FULL SEND PODCAST - Hulk Hogan x Nelk Boys | Ep. 89

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Presented by Happy Dad Hard Seltzer. Find Happy Dad near you http://happydad.com/find (21+ only). Video is available on http://youtube.com/fullsendpodcast/videos. Follow Nelk Boys on Instagram http://instagram.com/nelkboys. Part of the Shots Podcast Network (shots.com). You can listen to the audio version of this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & anywhere you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We probably should have sent these guys to impulsive, honestly, bro. Have they not done it? I don't know. But, like, I mean, with the wrestling thing. I'm just saying, I don't know wrestlers. I feel like Hulk Hogan, like... Legend. I've never watched wrestling, but, like, you know who he is.

You know what he looks like. Yeah. He's just, like, an international icon. I wonder what he's like. Does he guys, too, or no? Dude, I think they all just drink and party. Well, they did. Dude, you got to think about it.

Vince is like they're Dana White. It's the president owner. And he parties. So naturally, if that guy parties, it's like you. You parties with the rest of squad parties. Yeah. Like if you were a sober saint, I feel like no one. You'd still party, bro.

Yeah, but I'm different. I want on a two-week cleanse. Yeah. I'm doing five days hard. Five days off? No, five days hard. What's that mean? Like everyone's doing 50 days hard, 75 days.

75 hard. Five days so off. Yeah. Because gym and no drinking because, dude, like a guy who drinks a good amount, you can't set the bar at 50. like I'm gonna go 50 days I don't know where that's not gonna happen so start with like five maybe I'll start with like eight I mean or a week yeah do a week at least

bro one week in there you can't do a week if I really wanted to I could you can't sober yeah completely yes I can dude no you're you're in head like you're in your head the way you think is like okay it's like if I'm not drinking I'm allowed to do other shit and if I'm not doing other shit then I'm allowed to drink like that's how you think that's how you justify it in your head you gotta explain break that down well I don't want to go

too in depth but yeah yeah no i don't know it's just something to do yeah if i'm not doing anything and i want to go eat and have dinner i'm gonna have like maybe a cocktail or two and then it leads to six and then fucking you sleep at mike maylack's house right i didn't even yeah fuck that thanks for me crash mike but that was brutal to wake up there what other stories is there any other stories that have been happening recently we haven't been all been together trying to think i've just been chilling i went back to oc didn't do shit for two weeks just work got back on gym Well, I guess you gambled with Dana 140K. Yeah, that was cool.

Power Slap. Yeah, how'd that go? It's just crazy because, like, when you play with Dana, especially when we're out there kind of like helping him with something, he just won't let you lose. So you're basically like you're playing with his bankroll. So like I bought in, I don't, I haven't been like, I don't really play at the live tables too much because we're just not.

If we go to Vegas, sometimes it's kind of hard to like. You guys are outside? No, I'm saying at Red Rock. But you're in a private room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm saying like Red Rock's the only casino that really like we have that like sauce VIP room. Sure, yeah. So we could play high stakes and they'll give us markers and shit, right?

So I got I got 50K and I was playing, you know, up and down, up and down. And then eventually I lost it. Dana buys in, plays, plays, plays, goes up, hands me 30K in chips, just slides it over. And then says, all right, make a comeback. And then eventually on the night, I finished like 20K up that night. next night same thing went down he slides me chips and then i made a comeback and then i ended up winning 40k one of the other guys from busting with the boys was down taylor he was down like 110 k jesus but off there he's taking markers or is it marker yeah marker wow he's

yeah yeah and dana won it back one uh no well then dano like why does dana do that he's just that kind of a guy he's just going there to bail you guys out and taking all the risk yeah that's But he has so much money too, right? So he's like, he just keeps taking more markers. Like if he goes down, he's like, all, give me another 60. Give me another 60. Yeah, he's goaded for that. Yeah.

So we all won that night. And he won too. Well, he won everybody money. Yeah. Damn, bro. He won everyone money and he also won. It was fucking... He was on the table that night.

Yeah, he should have been there. Fuck, man. It was fucking dope. He just wouldn't let us lose. I've seen him one time where at Cesar C is a higher limit. and so he like literally took out 75K and just immediately fires one hand. I'm just like, holy shit. But he even sweats that.

Like he's dancing around a little bit and I'm standing there like, it's weird to see a guy like that like sweat, but they have to fire 75K on a hand. So like in literally one minute he could go up or down half a million, which is like next level. I can't do that shit. Like we had action, light action on the heat. He's like, he's just like, yeah,

even just chilling with him that night too we got dinner after power slap and stuff like that and just like fuck bro he's he is just such a boss bro he's like just the shit just the shit he talks about behind the scenes that like just like different deals that are like or like you know people trying to fuck them or fuck the ufc and like hell never let it go to like uh woke yeah and shit like that talking about other leagues yeah it's just crazy how like that guy's the biggest balls bro yeah It's tough to be at, like, that level and, like, just be, like, that confident in your own, you know, decisions, too. Oh, for sure.

It's, like, you have different people in your ear and, like, people telling you to pussy out, too. But, like, he's just, like, his way is the fucking way. He goes with his gut every time. Yeah, which is dope. And he sticks to what, like, he thinks is right. Yeah, that's fucking rare. But that's what makes him such a boss. He'd everyone fucks with him, too.

Yeah. Like, no one ever shits on Dana. You can't. And if they do, it's, like, he'll call you out. yeah some meat like he even posted about some media outlet like i know the bar twisted his words yeah and he posts about it he's like i didn't fucking say this yeah like just wild never want to be on that guy's bad side no but he's such a good guy you know what happens when you're on that guy's bad side okay fuck that bro yeah no it's fucking pretty cool that we're

fucking friends with him man he's just the fucking man welcome to the beach my brothers i know so is this is this home base for you because i lived here 69 years brother wow yeah we we've been here a lot to do different shit filming every time we every time we come here it's just a fucking blast are you in the clear water or tampa i'm right down the street when did you guys get in last night last night last night like late 11 oh yeah we had uh monday night karaoke last night at my bar it was what's your go-to karaoke track for me yeah i don't sing bro i get the gong you know if you suck or if you drop the F-bomb, you get gonged.

You get gonged and the song's over. What's the best, like, karaoke track you think, to impress, like, some ladies? Ladies? Like, Sweet Child of Mine or something? No, I got to say it. Dude a child, bro. The guy sang a Justin Timberlite song last time.

Yeah, that's good. Mirrors like these girls, man. Which one did you do? Like, cry me a river? No. It was a new one. It was a newer. I can't remember the name of it.

But he started singing, man. It just, it was amazing. What would you do? Um, you wouldn't do it. Is that like an energy drink? Maybe our store, or what's it called, our song, Taylor Swift. Is that like it? No, this is a hard seltzer.

Okay. Alcohol. Okay, cool. Yeah. Cool. You own your own bar here too? Yes, sir. That's awesome.

So is that only like a Monday night thing or? Karaokey's Monday. The week is pretty strong. Friday night we have my son Nick does like a beach party with electronic music. And it gets really crazy. What's tonight? Fridays. Tonight is kind of slow.

Sorry, man. I have a hard time looking at you because my neck's messed up. So I have to look kind of like. No, you're good. We could get a pop in there tonight, probably. I think so. Yeah. Does Rick come through?

Did he come through last night? No, Rick didn't come through. We've had him in. I didn't have the gong back then. I wish I would have. So if you hit the gong, then people have to get off? Oh, yeah. Fuck.

You probably fuck some people's mental up, though. No, bro. I make sure, you know, we're cool. I mean, we got one guy. named Nick Riddle that's he picks the hardest songs man he sings his ass off he just picks like real aggressive like punk rock stuff or like green day stuff or grunge stuff he sings his ass off he's won like three title belts and he's autistic you know and i had no idea you know and there was one time i almost gonged him and i didn't and because he dropped a couple of f bombs but he was he sang

so good i had to let him go and my son nick hogan goes Hey, dad, don't you know he's autistic? I said, no, I had no idea. He couldn't tell. Guys, the best thing where we get in here. Yeah. You know, so I do gone, I've gone a couple drunk guys that, you know, we're dropping F bombs or yelling at their wife instead of singing when they want to fight me, you know.

