PBD Podcast - “Gun To My Head” – Hulk Hogan UNCENSORED: Trump, Vince McMahon & WWE Untold Stories! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 492

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Patrick Bet-David sits down with iconic wrestler Hulk Hogan to discuss his legendary career, his close friendship with Donald Trump, Vince McMahon, and untold stories of fame, family, and wrestling's golden era. — 🍺 PURCHASE HULK HOGAN'S "REAL AMERICAN BEER": https://bit.ly/3Yxsjui 👕 TEAM USA GEAR AT VTMERCH.COM: https://bit.ly/40gZun5 🧢 BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE - FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT HATS: ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yyc3ZS⁠ 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3XC5ftN⁠⁠ 👕 PURCHASE THE NEW VT POLO SHIRTS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3Y4Npig⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎟️ ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA @ VT HQ: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3XPbyt0⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📰 VTNEWS.AI: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3Zn2Moj⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 👕 VT "2024 ELECTION COLLECTION": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3XD7Bsm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🇺🇸 VT USA COLLECTION: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/47zLCWO⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3ze3RUM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/47iOGGx⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4e0FgCe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3MGK5EE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📕 CHOOSE YOUR ENEMIES WISELY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3XnEpo0⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4d5nYlU⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3XC8L7k⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3XjSSRK⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pbdpodcast/support

I don't really share the story with anybody, but I'm gonna tell you. When would you say the peak of fame was for Hulk Hogan? MTV jumped all over it. We had Liberace, Muhammad Ali, every celebrity you could see. And then that night when I came to the building and put a gun to my head, it was a mob mentality. Get out of here. My mother got my money for me.

What year is this? And the more evil and the horrible stuff I did, the more people cheered me. What a dirty creative play. I was tough like a man, but I wasn't being one. What do people not know about fame? Shera sent her limo for us downstairs. She wants to come over and have dinner with me. What?

Shera? Vincent and I have talked. If his father knew what we were up to, he'd roll over in his grave. What was your first interaction with Trump? He's the same guy now that he was back then. He hasn't changed a bit. We even used him in the ring. My chest was against his chest.

And when he took that last breath, I went, ah! Ah! I jumped back. I felt something come out of his body. This is much more important than business. Wow. No, this is a spiritual revolution So look, there's a lot of famous people in the world, there's a lot of people that have a lot of following, there's a lot of people who made a lot of money, celebrities, athletes, but

when it comes down to the word icon, when you think the word icon, you think Michael Jackson, you think Michael Jordan, you think Tiger Woods, you think Lenin, Beatles, you think Marilyn Monroe, you think Elvis, you think when somebody comes to town, they shut the place down. There are certain people you can use that name with. My guest today is in the community of icons. It's the one and only Hulk Hogan. It's great to have you here today.

It was very kind of you to say that. Well, you are an icon. Very cool. Thank you. Yes, it's, you know, there's certain people when you think about, and by the way, we were talking about this pre, we're like, hey, who would you put in the icon category? We're trying to come up with all this. I'm like, hey, who would you put in the icon category? We're trying to come up with all this I'm like man this guy this is in that category So going back to it, I've had just been around for so long

I don't know I wrestled for 40 years and I was in every single foreign country all around the world every weekend So they're just familiar with me. I think that's why but but look, I mean I lived in Iran. Okay from 78 to 89 But but look, I mean I lived in Iran, okay from 78 to 89 And I remember when Rocky 3 came out. Yeah, right and I watched you pick him up It's like this is just a regular match We're doing it for entertainment and you throw them over and then what was your name in it Thunder lips? Who gave that name by the way? I mean that now was in the script the ultimate male Thunder lips Did you ever go up to sly and like hey, can we not change this name by the way? I mean that name. That was in the script, the ultimate male thunder lips. Did you ever go up to Sly and like, hey, can we not change this name to something else?

