July 25, 2025 • 46 mins
Bryan discusses the controversial character and life of Hulk Hogan.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Live from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network.
You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with your hosts,
Brian Alvarez and Mike sempervb Right.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You're ready, where you're ready, Let's get.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
It off now.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
How's it going everybody? Brian Alvarez here on or Wrestling
Observer Live. We are here every day Monday through Friday,
New Pacific three Eastern Sunday three Pacific six Eastern Saturday
Mornings with Jim Valley, Today Pacific one Eastern Sundays with
andrews Arian. And it is July twenty four, twenty twenty five,
and Hulk Hogan has passed away. Woke up to the
(00:52):
news first thing this morning. Absolutely cannot believe it. And
this show today pretty sure is going to be all
a whole Cogan and obviously Hulk Hogan Terry Bulea a
controversial character in a lot of ways. And our job
here on the show is to talk about the history
(01:12):
of wrestling, and so there's gonna be a lot to
talk about the good and the bad. It is impossible
to tell the story of American professional wrestling without Hulk Hogan,
and it's impossible to tell the story of his life
without talking about to the controversial aspects. Of his final
wrestling appearance, he was heavily booed and that was the
(01:35):
last that we saw publicly of Hulk Hogan in professional wrestling.
So there's a lot to talk about here today. We're
gonna do the news aspect when we come back from
the break, and we've also got tons and tons and
tons of stories from you about your memories of the
character Hulk Hogan, so we're gonna be doing that today.
(01:56):
If you want to send anything to the show, you're
welcome to do so, send it to Brian at Wrestling
Observer dot com and put Hulk Hogan in the subject
line and we'll get into a bunch of those today.
And Tom Lawler, Filthy Tom, is going to be joining
us as well, and he actually has a tie into
Old Cogan, so we'll get into that as well here today.
(02:20):
But a lot to get into. We'll tell everything that
happened with the Hulk coming up after the break, and
then get into everybody's feedback. I got a lot of
thoughts about Hogan as well and his legacy back in
a moment Observer Live.
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Speaker 2 (06:06):
You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
In the show, Bryan Alvarez here, Wrestling Observer Alive. Filthy
Tom Lawler is joining us here today and uh and
I woke up this morning and here we are. Holy smokes, Tom,
you have a slight tie into Hulk Hogan.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Yes, I actually believe that I would be the first
UFC fighter in history to walk out to Hulk Hogan's theme,
the Real American Song by Rick Deringer, as at UFC
Fight Night twenty in a very close proximity to our
(06:58):
nation's capital, Washington, DC. This fight took place in Fairfax, Virginia,
January eleventh, twenty ten, as I took on Aaron Simpson,
and I did, indeed walk out with the American flag
in tow with multiple colored boas around my neck to
(07:20):
that Real American theme, And I did they all, Hulkster,
wave your hand around in a circle, put it up
to your ear, and I tell you, Brian, the crowd
and the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia that night went wild,
as they so often did during that song when the
(07:43):
Hulkster made his entrance. So yeah, a very small tie in,
of course, in the grand scheme of things of one
of the most famous wrestlers of all time.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, you know, this morning, Yeah, I woke up, and
I think I think I woke up like right when
the news broke It had been just like seconds earlier,
I think, and I just got started getting bombarded with texts,
and then like all morning, I've been doing media. I've
got I think ABC News Live at two and I
might be an NPR tomorrow. And I meaned, I feel
(08:15):
like I've aged a lot. But like everybody, everybody knows
Hulk Coogan and you mentioned famous wrestlers, and uh, and
I was thinking that if we exclude Dwayne Johnson, okay,
because he is the most famous wrestler of all time,
because he was a movie star that ended up being
(08:36):
the biggest movie star in the history, like he like
in Hollywood. I shouldn't say history because that's not that's
not true. But like you know, there have been years
where who's the most famous actor, It's Dwayne Johnson. What
actor made the most money in Hollywood this year? It's
Dwayne Johnson. So if you look at it from that perspective,
the rock is is he's the most famous wrestl of
all time because he's the most famous person that's ever
(08:57):
worked in wrestling. But if you exclude that, if we
look at the professional wrestling business, okay, who was the
biggest wrestling star of all time? The three are Hulk Hogan,
Ricky Dozen and El Santo. Okay, Ricky Dozen. Uh and
(09:23):
and really in a lot of ways, you know, Ricky
Dozen and Hogan, I can make a comparison because what
happened with Ricky Dozen was world War Two had ended,
and you know Japanese morale after the end of World
War Two, I mean, it was a rebuilding period. And
this guy came along, Ricky Dozen, and he was a
(09:45):
famous Japanese professional wrestler and they you know, on national
television when when national television first exploded in the early fifties,
he was on national television and they would bring in
big Americans and he'd smash them, and like, culturally, this
is not just like a pro wrestling thing. Culturally this
(10:07):
meant so much for Japan. And these matches that Hacky
Dozon had, I mean, like the number of people in
Japan that watched these matches was was it was absolutely astounding,
and it was it was such a big deal culturally
in Japan in the in the early fifties and the
aftermath of World War Two that history books like I'm
(10:30):
not talking you know you read a wrestling history book
or weekly Pro Wrestler whatever. I'm talking the history books
that little children read in third grade or whatever. They
told the story of Ricky Doz and he was in
history books. And it's the same thing with El Santo,
you know, in Mexico. I mean, he is a cultural icon,
(10:54):
not a professional wrestling icon, a cultural icon. And I
think of all of the American professional wrestlers who have
ever lived, I don't think as a result of pro wrestling,
any of them are more famous than Hulk Hogan. None
of them drew more fans over the course of their careers,
including I think Jim Londos, none of them drew more
(11:17):
than hul Cogan. You know we're talking you know, the
Rock and Steve Austin. I mean, if you look at
Hogan from you know, his his late seventies, early eighties
and the AWA and then going to WWF and then
you know, going to WCW afterwards, and all the money
that they drew. I mean, he's the most famous wrestler
of all time. Everybody knew the name hul Cogan, and
(11:40):
a lot of it was, you know, like with Ricky
dozen because you know, the national television Hulk Hogan became
a massive star in the early eighties, and you know,
the rock and wrestling connection and the rise of MTV
on cable, and then they had, you know, the Saturday
Nights main event, and then the main event you know
in this Saturday night, the Saturday Night Live time slot,
(12:03):
Saturday Night Live in the eighties would like they wouldn't
have a show and Saturday Night's main event would be there.
And in that match with Hull Cogan, I'm sorry with
Andre the Giant. You know, first it was the Pontiac
Silverdome match for WrestleMania three, which let me tell you
something about that match. Okay, do you realize that tickets
(12:27):
did not go on They didn't even have the building announced,
and they did not put tickets on sale until like,
I don't know, six eight weeks before the show, because
we went back and we were watching like the early
nineteen eighty seven, like primetime wrestling, and you know nowadays,
it's like, okay, well, WrestleMania is gonna be a year
(12:47):
and it's gonna be here, and tickets are gonna go
on sale eight months in advance, and blah blah blah
blah blah. It was like it's like January thirtieth or
something like that. Nineteen eighty seven, it was like hul
Cogan and Bobby and I'm sorry Gen Oakland. It was
Bobby and Gorilla. They were like, next week we're gonna
announce the location of Wressell Maine. They didn't even have
(13:08):
they didn't even have a location, okay, and then it
was like the last week of January, first week of
February they announced Wressell Maani the Pontiac Silverdome and boom
seventy five thousand, seventy eight thousand, eighty thousand tickets out
the door over the course of like six weeks for
that Hull cog and Andre the Giant match. And then
(13:31):
they did the second Andre the Giant Hull Cogin match
on the main event in nineteen eighty eight, and thirty
three million people watch that match. So nowadays, when you
hear people and they're screaming about ah, you know Ron,
Netflix and aw and they should be doing one point
(13:53):
three million or whatever. Bro, this show, as you said, Bro,
this show did thirty three million live viewers. Thirty three
million live viewers at the peak of the Monday Night Wars,
the peak when when Raw and Nitro like we're both
(14:16):
at their peak, they combined did eleven million viewers combined
for both shows, Raw did six million. You know, WCW
did five whatever. Eleven million was the peak combined in
the Monday Night Wars, and Hulk Cogan and Andre the
Giant did thirty three million, three times the combined peak
(14:40):
of the Monday Night Wars. And of course then you know,
Hogan was a product of the eighties and big jacked
up ends up going on our Sinio Hall claims, you
know whatever, he claimed lied, and you know he he
kind of brother yep, yep. He disappeared for a while,
but you know what, that guy came back to WCW
(15:03):
in ninety four, and you know, ninety four ninety five
business started to really pick up, and Hogan was a
huge part of that, although the real turnaround was actually
a Randy Savage Rick flair few that they took on
the road that did huge business. But when that guy
joined the nWo and that thing exploded, I mean, WCW
(15:23):
started going straight up, and then you know, Vince realized, dude,
we got to do something, and the Attitude era came
around eventually and they went straight up. And so, you know,
whatever you want to say about Terry Bolea, Hulk Hogan
was the catalyst of the eighties boom and the nineties boom,
(15:44):
and we'll talk a lot more after the break Observer Live.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike Semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Hey, sorry for running you over there. Tom. We'll get
back to some of us here in a moment, but
I do have to go back to the beginning, and
just I mean, we rarely even mentioned the fact that
he passed away today. I mean, we've been talking about
his career and everything. But essentially what was reported is
that he went into cardiac arrest and they went to
(16:22):
his house and there was actually a video on TMZ.