I said, get your ass out of here. That's awesome. But it gets a little crazy. That's fun. Well, yeah, you're an absolute legend, man. We appreciate you coming in, obviously. Thank you guys for having me. What's your, what's your, like, day-to-day life like now?

Well, I'm kind of regrouping and ramping back up. I haven't really wrestled since. I mean, I wrestled the Rock at 18. Vincent 19 was part of 20 and 21 WrestleMania. But since then, it's kind of really backed off. Still work with the WWE, but gone to Saudi Arabia a couple of times, done stuff with Rick. But nothing physical, you know, because my body shut down on me about 14 or 15. years ago and i ended up having like 25 26 surgeries in a row 10 back surgeries went in for one

ended up having 10 at the knees replaced you know after this was scope five times this was scope six times finally replaced and replaced the hips got a bullet hole in my shoulder from a couple bad shoulder surgeries holy shit abdominal surgeries a couple surgeries in my face from you know because i would lead with my left and got kicked in the face a bunch of times. It had the orbital socket broken a couple times. And, you know, nobody gave me the memo that stuff was fake. I missed that memo. So, you know, plus I was running so hard the first 20 years. I was wrestling, you know, 400 times a day like Rick, twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday. There was no rock, no stone cold, no John Cena. It was just me. It's like the first 20 years.

So I would hit Philadelphia Spectrum at one in the afternoon, sold out, hit Madison Square Garden, that night sold out at the Boston Garden Sunday afternoon sold out the LA forum that night sold out so I was doing two days wow holy shit my body up so bad you know so how does that bug you to hear people with the narrative like it's fake when you're putting when you're going through all these surgeries and you're just banged out really you know they you know most people understand it's predetermined we know there's going to win or lose so you want to call that fake I don't care anymore yeah back then if somebody said it was fake front chinrock richard bell's pass out half million dollars later prove my point right

you know i mean we used to defend the business you know if someone said it was fake you'd punch him right in the mouth back in the 70s and 80s but then you know with all the commissions and stuff when vince deregulated wrestling said it was an exhibition you know you didn't have to fight every six-foot-10 guy in a bar that said it was fake you know sure brother whatever you say man you know was that something like you guys chose to do to defend it or were you guys like told to like well when i broke in the business i didn't go like to uh you know, what's the name of the place in Orlando? Jesus, I can't even think of it.

Performance Center. Yeah, NXT, thank you. I didn't go to NXT, the performance center. I was playing in a rock and roll band. I had long hair, real long, blonde hair, and I wanted to be a wrestler. And I went in, and they exercised me until I was getting ready to faint. They threw me in the ring.

I put an elbow in my shin, grabbed my toe, posed to my leg, and broke my leg the first day, and said, don't ever come back again. Then I went home, and my dad came. my ass worse. And I cut my hair real short like yours and I went back with the attitude that nobody's ever going to hurt me again. So that was the mindset and the mentality when I get in in the 70s and 80s. You know, at the WW Performance Center now, they take real good care of the athletes and when you're doing four roles you had helmets on, you know, and you take your time

wearing the business and nobody gets beat up or nobody gets stretched or hooked or submitted. And so it's a different business now But when I first started If you were a professional wrestler And you got your ass kicked in the bar You were in a lot of trouble You know, because you had to protect And defend the business

So that was the barbaric mindset at the time Wow That must be so different But I was like 77 bro when I got in Because I quit playing music in 75 So way before you were born I was doing this shit Way before yeah

Yeah Let's talk about the music Yeah You were in a band weren't you? Yeah Did you play? I saw something I said you like played with Metallica or no I tried to get in the band actually it started with the Rolling Stones because I played music you know for 10 years it was a studio musician

with Century Arts out of Atlanta so I played music for 10 years I kept playing the same clubs then when I come back in Florida there's a place called the rothaway grill up the beach I'd play there there were skips on the beach down there in Madeira beach I was the only guy they played naked for two hours on the stage there so we're going to forget about that statement it was a dare so i kept playing music and playing music what was the question about metallica and so once i got in the wrestling business this is kind of like a long story is okay yeah you're sure got in the wrestling business i was wrestling at wimbly stadium um make-a-wish kid came to see me because of the time i was seeing more kids and mickey mouse or mr t i was before

John Cena came around. I was the guy. And, you know, I was seeing all these makeupers kids. And the kid came back at Wimbled and he was in bad shape, bro. He was on a vent. The medics were with him. He was freaking out. Hygienically, you could tell he wasn't really being taken care of correctly. But the parents were marking out. And the parents were coming at me real strong. And I was trying to take care of the kid. And I kind of told the medics, guys, the kids are panicking. You kind of like need to ease him out of here. So the kid left. I went out and wrestled and I had a place for him and his parents. Wembley Stadium, 80,000 people.

No kid, no kid. So I went back and I said, what happened to the family? Well, the kid had passed away by the time I saw him and by the time I wrestled. So my manager, Jimmy Hart at the time, who was with the gentries, who was a musician, had a hit song Keep on Dancing. It was only number one song. We stayed up and we wrote 12 songs with one of those harpsichord things that Jimmy played. Like little kids songs, Hulk Hothomaniac in Heaven, Beach Patrol, all these little songs.

and a guy named Simon Cowell produced the album. Oh, wow. So then when the album went to Billboard and it went to number one for quite a while, Simon Cowell came back to me and said, look, bro, I want you to do a song by our Elvis and Presley, Elvis Presley type guy over here named Gary Glitter. He was a transvestite, you know, but he was like Elvis over there. So we had a song called Leader of the Gang.

So I went in and I cut the song with the band called Green Jelly, you know, and that song took off. so that's kind of like the little music thing but then i'm getting to metallica yeah yeah but then once i got back to connecticut when i was living up there after i've been fired and i came back to work in 84 down the street from me cindy lopper lived so i reeled her and dave wolfe in i said let's recut some music because i knew rick derringer rothen you guys didn't even know the i heard the name i heard the name okay well he wrote he did real american my theme song but anyway i got Cindy Lopper and Rick Derringer, we recut on the end of a thousand dances,

recut a couple songs, rock and roll hoochiku, and I can't remember something else. And brought Simon Cowell over to produce it, and it went platinum, bang. So then we decided, let's do another wrestling album, Paul Driver, brought Simon Cowell over, boom, produced it went platinum. He never left. And Simon stayed here because he started working with the WWE. Fast forward, I go to an award show in the UK, and who am I, presenting with a lady named Jerry Hall, who was living with Mick Jagger at the time.

So the bass player just quit. So I said, oh, my God, I quit wrestling and heartbeat being in the Rolling Stones. Yeah, fuck yeah. So she asked me for a bunch of merchandise for her kids, you know. And I said, oh, yeah, I can send you whatever you want. And so there was Miami said, oh, by the way, I used to play bass. Could I send your husband a tape? You know, love to be in their own stones.

She said, yeah, yeah, send me the tape. Sent the tape, never heard a word. Okay, fast forward, Metallica needs a bass player, right? I go, holy smokes, Metallica, I could be in Metallica. I did an audition tape, put a tape together, sent it to the band, never heard a word from it. But that was it. They don't even respond. No, dude, I was Hulk Hogan, too, man.

I was a champion of the world. They didn't even call me back. The Stones are the biggest band in the world at that point, for sure, right? Yeah. The bar is pretty high. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, you can shoot for the, you know, the stars. Were you talented enough to do?

do it you think you think they saw it i don't know i know anything the stones played i could play yeah metallica well more difficult i could play almost everything they played but the new bass player they have shoot brockin he lace his boots up he is so fucking good damn i'm surprised you never met them never heard back from any of them didn't didn't one direction ask you to do a song or something i don't remember i saw i saw like mbc was trying to push they were they They wanted you to play, like, bass for one direction. Don't remember? Do you know who those guys are?

