Hulk Hogan Talks Airing Grievances W/ Hall & Nash At Upcoming NWO Reunion, Reputation For Not Putting Talent Over & More

WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan was today’s guest on The Apter Chat with hosts Josh Shernoff and Bill Apter. Hogan talked about October 27th’s NWO reunion with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash,  Sting, Bret Hart, his desire to turn heel after his WrestleMania VI match against The Ultimate Warrior and more.

On Airing Out Grievances With Scott Hall and Kevin Nash:

Scott and Kevin were hanging out and we just started talking and we said, ‘Man, we just, we’ve never, like, been in a hair salon, like the girls getting into arguments. We’ve never sat around in a circle and aired our grievances out. I said, ‘I know you guys didn’t like me when I first got in the NWO. That was quite apparent. We got to be friends; but, we’ve never really aired our shorts out in front of everybody.’ So, I think the Q&A can be kind of crazy. We’ve never done it in twenty years.

On Offending Hall & Nash Early On:

When those two guys first came into WCW and the finger thing went up and they were doing the whole Wolfpac thing, I really didn’t understand what it was. I really didn’t understand what the whole Clique was because I’d moved on from New York and the new guys came in. I didn’t know what the Wolfpac was, so all of a sudden I said, ‘Oh man, here I go. It’s wide open.’ I had a bunch of shirts made up called Hulk Hogan’s Wolfpac. So, you know, that lit them up right from the shoot man because, you know, here comes this big old bald headed old timer just taking over our gimmick and stealing our name because that was Scott, Kevin, and X-Pac. I had no idea. When those two showed up and I heard the Wolfpac gimmick, I went right out and made some shirts and ran back the next week. I said, ‘Hey guys, look what I made.’ It was Hollywood’s Wolfpac, you know, and they were so territorial that rubbed them wrong. I know the moment I walked out of that door they had to be setting up my demise from that point forward; but, that was a rough start. That’s how we started and then it took us awhile to get to know each other. I told them, ‘You guys didn’t like me at all when you first met me, so I’d love to chew the fat in the Q&A and hear the real vibes come out.’

On Having The WWE’s Full Support For The Q&A:

We’ve got the full support of the WWE. The WWE is in full support, so it’s a really cool thing. A lot of people were thinking, ‘Oh, Hogan, you’re gonna get in trouble for using the NWO.’ Vince [McMahon] was very gracious and accommodating. It’s a new day. Everything is really good.

On A Possible DX Run-In At The Q&A:

With those clowns, they are so full of it right now. They are back up and running. Anything is possible from those guys. I know Shawn [Michaels] lives in Orlando, so you can expect anything from those guys….I don’t know what their itch is all about; but, I’ve had my itch to get my hands on DX a few WrestleManias ago when we had that little Sting match. That could have been crazy to have the DX members vs the NWO members. We had the itch to get back in their face. I don’t know what their itch is now; but, apparently it’s not us.

On What Hollywood Hogan Thought About The Red & Yellow Hulkster:

I would have been living in a mansion ten times the size of my home right now if the guy in the red and yellow was around for Hollywood to wrestle because I had no idea that babyface and the timing and the way everything was, how it just made everything fit and run like a fine tuned machine. It’s what [Roddy] Piper said, ‘Just give me an old bald headed tanned guy. I’ll that big old 300 pound bald headed tanned babyface over any of these other guys.’ Now I know what Piper meant. At the time, I just didn’t get it. Things were just so easy ’cause everything was set up so perfectly for that whole Hulkamania run. As Hollywood Hogan, I would have loved to have Hulk Hogan to work with.

On Who Would Have Won The Match Between Hollywood Hogan & Hulkamania Hogan and His Reputation For Not Putting Talent Over:

You know the heels put the babyfaces over, of course. ‘Hulk Hogan never puts anyone over blah blah blah.’ B.S. Line ’em up, brother, I’ll put them all over. That’s the craziest urban legend. I see it every once in awhile on social media. ‘Hulk wouldn’t put anybody over. Hulk exercised his creative control.’ I think it’s funny as hell when these smart marks start popping off. I had creative control. Don’t even get me started. I didn’t even use it until one time and I’m not even going there.