Do we have to have these videos and they're you know,
they're taking him out of the house and doing chess
compressions and he ended up passing away. And if you
recall on this show the last couple of days, yes, yes,
So this is what I can tell you everybody. Okay,
(16:44):
So a couple of days ago, I got a message
and it was regarding Hulk Hogan And essentially what the
message said was, you know, what Bubba is saying is
not true, but it's bad, and you know, then two
days later he's dead, okay, and then you know, and
(17:05):
everyone's like, well, I guess Bubba was right.
Speaker 7 (17:08):
Jimmy Hart yesterday said Hulkster's doing phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yes, it was. I mean, it was very clear that
Hulk Hogan was not doing phenomenal obviously. But what I
can tell you is that the person that basically said,
you know, it's bad, but it's not as bad as
Bubba is saying. This person had been around Hogan a lot.
(17:33):
This was not somebody who had heard like a friend
through a friend or something like that. And so I'm
not sure exactly what happened in terms of the heart
attack here today, but the way it was explained to
me was, you know, Hogan underwent a bunch of surgeries,
and you know, even his wife had admitted, you know,
there are a lot of complications and things are rough.
(17:54):
I think Bubba had stated that he was like in
a coma, and you know, I was, I was. He
was not in a coma. Now, the one thing was
he was sleeping a lot, like he was sleeping a lot,
and so it's possible that like, you know, Bubba presumed
that he was in a coma, but I was told
(18:15):
that he was not in a coma and he was
unable to speak, and I think Bubba had mentioned that,
So you know what happened with the heart attack, I mean,
we don't know, but you know, all of those there
have been like a lot of and I'd mentioned this
as well, there'd been social media posts that were not
recent because everybody was saying, oh, he's all over social media,
(18:35):
is all over social media. Those were not recent. And
the impression that I was given was that, you know,
Eric Bischoff and some others as well. I mean, I
don't think they thought it was like he was imminently
going to die like what happened, But you know, I
was kind of given the impression that the kurd Angle
(18:56):
being brought in for real American Freestyle was because us
Hogan probably was not going to be able to be
making public appearances anytime in the near future, and they
had the show coming up at the end of August,
and so that's one of the reasons that they brought
Kurt Angle in. So he'd had health issues, I mean,
he'd always he'd always claimed that a lot of his
(19:20):
back issues were the results of doing that leg drop,
and that if he hadn't done the leg drop, you know,
he might not have been in this condition. And you
know he might be right because I taught It's kind
of a weird tie in, but I taught gymnastics forever
kids gymnastics, and on the trampoline, there's a move called
the seat drop, which is basically a leg drop, okay,
(19:41):
And you know we were always told that whenever these
kids do their seat drops, make sure they put their
hands down like by their butt, because if they don't like,
their back gets all jacked up. And that's what Hogan's
move was, was that leg drop. And he did it
for year, years and years and years and years. And
(20:04):
you know, I think most people are aware of this.
But those WWF rings back when he was legitimately on
the road like two hundred and eighty to three hundred
days a year. It wasn't four hundred like he claimed,
but back when he was on the road a lot, dude,
those rings had no give and they didn't change the
WWE rings until ironically, Vince McMahon became a wrestler and
(20:30):
then all the rings had to be changed to be bouncier.
But he was doing all those leg drops during that period,
and I'm pretty sure that he probably did like destroy
his back, and you can you know, you can see,
like when I was a kid, I always heard, oh, man,
Hogan was this was this would have been. I wasn't
a kid. I was probably a teenager or you know,
late teens, but you know, people always told me, you know,
(20:52):
this Hogan kind of sucks. But if you want to
see Hogan when he was great, watch when he was
in Japan and so like he had all these man
in New Japan. He was actually the first IWGP champion.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
Yeah yeah, by Ko on the floor of all things,
with the axe bomber.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So yeah, but if you watch those those matches in
New Japan, I mean it was a different Hogan. So
you know, I grew up and like I did, you know,
till I was probably in my thirties and forties, I
believe that. And then one day we went back and
we watched all of the Saturday Nights and Main event
episodes in order and to steal a line from Hulk
(21:33):
Hogan brother, let me tell you that guy could work
and he was great. This was not just Japan. You
watch these Saturday Nights main event matches. This guy had
from probably you know, eighty four eighty five through about
eighty seven, this guy was awesome. And it was probably
(21:54):
around you know, eighty seven ish eighty eight where it
either was catching up to him or like he realized
what am I doing? Like I don't need to do this.
I can go out there and you know, cut my
ear and everything like that. It was around eighty seven
eighty eight, eighty nine you could see, Okay, he's he's
he's either hurting or he's just like gotten a lot
(22:16):
smarter than what he's doing in the ring. He doesn't
need to do that stuff. And you know, even the
early days of of WCW, he was pretty mobile. You know,
when he first came to WCW in like ninety four
ninety five, at those matches with Flair, like he was Vader.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
You're not getting You're not getting away without getting in
there with Vader.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Nah, he was. He was still pretty mobile and athletic.
But you know, by about ninety seven, ninety eight and
then like ninety nine came, I mean, he was not
moving well at all and he didn't bump well at all.
And then he came back in two thousand and two
or two thousand and one two thousand and two when
when WCW died for the Nostalgia run and man, that
(22:55):
guy couldn't do anything. And you know then as as
he got older, it was like, you know, he had
spinal fusion. And then you know he I guess he
had spinal fusion at this place, and they started using
him in advertising and he claimed it wasn't with his permission.
And then he like turned on him and said, like
it didn't work, and I'm worse now. And then you know,
(23:17):
the last few years it was like surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery,
and you know he was just he was in a
lot of pain. And you know this most recent surgery
would have been only a few months ago. Yeah, yes,
serious complications. I mean, he was there for that Netflix
debut and like seem fine. I mean, you know, if
(23:40):
you were to watched that Netflix debut and like you know,
the audience reaction was something different, But if you would
have seen him physically there, I mean, you wouldn't be
sitting here going man by you know the end of July,
he'll have passed away. But I mean, you know, the
notable story of the Netflix debut is is he was
booed hard and uh we never saw him again. And
(24:05):
I'm sure that obviously part of it. I mean, he
was supposed to be there all the time, this Real
American Beer tie in, I mean, he was supposed to
be there all the time, and.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Well he was.
Speaker 7 (24:15):
He's been on the road, you know, yeah, think about
it for the last couple of years. I mean, he
was traveling the country doing promo work for Real American Beer,
you know, his advanced stage. I'm sure that's not the
best thing.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Well yeah, I mean you know, we can talk to
Lance about it and you as well. I Mean, traveling sucks.