Yeah. Would you consider that? So maybe they sent you a tape and you just didn't even fucking get it. I don't know, man. That's probably why they broke up. I've been hitting up. Hey, easy, brother. I've been hitting the head with too many steel chairs.

I don't remember that one. So after the music didn't go the way you wanted it to, then you just focus on wrestling? Well, I was always focused on wrestling, but, you know, I was a cheap ho, man. I'd have loved to be in the rolling of these stones of Metallica. Come on. Yeah. That would have been sick. You have to give up to be with the stones.

You've got to. There's no other choice. Well, I figured I've been fired from wrestling so many times. I've quit so many times. It'd be just another glitch in the system. I could always go back. Right. That's crazy.

You also played baseball. You were nasty, like, when you were younger, too. You almost went pro? I was scouted in 10th and 11th grade by the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees. But I broke. my arm. I pitched and played third base and a guy stepped outside the box and he hit the ball in the handle that dribbled down the third baseline. As I ran, the bases were loaded, we came up on the infield. And as a ball dribbled down the third

baseline, I picked it up and I threw it underhanded the first base. And I broke that cap off my elbow just by throwing the ball awkwardly off balance. And so they had they put a cast on my arm and that cap went back on, but I had an overhand fast ball and an overhand drop ball that was nobody could hit because I was like a big kid in high school. And I was really good, you know, throwing a fastball on an overhand drop ball that would come actually the same way and drop off at the last minute. But after that, my pitching arm was screwed from third base. I didn't have the same arm. And so they put me in the outfield and I just wasn't into it. So at that point, I was kind of like taking guitar lessons and playing in garage bands

and going up to the University of Gainesville and all these different colleges and playing for the sororities and all the parties, you know, and was making really good money in high school and I went, eh, that'll be a long-haired hippie and make money playing music.

Yeah. So that was it for baseball. How's your health now? I mean, you look amazing. I'm cool, man. 26 surgeries. Like, how do you feel? I'm cool, you know?

It's just when you get about that far away from 70, like Rick Flan and I talked to him, he said he's fine. He says, nothing hurts. I'm like, how in the hell is that possible? How can nothing hurt? He hasn't had all the surgeries, you know? I know he broke his back in the plane crash. And that pretty much was devastating. It took him a while to regroup from that. But, um, you ever think about quitting when you're just fucking going through all this shit with your body? Well, back then, you know,

it wasn't quitting. He was drinking a couple more beers and you'd have a couple more pain pills. Yeah, right. Rock on, brother. Yeah. you're way good back in the day we nobody would quit i mean if you broke your thumb or you go to teeth knocked out of your nose was broken you were at an afternoon show you know you can't go to madison square ground well i broke my thumb i can't wrestle i don't want to hear that shit right you know what do you think it's the biggest difference now like from back then until to now the wb the biggest difference um you know i i don't want to knock the product you know be the old timer This is back in the day, kid, when I was wrestling, I want to go there.

But I think the biggest difference if I really had to choose would be two things. The Internet stuff, you know, because I sold a ton of merchandise with no Internet, you know, with no Amazon or any of that stuff. You know, it was venue-related in mail order stuff. So I sold a ton of merchandise over the years doing my things, and it's still selling like crazy. So I think the internet is the biggest difference. And I think the main thing with the product is instead of having an attraction like a Hulk Hogan. Yeah. So you can put with this guy or that guy or him or you or the one man gang or that guy or a giraffe and just sell out anything.

Instead of having that one attraction like a whole Cogan or a rock or Andre the giant or a Stone Cold Steve Austin. Instead of having that one guy, that's really the attraction. star now is the production in the show, you know, because I see the guys wrestle and if one gets hurt, you know, there's another one from the performance center that slides right and takes his place and they're all the same size and pretty much have the same color hair and kind of like their clothes are made by the same seamstress and they learn how to wrestle from the same group of trainers. Yeah. So, you know, when I get into business, we all learn from wrestling every night, you know, and being in the ring and getting your ass beat and getting

it hurt we learned that way where we weren't doing forward roles with helmets on doctors and massagers and trainers and you know if you hurt your thumb you go put you in the x-ray machine and got to take four weeks off you broke your nail so it's different now you know yeah yeah back in the day it was you know getting the car shut the hell up you're opening the beers i'm driving yeah what created such that like party culture with the w w was that just like you guys or was it like it seemed like All you guys were just. No, it wasn't, it wasn't the WWE. It was the wrestling business.

Right. It was, it was, when I got in, man, you know, when I walked in a dressing room, they were like six guys sitting there. They were all 300-pounders. I was a medium-sized guy, and I weighed 300-plus, but I was a medium-sized guy. And when I got in, if you want to be a wrestler, okay, there's a guy there. He's got two big cauliflower ears, his nose is broken, his teeth are knocked out, and he's got four kids at home.

You know, this next guy over here was an NCAA champion. You know, he's going to steal platinous for him. His name is Harley Race. And, you know, good luck with him. Then the other two guys that are looked like serial killers. And if you want to be a wrestler, you've got to take their job and take the food out of their family's mouth. That's the difference.

Everybody I wrestled looked like monster-sized, you know, men nowadays. there's a lot of guys that look like wrestlers and I've got a lot of guys that don't. A lot of guys that look like wrestlers and a lot of guys who look like they should be bagging my groceries. You know, so the difference is how athletic the guys are.

You know, the smaller guys can do all kind of crazy stuff. They do so much stuff, so much impressive stuff in one match. I wouldn't do that much in a year. But what does it mean? You know? Yeah. One thing we talked about, like we touched on with Rick

that I want to ask you is back then your persona there were so many characters so like you would have you'd create a huge fan base and you had your unique personality but that's not it doesn't seem like that's even a thing anymore well it's different it's what what goes back to i was talking about being an attraction you know you have the same you got 25 writers yeah you know that right and i'm not trying to be an asshole but you develop your character that's you right yeah i mean and nobody told me how to be Hulk Hogan or yeah came up with any of that stuff i came up all that stuff myself. So even, you know, with the WWE now, when I go back and I host a

WrestleMania or when I open the show for the 30th anniversary of Raw, I'm getting ready to walk out. I mean, I'm in the guerrilla position. I'm getting ready to go through the curtains. And there's 20,000 people out there. And the last time I was in Philadelphia, I was a bad guy, right? So I don't know what I'm going to get when I walk out there. Now I get the red and yellow on.

All of a sudden, I'm a good guy, and I'm walking out. And when I'm getting ready to walk out, a writer comes over and hands me a bunch of papers that just came out of a printer in there, a hut. I'll hold the papers up here. I said, Vince, really? Are you kidding? He goes, nah, I just do what you want. Okay, thanks.

I just throw the papers up and just walk out and do what I want because he knows me well enough that I'm not going to shit the bed. You know what I'm saying? I've done this a couple times. So it's different now. But I do have respect for the writers because they do help a lot of the guys who can't come up with their own characters who don't come up with the right thing. And, you know, they hit and miss.

You know, a lot of the stuff is really good. And some of the stuff is so-so. Are you able to talk at all about, like, how the predetermination happens? Like, is that based on fans? Is it all Vince? Is it, like, the wrestlers have any say? I'm not really sure how the predetermined outcome is made. I mean, I was in the office for a lot of years with Vince.

When his dad fired me, I disappeared for about three or four years. And then when I went back and beat the Iron Sheik, Vince was running the company. And I lived up in Greenwich, Stanford, right next to him. So I was in the office every day. And basically, we really didn't worry about win or losing. We'd look at a venue like the Philadelphia Spectrum. Look at the talent list because we were running three towns a night, a whole Cogan town, like a Sergeant Slaughter town, and then maybe a Paul Orndorf town.