Oh, I like the name. Oh, you like the name? I was like 28, 29 years old at the time, so I thought it was cool. That was sick. That's the image, right, that we saw. And he rocks. Just so you know, I watched this movie,

you speaking in Farsi, okay, because we didn't watch it in English. That's how big of a name you had built where worldwide people knew who Hulk Hogan was. In that picture, and of course everyone here understands, I was standing on a half apple box, a very small apple box, three inches, but at that time I was six foot seven and I weighed 330 pounds and I had a 34 inch waist, very young at the time. But after 10 back surgeries, two hip replacements,

two knees, right before my mother passed away, she was blind, she goes, Terry, I wanna measure you again. And she'd measure me, I was six four, and that's what I am now, but back then I was six seven. So. Wow. So you lost three inches. Yeah, no one told me that stuff was fake.

Wow. It was, by the way, let me ask you, when I see personality-wise with you, if we were in high school together, 10th grade, who was Hulk Hogan in 10th grade? Oh my gosh, a very fat kid that was afraid to take his shirt off. And even, because I lived in Clearwater, Florida, went to school at Robinson High School,

University of South Florida, and I was really fat and overweight in high school and really never had a girlfriend until like my senior year. And when all the kids- Is that really you? Yes. There's no way that's you. That's me.

And when all the kids, well, maybe I wasn't that fat, but I was fat for the kids that were in shape around me. I wouldn't take my shirt off when we go to the beach. And so I kind of like, it was weird. So that's why I started working out and training. Who in your high school ended up being the most famous outside of you? Like who else?

Was there anybody that came out of your high school that did well in life that? Well, at the end of the day, wrestling used to be very territorial. Like Florida wrestling, Georgia, New York, Louisiana, California, different wrestling excuse me, different wrestling areas. And two of the guys were in my high school were a year ahead of me. And one of the kids, his dad was promoter.

Mike Graham's father, Eddie Graham was a promoter. So between Mike Graham and Steve Kern, that were two years ahead of me, they became kind of like famous Florida wrestlers. Yes, that's it. I was pulling that stuff up. Yes, that's it. I was pulling that stuff up so fast. That's amazing. But they became Florida wrestlers.

And then after that, when I got into the business, they really didn't want me in the business at first. You know, I didn't know actually when I went down to work out, they broke my leg the first day. They exercised me until I was going to faint. They put their elbow on my shin, posted my toe, pulled my toe. Accidentally or intentionally? No, intentionally.

And they said, don't ever come back again. So I mean, once I got in, I became the most famous person out of that high school. Would anybody have guessed it? Oh, no, no, no. Were you also shy or no? Kinda, yeah. But I was playing music, I was playing in a rock and roll band. Got it.

I kinda like what we call heat. I had heat with all the athletes because in high school I had two brand new cars. You know, and I was living in a place called the Islands Club at Davis Island. It was a real expensive hotel and I was playing in a show band there. And so I had like heat in high school because I would play in the clubs till 2-3 o'clock in the

morning I'd still be at home room at 8 a.m. but I'd come driving up in my brand new car and so you were 16 17 years old? I started playing at Allen's Club when I was 17 and my father kicked me out of the house when I was 17. Now did your parents make good money? No, no they didn't. My mom was a housewife, my dad was a pipe fitter. He did all the storm drains like around the big malls, the big six foot pipe, and he was real good with math. I just remember he'd have a little notepad and he would do trigonometry on this little pad. No computers back then, of course, back in the day. And he would bend pipes and get everything synced up perfectly for all the storm drains

and all the stuff. He had to know trigonometry and a lot of stuff to be really good at it. But housewife, construction worker, didn't realize where I was on the economic tree as far as where we're at. Had a great life, but didn't understand that we weren't very well off.

So my thing was to get out of that cycle and make something of myself. Was there fire? Was it like, if I was hanging out with you and let you say we're going to, I'm one of your best friends at 17, 18 years old, and we used to go to Denny's and we used to dream, like, hey, one day I'm so sick of this shit,

would your friends hear you one day, I'm gonna be, or no, was it more you? Well for me, I was, and this sounds terrible, but I was doing anything to avoid working a real job. And you know, back then when I was playing music in 1972, three, four, during the 70s, if you're making $300, $400 a week, that was a lot of money.

Especially for a kid in high school. So once I got a taste of making money, all my friends that were working normal jobs like McDonald's or construction making two dollars and 50 cents an hour. Not for me. I'm going to keep playing music. I kind of like transitioned into wrestling because the whole time I played music around the area, whenever I'd be home, because we traveled a lot, the local wrestlers would come in and I was scared to death of them.