And then you add all of that travel onto all
of the physical issues that he had. I mean, he
was really all over the place and he was going
to be doing a lot of stuff for Real American Wrestling.
I mean, this guy was hurting. And you know, the
(24:50):
fans has noted. They they boot him out of the building,
and all of the upcoming Hogan appearances gone. You know,
he's supposed to be he was supposed to be on
Saturday Night, It's main event, and remember Jesse was was
uh you know, they kind of had that thing and
then well Jesse's on the show and Hogan isn't. And
then of course obviously he had the surgery and they
(25:12):
were going to use him after that because he was
like in a rough shape. But you know, those those fans,
they they let their voices be heard and and the
company reacted to it. I mean they didn't just if
it were Vince like, they would have just kept bringing
him out because you know, Vince Vince loved that kind
of thing. When oh man, I hate to.
Speaker 7 (25:34):
Be fair, Brian, there was a pretty big, you know,
backlash towards him by members of the roster in the media.
You know, It's not as if like people stay away
from it. He's he was kind of the butt of jokes.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
No, there were a lot of talent, a lot of.
Speaker 7 (25:49):
The wrestlers around that time period.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, yeah, because there was there was obviously the situation
with Bubba the Love Sponge and his wife and Goker
and that whole lawsuit, which by you know, he was
he was having I believe he was having problems with
money until the Gaker lawsuit and he got thirty million
dollars and then he was all right. But there was
another incident in around twenty fifteen when that tape came
(26:12):
out and he had racial slurs on the tape. He
basically stated like I'm kind of I think he said
like I'm kind of a racist or something something like that.
Speaker 7 (26:21):
He said he was a racist. He was, you know,
basically cutting a promo on Brooke Hogan's boyfriend.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah. So then like he did an apology to the
locker room, but the apology was more like you gotta
make sure what you say, brother, I mean it. It
was more like, yeah, it was whatever you want to say. Personally,
what the wrestlers felt, the wrestlers, a lot of them,
was that he's he's not apologizing. What he's doing is
(26:51):
he's like saying, don't get caught. And so there were
a lot of the wrestlers that wanted nothing to do
with Hogan and and obviously, as we saw in the
Netflix deal, with a lot of fans as well, so
a lot more after the break. Everybody observer live.
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When I'm wrestling, won't believe I used.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
To tear my shirt. But now, to my heart, I
knew you're a hold of Mania right.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
From the very start to time.
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You are my friend.
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You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike semper Vivi on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Began the show, Brian Albarez here Wrestling Observer Live. I
was asking a show earlier day about Hogan's legacy, and
obviously you're not gonna ever be able to talk about
hul Cogan without talking about the bad. But you also
cannot talk about his legacy without talking about what he
did for the business and whatever you think about him.
(31:08):
And boy, there's a lot of people thinking a lot
of stuff in this chat. I mean, the fact of
the matter is none of us will be here right
now without a whole Cogan in a lot of different ways.
I mean number one, I mean, he was the centerpiece
of WWF when it went national, and there's no guarantee
(31:32):
it would have worked with anybody else. He was incredibly charismatic.
He was the like the personification of the eighties, just big,
muscular action, larger than life. I mean, the people went
wild for this guy. Like I will read some of
these emails. I think we're gonna get Inny today. We'll try,
(31:53):
But like I got so many emails of people's memories
involving like Hogan showed up and people went screaming, crying,
blah blah blah, and like I was there for a
show once where during intermission at these house shows, the
ring announcer used to come out and say who was
gonna be at the next show, and you know then
you'd go buy your tickets or whatever. And you know,
(32:15):
he came out and he's like, coming out of the
next show, there's gonna be Jimmy SUPERB Live Snooker and
and the earthquake and and then he mentioned Hulk Hogan's name,
and dude, these people grown men. I mean they leaped
to their feet and they started spring because he had
to go to the box office to buy tickets. They
(32:35):
are freaking like the whole area just filed out to
go get tickets to see Hulk Hogan. They just went
wild for this guy. And then you know, all of
you that grew up in the Monday Night Wars, I mean,
Hogan was the catalyst also for the Monday Night Wars
and you know, wrestling business aside. You're listening to this,
(32:57):
you're watching this because of Hogan. Because when I was
a kid, my sister actually was the Hogan fan and
she had a Hogan poster and I hated that poster,
and I hated wrestling, and I hated hul Cogan and
I wanted nothing to do with it. I would just
get furious whenever like she'd watch wrestling, so like, I
(33:19):
have some memories of stuff pre like eighty eight, but
I wasn't like paying a lot of attention to it.
And then one day my grandmother moved up from Mexico.
Spoke no English, and you know, she sat on the
couch and she would just she would she would point
to the TV and she would go Lucha lucha. I
(33:42):
was like, what is this lady talking about? Like is
that a soap opera? And you know, I asked my
dad and he goes, she wants to watch wrestling. And
we didn't have a satellite dish. It was no CM
or EML or anything. So it was like I turned
on wrestling, which then was WWF, and you know, I
(34:02):
sat with her because I had too, and I watched wrestling.
And at first it's like God, After a while, it's
like that's kind of cool, and then you know it
was it was Hulk Hogan's feud with Earthquake and Dino
Bravo was involved. It's like nineteen eighty nine. That's when
it like really turned around for me, where all right,
(34:22):
I want to watch this every week. And like the
first big giant show that I bought was Hulk Hogan
and the Ultimate Warrior WrestleMania six, and I was rooting
for the Warrior.
Speaker 7 (34:34):
I was.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I was like, I remember when I watched that thing live.
I was like fourteen or something like that. My heart's thumping,
Like every time Warrior got covered, it's like thumping, and
you know, Warrior won and boom, like away we go.
I was all in. Started, the white wuf started, the
newsletter came, like all of it is because I'm afraid
(34:56):
Hulk Hogan. He was the guy never a fan though,
you like as a wrestler, you know what I'm saying.
It was like I wasn't like cheering for for a earthquake,
but I kind of was like remember when Earthquake squashed
Whole Cogan on The Brother Love Show.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
Yeah, I was delighted.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
I was so happy, partly because I hated Hule Cogan
and also partly because my sister loved Hull Cogan and
she's crying and they did that deal where he had
to write you could write letters to Hull Cogan and
they would send it to him after he was injured
on The Brother Love Show, and she wrote these sappy
letters and sent them to Hogan. I was just howling
hoping this guy had never come back, and of course
(35:34):
he did. But he was like he was a horrible
like as a as a wrestler, his character, he was
like a baby face and everybody loved him, but like,
this dude was constantly cheating. He's backbreaking dudes, and he's
punching people and he's choking him.
Speaker 7 (35:49):
He got eliminated from the Royal Rumbo. Over the top
of the cloud is brewing Hogan. Yeah, when he's supposed
to be at his most popular.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah. For those of you who don't remember, by the
crowd yep in favor of Sid. Yes, back then we
watched these shows on pay per view and then later
the Colisseum video home video release would come out. Well live,
you know, Hogan pulls Sid out of this this Royal
Rumble and Rick Flair helps toss him over to win, which,
(36:18):
by the way, is one of the great Royal rumbles
and probably the best. It wasn't the best. We went
and watched him again there were better. Yeah, but but
it was good as far as like a storyline two.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
You know what I mean, that's the probably the most
meaningful royal rubble of all time.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
But anyway, these fans turned on Hogan. They are booing
this guy like crazy. And I remember months later I
got like the Colosseum home video and they edited out
the booing. They edited in cheering, and as a young kid,
I was like, wow, they're cheating, just like that guy cheated.
And then you know, by by early ninety by ninety
(36:54):
one ninety two, like the people were getting sick of
this guy. And then you know, he went on our
Senio and c that he never took steroids or whatever,
and he lied and then you know, choked.
Speaker 7 (37:04):
He choked out Richard Belzer.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Oh yeah, that was that was That was much earlier.
That was a legit thing, like he was, Yeah, he
was with Richard Belzer and uh, and he decided he
was gonna show him like a guillotine. He showed him
like a shoot guillotine and he puts him in this
guillotine and squeezes and this guy goes unconscious and just whoop,
he just.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
D It was like when John Jones choked out mashidah.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Yeah, and he jumps up him. He's got blood all
over his face. He goes, well, you're right back and uh.