And, you know, as a talent would get their booking sheets. They would want to be on the A town because, you know, like if I was wrestling the one-man gang and you're in the opening match with me, you might make three or four grand. If you were on the other card, like with Sergeant Slaughter or with Paul Orndoff, you're in the opening match, you might make $300. You know, there's a big difference on what was being drawn at the time because I was kind of like an attraction and everybody else was trying to figure their shit out. And so when we're in the booking meetings, we really didn't care that much about who won or lost, but what we cared about was, okay,

if I wrestled the one man gang of Philadelphia, how can we get more than one out of us? Okay, so if the one man beats gang beats me on a disqualification, I don't lose any stroke. You know, he hit me with a pair of brass knuckles when the referee was trying to take the brass knuckles, he dropped the referee and you got disqualified, and then we can come back again.

You know, and then all of a sudden we come back on the Philadelphia spectrum, And there's a double countout because whatever happens. Maybe we both get handcuffed to the ring girl. Who knows? I'm just talking shit. And then we come back in a steel cage and we blow it off. And I leave him laying in a pool of blood.

I climb out of the cage. So you can get three, $400,000 gates out of one opponent instead of just getting one. You know, and then what do we do the next time? We come back to Philly. So it was more about the storytelling, which, you know, would determine who would win or lose. You know, it really wasn't that much the character-driven or who's the biggest attraction.

But there were certain guys you didn't want to beat for a long time. You know, there were certain guys that if you beat them and they were your lead dog, if you beat them, they might not shine or they might not draw anymore. That's my thing. You know, if somebody's got that magic dust or they have the it factor, let them roll, brother. Let them roll, you know.

Forget the ego. How did your, like, business relationship? relationship evolved with like the WWE like you say like if that guy's winning like we were making money were you like getting a cut of like the whole thing at one point or like how did that evolve well I always worked on a percentage you know and my deal is a little bit different than most people I mean I worked for Vince Sr. first you know from 78 to about 80 I worked for Vince Senior so I was kind of like his guy for a while. And, you know, I was kind of wild in the streets.

I didn't listen very well. You know, I would disappear and make some money and pull no shows. I mean, I was like 27, 28 years old now. I was nuts, you know. So I was running hard back then. I wasn't married. So pretty much was doing whatever I wanted to do. And, you know, I kind of like got involved with Vince and everybody says,

oh, this business is a work. Okay. Well, if I'm making twice as much money as you and you're wrestling me, is that a work? That's a fucking shoot, brother. And that's how I looked at it. This business was a shoot. It was the man that made the most money. So when I worked for Vince and Bob Backin was a champion, oh, I wrestled Backlin.

Backlin always got paid more than me. I said, oh, really? So this isn't a work. So it does matter if you win or lose. It does matter if you're the champion or not. Everybody goes, oh, it's a work. Well, it's really not at work. You know, it's about the money.

money and the mileage. And for me, you know, if you're a good guy, usually until the NWO came along, back in the day, if you're a good guy, your merchandise sold two to one over the bad guy's stuff. That's not a work to me. That's a shoot, brother. I'm making more money than you and I'm wrestling you. My t-shirt's selling twice as much as yours. Maybe it's a work to you, but not to me. You know, if my check's double yours. So I always looked at it that way. So And Vince Sr. fired me. And I came back years later. Why did he fire you for doing the Rocky movie? Oh, really?

Yeah, he just didn't want me to be an actor. So you had no support when you went to, you decided to do that? Like, did they try and stop you from doing that? Well, they just told me that if you go to the movie, you're going to be fired and never work here again. Why? Yeah. What was their logic? Just didn't want you. They just didn't want me. They had plans for me, you know. And they were trying to groom me and get me to fit into this pocket. They wanted me in, you know. And I just had different ideas.

I mean, I had a deal in Japan. I was more popular in Japan than I was here. And I got to actually wrestle over there. It wasn't like the ear stuff. You know, I get to actually get down and wrestle. And so when I was younger, that was fun. It sounds like you tried to get into a lot of different things, music. You played baseball.

And then you moved to Hollywood for a little bit, right? Well, no, bro. I just would do anything to avoid working a real job. Yeah. I just didn't dig working for people. What did Rocky 3 do for you as, like, getting into Hollywood and kind of becoming an actor? It kind of, like, it helped the wrestling more than it did the acting stuff because, you know, when I got on the screen, first of all, I was a big Rocky fan. Yeah.

So when I saw Rocky one and Rocky 2, I went, oh, my God, he's like 700 feet tall in the American public's eyes. He was like the biggest star-driven character I'd ever seen. You know, it's, oh, my God, I'd love to sweep the floor. floor and a rocking movie. Do you have to audition for that too? Yes and no. I was at least to shoot TV every three weeks in Allentown and Reading. And when I was there with then senior, Grilla Monsoon handed me a, the wrestlers always played ribs. They'd tie your shoelaces together, cut your pants up, or, you know, put locks all over your bag or do even worse stuff to you. So they were always giving me a hard time, you know, for some reason. And so all of a sudden,

when grill a monsoon came back and handed me a note very important call Sylvester Sloan about Rocky movie I went yeah right so I took off one to Japan for eight weeks you know I was only supposed to stay four weeks but I stayed eight I had a hot girl over there I was dating at the time yeah brother shoes fuck we want to go to like a Japan like a local in Japan well I went over there to shoot a video with a band called pink cloud you know I don't and I go there were a local band in Tokyo that was red hot and I did a couple albums in Japan. Okay. And you met a check there? Well, I needed some models. So there was a Ford modeling agency and there was the folio modeling agency. When I called the Ford modeling agency, I couldn't

understand the word the lady was saying. And when I called folio, this lady answered the phone that spoke perfect English. And she goes, well, I've got like a folder of my models. She goes, I can meet you for lunch in downtown Shinjuku if you want at the Lexington Queen as a party place. I said, okay, I'll meet you there tomorrow. So when we met, But it's like five foot, ten, gorgeous Japanese girl walked in. And she was built like some American supermodel. Oh, my God. And she put the book down.

She spoke perfect English, you know? And I just was like, okay, this could work. You know, so we started talking and started talking. And she had all the hookups for all the concerts and because of the modeling agency, you know, like if the Rolling Stones came for instance, she had backstage tickets. She had all the other gimmicks too that wrestlers liked to party with back in the day So you know

Her and I just messed real well You know So that's dope Yeah that's how I met her over there But I was over there actually doing some Some music and stuff at the time And Why do you think you had such a big fan base in Japan?

Well one of the reasons was You know back to the music stuff They just like we had Elvis Presley Yeah And they had that Gary Glitter guy I talked about in UK In Japan And they had a Japanese singer that bleached his hair out blonde and white like Rick Flares, right?

Yeah. So they knew my backstory because the guy that broke my leg was here on Matsuda. Oh, okay. Who was one of the really good shooters in Japan, like the UFC type shooter guys. Yeah, yeah. Even more than that, you know, the hooks, the breaking of the bones. That's what Matsudo's good at. So he's the one that broke my leg originally.

We became very close friends. And everybody in Japan knew I was broken in by Matsuda. So I had this mystique when I went over there that I was one of Matsuda's boys, you know. And so when I went there and went, oh, my gosh, he plays in a rock and roll band too. And they equated me to their singer, the guy with a bleached out here, the Japanese guy, who were the hell he was. So I started getting approached by, you know, different people in Japan to do music. Oh, wow.

So I did a couple bullshit albums over there that sold them. And you can get them on the internet, they suck. And so that's kind of how the whole thing rolled out. So when I went there, I was kind of freaked out because I had Fred Blassie with me. I don't know if you know who he is or not, but he used to be one of the managers in New York. And they had Fred Blassie and the Grand Wizard in Lou Albano back in the day. And Fred Blassie used to go to Japan back in the day and wrestled a mafia guy named Ricky Dozan. And so what Blassie would do, he had false teeth.

