Brutus Beefcake has not held back when letting his feelings be known about Hulk Hogan.
Previously best friends, Beefcake and Hogan started their professional wrestling careers at roughly the same time and were previously known as The Boulder Brothers before their time in WWE. Main eventing the second SummerSlam together against Randy Savage and Zeus, the duo would go on to be known as The Mega Maniacs and feuded with Money Inc. throughout 1993, which included a match at WrestleMania 9. However, more than 30 years later, their relationship is anything but cordial.
Speaking with Kenny McIntosh at an Inside The Ropes live event, Brutus Beefcake was first asked why he wasn’t brought back to WWE when WCW was bought out in 2001:
“Don’t really know for sure. A lot of it, I don’t know. I think, in a way, Hogan just didn’t want me to be there. I don’t know why, but he didn’t help. He didn’t put in a word, he didn’t do anything as far as for me at all, and he had Vince’s ear. So whatever he would suggest, whatever he said, that’s what they were doing. So, I don’t know what happened, but he didn’t help.”
Recalling his friendship with Hulk Hogan, Beefcake stated that he as the one who helped Hogan become the megastar in wrestling and had he not been there things might have been different:
“Both ways. People don’t understand is coming up in those early years, and I was the factor that helped to get Hogan launched to where he was making money. I was the one who drove every day. I was the one who led the workouts in the gym, trained every day, went and got food, did everything to help him be a top, top guy. I don’t know, may not have went so good if I hadn’t been there all those years delivering him, feeding him, training them, taking him day after day after day, month after month, year after year, being Johnny on the spot all the time.
If I hadn’t been there, might have went a whole lot different. My wife was someone who told me that one day. She says it’s really crazy, but you way underestimate yourself, you helped him. He wasn’t like, he helped you. You actually helped him. After I thought about it for a while, I was like, God Almighty, you’re right. You’re really right.”
“He Hit On my Wife”: Brutus Beefcake On Hulk Hogan
In regards to the relationship breaking down, Brutus Beefcake recalled the time that Hulk Hogan disrespected his wife, effectively ending their friendship there and then:
“Oh no, he hit on my wife in in his kitchen with his wife there. They were swapping, doing some weird sh*t. He’s standing in the kitchen at his beach house, and he’s telling me and my wife how he likes to lube up his dick with olive oil. My wife is from Boston, she don’t mince words, and she basically told him where to get off that. She says ‘I’m only here for one reason, that’s Brutus Beefcake. I came because I wanted to meet Terry Bolea, my husband’s friend, lifelong friend. That’s who I wanted to meet. I don’t know or care who Hulk Hogan is at all.’
I guess his ego was so bruised he couldn’t even face her again. So basically he said, ‘Brutus, you’re welcome, you can come over, but don’t bring your wife.’ It’s like, yeah, that doesn’t really work for me, pal. So have a nice day. After that he had 14 back operations, had both his hips replaced and both his knees replaced. He fell apart and I was glad I wasn’t part of it.
I enjoyed being out of it for a while. I mean, we had great years. It was a tremendous story and I thought we would always be friends forever, and he turns back on me, and that’s it. So again, I said it’s too bad, but it ain’t going to change my life. I love my wife, she’s the best and I’d do everything exactly the same. I’d do it all again, and to hell with him.”
When asked about his Hall of Fame induction in 2019, Brutus Beefcake revealed that he was initially pranked 10 years prior but this time it was real. While Hulk Hogan did induct his former friend, Beefcake stated that Hogan once again had another motive for being there:
“Well, the Hall of Fame thing, somebody had pranked me in 2009 I think it was. They called from the WWF office in Stanford, Connecticut. So the caller ID came up, WWF. Somebody says, Yeah, Brutus is going to be in the Hall of Fame. So like all my family, everybody’s going crazy. I come home, yeah, you’re going to be in the Hall of Fame. You’re going to be in Hall of Fame. They called said, blah, blah, blah. It was a rib, somebody pranked me from the WWF headquarters. The family is crushed that somebody would do that. It was dastardly that somebody would have the balls to do that.
I didn’t know why because there’s no reason that I messed with anybody there, there’s nothing. I hadn’t had contact. Hogan had his problems. He had pissed The Rock off so bad by using the N word, and saying some real stupid sh*t, and they took him out of the Hall of Fame. They took him out of the books, he was shunned from the company.
When I did finally did get the call to be in the Hall of Fame for real I requested, we kicked around a lot of people, but that he would induct me. But they said there’s not going to be any people being inducted, because everybody Stevie Ray and those guys, they had somebody they want to induct. Honky Tonk Man had somebody he wanted to be inducted by.
Everybody had somebody they wanted to be inducted by, but they weren’t letting anybody else be an inducteer except for Hogan. He basically used me come coming into the Hall of Fame to get his foot back in the door and start back doing a lot more stuff with the company.
Then he had told me and Jimmy Hart okay, we’re gonna be a team now, the three of us, I’m gonna get you a deal. Brutus, you have a contract, and you’ll be set up, you’ll be taking care of you and Jimmy and me, and we’ll run the country again, we can do stuff, everything. Then nothing happened. Him and Jimmy, yeah, they got deals. They got money and they left me out of the picture and it was like, that was really pretty disappointing deal.
The Hall of Fame thing turned out great and everything, Sports Illustrated, they wanted to announce me on TV, do a special thing. They were trying to build it up real big and make it real cool. And then nothing. Hey, I’m still happy, still healthy, still doing it, doing my thing. And you know what? All that doesn’t sh*t really mean anything.
I love the wrestling fans, look at you guys out there sitting there listening to me ramble on here. But that’s why I like our business. Seeing you guys, getting to hang out with you, getting to talk with you, answer questions, take pictures. Hogan doesn’t like to do that. He doesn’t want to be around you. He’s only there if you can get $300 per signature, or $500 or some ridiculous amount of money, and then he takes off.
He doesn’t want to be intimate with the fans and talk one on one or whatever, and that’s where we part ways on that kind of thing, because I love the fans, they are what makes us in this business. It’s the loyalty of the fans, always coming out, always going and buying that magazine, getting that action figure, getting to rent that DVD or something. It’s the fans that make our business so incredibly great and so fun. To me, this is this way I keep just keep on keeping on, just like I get to come out and hang out with you guys.”
In a recent interview, a WWE Hall of Famer claims that Hulk Hogan got them fired from WCW.
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