And there was a lawsuit over that, but you know what, Uh,
that was one of those deals where that got so
much media that, I mean, had that not happened, like
who knows? You know, they always tell the story about
WrestleMania one, Like WrestleMania one was like kind of right
(37:49):
on the right on the cusp, like it could have
failed and everything like that. I actually don't think it
was gonna fail. But like that Richard Belzer thing and
obviously mister T getting involved, I mean, all of that
was like a perfect storm and like away we go.
Speaker 7 (38:05):
Yeah. Later on, I mean, he had the Hollywood career,
Santa with Muscles.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Oh, a bunch of horrible movies, God bless them, but
terrible movies. Hideous, Thunder and Paradise was at the show
that was the TV show, Yeah TNT. And then one
of my favorite memories really before he started getting going again,
was the triple Cage Match of Doom where he and
(38:30):
Randy Savage.
Speaker 7 (38:31):
Took on the Dungeon of Doom. Yeah Z Gangsta Ye
who was Zeus from No Holds Barred? Yeah, probably probably
Hogan's Was that Hogan's biggest film, Nol's Barred?
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yeah, I would say probably he passed away due to
COVID tiny lister ze did just a few years ago.
Speaker 7 (38:52):
Yeah, earthquake. Earthquake's gone. Sid's gone.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yep, he was in Rocky three.
Speaker 7 (38:56):
Obvious boss Man long time you know rival and and uh,
I guess his partner with Hogan if I remember back
to the late eighties a little bit too, in the
early nineties, who Big boss Man?
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Oh boss Man? Yeah, but the famous I mean, you know,
that's another one. I mean it's not quite as impressive
as it sounds when I say it, but him and
Big boss Man had a feud in like nineteen eighty eight,
nineteen eighty nine and on like every show around the
I'm talking house shows. They did the super plex off
the top of the cage, And what it really was
(39:32):
was like boss Man would be sitting on the top
of the cage and Hogan would stand on the top rope,
and so it was really basically a superplex.
Speaker 7 (39:39):
Boss Man would lay yeah, he would like lay yeah,
most like on the cage, so'll Holgan would grab him,
so it's the same move from some distance it was.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It was basically just like a top But still that's like,
I'm not talking like a middle rope. I'm talking to
tippy top rope superplex night after night after night after night.
And you know, we can't talk about Ogan also without
talking about all the stories he told over the years.
And you know, I I you know, Hogan told so
(40:07):
many stories, and it was always kind of like does
he believe that or is.
Speaker 7 (40:13):
You know what I'm saying, he is working us.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
A good example is WrestleMania three. Okay, WrestleMania three. You know,
I won't talk about attendants because I don't need the
chat to blow up. But the thing with WrestleMania three
is the story that Hogan always told was you know,
and it's actually ironic because it's kind of like Hogan's
final days.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
The story was, you know, Andre was near death and
they had to drag him out of a hospital bed
basically to do this match, and Hogan didn't know if
he was gonna lay down for him or not, like
all of these stories, and of course it's all preposterous,
like Hogan was always gonna win the match, and Andre
was not on his deathbed. He wrestled for like five
years afterwards in WWE, like in big matches, including a
(40:56):
much bigger match a year later. But like Hogan told
all these stories, and he would always tell the same story.
And it's funny because like how can you keep telling
the story that Hogan was or that Andre was near
death in Mania three? But like a year later, you
guys did that match on the main event that did
thirty three million viewers, and then like Andre kept going
and he wrestled, you know it always.
Speaker 7 (41:17):
Managed in the Colossal connection.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, yeah, those matches with Warrior and like nineteen ninety
that were terrible, But like he was around and so
I always thought, like, I guess this guy like like
he's so into this that he can't help himself and
he believes these lies. And I don't know when it was,
but I saw a couple of Hogan interviews and and
(41:41):
this was when he was older too, and he would
tell these stories and but he wouldn't tell the total
BS stories. He would he would be like like truthful,
and so you know, he even told the story once.
I forget when this was, but he did some interviews somewhere,
and he was like, you know, when I step in
(42:02):
the front door at home, I'm Terry Boleya. I'm just
a dad, I'm just a guy. But as soon as
I open that door to go out, I gotta be
Hulk Hogan. Like that's what everybody wants is for me
to be Hulk Hogan. So he goes like, you know,
I open the front door and there's a mailman and
I have to go that's what the mailman wants.
Speaker 7 (42:22):
Yes, I hate to stop you, but the best way
to put it was how Hulk Hogan put it himself.
Hulk Hogan has a ten inch penis, Terry Boleya does not.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Okay, the point is that's a direct quote. I think
that every time he was out of the house, he
just knew this was what he needed to be. And
if that included some preposterous story about WrestleMania three or
you know this or that, it's like he was just
out there playing the hits. He was Elvis. I gotta
(42:55):
play the hits. I gotta tell this silly story about
Mania three. Like I just can't believe that he actually
believed these stories that he told some of them. Maybe
you know, you tell the story enough times you do
believe it. But I think that he was just.
Speaker 7 (43:07):
He was gonna be the basis for Metallica.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Yeah, all of this stuff. It's like he don't want
George Foreman.
Speaker 7 (43:12):
Grill was offered to him.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yes, that one, like I got a call, brother, but
I wasn't there, so they gave it to Foreman. It's like,
I'll give you another.
Speaker 7 (43:22):
Grill party with John Belushi after Mania two in nineteen
eighty six, when John Belushi had been dead for years.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
That one would have been difficult. Undoubtedly any other good ones.
Speaker 7 (43:35):
I mean there there's like him talk about the Undertaker tombstoning,
Oh my god that they have.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah, there was a it was Tuesday in Texas or
something like that, and the Undertaker gave him this tombstone
on a steel chair and they have the camera in
the worst possible area to films because you can just
see he's like six inches away from the ground when
he gets tombstone. Okay, it's like so fake, He's nowhere
near the ground. Okay, Well, Undertaker doesn't see this. So
(44:06):
Undertaker goes backstage and Hogan's like, oh brother, and he's
selling that his neck was badly injured, and Undertaker believed
for years that he hurt this guy and Hogan never
told him otherwise. And years later, Undertaker finally sees the
video and he's furious he was nowhere near the ground
back in a moment Observer Live.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
You were listening to wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike simper beebe on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today. We
had a lot of people and tomorrow Observer Live we're
gonna be back. And I have been absolutely flooded with
emails people's thoughts on Hulk Hogan, and so we're gonna
read a lot of those tomorrow and probably for the
near future, because he was the most famous American professionals
of all time and he passed away. Dave Meltzer and
(45:02):
I did a breaking news audio just before the show began,
actually for subscribers, with some thoughts on Hulk Hogan and
his legacy. It's only about fifteen minutes. It was in
the middle of a crazy morning, and this afternoon I
will be I believe, on ABC News Live around five
Eastern to talk Hogan and perhaps n PR tomorrow morning.
As well, which I think is about two fifty five
(45:26):
am my time tonight, so that'll be a lot of
fun and some other things as well. I'll try to
retweet all of them if you want to hear more
about it. So yeah, any final thoughts, Tom.
Speaker 7 (45:36):
Yeah, I'm gonna leave you with some lyrics Brian from
Holkster in Heaven. When I climb back in the ring,
I know we'll win this fight. I wish you were
here at ringside to cheer me on tonight. The spotlight
now grows dim and now it's not on me. The
prayers we've said together are still our guarantee.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
All right, everybody.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Hulk Hogan's wrestling boot band. We didn't even talk about it,
but that was another one. We got to wrap it
up here for today. I want to thank you all
for listening. We've got a lot coming up everybody, and uh,
maybe we'll have Tom on tomorrow. I guess we'll find
out if you want to go through some emails, Tom,
it's up to you. I got I got like seemingly
thousands here to try to go through. But that's it, everybody.
(46:18):
We'll talk to you next time Wrestling Observer Live. You
have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on
the Eight Side Network
Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Live from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network.
