Hulk Hogan has given his thoughts on Vince McMahon selling WWE, as well as his own memories of working with the Executive Chairman.
Between them, Hogan and McMahon took WWE to new heights in the 1980s, launching WrestleMania off the back of this success.
In April it was announced that WWE and Endeavor had agreed a deal, which if ratified and confirmed, will see the sports entertainment giant merge with UFC.
Appearing on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Hogan said that he was both surprised and expecting McMahon to make the deal. He said that while it puts McMahon in an incredible financial position, he’s shocked he’s willing to take more of a backseat in the day-to-day running of WWE.
“Business wise, the amount of money it generated for him, and where it’s put him in this catbird position, up on this financial pedestal, I understand the security of it. Shocked that he would not be 24/7 involved with the business. That guy never stopped. It was seven days a week.
I’d go to Monday Night Raw, and we’d have a post-production meeting at one o’clock in the morning after the show was over. I’d sneak back to my hotel, he’d be banging on my door at 2:30, 3:00, ‘Come on, monster. Let’s go work out.’ Used to drive me crazy.
Then he’d sleep for four hours and have another 20-hour day. It was like that every day. His plane, he had a big extended G4, I used to call it the slave ship. He talked me into going on it and flying to Monday Night Raw, then he’d never let me go home. ‘Oh, come on back to New York for three days. We need to California for a day.’ So I was surprised that he walked away from the lifestyle because that was him, he loved it.”
Hulk Hogan Aiming For Retirement Match
During the interview, Hulk Hogan discussed the fact he had never had a proper retirement match, furthermore, he had been approached by Shane McMahon about appearing at WrestleMania 39. Although he had to pass on the offer, Hogan hasn’t closed the door on one more match, claiming that in a dream scenario he’d face Stone Cold Steve Austin.
H/t to Fightful