Have you heard any good Hulk Hogan stories lately?
WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan was a recent guest on The Stackscast. When asked about his time in Hollywood following No Holds Barred, Hogan claims a studio executive wanted him to be the next John Wayne, but he loved professional wrestling too much and had to get back in the ring.
“Well, it was a logical extension of where I should go with my career,” Hulk Hogan began. “Because once the wrestling took off, and the character Hulk Hogan became as big as the wrestling business at the time, people were reaching out to me to do other projects, commercials, Superbowl commercials, Right Guard commercials, all kinds of stuff.
“And the movies were a logical extension. So Vince McMahon and I sat down and basically spent three days over on Madeira Beach writing No Holds Barred. And then we brought a writer in to clean it up and he pretty much got all the credit for it. Because we didn’t know anything about writing or the Screen Actors Guild or the Writers Guild. We didn’t know anything, we hired a writer to clean it up. We didn’t know who’s gonna own it, which didn’t matter.
“But once I made that film, and it was successful, New Line Cinema wanted me to make more films. And the problem I had with it was I loved wrestling so much and I was in the prime of my career. It wasn’t like I was on the downside. I was the World’s Heavyweight Champion. Hulkamania was running wild. I was in front of 20 to 30,000 people every night.
“Now you want me to go sit in a Winnebago on the side of the Sony soundstage for 14 hours, and you might call me at five o’clock to get in front of cameras for five minutes? The process killed me. I mean, there’s an art form to that. And the really good actors understand timing and exactly when to ramp up and everything. From the lighting to the camera placement to the cadence to everything. They understand that once they get in front of the camera. But for me, I was ready to jump off a cliff, waiting for 10 hours for them to use me.
“I would sit there for 12 hours, and they would only use me for four or five minutes in the morning. So, the process was hard. And so I always wanted to go back to wrestling. And I did, but I kept bouncing back and forth, making small, low-budget movies for kids and having fun with that. Shooting them in 25 to 30 days and running right back to the wrestling business. I had the chance to become like the next John Wayne.
“There’s a guy named Bob Evans that ran Paramount, and he took me in his office. There was a big picture on a wall with Clint Eastwood and John Wayne and all the big stars, Dustin Hoffman and everybody that was part of the contract players for Paramount at the time. And he said, ‘You’re gonna be my next John Wayne.’ And then he kind of like laid out the schedule and what was expected of me on and off camera. I went, ‘Eh, I’m the wrong guy for that stuff.’ So I just decided to go back to wrestling.”
READ MORE: MJF On Why Hulk Hogan Gets Heat: He’s A Liar And A Racist
What do you make of Hulk Hogan’s comments? Do you think Hogan had the potential to be the next John Wayne had he not returned to professional wrestling? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit The Stackscast with a link to this article for the transcription.