You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with your hosts,
Brian Alvarez and Mike sempervb Right.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You're ready, where you're ready, Let's get.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
It off now.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
How's it going everybody? Brian Alvarez here on or Wrestling
Observer Live. We are here every day Monday through Friday,
New Pacific three Eastern Sunday three Pacific six Eastern Saturday
Mornings with Jim Valley, Today Pacific one Eastern Sundays with
andrews Arian. And it is July twenty four, twenty twenty five,
and Hulk Hogan has passed away. Woke up to the
(00:52):
news first thing this morning. Absolutely cannot believe it. And
this show today pretty sure is going to be all
a whole Cogan and obviously Hulk Hogan Terry Bulea a
controversial character in a lot of ways. And our job
here on the show is to talk about the history
(01:12):
of wrestling, and so there's gonna be a lot to
talk about the good and the bad. It is impossible
to tell the story of American professional wrestling without Hulk Hogan,
and it's impossible to tell the story of his life
without talking about to the controversial aspects. Of his final
wrestling appearance, he was heavily booed and that was the
(01:35):
last that we saw publicly of Hulk Hogan in professional wrestling.
So there's a lot to talk about here today. We're
gonna do the news aspect when we come back from
the break, and we've also got tons and tons and
tons of stories from you about your memories of the
character Hulk Hogan, so we're gonna be doing that today.
(01:56):
If you want to send anything to the show, you're
welcome to do so, send it to Brian at Wrestling
Observer dot com and put Hulk Hogan in the subject
line and we'll get into a bunch of those today.
And Tom Lawler, Filthy Tom, is going to be joining
us as well, and he actually has a tie into
Old Cogan, so we'll get into that as well here today.
(02:20):
But a lot to get into. We'll tell everything that
happened with the Hulk coming up after the break, and
then get into everybody's feedback. I got a lot of
thoughts about Hogan as well and his legacy back in
a moment Observer Live.
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Speaker 2 (06:06):
You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
In the show, Bryan Alvarez here, Wrestling Observer Alive. Filthy
Tom Lawler is joining us here today and uh and
I woke up this morning and here we are. Holy smokes, Tom,
you have a slight tie into Hulk Hogan.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Yes, I actually believe that I would be the first
UFC fighter in history to walk out to Hulk Hogan's theme,
the Real American Song by Rick Deringer, as at UFC
Fight Night twenty in a very close proximity to our
(06:58):
nation's capital, Washington, DC. This fight took place in Fairfax, Virginia,
January eleventh, twenty ten, as I took on Aaron Simpson,
and I did, indeed walk out with the American flag
in tow with multiple colored boas around my neck to
(07:20):
that Real American theme, And I did they all, Hulkster,
wave your hand around in a circle, put it up
to your ear, and I tell you, Brian, the crowd
and the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia that night went wild,
as they so often did during that song when the
(07:43):
Hulkster made his entrance. So yeah, a very small tie in,
of course, in the grand scheme of things of one
of the most famous wrestlers of all time.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, you know, this morning, Yeah, I woke up, and
I think I think I woke up like right when
the news broke It had been just like seconds earlier,
I think, and I just got started getting bombarded with texts,
and then like all morning, I've been doing media. I've
got I think ABC News Live at two and I
might be an NPR tomorrow. And I meaned, I feel
(08:15):
like I've aged a lot. But like everybody, everybody knows
Hulk Coogan and you mentioned famous wrestlers, and uh, and
I was thinking that if we exclude Dwayne Johnson, okay,
because he is the most famous wrestler of all time,
because he was a movie star that ended up being
(08:36):
the biggest movie star in the history, like he like
in Hollywood. I shouldn't say history because that's not that's
not true. But like you know, there have been years
where who's the most famous actor, It's Dwayne Johnson. What
actor made the most money in Hollywood this year? It's
Dwayne Johnson. So if you look at it from that perspective,
the rock is is he's the most famous wrestl of
all time because he's the most famous person that's ever
(08:57):
worked in wrestling. But if you exclude that, if we
look at the professional wrestling business, okay, who was the
biggest wrestling star of all time? The three are Hulk Hogan,
Ricky Dozen and El Santo. Okay, Ricky Dozen. Uh and
(09:23):
and really in a lot of ways, you know, Ricky
Dozen and Hogan, I can make a comparison because what
happened with Ricky Dozen was world War Two had ended,
and you know Japanese morale after the end of World
War Two, I mean, it was a rebuilding period. And
this guy came along, Ricky Dozen, and he was a
(09:45):
famous Japanese professional wrestler and they you know, on national
television when when national television first exploded in the early fifties,
he was on national television and they would bring in
big Americans and he'd smash them, and like, culturally, this
is not just like a pro wrestling thing. Culturally this
(10:07):
meant so much for Japan. And these matches that Hacky
Dozon had, I mean, like the number of people in
Japan that watched these matches was was it was absolutely astounding,
and it was it was such a big deal culturally
in Japan in the in the early fifties and the
aftermath of World War Two that history books like I'm
(10:30):
not talking you know you read a wrestling history book
or weekly Pro Wrestler whatever. I'm talking the history books
that little children read in third grade or whatever. They
told the story of Ricky Doz and he was in
history books. And it's the same thing with El Santo,
you know, in Mexico. I mean, he is a cultural icon,
(10:54):
not a professional wrestling icon, a cultural icon. And I
think of all of the American professional wrestlers who have
ever lived, I don't think as a result of pro wrestling,
any of them are more famous than Hulk Hogan. None
of them drew more fans over the course of their careers,
including I think Jim Londos, none of them drew more
(11:17):
than hul Cogan. You know we're talking you know, the
Rock and Steve Austin. I mean, if you look at
Hogan from you know, his his late seventies, early eighties
and the AWA and then going to WWF and then
you know, going to WCW afterwards, and all the money
that they drew. I mean, he's the most famous wrestler
of all time. Everybody knew the name hul Cogan, and
(11:40):
a lot of it was, you know, like with Ricky
dozen because you know, the national television Hulk Hogan became
a massive star in the early eighties, and you know,
the rock and wrestling connection and the rise of MTV
on cable, and then they had, you know, the Saturday
Nights main event, and then the main event you know
in this Saturday night, the Saturday Night Live time slot,
(12:03):
Saturday Night Live in the eighties would like they wouldn't
have a show and Saturday Night's main event would be there.
And in that match with Hull Cogan, I'm sorry with
Andre the Giant. You know, first it was the Pontiac
Silverdome match for WrestleMania three, which let me tell you
something about that match. Okay, do you realize that tickets
(12:27):
did not go on They didn't even have the building announced,
and they did not put tickets on sale until like,
I don't know, six eight weeks before the show, because
we went back and we were watching like the early
nineteen eighty seven, like primetime wrestling, and you know nowadays,
it's like, okay, well, WrestleMania is gonna be a year
(12:47):
and it's gonna be here, and tickets are gonna go
on sale eight months in advance, and blah blah blah
blah blah. It was like it's like January thirtieth or
something like that. Nineteen eighty seven, it was like hul
Cogan and Bobby and I'm sorry Gen Oakland. It was
Bobby and Gorilla. They were like, next week we're gonna
announce the location of Wressell Maine. They didn't even have
(13:08):
they didn't even have a location, okay, and then it
was like the last week of January, first week of
February they announced Wressell Maani the Pontiac Silverdome and boom
seventy five thousand, seventy eight thousand, eighty thousand tickets out
the door over the course of like six weeks for
that Hull cog and Andre the Giant match. And then
(13:31):
they did the second Andre the Giant Hull Cogin match
on the main event in nineteen eighty eight, and thirty
three million people watch that match. So nowadays, when you
hear people and they're screaming about ah, you know Ron,
Netflix and aw and they should be doing one point
(13:53):
three million or whatever. Bro, this show, as you said, Bro,
this show did thirty three million live viewers. Thirty three
million live viewers at the peak of the Monday Night Wars,
the peak when when Raw and Nitro like we're both
(14:16):
at their peak, they combined did eleven million viewers combined
for both shows, Raw did six million. You know, WCW
did five whatever. Eleven million was the peak combined in
the Monday Night Wars, and Hulk Cogan and Andre the
Giant did thirty three million, three times the combined peak
(14:40):
of the Monday Night Wars. And of course then you know,
Hogan was a product of the eighties and big jacked
up ends up going on our Sinio Hall claims, you
know whatever, he claimed lied, and you know he he
kind of brother yep, yep. He disappeared for a while,
but you know what, that guy came back to WCW
(15:03):
in ninety four, and you know, ninety four ninety five
business started to really pick up, and Hogan was a
huge part of that, although the real turnaround was actually
a Randy Savage Rick flair few that they took on
the road that did huge business. But when that guy
joined the nWo and that thing exploded, I mean, WCW
(15:23):
started going straight up, and then you know, Vince realized, dude,
we got to do something, and the Attitude era came
around eventually and they went straight up. And so, you know,
whatever you want to say about Terry Bolea, Hulk Hogan
was the catalyst of the eighties boom and the nineties boom,
(15:44):
and we'll talk a lot more after the break Observer Live.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike Semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Hey, sorry for running you over there. Tom. We'll get
back to some of us here in a moment, but
I do have to go back to the beginning, and
just I mean, we rarely even mentioned the fact that
he passed away today. I mean, we've been talking about
his career and everything. But essentially what was reported is
that he went into cardiac arrest and they went to
(16:22):
his house and there was actually a video on TMZ.