He had a set of teeth that he would eat with. Then he had a set of teeth that he would file on TV. and what he would do is he bite the Japanese guys in the head and suck their blood out of their head and then spit back in their faces fuck in the ring in the ring and tb suck the blood out of their head yeah how do you do that what where is this airing this is on tv sign japan bro and he's fucking biting into his head and sucking the blood out yeah but is the other guy aware of that oh yeah how do you agree to that you haven't seen tNA wrestling the last couple weeks they've been stapling people's mouths together then the guy takes pliers and pulls them out

Jesus Christ, you guys need to get with the program here, man. Well, I know your story. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, so anyway, I go over with Fred Blassie and he's a legend.

So now I'm broken in by Massouda. The Japanese people are equating me with this rock and roll hero simply because I play a little music. And now I'm over there with Fred Blassie, the legend. So I'm walking in. I'm totally hooked up.

I'm looking through the curtains the very first night. And I get a guy named Ricky Choshu. We just won two gold medals in the Olympics. And I'm watching the first and second match going, holy shit. I'm watching these guys wrestle for New Japan Pro Wrestling. I'm thinking, this is a sheep, bro.

These guys are out there going. I mean, it's not like what you see here. These guys are really pulling and tugging. And I looked out there, I get sick to my stomach, man, because I was like the fourth match. And I get this guy that's a gold medalist that I got to wrestle. I'll get Fred Blast. I go, oh my God, what am I going to do?

So I can't wrestle like that. Just go fucking knock him out. I went, what? Blastie, he goes, just knock him out. I said, are you kidding? Tread goes, yeah, just knock him out. I went, okay. So I got out there, and I got him real close to the ropes.

When I threw him off, I followed him in, I caught him right in the temple. Like an upper cup of my elbow. My career was made in Japan from that day forward. Holy shit, bro. Yeah. So, I mean, it's like, it's either that or get my ass handed to me. And in Japan, you got to just kind of do what you got to do, right? It's a different game over there, especially during the late 70s, bro.

People don't realize Japan now and this New Japan thing and the Bullet Club is cool. But you go over there in 77, 78. You better be ready. I feel like everything was just better back then. It was just more intense. It was more of a gut check. But just like the party scene, like every time we get to hear stories about the 70s or the 80s, it just sounds so dope. Yeah.

That's where everybody's dead. People were less. Was there ever anything? that they came to you they wanted you to do that you were like i can't do this one no but i did get um handed a bad deal one night and i got named john tenta you probably don't remember him he was in the w w as wrestled as as earthquake okay and he was part of the twin towers with gosh this is back the 80s if you guys weren't watching back then you wouldn't even know but anyway john tenta was from vancouver and he was like 460 pounds he was an ex-suming wrestler so when you

go in the dress room every night, the card would be written. And there would be, I could read Hogan in Japanese, of course. And then there would be a Japanese name next to you. I never knew who the hell I was wrestling. So I have to get Tiger Hortory or the bus driver, Agassaka to tell me who I was wrestling, because you never knew until you got there. And they had a new guy that just came in from the sumo business, wrestling business. And there was a guy in the great Kabuki, and he was in the dressing next door, and he just beat up the Booker because they wanted this kid

that was a few years younger than me that had trained in Sumo, and he was way over 400 pounds, to put me over, you know, predetermined in Japan, to put me over. And he said no. So him and the Booker got in a big fight, he beat up a couple wrestlers over there.

Okay, no, my turn now, I've got to get this guy. John Tenton goes, no. You're my champion, Hogan. I'll take care of this. I went, okay. Thank God. So he went out there. And the first thing that happened was that sumo wrestler was there then with Tenta,

who was an ex-sumor wrestler. And I was watching the first thing he did was try to hook his eye and pull his eye. Fuck, bro. And it pissed John Tenta off. And he just drugged that guy around like a rag doll. I was in the dressing room going, thank God that wasn't me. Damn, this is way more brutal. This is a different time, brother.

Okay, so, well, then let's transition into when, when you slammed Andre the Giant. Yeah. When were you, like, how did that come about and, like, were you told before, like, hey, you're going to, like, slam him? Were you confident? No, no, bro. It didn't work that way. The way we used to wrestle was the referee would come over and say, you're going to, you're going to beat me tonight. That'd be it.

See in the ring. That's how it worked, especially with Andre, you know. And I did kind of irritate him a little bit. You know, usually they would come over to me or Andre and say, okay, you're going to beat Hogan and I, or Hogan's going to get counted out. I'd never beat in a giant before. And there's no shame of getting beat by him because no one had ever beat me.

But, you know, Vince McMahon, I asked Vince, I said, whoa, you know, here we are the night before. What are we doing tomorrow? Vince goes, I don't know. But he goes, I'm sure Andre will do the right thing. I'm going, oh, great. Okay. So Vince wanted me to sit in the dressing room with Andre just to try to like make things cool, you know.

And so I get to the building at noon and I sat next to Andre and I watched him drink three-fifths of Crown Royal, okay? Three what? Three-fifths of Crown Royal. Three separate bottles, right? Yeah. I was sitting there at noon with him and he kept pouring me shots. And every time he wasn't looking at I'd dump that shit, man. Because if I drank with them, I wouldn't even be able to find my ass, much less the ring.

And so I sat there with him all day and his back was hurting him and he had some medication for his back. And he just came off a huge surgery over in the UK where they had to make the tools and they had to make the bed. And he was in really bad shape. He was hurt. And so because I was so nervous, I figured if we really screwed this up, this was WrestleMania 3 and everything was on the line. you know and we put a couple million bucks up to secure the building and everything Vince had was mortgaged and we already had the building we were a couple weeks in and the building the guy that ran the building called us and said you need to cancel the event because the Rolling Stones are there the week before you then you get WrestleMania then after that the Pope was here so the week before the stones did 88,000 the Pope did 84 so thank God we didn't cancel but when I was sitting in the back with the Andre, I was afraid that if WrestleMania sucked or the main event sucked, that would be it for the WWF or WWE, whatever you want to call it.

And so I sat next to Andre all day. Hey, boss, what do you want to do? Don't worry. Okay, I'm not worrying. Hey, boss, maybe later, me go up or me go down. Don't worry. Okay, man. Andre, what do you think?

Maybe we get things going in there and we get a little rhythm, maybe maybe one side. slam if you're going to beat me. Don't worry. Okay, I'm worried. So we go to the ring. I don't know the finish. I don't know shit. All I know is I need to keep him close to the ropes.

Because if in the middle of the ring, he can't stand up by himself about pulling himself up. So, you know, I got him in the ring and actually placement and maneuvering him around. If you're watching the match, I keep him close to the ropes. And then, um, and then there was, there was a spot in the match. where when we got going, I don't know what, I can't remember right now. I ran into him. I ran into him.

Something happened. He didn't go down. He stayed close the ropes. And I was backing off. He went, loom, in that voice, it was just the old slam. And he was just coming at me. You know, I tried earlier in the match, like 10 seconds in the match to pick him up. I fell backwards.

He almost broke my neck because he landed on top of me and didn't really protect me. You know, he squashed me. I barely got out from under him right in the very beginning. Oh, shit. He's not going for this today. So all of a sudden, when the match was almost over, he was slim. And I thought I heard what I heard. And as he came towards me, I took a step back and scooped him, but then got his momentum.

And I barely got him over. And then I went and I dropped the leg thinking that he was going to kick out and he didn't kick out. Did you fuck it? You fucked yourself up on that? Yeah. I tore my back. I got a hole in my back still for that shit. 620 pounds?

