WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan recently talked to USA Today’s “For The Win”, and spoke about the Monday Night Wars, turning heel and forming the nWo, and more.
You can read a few excerpts below:
Hulk On If He Expected The Reaction For His Heel Turn:
Yes, I knew it was going to be intense. When you tell people for 20 years that you love them, tell them to ‘train, say your prayers and eat your vitamins,’ believe in yourself and then all of a sudden you stab everybody in the back. I knew there was going to be a huge reaction.
Hulk On How He Perceived His Heel Turn:
I was kind of at the crossroads. Vince [McMahon] and I had parted ways a couple of years before, he had an opinion about Hulk Hogan and his longevity and I had a totally different opinion. I left to go to a TV show called Thunder in Paradise for a year or so, a year and a half. Then when Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair approached me about coming back to wrestling, I was ready. After the 14, 15, 16-hour days on the set of this action show I was producing with the Baywatch guys, I’d had enough.
When I went back to work, everything clicked. It just worked. I started out with the red and yellow, beat Flair for the belt, and then we get to a point where things flattened off after a couple months. The decision to turn heel was, we were either going to crash and burn or this is totally going to reignite the wrestling business, and it did.
Hulk On If He Thought About WWE Disappearing:
I was praying to God that wouldn’t happen. I prayed to God that we would become the No. 1 wrestling show, and that WWE would thrive and stay the monster that they were. WCW might become a little bit [of a] bigger monster. I never wanted anybody to go away. I wanted two different companies so talent could have a choice where they could work and make big, big money.
For more on Hulk’s comments, including comparing RAW to Nitro, comparing ‘Hollywood’ Hogan to ‘Real American’ Hulk, booking his fantasy match and more, click here.