Do we have to have these videos and they're you know,
they're taking him out of the house and doing chess
compressions and he ended up passing away. And if you
recall on this show the last couple of days, yes, yes,
So this is what I can tell you everybody. Okay,
(16:44):
So a couple of days ago, I got a message
and it was regarding Hulk Hogan And essentially what the
message said was, you know, what Bubba is saying is
not true, but it's bad, and you know, then two
days later he's dead, okay, and then you know, and
(17:05):
everyone's like, well, I guess Bubba was right.
Speaker 7 (17:08):
Jimmy Hart yesterday said Hulkster's doing phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yes, it was. I mean, it was very clear that
Hulk Hogan was not doing phenomenal obviously. But what I
can tell you is that the person that basically said,
you know, it's bad, but it's not as bad as
Bubba is saying. This person had been around Hogan a lot.
(17:33):
This was not somebody who had heard like a friend
through a friend or something like that. And so I'm
not sure exactly what happened in terms of the heart
attack here today, but the way it was explained to
me was, you know, Hogan underwent a bunch of surgeries,
and you know, even his wife had admitted, you know,
there are a lot of complications and things are rough.
(17:54):
I think Bubba had stated that he was like in
a coma, and you know, I was, I was. He
was not in a coma. Now, the one thing was
he was sleeping a lot, like he was sleeping a lot,
and so it's possible that like, you know, Bubba presumed
that he was in a coma, but I was told
(18:15):
that he was not in a coma and he was
unable to speak, and I think Bubba had mentioned that,
So you know what happened with the heart attack, I mean,
we don't know, but you know, all of those there
have been like a lot of and I'd mentioned this
as well, there'd been social media posts that were not
recent because everybody was saying, oh, he's all over social media,
(18:35):
is all over social media. Those were not recent. And
the impression that I was given was that, you know,
Eric Bischoff and some others as well. I mean, I
don't think they thought it was like he was imminently
going to die like what happened, But you know, I
was kind of given the impression that the kurd Angle
(18:56):
being brought in for real American Freestyle was because us
Hogan probably was not going to be able to be
making public appearances anytime in the near future, and they
had the show coming up at the end of August,
and so that's one of the reasons that they brought
Kurt Angle in. So he'd had health issues, I mean,
he'd always he'd always claimed that a lot of his
(19:20):
back issues were the results of doing that leg drop,
and that if he hadn't done the leg drop, you know,
he might not have been in this condition. And you
know he might be right because I taught It's kind
of a weird tie in, but I taught gymnastics forever
kids gymnastics, and on the trampoline, there's a move called
the seat drop, which is basically a leg drop, okay,
(19:41):
And you know we were always told that whenever these
kids do their seat drops, make sure they put their
hands down like by their butt, because if they don't like,
their back gets all jacked up. And that's what Hogan's
move was, was that leg drop. And he did it
for year, years and years and years and years. And
(20:04):
you know, I think most people are aware of this.
But those WWF rings back when he was legitimately on
the road like two hundred and eighty to three hundred
days a year. It wasn't four hundred like he claimed,
but back when he was on the road a lot, dude,
those rings had no give and they didn't change the
WWE rings until ironically, Vince McMahon became a wrestler and
(20:30):
then all the rings had to be changed to be bouncier.
But he was doing all those leg drops during that period,
and I'm pretty sure that he probably did like destroy
his back, and you can you know, you can see,
like when I was a kid, I always heard, oh, man,
Hogan was this was this would have been. I wasn't
a kid. I was probably a teenager or you know,
late teens, but you know, people always told me, you know,
(20:52):
this Hogan kind of sucks. But if you want to
see Hogan when he was great, watch when he was
in Japan and so like he had all these man
in New Japan. He was actually the first IWGP champion.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
Yeah yeah, by Ko on the floor of all things,
with the axe bomber.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So yeah, but if you watch those those matches in
New Japan, I mean it was a different Hogan. So
you know, I grew up and like I did, you know,
till I was probably in my thirties and forties, I
believe that. And then one day we went back and
we watched all of the Saturday Nights and Main event
episodes in order and to steal a line from Hulk
(21:33):
Hogan brother, let me tell you that guy could work
and he was great. This was not just Japan. You
watch these Saturday Nights main event matches. This guy had
from probably you know, eighty four eighty five through about
eighty seven, this guy was awesome. And it was probably
(21:54):
around you know, eighty seven ish eighty eight where it
either was catching up to him or like he realized
what am I doing? Like I don't need to do this.
I can go out there and you know, cut my
ear and everything like that. It was around eighty seven
eighty eight, eighty nine you could see, Okay, he's he's
he's either hurting or he's just like gotten a lot
(22:16):
smarter than what he's doing in the ring. He doesn't
need to do that stuff. And you know, even the
early days of of WCW, he was pretty mobile. You know,
when he first came to WCW in like ninety four
ninety five, at those matches with Flair, like he was Vader.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
You're not getting You're not getting away without getting in
there with Vader.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Nah, he was. He was still pretty mobile and athletic.
But you know, by about ninety seven, ninety eight and
then like ninety nine came, I mean, he was not
moving well at all and he didn't bump well at all.
And then he came back in two thousand and two
or two thousand and one two thousand and two when
when WCW died for the Nostalgia run and man, that
(22:55):
guy couldn't do anything. And you know then as as
he got older, it was like, you know, he had
spinal fusion. And then you know he I guess he
had spinal fusion at this place, and they started using
him in advertising and he claimed it wasn't with his permission.
And then he like turned on him and said, like
it didn't work, and I'm worse now. And then you know,
(23:17):
the last few years it was like surgery, surgery, surgery, surgery,
and you know he was just he was in a
lot of pain. And you know this most recent surgery
would have been only a few months ago. Yeah, yes,
serious complications. I mean, he was there for that Netflix
debut and like seem fine. I mean, you know, if
(23:40):
you were to watched that Netflix debut and like you know,
the audience reaction was something different, But if you would
have seen him physically there, I mean, you wouldn't be
sitting here going man by you know the end of July,
he'll have passed away. But I mean, you know, the
notable story of the Netflix debut is is he was
booed hard and uh we never saw him again. And
(24:05):
I'm sure that obviously part of it. I mean, he
was supposed to be there all the time, this Real
American Beer tie in, I mean, he was supposed to
be there all the time, and.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Well he was.
Speaker 7 (24:15):
He's been on the road, you know, yeah, think about
it for the last couple of years. I mean, he
was traveling the country doing promo work for Real American Beer,
you know, his advanced stage. I'm sure that's not the
best thing.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Well yeah, I mean you know, we can talk to
Lance about it and you as well. I Mean, traveling sucks.
And then you add all of that travel onto all
of the physical issues that he had. I mean, he
was really all over the place and he was going
to be doing a lot of stuff for Real American Wrestling.