Yeah. Damn. What happened after that? was a huge moment well after that you know we went back to the dress room he was he was hurting pretty bad and uh you know him and i had become really good friends at that point where the last 10 or 12 years we were really really close before that we had some major issues but um at that point you know when i realized what he had done for me he just made my career there brother i mean that was like i was on a role anyway that was like hitting double nitrous button

for me yeah that just that was it you know and so shoot i was back there worried about him if he was hurt i was back there crying like the baby i was so upset you know that this whole thing had happened it was just like a major i mean if you were in my shoes and someone was to do that for you i mean it's just there's nobody around like him yeah i mean there's no there was never anybody around like this guy and if he wanted to beat your ass he could have done it nobody in this business or any business around that could have beat that man I don't do a shit, who you are. Is Vince, like, the type of guy to come back and be fired up with what just happened?

What do you mean? Like, is Vince coming back, like, yo, like, fired up? Like, can't believe that just happened. Oh, he was excited. He knew we pulled a rabbit out of the hat. It could have went the other way because Andre was hurt real bad. You know, I would always work my gimmick, my character. I could wrestle anybody.

I could wrestle Brett Hart. I could wrestle the one-man gang. I could wrestle Andre. I could wrestle Jake and Snake because I have a way of, maneuvering the character around with placement and timing and a cadence which it's an instinct it's something that you hear you know with your ear and you listen with your heart you listen to the crowd and nobody does it's an art form and nobody does anymore and for me to be in there with andre it was a one-dimensional big man match and with me being limited physically yeah because i'm

not the greatest technical wrestler as far as entertainment goes like in japan i was a much better a technical wrestler, because I could actually get on the ground and wrestle. We're here. They wanted me to stay up and be this hero. And it's hard being this character and being that limited. And then being in with a guy that's bigger than you, it's even more limited. So I hate to keep using the term, but there was a damn good chance we got to shit to bed that night and ruined everything.

But we took our time, cadence, timing, cadence, timing, one big blow. Let's go home. It worked. Wow. That's crazy. It's, it's, there's a lot more to it than what people, people understand, you know. I mean, the whole concept that was insane. Yeah, it was a little over the top.

And he's such a big guy and he's such a legend like that. Yeah, and he did me a huge favor. I can't even explain it to you in this room. Did he say anything to you after? Yeah. Yeah, he was cool, man. He goes, I always wanted to do that for you. You proved, you know, that you were a good person because he did not like me at all at first.

Why is that? I was stupid, man. I was just young. I was 340 pounds. or 45 pounds all jacked up on steroids and shit just thinking i could beat him yeah you know and i'd run at him wide open calm down boom he'd bitch slap the hell out of me you know i'd bring a girl to the arena he'd pick me up by my tights like a stork with my balls and ass hanging around carrying like a like a kid in diapers just teach me a lesson you know don't know more girls at ringside

you're showing off okay okay i get it i won't do it anymore why was that and that was a rule no but he knew had a girl at ringside, I'd do everything I could to trick him to get outside the ring so I could attack him in front of her and act like a badass. And he used to just piss him off. Damn, that could be a play though. Yeah, dude, it worked. It worked with the best match was after the match. Yeah, for sure. It worked. It worked. You're scoring for sure. But I would get my ass beat for doing that shit, you know. But I was young and stupid. I was, you know, crazy. And I wasn't afraid of him. You know, I thought, I actually thought I was so stupid up here. I thought I could beat him. Who was your biggest, like, personal beef with outside the ring outside the ring well was it was two guys it was macho man

and we he lived on the beach here we were together every single day and then when he went through a divorce he thought i had something to do with it and so that turned out to be like an eight year you know don't talk to each other thing which we finally became we finally got on the same page about six months before he passed away thank god and then And other than that, the only other person, I really had a, well, there's two guys. The only other person was Brett Hart, who thought I basically sabotaged his career because Brett thought he should have been the greatest wrestler that ever lived. And he said it was my fault.

Okay. And then the only other third guy is Scott Steiner, who I tried to help and no one would talk to him, everybody was scared to death of him. So I was the one that always had to go talk to him and say, Scott, we need you to do the job. Oh, fuck, hugging shit. I don't do the job. well, we want to keep figuring in. But if nobody wants to talk to you,

so I'm here to try to talk to you about business, but if you don't want to do it, that's okay. We'll get somebody else to do it, you know. And those three guys, I mean, I got nothing but love for those guys, but for some reason, they thought I kind of like sabotage their career. That just happens when you become as big as you were, right? I don't know, man.

It's just, it's just different, you know. Some guys see things differently. some guys, you know, like the Brett Hart thing, I really didn't understand because when he got pissed at me, you know, we basically, I won the belt from Yokazuna at a WrestleMania where Brett lost. And Brett told me to go in the ring and wrestling. And I won the belt right after Brett wrestling. And then the deal was for me to drop it back to Yoko Zuna. And then Brett got in my face, he was, you're supposed to drop the belt to me. I said, No, I'm not.

He goes, well, yeah, you are. So let's talk to Vince then. So we both went in and sat down and talked to Vince, and Vince looked at Brett and said, Brett, that's what you thought you heard. So ever since then, he hated my guts and wanted to kill me. Then when he, then when Eric Bischoff asked me if I could work with him at WCW, I said, hell yeah, bring you man, I can work with anybody. All of a sudden, we had about eight or nine great matches.

We got along great. We traveled together. We were eight or nine, ten good matches. and then WCW is over, he hated me again. I was like, okay, you know, whatever. But it's just stuff like that, you know. It's pretty crazy, like, with it's interesting. Everybody's, like, drinking or whatever, partying,

and then you have so much personality. How did Vince, like, keep everything together? He kind of grew into handling the situation. And, you know, I was, for a long time, I was kind of like the bad news bearer guy. Like, for instance, if I went to Philadelphia, and I was going to wrestle Paul Orndoff. Same situation, Paul Earnedoff, Mr. Wonderful.

And we had planned on coming back three times. Vince wanted me to beat him with the leg drop the very first time. It really didn't make sense. But as soon as Paul got beat, I was going to start posing. And when Paul started going down the aisle, he was going to do the slow burn and turn around, get my belt and clock me with the belt, beat the crap, and leave me laying in a pool of blood.

So we could come back the next time. Okay. even though I won the match, you left me laying, you beat my ass, so let's put it in a steel cage or a bull rope match or a lumberjack match. There's a bunch of ways to make things happen. So I'd go to Paul, and I'd say, Paul Vince wants to do this, drop the leg, beat,

you beat you one, two, three, come back, get the heat, hit me with the belt, boom, get some color, leave me fucking land, brother. We're going to come back and sell it out again. No, I'm not putting you over. What do you mean you're not putting me over? Well, I don't want to lose one, two, three, do. Okay, so I call Vince up, hey Vince.

Just talked to Mr. Wonderful. He says he doesn't want to do the job, one, two, three. Okay, well, then if you don't want to do the job, you figure it out. Great. You know, that's how it was in the beginning. Hyper wouldn't do a job. Orndorf wouldn't do a job. The reason macho man, Randy Savage was a champion so many times he'd do business.

If I said, brother, I need to beat you, you know, he would be there. And then here's the belt. You know, I'm going to go do a couple of movies. Here's the belt. I'm going to make a bunch of money when I come back. I knew he dropped the belt back to me. Yeah. But, you know, Vince didn't trust Piper or other guys who wouldn't do a job.

So in Piper's later years, we became really good friends. I used to tease him all the time. I said, you made some money. But if you had done a job for me, brother, you know how much more money you would have made for your family? He goes, oh, Hogan, you son of a bitch. You know, so I used to tease Roddy all the time because we did get really close the last five years. That's crazy that you're involved on like the business level like that. I didn't want to be, bro.

Where's all resters like that? No, it was just me because at first, when me and Vince first started this take over the world thing. If a guy didn't want to do a job, Vince didn't have that ironclad fist in the beginning. But he smartened up and realized, man, when I tell these guys something, they need to do it. You know, otherwise everybody's replaceable. When that happened, I'm going, thank God. You know, I don't have to be the bearer of bad news anymore. That's interesting as fuck.