On Creative Control:

The whole thing everybody whined about was, ‘Oh, Hulk’s got creative control. He doesn’t do a job.’ The office wanted me to go over. I would go to guys like One Man Gang or The Big Bossman or Piper and say, ‘Hey brother, this is what they want.’ Whether it was three punches, boot, leg drop, or DQ, I’d say, ‘Hey, do you mind if we do that finish?’ At the time we didn’t have agents or anybody that could override me or strict orders from the office or anything like that. I was pretty much running amok on my own and Vince trusted me. If they would tell me what finish they wanted, I would just go to the boys and ask them. I said, ‘Hey man, do you mind if I drop the leg on you?’ ‘No problem brother, how much time do you need?’ It was the guys I worked with. You know, Piper hem hawed around a little bit and didn’t want to do a job, which he never did. We’d do whatever he wanted. It didn’t matter. We were over. We had fun. The guys were so easy. That Hulk creative control thing, ‘Oh Hogan had creative control.’ It’s just a joke. It was a card I had in my back pocket that I never had to use.

On Building A Dream NWO:

If you could pick and choose and it was the original three guys, the only thing that would really be earth shattering is if you could pick somebody off like a Shawn Michaels from the WWE or pick “Stone Cold” [Steve Austin] off from the WWE. That would have been earth shattering at the time and [Ted] Turner had the money to do it too.

On Turning Heel With The NWO & Originally Wanting To Turn Heel At WrestleMania VI:

The whole turning me heel, Eric [Bischoff] was beating on me for a couple of months, persuading me. I’d been through the whole WWE departure and the Turner thing where I’d won the belt from [Ric] Flair and all of a sudden the red and yellow was starting to get a few boos; but, I was in a turmoil. I figured man this is gonna be the greatest thing ever for my career or it’s gonna ruin it. I was on the fence about turning heel; but, the Hollywood Hogan character, that was somebody I wanted to do after WrestleMania VI with The Warrior. I went to Vince and said, ‘Man, I want to be Triple H, Hollywood Hulk Hogan. I want to turn heel.’ Vince was going, ‘No man, you can’t turn heel. There’s no way. It won’t work.’ I wanted to – when I walked away from the ring and handed The Warrior the belt, looked up to God and handed The Warrior the belt – and when I looked away from the ring, if you notice the crowd, a lot of people were following me walk away. I would have loved to go half way down that aisle and turn around and went back. That’s what I wanted to do. Vince had other plans. Eric was on my ass about, ‘You need to turn heel. You need to turn heel.’ Things were watering down with the red and yellow. I was kind of like not convinced and then when I saw Scott and Kevin come in, it looked so fresh and it looked so real. It was like two guys that jumped ship and were working for the other company. I said, ‘Oh boy, I’m in. I ain’t gonna miss this money train. I’m in brother.’

On Sting Being A Possible Replacement In The NWO, If Hogan Refused To Turn Heel:

No, Sting didn’t have it in his heart. I wanted to be evil. I wanted to be a bad guy. Sting don’t have it in his heart. He’s a nice guy. He’s nice to everybody.

On Old School Promos:

You could really run with your promos. You didn’t have anybody writing promos for you, so you could get rolling and really click on something and go with it. When you hit that high gear and gain that momentum, that’s when that creative stuff comes out. Once you’re in that zone, you’d be surprised at what comes out of your mouth.

On Vince McMahon Wanting Him To Return To The Red & Yellow After WrestleMania X8:

Vince said, ‘I want you to go back to the red and yellow.’ I went, ‘Woah, I don’t have the stuff with me.’ He said, ‘We’ll send somebody to get it.’ I said, ‘Bro, it’s packed away in my home in Florida. They will never find the right stuff. You just can’t grab a yellow shirt and red tights and a pair of yellow boots. Some of this stuff fits me. Some of it doesn’t.’ I’m so weird with my clothes and what I keep and what I save and what’s almost dirty and what’s too dirty to wear. I’m a creature of habit. So I jumped on the charter, flew back, all the way back that night, grabbed the yellow and flew all the way back to RAW. Yeah, I didn’t have the stuff with me; but, I can’t remember why or what the reason was.

On Why The WCW Bret Hart Feud Never Quite Caught On:

We tried. I mean, we did everything. We put the belt on him. I put him over. I wrestled him a bunch of times. It’s just you’re in the ring with somebody and I know Bret wasn’t in the best physical shape back then. I think he’s coming off that stroke or something. I’m not exactly sure what happened. He fell off his bicycle or something. Maybe I’ve got my time frames confused. I can’t remember. It’s been so long. All I know is Bret came in, paid him a ton of money, all smiles, hugs, kisses, the whole thing, put him over, did jobs for him, put the belt on him. I don’t know what else we could have done. I don’t know bro. I tap out on that one.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

Readers interested in attending The NWO Reunion can find ticketing information HERE.

Listen to full episode of The Apter Chat with Hulk Hogan below:

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