I mean, this guy was hurting. And you know, the
(24:50):
fans has noted. They they boot him out of the building,
and all of the upcoming Hogan appearances gone. You know,
he's supposed to be he was supposed to be on
Saturday Night, It's main event, and remember Jesse was was
uh you know, they kind of had that thing and
then well Jesse's on the show and Hogan isn't. And
then of course obviously he had the surgery and they
(25:12):
were going to use him after that because he was
like in a rough shape. But you know, those those fans,
they they let their voices be heard and and the
company reacted to it. I mean they didn't just if
it were Vince like, they would have just kept bringing
him out because you know, Vince Vince loved that kind
of thing. When oh man, I hate to.
Speaker 7 (25:34):
Be fair, Brian, there was a pretty big, you know,
backlash towards him by members of the roster in the media.
You know, It's not as if like people stay away
from it. He's he was kind of the butt of jokes.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
No, there were a lot of talent, a lot of.
Speaker 7 (25:49):
The wrestlers around that time period.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, yeah, because there was there was obviously the situation
with Bubba the Love Sponge and his wife and Goker
and that whole lawsuit, which by you know, he was
he was having I believe he was having problems with
money until the Gaker lawsuit and he got thirty million
dollars and then he was all right. But there was
another incident in around twenty fifteen when that tape came
(26:12):
out and he had racial slurs on the tape. He
basically stated like I'm kind of I think he said
like I'm kind of a racist or something something like that.
Speaker 7 (26:21):
He said he was a racist. He was, you know,
basically cutting a promo on Brooke Hogan's boyfriend.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah. So then like he did an apology to the
locker room, but the apology was more like you gotta
make sure what you say, brother, I mean it. It
was more like, yeah, it was whatever you want to say. Personally,
what the wrestlers felt, the wrestlers, a lot of them,
was that he's he's not apologizing. What he's doing is
(26:51):
he's like saying, don't get caught. And so there were
a lot of the wrestlers that wanted nothing to do
with Hogan and and obviously, as we saw in the
Netflix deal, with a lot of fans as well, so
a lot more after the break. Everybody observer live.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
When I'm wrestling, won't believe I used.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
To tear my shirt. But now, to my heart, I
knew you're a hold of Mania right.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
From the very start to time.
Speaker 7 (27:22):
You are my friend.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
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Speaker 2 (30:37):
You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike semper Vivi on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Began the show, Brian Albarez here Wrestling Observer Live. I
was asking a show earlier day about Hogan's legacy, and
obviously you're not gonna ever be able to talk about
hul Cogan without talking about the bad. But you also
cannot talk about his legacy without talking about what he
did for the business and whatever you think about him.
(31:08):
And boy, there's a lot of people thinking a lot
of stuff in this chat. I mean, the fact of
the matter is none of us will be here right
now without a whole Cogan in a lot of different ways.
I mean number one, I mean, he was the centerpiece
of WWF when it went national, and there's no guarantee
(31:32):
it would have worked with anybody else. He was incredibly charismatic.
He was the like the personification of the eighties, just big,
muscular action, larger than life. I mean, the people went
wild for this guy. Like I will read some of
these emails. I think we're gonna get Inny today. We'll try,
(31:53):
But like I got so many emails of people's memories
involving like Hogan showed up and people went screaming, crying,
blah blah blah, and like I was there for a
show once where during intermission at these house shows, the
ring announcer used to come out and say who was
gonna be at the next show, and you know then
you'd go buy your tickets or whatever. And you know,
(32:15):
he came out and he's like, coming out of the
next show, there's gonna be Jimmy SUPERB Live Snooker and
and the earthquake and and then he mentioned Hulk Hogan's name,
and dude, these people grown men. I mean they leaped
to their feet and they started spring because he had
to go to the box office to buy tickets. They
(32:35):
are freaking like the whole area just filed out to
go get tickets to see Hulk Hogan. They just went
wild for this guy. And then you know, all of
you that grew up in the Monday Night Wars, I mean,
Hogan was the catalyst also for the Monday Night Wars
and you know, wrestling business aside. You're listening to this,
(32:57):
you're watching this because of Hogan. Because when I was
a kid, my sister actually was the Hogan fan and
she had a Hogan poster and I hated that poster,
and I hated wrestling, and I hated hul Cogan and
I wanted nothing to do with it. I would just
get furious whenever like she'd watch wrestling, so like, I
(33:19):
have some memories of stuff pre like eighty eight, but
I wasn't like paying a lot of attention to it.
And then one day my grandmother moved up from Mexico.
Spoke no English, and you know, she sat on the
couch and she would just she would she would point
to the TV and she would go Lucha lucha. I
(33:42):
was like, what is this lady talking about? Like is
that a soap opera? And you know, I asked my
dad and he goes, she wants to watch wrestling. And
we didn't have a satellite dish. It was no CM
or EML or anything. So it was like I turned
on wrestling, which then was WWF, and you know, I
(34:02):
sat with her because I had too, and I watched wrestling.
And at first it's like God, After a while, it's
like that's kind of cool, and then you know it
was it was Hulk Hogan's feud with Earthquake and Dino
Bravo was involved. It's like nineteen eighty nine. That's when
it like really turned around for me, where all right,
(34:22):
I want to watch this every week. And like the
first big giant show that I bought was Hulk Hogan
and the Ultimate Warrior WrestleMania six, and I was rooting
for the Warrior.
Speaker 7 (34:34):
I was.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I was like, I remember when I watched that thing live.
I was like fourteen or something like that. My heart's thumping,
Like every time Warrior got covered, it's like thumping, and
you know, Warrior won and boom, like away we go.
I was all in. Started, the white wuf started, the
newsletter came, like all of it is because I'm afraid
(34:56):
Hulk Hogan. He was the guy never a fan though,
you like as a wrestler, you know what I'm saying.
It was like I wasn't like cheering for for a earthquake,
but I kind of was like remember when Earthquake squashed
Whole Cogan on The Brother Love Show.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
Yeah, I was delighted.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
I was so happy, partly because I hated Hule Cogan
and also partly because my sister loved Hull Cogan and
she's crying and they did that deal where he had
to write you could write letters to Hull Cogan and
they would send it to him after he was injured
on The Brother Love Show, and she wrote these sappy
letters and sent them to Hogan. I was just howling
hoping this guy had never come back, and of course
(35:34):
he did. But he was like he was a horrible
like as a as a wrestler, his character, he was
like a baby face and everybody loved him, but like,
this dude was constantly cheating. He's backbreaking dudes, and he's
punching people and he's choking him.
Speaker 7 (35:49):
He got eliminated from the Royal Rumbo. Over the top
of the cloud is brewing Hogan. Yeah, when he's supposed
to be at his most popular.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah. For those of you who don't remember, by the
crowd yep in favor of Sid. Yes, back then we
watched these shows on pay per view and then later
the Colisseum video home video release would come out. Well live,
you know, Hogan pulls Sid out of this this Royal
Rumble and Rick Flair helps toss him over to win, which,
(36:18):
by the way, is one of the great Royal rumbles
and probably the best. It wasn't the best. We went
and watched him again there were better. Yeah, but but
it was good as far as like a storyline two.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
You know what I mean, that's the probably the most
meaningful royal rubble of all time.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
But anyway, these fans turned on Hogan. They are booing
this guy like crazy. And I remember months later I
got like the Colosseum home video and they edited out
the booing. They edited in cheering, and as a young kid,
I was like, wow, they're cheating, just like that guy cheated.
And then you know, by by early ninety by ninety
(36:54):
one ninety two, like the people were getting sick of
this guy. And then you know, he went on our
Senio and c that he never took steroids or whatever,
and he lied and then you know, choked.
Speaker 7 (37:04):
He choked out Richard Belzer.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Oh yeah, that was that was That was much earlier.
That was a legit thing, like he was, Yeah, he
was with Richard Belzer and uh, and he decided he
was gonna show him like a guillotine. He showed him
like a shoot guillotine and he puts him in this
guillotine and squeezes and this guy goes unconscious and just whoop,
he just.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
D It was like when John Jones choked out mashidah.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Yeah, and he jumps up him. He's got blood all
over his face. He goes, well, you're right back and uh.