Oh my gosh, these guys will kill you. Collar, ears, broken noses, teeth knocked out all over 300 pounds. Back when wrestlers looked like big monsters, you know? So I transitioned into that. And when I say anything to avoid working a real job, I just wanted to not live the way I grew up You know when I realized

The way the rest of the world was I didn't want to be in that side Was it purely that or was we would you consider yourself a big-time ambitious competitive kid? That you had a chip on your shoulder wanted to know no wasn't that at all It was just wanting to to do well in life. Got it. So you never worked at McDonald's in the past? Because I know some people want to say they worked at McDonald's.

You're not making that claim. Oh, you're not going there, are you? No, I just wondered because you said McDonald's. I'm like, listen, I just want to verify that we're not going to get stories of things. When did I say McDonald's? You said your friends used to work at McDonald's. Oh, oh, yeah.

You said you don't want to be that guy. No, no. You're being honest about it, and I appreciate it because nowadays it's popular to say you work at McDonald's in the past. But okay, so from there, in high school, did you get a lot of fistfights? Like were you... No, never. Okay.

I was a great bluffer. You were a great bluffer? Yeah, when things pushed, came to shove, I was like a big, heavy set kid and I would bluff my way out. And they wouldn't want to fight you afterwards? No. Okay. Were you 6'7 in school? Like were you the big kid on campus? No, no, but right now I've always when I wrestled I was always over 300 pounds right now I weighed 265 and the last time I was this weight I was in ninth grade when I weighed 265 that picture

That you showed earlier. I had lost a bunch of weight because I got a girlfriend and I dropped a bunch of weight you know before I ran into her. Did you lose the weight because of the extracurricular activities or you lost the weight to look good for your girlfriend? I lost weight because I was really attracted to this one girl and she wouldn't give me the time of day and took me about two years to lose the weight, but then I found a different girl that liked me. So I was motivated by the opposite sex. Very cool. Were you good with the ladies in high school or no?

No. Okay, so that came later on with the skillset or? No, I'm still not good with them. I'm not real good with relationships, but this new marriage I have, my wife is a a believer of my Lord and Savior so we are right on track and perfectly set. Very cool very cool so now wrestling the first time when you're like I can possibly do this

and make some money at it and working out is that kind of after high school where you're starting to hit the weights and you're putting the physique together maybe I'm gonna go wrestling how did that happen? Well, in Florida, back in the day, there was a real popular wrestler named Dusty Rhodes, the American dream. And I became a huge fan of his. And when we were in high school, you know, we could kind of like arrange our schedule when you're a senior. And I had shop class and then phys ed and then study hall all together.

So shop class, we would start horse playing around. That would lead into the phys ed class and then study class if we stayed for study hall or whatever that was, if we stayed for that. And we would wrestle and act like the wrestlers and throw each other around into boxes and do all this stuff. But I was a huge wrestling fan of Dusty Rhodes, never dreaming that I would have the opportunity to get in the wrestling business. But I was such a fan, you know, it kind of just led me in that direction. Very cool. And how old were you the first time you met him?

Dusty Rhodes? Yeah. Oh my gosh, I used to, they used to go to a bar, there was a, there's two streets in Tampa called Kennedy Boulevard in Armenia and on the corner of Armenia Armenia Avenue. Yeah, literally Armenia. Armenia. Yeah, why would they call a street in Tampa? Armenia, you could pull it up. He's really good right here. Is that it? Is that Armenia Avenue was called the Imperial Room? Can you turn it around you can just spin it and just kind of show it if you keep going like that keep going. I don't know that doesn't look anything like what I used to say. Well that was a long time ago. Maybe that was it. Yeah, I would go there and I'd sit in the corner and you know even when I was underage

I'd sneak in the bar and watch the bad guys on one side of the room, the good guys on the other side of the room, and Dusty Rose, the American dream baby. He was in there and he was holding court, so I was just a huge side of the room with Dusty Rose, the American dream, baby. He was in there and he was holding court, so I was just a huge fan. Very cool. So did you get a chance to watch Vince McMahon's documentary, Mr. McMahon? Yes.