It only lasted for a couple of years. When I first started back in 84, it was like the lunatics were running the asylum. Believe me, it was nuts for a while. But Vince got a handle on it pretty quick. What was the best way to, like, stand out and just get the biggest fan base and be loved by WWU, WWF? Everybody had their own way of trying to get over. I found out, you know, if you really want to get over, it's an old saying, you know, you do it first and then ask for permission later, to be forgiven later. Yeah.

Because when I first went back in 84, they sold no merchandise, none. And when I was in Minnesota for three years, I was selling T-shirts and headbands. I was selling all kind of merchandise, making crazy money. And when I went back in 84, they weren't selling any merchandise. And I was playing that eye of the tiger that don't, don't, done, on the way to the ring in Minnesota when I was with the AW&A, and the place was electric. And I went back to Madison Square Garden. And I said, hey, man, can I play some interest music? Bad mistake.

As Vincent Cedner, he said, no. So I ran to the sound guy. gave him 500 bucks and said crank this shit when I come out what I figured if I got fired I got fired no big deal he gave a shit anyway and so you know he cranked the music that eye the tiger shit hit and the roof blew off the garden and guess what everybody wanted entrance music out why would Vince senior say no to that because they'd never done it before bro it was old school respect garden boxing ding ding dang dang all right in this corner everything was mundane everything was by road everything was the way it always had been yeah You know, nobody were blasted music and blew the roof off the place. How was it before you had a walkout and stuff? What's that? Like, before you had a walk out in your song and your whole entrance, you guys just walked in? There was no music back in the day.

That's crazy. That sucked. It almost sounds like a no-brainer. That's what I thought. So then after that. Yeah, but it's easy to judge now. Yeah. You can sit here and judge now, but you guys weren't around back then.

You know, shit just didn't happen like, you know, snap your fingers and play iTunes and, you know, go to the internet or whatever. Shit was different. man it was a whole different train of respect and a line of respect that had been handed out for years and years and years Vince McMahon's family Vince McMahon senior his father and grandfather ran boxing in the garden so there was a whole trainer respect of that lineage you know so it's it's hard to explain yeah and that kind of makes sense though what what was your relationship like with Vince throughout the years was there any ups and downs Vince there's a love-hate relationship you know he thought he knew best i thought i knew this so there's always a tug of war with me

and him but you know we seemed to click and make it work anything you could like specific things you could talk about disagreements movies you know um i thought things like taking a month off and doing a kid's movie or doing a right guard commercial or doing the cover of sports illustrated or doing a Super Bowl commercial would make me a bigger star. Which I think it would, no? I thought so. At the time, Vince disagreed.

So I went and did it anyway. Was that like part of your deal you couldn't do outside promo shit? Not really. You know, I was like, I kind of, bro, I did the best I could, man. But there's some things you just know you've got to do. Yeah.

And you can feel what's right. And, you know, if you didn't do it, you know, like I didn't do the cover of Sports Illustrator, if I didn't do Rocky 3, it'll haunt me my whole life. Yeah. You know, it's not like I haven't been fired before either. Right, Darren?

I've been fired a few times. How many times have you been fired? Oh, God, I don't know, bro. I've quit three or four times, been fired three or four times. But they always let you come back. Well, yeah, eventually, you know, something will come up and say we need to get the old man with yellow boots back. Yeah.

That's cool. I saw the Vince, I think you may have said this or someone said that. He worked like 24-7. Oh, he's brutal. There was times after a fight, it'd be 1 a.m. You guys would have a post-production meeting, and then after that, he'd be like, okay, now we have to go out. Or to go to the gym at 3 in the morning for a couple hours.

And just get a pump in? Yeah, he's brutal. I didn't like to travel with him because he had an extended G4 or G5, whatever the hell it was. His jet? Yeah. He says, well, just come up to Monday Night Raw with me, and then we'll go back to Connecticut. You know, and then I get on the plane, and next thing, I know I was headed to Japan and the day after that I was heading down to San Diego and I was going to Connecticut

and I thought I was going to be able to come home. No, no, I need you to fly to Seattle with me. So I'd call my wife up, which I can't remember which one it was, but I call one of them up. And I would say, you know, I was supposed to be gone a day, but you know, no, I'm sorry. I've been gone 17 or 18 days. I'll get home as soon as I can. But I called it the slave ship because once you get on there, he wouldn't let you go home, you know. Did you ever call him out and be like, yeah. I told him and said, bro, I got to go home. What would he say? to that. Oh, just come one more day.

Come to the office. We need to book tomorrow. Then we go to shoot a T&T show. I'm like, oh, man, you know. So I actually did have a house in Connecticut. I finally sold it just to get away from working so much. Yeah. What was it like with how big was the female fan presence and like, would you guys,

would they be at the fight or you would just see them after the fight? The, you know, the female fan presence was like, you know, it was just like the girls that were with the guys or the men like wrestling. It wasn't like a, I don't remember like a huge female fan base. I noticed the difference once I started shooting a reality show, whenever that was in the 90s. And when I started shooting a reality show with my family and they saw I was a father, a husband, a dad, you know, and that, you know, bills to pay, take the kids to school, cook breakfast in the morning for the kids. I noticed I developed a huge female fan base after that, you know, when I went back to wrestling on WCW. but in the early days it wasn't that predominant you know yeah well after i'm assuming the japanese

lady didn't work out no brother she didn't you know that lasted for uh three or four years and then you know i ran into somebody in california that i was hanging with and when i broke the news to the japanese lady she didn't take it very well and i actually left japan and was uh in california with this other girl for a while. And then when I flew back home to Tampa, my parents were still alive. And when I walked in the house, that Japanese girl was at my house.

Oh, what? Oh, yeah. No. How? She flew from Japan, and she's sitting at the dinner table in front of my mother and father. She's crying when I walked in.

That's like a fucking movie, bro. It's horrible. Wait, crying. So she's crying to your parents? How did she know where she did? I tell my parents what I did. And so I had a nephew.

Did you guys watch the NW at all? No. No, we know you're part of that league. Yeah. The NWA league? The NW. You guys didn't watch that shit either. How old are you, man? 28.

Damn. 28, yeah. Damn. You guys missed all the good shit. Anyway, my nephew Horace, my brother who passed away, his son, Michael Bolia. I named him Horace Hogan. He wrestled in Japan. And there's a company called FMW, which if you guys think the staple stuff is gross,

you don't need to look that stuff up. There was a company called FMW he worked for. And he was all gaffed up and scarred up. from working for that company, but I brought him in, the NWO when I was working for Ted Turner. When I walked in, I saw that Japanese growing my mother's house. My dad, I about fainted, especially with the look my dad gave me. And I called Horace, I said, get your ass over here and get her out of here. So I had Horace come right over.

We lived a couple blocks from my parents. I was sneak grabbed her and I never saw her again. And you pulled up with your new girlfriend? No, I was by myself, thank God. She was in California. I flew home to see my parents. Dude, that's like a scary sight. How did she know where you lived?

I don't know. These wrestling girls know everything about you, man. When you walked in, did any part of you debate like, okay, maybe I need to smash one more time or no? No. Okay. No, when I walked in, I was scared to death, man. I was like, what in the F is she doing here? That would have been some crazy sex.

Because it's such a different world. Oh, yeah. It's such a different world in Tokyo, Japan. You never dreamed the girl even dating in Tokyo, Japan's going to end up talking to your parents who live in Tampa, Florida. dude that's freak me right out scary as fuck so what was some of the scariest things you saw on the NWO

like malicious nothing malicious nothing you said like the stapling thing like oh no no no no no I mean I mean I thought you guys would have watched more wrestling than you have you know I just didn't know

what your backgrounds were how old you were so I thought as I'm talking about WrestleMania 3 in NW I thought you guys knew what the hell I was talking about yeah no we know that WrestleMania 3, of course, yeah. Kind of, kind of, kind of, yeah. Okay, so I was just trying to...

