 because he had too, the fans had turned on years before, they where sick of it, his reactions at houses where getting so bad that they feared how he's come across on PPV if he won, they edited the sound at Tuesday in Texas when he beat Undertaker for the World Title, a quick scan of the crowd can tell you that result wasn't over with the fans, same at the Rumble, when Sid eliminated Hogan the crowd went nuts, to be fair I thought what Hogan did after that was great, he showed bitterness and jealousy, it would have been perfect to turn him heel after that but they didn't do it, that made the fans resent him even more, when Sid walked out on Hogan in the Tag Match at Saturday Nights Main Event the fans where slapping him on the back.

Hogan was a busted act for years, when he went to WCW he got the fanfare that deserted him in the WWF but that's only because it looked like WCW were finally going to overtake Vince and his empire, it didn't take the WCW crowd to wise up to the fact that Hogan was doing in 1994/95 what he was doing in 1986/87/88/89...there was nothing fresh.

In the 80s Hogan was worth his weight in Gold, in the mid-late 90s he was worth his weight in Gold, for a long time though he was a nostalgia act that could still go, now he's a nostalgia act that can't go.

I truly believe Hulk Hogan thinks he can make a difference, I genuinely believe Hogan thinks he knows what will and won't work in Pro Wrestling unfortunately though from watching him do his thing for nearly 25 years its obvious that Hulk Hogan only knows how to get himself over, that's all he's ever done throughout his career

sjh5678 wrote:

crippledtart wrote:

I don't think he's got anything to give the business any more. He should go and enjoy retirement, and take his friend Bischoff with him.

bischoff has been off tv for a while.....whats he been up to? I know that Hogan is the most selfish person in wrestling like I said in my previous post on this thread but bischoff I think is slightly better with business.......only slightly though

If you read Eric Bischoff's book then he's the best thing that ever happened to the Wrestling business, better for business? I'd say definitely not, it was his sanctioning of the most ridIculous contracts in the history of the Wrestling business that crippled WCW and allowed WWF/E to monopolise the Wrestling industry

Eric Bischoff had about 18 good months in a 25 year career

I wish to buggery someone would call Hogan on his comments any time he does an interview like this.


Like, if he was so willing to turn heel on WORYAH! in 1990 why was he so reluctant to turn heel in 1996, to the point where nobody knew until the day of the Bash at the Beach pay per view whether or not he was going to go through with it? Hell, they even had Sting on standby to be the third man just in case! Everything Hogan says shouldn't be taken with a pinch of salt, it should be taken with an ocean full of salt.


Next time Hogan does one of these interviews I'm expecting him to say that the match at Wrestlemania 3 with Andre the Giant turned into a shoot after Andre said "Don't slam me boss".

Kay Fabe wrote:

sjh5678 wrote:

crippledtart wrote:

I don't think he's got anything to give the business any more. He should go and enjoy retirement, and take his friend Bischoff with him.

bischoff has been off tv for a while.....whats he been up to? I know that Hogan is the most selfish person in wrestling like I said in my previous post on this thread but bischoff I think is slightly better with business.......only slightly though

Eric Bischoff had about 18 good months in a 25 year career

I read controversy creates cash a few years back but cant remember much about it. and 18 months of doing good buisness is better than hogans record

No its not

Hogan, whether you want to argue if it was only something he could have done or not, was at the epicentre of Two of the biggest boom periods in wrestling history, spanning roughly 7 years, its fair to say he's done better business then Bischoff

Dr Gregory House MD wrote:Hogan, whether you want to argue if it was only something he could have done or not, was at the epicentre of Two of the biggest boom periods in wrestling history, spanning roughly 7 years, its fair to say he's done better business then Bischoff

I still hate Hogan more

Well that's a completely different point, don't let hatred cloud your judgement though

Hogan's been canning the Warrior a fair bit lately (and to an extent vice versa). But, as has been mentioned, a pinch of salt must be taken with anything he says.

"I really wanted to f–k him as a bad guy"
This line. He's either fantasising about Bruti again, or talking out of his nether region. From what I have read, in 1990 Hogan and Warrior were friends. The fall out didn't come until 1998. OK, so maybe Hulk's ego wanted the win to prolong his career at the top of the card, but that quote smacks of personal dislike, something they didn't have for each other at the time.

I wonder who from the current era will end up publicising their bitter resentment towards eachother in years to come in true Hogan/Warrior style. I imagine Cena being the subject of a few shoot interviews from guys on the current roster when they retire.

I reckon Cena's alright. It's not his fault so few have stepped up to the plate in his time at the top. And with the double roster there's been far more opportunities than in past years.

I'd hazard a guess that Orton and Punk aren't too popular. And going back a little, JBL and Batista.

From what I"ve read Orton is pretty popular, he stood up to HHH and HBK in the dressing room over HBK being annoyed that Umaga wore green which was Triple H's colour around 2007ish time, Orton became the voice of the younger generation and Cena was aligned with him although Cena apparently distanced himself after Orton became quite vocal

I read that at the time although I imagine the landscape backstage has altered with people distancing themselves from Orton due to the double wellness violation (why align yourself behind the guy on his last chance) and with a large number of Indy guys now on the roster and in developmental then Punk's stock has risen.