Have you seen all six episodes like you? Yes, I have. Okay, first of all, two friends of mine, Matt and Sheena Sopala, call me, and they say, you have to watch this documentary. And I think it's Steve Avetti and calls me and says you gotta watch the documentary. So like listen, it's six of them, six hours,

I don't know if I'm really gonna watch it. So Saturday night I start, kids are asleep, wife's asleep. I said I'll watch it on Netflix at 1.5. At 10 o'clock I watched the first episode. I wake up at six o'clock in the morning to make sure I finish all the episodes. I was hooked, I was hooked. And when I watched it, but when I was hooked. I was hooked when I watched it.

But when I was done, like, you know, a lot of, well, you know, let me tell you the real thing behind Vince McMahon, he's a this, he's a bad guy, he's this, I don't know about you, but when I watch it, I mean, you're in it, so you're watching it from a different perspective than I would watch it. The documentary made me like him more.

You know, did you get that feeling as well when you watched the documentary made me like him more. You know, did you get that feeling as well when you watch the documentary? Well, I know him very well, right? Very, very, very well. And actually I worked for his father first and I worked for his father in New York. Oh my gosh, between 78 and 80. And then I got fired by his father for doing the Rocky movie. Because when I told him I was gonna do the movie, he goes, well, Terry, you know, my first name of course,

you're a wrestler, not an actor. And you're supposed to, I was in Fall River, Massachusetts, and I wrestled the main event that night and get out of the ring about 11 o'clock. And I got a call from Vince McMahon Sr. said you have to be in Charlotte, North Carolina at noon, so I would have to drive all night to get to Charlotte, North Carolina,

because he was lending me to another promoter there, and I was supposed to be on Charlotte TV at noon. I said, Mr. McMahon, I already told you I'm going to the Rock, going out to LA to film the Rocky moves, Sylvester Slung. He goes, if you do that, you're fired and you'll never work here again. And I went, OK, fine. So I flew out to LA and did the movie.

But that's kind of like how this whole thing progressed and move forward by, you know, going in that direction. But yeah, I worked for VINCENIOR first, but then after I was fired for my gosh, about three years, I worked for Vince senior first, but then after I was fired for my gosh, about three years, I went to stay, spent a lot of time in Japan, spent half my career in Japan wrestling over there. And I went to Minnesota and started wrestling in Minnesota. We started this huge

promotion and we were getting ready to come in and take over the whole East Coast. We bought time on Channel nine in New York and all up and down the East Coast. And right before I came in with my crew, Vince McMahon approached me, Vince Jr., who you know now in the documentary, about me coming back and he had this master plan. And he goes, I need you to fly to Connecticut, Greenwich and meet me. I said, no, I'm not flying there.

If you want to talk to me, come to Minneapolis. So he flew in who's bigger at this time fame And you know fame wise That people knows and more you or or Vince I was I had started the Hulk mania thing in Minnesota Got it. And I had crazy momentum and if you look back on some of my a-w-a matches in Minnesota and see see how the Crowd would react when I play that eye of the tiger music that daunt daunt daunt and I come out the place would go crazy Vince came to me he goes I've got this idea I want to take over the whole world

not just a regional promotion which New York promotion was New York, Massachusetts and in part of Pennsylvania I want to take over everybody's territory and cross all these imaginary lines and go places no one's ever gone before. So I went, but he goes, I need to do it with you. And you saw the documentary. I said, okay, so Vince McMahon stayed in Greenwich, Connecticut, what I call the Eiffel Tower of the WWE offices.

And I went out to all these different places I shouldn't go to. Like Kansas City where Harley raised his ex Marine was the NWA world's champion. And when I showed up, he tried to burn the ring down at 12 in the afternoon. And then that night when I came to the building, put a gun to my head. And I went through all these different places between South Africa. He put a gun to your head, Harley raised. Harley, yeah. And he told everybody he's

gonna shoot my knees out. Why is that? He was worried that you made... He was, I was the champion from the WWF but for 17 years he lived in Kansas City and there was a whole other organization called the NWA National Wrestling Alliance and he was the champion there and the NWA actually had more respect than any other title and for 17 years, Harley Racing, the champion, all of a sudden this blonde-haired idiot is on TV going, I'm the real champion from New York. I came into his hometown where he lived and disrespected him. Was he a tough guy? Oh yeah. Was he a gangster? Was he a street guy? No, he was a street fighter plus he was just a tough, tough old ex-Marine. I really didn't want any part of that but you know once he threatened me with