No, but I'm just saying, like, you said you've seen some violent things, just in the wrestling world. Yeah, I mean... What's some of the most gruesome things you think you saw? Well, some of the craziest stuff I've seen is the hell on the cell stuff with Mick Foley, which everybody's seen, you know, and, you know, see him, you know, go through the top of the cage and his tooth, teeth come out through his top lip into his nose

and stuff like that, you know. It's pretty amazing. What do you think about like the Jake, the snake biting Randy Savage? That was strong. You know, I was there for that. Jake did let the snake bite him first. Yeah, can you tell us that whole story? Well, we're shooting an angle, you know, and it wasn't my angle.

So I wasn't privy to all the ends and out, it's Randy. And Jake kept it kind of close to the hip, you know, with Vince's blessings. But all I knew was from, you know, because I was in the dress room, I was watching what they were up to over in the other corner. From what I knew was Randy was the real adamant about the snake being devoninized, brother. You know, you sure that snake doesn't have poison? So Jake goes, I'll let it bite me first. So it bit Jake first.

And the snake, you know, got pulled away real easy. But in the ring, I don't know if Jake shook him up or slapped the snake around. I don't know why the snake was so aggressive. But when that python, you know, latched on to Randy's forearm, I was sitting to grow up this position with Vince where we were at the headsets and we watch all the monitors and talk to the referees

and talk to the cameramen to make sure they don't miss shots and stuff. And so Vince was going, get that snake off us. Holy shit. And they were pulling and tugging that snake and I think would not let go.

Yeah, shit. Randy was violently sick for three days after that. Does Randy react like he's pissed off at Vince after that? Like, how do you let it happen? No, no, it was Randy's idea to do the shit. Wow. you know but randy was really sick for three days whatever was in that snake's mouth the bacteria or whatever it was getting really sick fucking crazy that is fucked yeah so recently you've

been getting to a lot of health stuff are you launching like your own health and wellness line now yeah man um i got a bunch of buddies you know that are pound of the pavement Tyson and flair who you guys have talked to and with karma and with chad and these whole group of bandoleros you know, I kind of was going down that road anyway. I was kind of like backing away from what I was doing my whole life. And it was just a situation with just the pain in my body and inflammation. I mean, really, my wrists would swell up and my fingers and my hands. I was being that old school wrestler, you know, and having so many surgeries over so many years, you know, everything has been cut on basically.

And I'm just full of metal. the pain in my body was crazy. And what the doctors do is they prescribe you pain pills all the time. So once you start eating the darn things, you know, my thing was I was going in for like surgeries every four to six months for the last 10 or 12 years. So I never got a break from all the anesthesia and trying to figure out my, what my body was shutting down on me. So in order to, you know, back away from this fog and this, this days I was in.

after all these surgeries, I started trying to wind down from things. And, you know, the first thing I did was I got off the pain pills after years of being on them and backed into the Tylenol, Advil, a leave situation, which looking at it now, I was abusing that because to get off the pain pills and stuff like that, I would take three or four Tylenols twice a day when you're only supposed to take two a day. And I was drinking these five-hour energies with it. know just trying to get that that buzz to feel good and keep going and that was nowhere and so as soon as i quit drinking alcohol i said okay if i can do that i'm shutting everything else down you know and i

kind of like backed away from the tile and all and you leave and the ad bill stuff so it got to a point where i really didn't need any of that stuff anymore you know it was either all or none with me i'm either all the way in or all the way out so i said if i'm going to clean my house act up, you know, I want to get really healthy. So then, you know, at Rick Flair's birthday party, I met Chad. Rick had been telling me what he was into and how it was making him feel when he was backing away from whatever sleeping pills or stuff we needed to eat. And he was telling me about the CDB stuff for sleep and for energy and for an overall wellness of inflammation. And the moment I started trying the products, he's all natural. It's almost like a holistic change

in my life. Instantly, everything started going down. You know, know, the, um, with no alcohol and no pain pills, no time on all, so nothing. Instantly, my wrist felt better. I mean, within like a week, you know, I could tell a huge change. Um, I could sleep through longer periods of time at night, you know, I wasn't, I was dropping weight getting in shape really fast because I always trained, trained hard, but the alcohol was extra calories and it kept me bloated and stuff. As soon as I cleaned my act up diet wise and cleaned up myself nutrition wise and

cloned up myself medically instead of using these prescription drugs, started using the CBD products. It completely backed me out of this like hamster wheel of not progressing to the point now where almost seven years old, I feel like if I didn't have so many surgeries, I could actually wrestle again. I'm starting to feel that good. My workouts are getting crazy. I'm down and weight. I'm like 265. I've weighed like 300 pounds my whole life. You know, I'm down 200. 65 pounds i feel great i'm still strong as hell in the gym and it's 70 years old it's not supposed to be that way you know yeah and like if i take my shirt off on the beach you know i'm with my girl i look as good as most 30 or 35 year old guys standing around you know because i've trained all my life

and you know i'm more defined than i was and i just think once i backed away and the cdb products i kicked in i just felt smoother i just felt more of a flow i felt healthy you know and I don't have any desire to take to Tylenol or Advil or any of that crap because the CDB kind of like naturally took the place of any of those I guess go against the grain bad stuff I was taking so I'm way in now I'm all the way in that's awesome you guys know when you're launching any of that stuff or eight weeks wow so that's going to be your own line of CBD stuff yes sir let's go all over those yeah we got to try that Eight weeks.

Let's try it out. Let's do it. Look you guys. We tried some functional mushrooms this morning. We tried it this morning. We tried an energy drink. Oh, wow. How crazy.

Let's give us something with you and Rick, like crazy party story. Me and Rick. You guys, I mean, you guys are in the same area now. Jeez. You're killing me, man. I shouldn't be talking out of school. Short story. Dayton, Ohio.

Hooters. Oh, fuck. Me and Flair. A couple hooters. girls want to party let's go back to your room Hogan you get the bigger room I'm in let's rock hell yeah short night long night for it gets so trunk he hit his Rolex couldn't find it about the girls are gonna steal it and uh oh it's just another night you know yeah nothing special was the how important was the party culture though

like with wrestling it was a bond to it bro it's like you know it brought everybody together yeah and it was before everybody was suing everybody and no phones we were talking about that like there's no phones for people to fucking catch you doing shit or like get you in trouble no back in the day there were no camera phones i remember the first time i heard i heard that yeah that sound i was standing in pittsburg and you know usually i was i was always last and so i'm real slow because once i would wrestle i would just sweat more than anybody i'd sit there and drink a couple beers. I still had my crap on or if I'd be sitting there naked after I took it off. I'd drink a couple beers. And the guy would wrestle would already have a

shower and be ready to go. I said, brother, go ahead and go. Don't wait for me. Then I got to the point one time, you know, I didn't have to get up early. I sat in a dress room and drank a couple beers. I was such good friends with the security guards in Pittsburgh at the civic arena. I said, you guys can leave too. I'm cool. So I'm sitting in the dress room by myself, drink a couple beers, walk over the shower naked, turn on the shower and I hear, I turn around a look and there was some guy with one of those flip phones

taking pictures of me what the fuck making it in the shower and I knew from that day forward life had changed you know that's fucking wild so that's the first time

I remember the camera phones you know yeah it's crazy we've seen some photos of Rick today it looks like the guy's having a good fucking time we'll tell you that you might have to go join him soon right yeah what do you go out

are you coming out with us tonight no bro I'm cool you guys tear it up wherever you're going I've been what if Rick comes I don't know, man. I don't know. Where are you guys going? I don't know.

American Social? Oh, God. That's his mainstay. Your place? We're going to your bar. Shoot. I don't know, man. I don't know.

All right, man. Well, thank you so much for coming on. Yeah, we appreciate it, bro. It's nice to just... Wait, real quick. Do you think you could slam him or no? Right now? Right now?

No. I'm on the head, Abby. He's half the way to Andre. Yeah, I can get him. Let's go. Awesome, bro. This is amazing. Thank you so much.

Thank you guys in time. Legend. Oh, Cogan. Thanks, man. That was fire. Yeah.