And there was a lawsuit over that, but you know what, Uh,
that was one of those deals where that got so
much media that, I mean, had that not happened, like
who knows? You know, they always tell the story about
WrestleMania one, Like WrestleMania one was like kind of right
(37:49):
on the right on the cusp, like it could have
failed and everything like that. I actually don't think it
was gonna fail. But like that Richard Belzer thing and
obviously mister T getting involved, I mean, all of that
was like a perfect storm and like away we go.
Speaker 7 (38:05):
Yeah. Later on, I mean, he had the Hollywood career,
Santa with Muscles.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Oh, a bunch of horrible movies, God bless them, but
terrible movies. Hideous, Thunder and Paradise was at the show
that was the TV show, Yeah TNT. And then one
of my favorite memories really before he started getting going again,
was the triple Cage Match of Doom where he and
(38:30):
Randy Savage.
Speaker 7 (38:31):
Took on the Dungeon of Doom. Yeah Z Gangsta Ye
who was Zeus from No Holds Barred? Yeah, probably probably
Hogan's Was that Hogan's biggest film, Nol's Barred?
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yeah, I would say probably he passed away due to
COVID tiny lister ze did just a few years ago.
Speaker 7 (38:52):
Yeah, earthquake. Earthquake's gone. Sid's gone.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yep, he was in Rocky three.
Speaker 7 (38:56):
Obvious boss Man long time you know rival and and uh,
I guess his partner with Hogan if I remember back
to the late eighties a little bit too, in the
early nineties, who Big boss Man?
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Oh boss Man? Yeah, but the famous I mean, you know,
that's another one. I mean it's not quite as impressive
as it sounds when I say it, but him and
Big boss Man had a feud in like nineteen eighty eight,
nineteen eighty nine and on like every show around the
I'm talking house shows. They did the super plex off
the top of the cage, And what it really was
(39:32):
was like boss Man would be sitting on the top
of the cage and Hogan would stand on the top rope,
and so it was really basically a superplex.
Speaker 7 (39:39):
Boss Man would lay yeah, he would like lay yeah,
most like on the cage, so'll Holgan would grab him,
so it's the same move from some distance it was.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
It was basically just like a top But still that's like,
I'm not talking like a middle rope. I'm talking to
tippy top rope superplex night after night after night after night.
And you know, we can't talk about Ogan also without
talking about all the stories he told over the years.
And you know, I I you know, Hogan told so
(40:07):
many stories, and it was always kind of like does
he believe that or is.
Speaker 7 (40:13):
You know what I'm saying, he is working us.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
A good example is WrestleMania three. Okay, WrestleMania three. You know,
I won't talk about attendants because I don't need the
chat to blow up. But the thing with WrestleMania three
is the story that Hogan always told was you know,
and it's actually ironic because it's kind of like Hogan's
final days.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
The story was, you know, Andre was near death and
they had to drag him out of a hospital bed
basically to do this match, and Hogan didn't know if
he was gonna lay down for him or not, like
all of these stories, and of course it's all preposterous,
like Hogan was always gonna win the match, and Andre
was not on his deathbed. He wrestled for like five
years afterwards in WWE, like in big matches, including a
(40:56):
much bigger match a year later. But like Hogan told
all these stories, and he would always tell the same story.
And it's funny because like how can you keep telling
the story that Hogan was or that Andre was near
death in Mania three? But like a year later, you
guys did that match on the main event that did
thirty three million viewers, and then like Andre kept going
and he wrestled, you know it always.
Speaker 7 (41:17):
Managed in the Colossal connection.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, yeah, those matches with Warrior and like nineteen ninety
that were terrible, But like he was around and so
I always thought, like, I guess this guy like like
he's so into this that he can't help himself and
he believes these lies. And I don't know when it was,
but I saw a couple of Hogan interviews and and
(41:41):
this was when he was older too, and he would
tell these stories and but he wouldn't tell the total
BS stories. He would he would be like like truthful,
and so you know, he even told the story once.
I forget when this was, but he did some interviews somewhere,
and he was like, you know, when I step in
(42:02):
the front door at home, I'm Terry Boleya. I'm just
a dad, I'm just a guy. But as soon as
I open that door to go out, I gotta be
Hulk Hogan. Like that's what everybody wants is for me
to be Hulk Hogan. So he goes like, you know,
I open the front door and there's a mailman and
I have to go that's what the mailman wants.
Speaker 7 (42:22):
Yes, I hate to stop you, but the best way
to put it was how Hulk Hogan put it himself.
Hulk Hogan has a ten inch penis, Terry Boleya does not.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Okay, the point is that's a direct quote. I think
that every time he was out of the house, he
just knew this was what he needed to be. And
if that included some preposterous story about WrestleMania three or
you know this or that, it's like he was just
out there playing the hits. He was Elvis. I gotta
(42:55):
play the hits. I gotta tell this silly story about
Mania three. Like I just can't believe that he actually
believed these stories that he told some of them. Maybe
you know, you tell the story enough times you do
believe it. But I think that he was just.
Speaker 7 (43:07):
He was gonna be the basis for Metallica.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Yeah, all of this stuff. It's like he don't want
George Foreman.
Speaker 7 (43:12):
Grill was offered to him.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yes, that one, like I got a call, brother, but
I wasn't there, so they gave it to Foreman. It's like,
I'll give you another.
Speaker 7 (43:22):
Grill party with John Belushi after Mania two in nineteen
eighty six, when John Belushi had been dead for years.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
That one would have been difficult. Undoubtedly any other good ones.
Speaker 7 (43:35):
I mean there there's like him talk about the Undertaker tombstoning,
Oh my god that they have.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah, there was a it was Tuesday in Texas or
something like that, and the Undertaker gave him this tombstone
on a steel chair and they have the camera in
the worst possible area to films because you can just
see he's like six inches away from the ground when
he gets tombstone. Okay, it's like so fake, He's nowhere
near the ground. Okay, Well, Undertaker doesn't see this. So
(44:06):
Undertaker goes backstage and Hogan's like, oh brother, and he's
selling that his neck was badly injured, and Undertaker believed
for years that he hurt this guy and Hogan never
told him otherwise. And years later, Undertaker finally sees the
video and he's furious he was nowhere near the ground
back in a moment Observer Live.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
You were listening to wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
and Mike simper beebe on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today. We
had a lot of people and tomorrow Observer Live we're
gonna be back. And I have been absolutely flooded with
emails people's thoughts on Hulk Hogan, and so we're gonna
read a lot of those tomorrow and probably for the
near future, because he was the most famous American professionals
of all time and he passed away. Dave Meltzer and
(45:02):
I did a breaking news audio just before the show began,
actually for subscribers, with some thoughts on Hulk Hogan and
his legacy. It's only about fifteen minutes. It was in
the middle of a crazy morning, and this afternoon I
will be I believe, on ABC News Live around five
Eastern to talk Hogan and perhaps n PR tomorrow morning.
As well, which I think is about two fifty five
(45:26):
am my time tonight, so that'll be a lot of
fun and some other things as well. I'll try to
retweet all of them if you want to hear more
about it. So yeah, any final thoughts, Tom.
Speaker 7 (45:36):
Yeah, I'm gonna leave you with some lyrics Brian from
Holkster in Heaven. When I climb back in the ring,
I know we'll win this fight. I wish you were
here at ringside to cheer me on tonight. The spotlight
now grows dim and now it's not on me. The
prayers we've said together are still our guarantee.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
All right, everybody.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Hulk Hogan's wrestling boot band. We didn't even talk about it,
but that was another one. We got to wrap it
up here for today. I want to thank you all
for listening. We've got a lot coming up everybody, and uh,
maybe we'll have Tom on tomorrow. I guess we'll find
out if you want to go through some emails, Tom,
it's up to you. I got I got like seemingly
thousands here to try to go through. But that's it, everybody.
(46:18):
We'll talk to you next time Wrestling Observer Live. You
have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on
the Eight Side Network
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