a gun and stuff two seconds later he stuck his hand and goes I really need a job and I said you got one bro. I shook his hand and him and I went around and wrestled everywhere after that. How did that happen? So I got a gun pointing at you. Yeah. Two seconds later I need a gun. He just put the gun down he He goes, I really need a job because we were coming in and taking over. Now are you making money at that time or not yet? Oh yeah. I was making money. Are you making a million? Are you making a? Oh yeah. Okay. So you're financially everyone knows on the market you're making money. And they knew if they went to where I went these these wrestlers that

were making like a thousand dollars a week all of a sudden we'd be making ten or fifteen or twenty grand a week. So let me ask you are you the one that's going out there recruiting other talent for mince? No I didn't do that. We'd pump our signal into like Los Angeles California for four weeks and once we saturated marketplace then I would show up and do a show. We'd pump our signal in Toronto Canada for four or five weeks and I'd come in and sell the Sky Dome or, you know, make the Leaf Gardens. So Vince stayed in the office and I went to these places where nobody was supposed to cross these lines as far as respect goes. And I would have

promoters and other wrestlers and everybody else either wanted to beat me up, kill me or something. But sooner or later we won everybody over and I was young enough and crazy enough to do that back then Was it like you know how mr. Olympia the bodybuilding world? I'm sure you follow mr. Olympia as well because it's very similar to mr. Olympia back in the 70s 80s had a little bit of a mob esque type of a feeling where hair you better put this here You're gonna pay me this and you're gonna do this and you better not go this guy, and mania this, and all these guys were small mobsters, gangsters, maybe not affiliated, but they were tough guys. You just didn't wanna mess with them, right?

Was there that feeling with how wrestling was in the 80s? Yes, there was. It was very different. I just remember I went to Budapest, Swana, South Africa, a wrestler guy named Terry Funk, you know, and after the matches, you know, they paid us in cash, a whole bunch of cash, and he was leaving the next day. And as I was in the Mercedes, I had three guys in the car, they're clicking their guns and pointing them at me.

And, and they were driving me from Budapest, Swann to Cape town. And as I'm riding in this car, they're pointing the guns at me, screwing around. And they said, you know, you were really overpaid. You only wrestled like 15 minutes. I said, you know what, guys, I really don't need the money here. Take the money. And I get out of the car, first thing I did was

I called the hotel and I told Terry Funk, don't try to get your money from the casino because you may not make it to Cape Town. So I went home and I told my mother, I called my mom and said, mom, they robbed me, mommy. And my mother went to the embassy in Tampa and got my money for me. Get out of here. My mother got my money for me. What year is this? Like mid 80s or early 80s?

This is post-Rocky. It had to be. No, no, no, this was after Rocky. Right. Because when I went to Budapest, I mean, it was Sun City is where we wrestled, but they had girls come out and they, so it was after Rocky and it was before I went back to work for Vince Jr. I was during the time in Minnesota. Wow.

And so I actually called my mother up like a crybaby and my mother went and got the money for me So it's just kind of funny now. Did she call vince? And say hey, you better go get this money for my son or she called the embassy. No, I wasn't working for vince Okay, got it. She went somehow or another the embassy or whatever she did. I really didn't ask her but she got the money Your mom's got a strong personality if she's she did a great job. Well, she's panamanian. So she's kind of like respect Yeah respect and i've been to panama. It's a beautiful place there. So now at this point, you're on the road, you're going... By the way, the difference between Vince McMahon, Jr. and Sr., what was their different approach one-on-one with you behind closed doors? Like,

was Vince selling the vision and was the father the tough guy that you feared? What was the difference between the two? Well, you know, Vince and I have talked and we've said several times, if his father knew what we were up to, he'd roll over in his grave. Because Vince Senior was very respectful of those relationships. Like his main attraction at the time was Andre the Giant.