You're all forgetting that mega names like Tyler Reks and craftsman of the ring Chavo Guerrero have already gone off on Cena a few times.

Hogan v Warrior has nothing on Chavo v Cena "una vez en la vida" (google translate tells me thats right)

Hero wrote:I read that at the time although I imagine the landscape backstage has altered with people distancing themselves from Orton due to the double wellness violation (why align yourself behind the guy on his last chance) and with a large number of Indy guys now on the roster and in developmental then Punk's stock has risen.

You've only got to watch Arn Anderson's Hall of Fame induction speech to see how far CM Punk's stock has risen. For a guy who originally said that Punk "didn't know how to work" to saying he was a locker room leader and that he was proud of Punk shows how far he's moved up the ladder.

But there's a difference between respect and liking someone. I wouldn't doubt for a second the respect he has backstage by both the wrestlers and the legends. But how many like him as a person? He doesn't strike me as the most likeable bloke.

From a completely outside view, he strikes me as someone who speaks his mind but wouldn't go out of his way to offend or annoy someone that he likes and respects. I doubt he is popular with his bosses, but people like that are often the more popular in a working environment.

Cena allowing Punk to piledrive him for example, which was supposedly not agreed with management. I can't imagine somebody with his position allowing that if he didn't respect and at least have a bit of a liking for Punk.

That's a very good point Enforcer, but I'd still classify that as respect. They'd have been chatting backstage about their match and the piledriver comes up in conversation. Now, Cena might be BFF with Ryback, but he's not going to let him get anywhere near a piledriver. But he'd know Punk is the consummate professional and let him do it. Likewise, Punk allowed the FrankenCena because he'd know Cena would never go out of his way to hurt him.

Ok, forget these two. Bret Hart always comes across as very resentful, and even a bit Billy Jack Haynes sometimes. But he never hurt anyone in the ring, always made his dates, and only refused one job. But.. if you were on the roster at the time, would you want to go out for a beer with him after?

After reading about the amount of damage he done I'd have went for a beer with him

Kay Fabe wrote:After reading about the amount of damage he done I'd have went for a beer with him

Hell yeah I'd go for a beer with him! With the amount of chicks he was banging, at worst you'd be bound to get some of their friends with 'nice personalities'!

Exactly, if you could keep your eyes open while he told you another Hart family story you'd at least know you're likely to get a ride out of it

#Shagger

Better than hearing him name the top 1000 wrestlers ever. I wonder which wrestler would be the "ARMBAR!" of his list?

I know who it wouldn't be

El Dandy?


Nah wait a sec, it wouldn't be him - he's a jam up guy and a serious professional.

chris.wilkerson13 wrote:You're all forgetting that mega names like Tyler Reks and craftsman of the ring Chavo Guerrero have already gone off on Cena a few times.Hogan v Warrior has nothing on Chavo v Cena "una vez en la vida" (google translate tells me thats right)

What happened between cena and chavo?

theundisputedY2D2 wrote:
El Dandy?


Nah wait a sec, it wouldn't be him - he's a jam up guy and a serious professional.

Are you doubting El Dandy!?!

No idea what happened between them, if even there was anything specific, but Chavo has slated him in interviews a good few times. Hit it into google, I think there was another example recently

Chavo's main gripe was that Cena the in ring character was boring, he had no gripes about the man himself he just felt like Cena was having the same fueds and same matches week after week, month after month, year after year, he wanted Cena to bring something different to the table

Well at least that's what I remember from his initial interview, I've got no idea if he's said anything recently and to be quite honest don't really care

Dr Gregory House MD wrote:

theundisputedY2D2 wrote:
El Dandy?


Nah wait a sec, it wouldn't be him - he's a jam up guy and a serious professional.

Are you doubting El Dandy!?!

Doc I would NEVER EVER doubt El Dandy!

Kay Fabe wrote:Chavo's main gripe was that Cena the in ring character was boring, he had no gripes about the man himself he just felt like Cena was having the same fueds and same matches week after week, month after month, year after year, he wanted Cena to bring something different to the table

Well at least that's what I remember from his initial interview, I've got no idea if he's said anything recently and to be quite honest don't really care

Yeah it's about time John Cena became a tribute act to his deceased uncle. That'll never get old.

His basic latest dig was "if he cant wrestle then he cant wrestle"

chris.wilkerson13 wrote:His basic latest dig was "if he cant wrestle then he cant wrestle"

I like to imagine Chavo said this in an Ivan Drago voice.

theundisputedY2D2 wrote:

chris.wilkerson13 wrote:His basic latest dig was "if he cant wrestle then he cant wrestle"

I like to imagine Chavo said this in an Ivan Drago voice.

fantastic!

chris.wilkerson13 wrote:His basic latest dig was "if he cant wrestle then he cant wrestle"

Isn't that just repeating what the audience chant?