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The following is a snippet of my 100 minute Torch Talk interview from November 2002 with Hulk Hogan. In this snippet he talks about his relationship with Vince McMahon. As a correspondent report indicated at www.prowrestling.net this morning, Hulk Hogan had talks with Vince McMahon this past weekend about participating at WrestleMania 25. With that in the news, let's look at Hogan's version of another time Hogan and McMahon had negotiated with one another.
This entire "Torch Talk" is available to LISTEN TO for the first time ever this month. Next month, this Audio Torch Talk will be replaced with a new Vintage Audio Torch Talk, so your last chance to hear the Hogan interview is over the next week, and it's exclusively available with a VIP membership. (For details, click here.)
Wade Keller: When two people have worked together as much as you and Vince have over the years, there are going to be disagreements. Was there ever a point where you thought to yourself that's it and never again, where you did not see yourself working with him again?
Hulk Hogan: No, I never said never again, but I sure have thought, "I'll sure as hell never work for him again."
Keller: That's what I mean, yeah.
Hogan: I've thought that we'd never come to terms again because after the steroid trial, Vince basically lambasted me on the steps of the courthouse. I told the truth that he wasn't what the federal government said he was. I was really surprised by his comments on the steps after that. I just never understood that.
Keller: A lot of people say you saved the trial for him. By answering the questions truthfully, you really hurt the prosecuting attorney's case. I remember the look on Sean O'Shea's face after your testimony. He was deflated.
Hogan: Well, basically the federal government tried to intimidate me into lying. They basically tried to intimidate me into saying Vince was something that he wasn't. And up until midnight the night before, they were banging on my hotel room door and trying to intimidate me and tell me what to say. I couldn't do it, brother, because that's not what the deal was. Vince was not this monster they said he was. He may have had some other faults, but he's not what they said he was. I was really surprised by his comments on the courtroom steps. After that, I never ever dreamed that we'd work together again. After I did the Thunder in Paradise stuff, when I went to Ted Turner and we spanked Vince's ass for two years in the ratings before Eric got too full of himself, and when we were spanking his ass then, Vince was doing the parodies and (Vince) Russo was writing all of the: "Gettin' old, brother. Hulk Hogan with a walker, brother." I thought for sure we'd never work together again, but the one thing was that they shot themselves in the foot, because the older they said I was and the more of a fool they tried to make me, the more people tuned in to check me out on the other channel.
Everything they did at that time was like an upstream battle. Everybody has been trying to get by Hulkamania since the Ultimate Warrior... Eric Bischoff and the Turner organization tried to get by Hulk Hogan one time and move on, but, brother, the fans are loyal. And whether I'm a step slower or whether at one time people get tired of the legdrop or whether at one time people got tired of seeing the shirt ripped off, it's kind of like a guy who wasn't on TV for ten years and comes back and steals the show at the [MTV] Music Awards like Axl Rose. It's kind of like what's old is new again. It's almost retro. And the people are loyal to me because they know I have this crap in my blood. And all of the people like the (Chris) Jerichos and the (Chris) Benoits and the (Billy) Kidmans who hated my guts and said I was a piece of crap, all of a sudden when I got in the locker room with them and when they saw that I was just part of this business, I'm for real, we all get along now. A lot of times guys in this business don't realize that for ten years when I never did a job, and the ten years when I only dropped to one knee, or the ten years that I wouldn't sell, that was my job! The promoter told me what to do and a lot of people don't get it. Everybody was given the ball. The Ultimate Warrior was given the ball. (Roddy) Piper was given the ball. Hulk Hogan was given the ball. We all had a chance to run to the goal line and you see where everybody ended up at.
Keller: How is Vince McMahon different today than he was the last time you worked with him in the WWF? Is he more confident or less confident? Is he a little more nuts or a little less nuts (laughs)?
Hogan: He's the same. I think he's always confident and I think he's always been nuts. Vince is Vince. I think Vince is a good person. And he's a really, really great family man, but the bottom line is that he's a great businessman, too. And he's the one who's carrying this art form on. You can say whatever you want about Vince McMahon, but he's the guy that's kept this whole dream alive. He's the guy who has kept this art form alive, and he's the game in town, brother. To compete with Vince is a major task, and anybody who competes with Vince better have their act together because he can run hard and he will bop till he drops. The only time he changes the battery in his forearm is when he goes in the bathroom and nobody sees him switch gears. If he yawns, he does it in private. The whole deal with Vince is that he's a hell of a businessman. No matter what you think ethically about this business, he's there to win and he's there to survive and you have to applaud him for that.
Keller: And there's nothing at all noticeably different about him in his mid-50s than when he was in his mid-30s? He's the same driven, energetic guy and he handles wrestlers the same way?
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