And he would send Andre the Giant to Louisiana for a week. And Andre would wrestle all the guys and then they'd have the big blow off with the battle royal with 30 guys in the ring. And then he'd send Andre to Georgia for a week and Andre would wrestle all the guys and then they'd have the big blow-off with the battle royal with 30 Guys in the ring and then he'd send Andre to Georgia for a week and do the same thing then Minnesota for a week and do the same thing because Andre was such an attraction You just couldn't keep him in New York all the time So Vince was very respectful then senior was very respectful of the relationships of all the promoters and all the small

was very respectful of the relationships of all the promoters and all the small territories around the country. So when Vince Jr took over, he came to me because at the time I was on a crazy role in Minnesota. I had figured it out at the notoriety of the Rocky movie. I'd figure out how to work a crowd and I really had the art form down at that time and my timing was impeccable. I had everything lined up, not only media-wise but in the ring. My timing was impeccable. I had everything lined up not only media wise but in the ring. My timing was good and I could work with anybody that you know when Vince and I got together and decided to try to take over all the territories and do this global juggernaut theory that we had if Vince senior would have known about it he would have he would have killed both of us. Because of the relationship like hey

You can't yeah, we broke we broke take their guys away. We broke all the handshakes So so in the in a mob world, they will call that omerta right like me, you know breaking silence or whatever And there was a certain code between the five families right the commission with lucky running the whole thing Was your was Vince's father the one where we don't break this code, that family's this, we don't cross the line, and you guys came in and said forget about it, we're going after everybody. And to do what we did, if you think back like when I started in the 70s, you know, they broke my leg the first day, you couldn't do that to a kid now.

You know, you couldn't take some kid and take him to a wrestling school and break his leg. The business has changed, you know. But back then when we crossed all these imaginary lines and broke all these handshakes, it was a mob mentality that we have to stop these two clowns, Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan from doing this stuff. But we were making so much money and doing so well. All these top stars in Louisiana,

like Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Junkyard Dog and all these other huge stars like Dusty Rhodes and Ford. They're all knocking on the door. Dusty Rhodes, who I got watching, came up in workforce. Wow. You know, and you know, it was kind of weird for me because I love Dusty so much. I was the main event in Madison Square Garden. It was hard to watch my idol be like the second or third match in the card.

So that was kind of tough for him because I loved him so much but he has so much respect for the business and for what I'd done and it was mutual you know that we just we just got along so well. Let me add lastly, when at the peak of it, go to the peak of it, when would you say the peak of fame was for Hulk Hogan? What year would you say was like the ultimate ultimate peak? Well it's hard to say because like the ultimate, ultimate peak? Well, it's hard to say because I had two, we call everything a run.

Like how long's your show gonna be on the air? That's a run. Is it gonna be six months? Makes sense. For 60 years. Sure. How long are you gonna be married? How long's your run? Are you gonna be married for four years or for a lifetime?

Totally get it. So in wrestling, it was, you know, how long is your run gonna be? So my first run where we kind of took over the world was the night I beat the Iron Sheik in Madison Square Garden January 23rd, 1984, the political storm, the landscape couldn't have been greater for the storyline.

Wow. Because the Iron Sheik was actually the real bodyguard for the Shah of Iran. Cosbo Lazari was his real name. He was the real bodyguard for the Shah of Iran. Cosco Lazare was his real name. He was the actual bodyguard, and at that time, Iran was holding 444 American hostages at that time. So you had this real American hero, Hulk Hogan, the character going against the Sheik of,

you know, the Iron Sheik, and once I beat him, Hulkamania took off, And it was this crazy run. We brought in Cindy. Well, you saw it on TV. We brought in Cindy Lauper. MTV jumped all over it. We had Liberace and Muhammad Ali. Every celebrity you could see wanted to be part of it.

I'd go wrestle in LA, and you have Gene Hackman, Farrah Fossett, the majors fighting for front row seats. I'd go to Detroit. You have Iacocca and Edsel Ford and everybody wanting seats. It was crazy. But it's so hard to say which was the bigger run because right after that, Vince and I had a little blowout. After about 10 or 12 years, I went to work for Ted Turner for 10 years. That's the Bischoff, right? Eric Bischoff? Yeah. And I had the black beard

and I became Hollywood Hogan, the bad guy. And the more evil and the horrible stuff I did, the more people cheered me. So the worse I got and the nastier I got and the meaner I got and the evil, as evil as I could be, the people cheered me. Because I had this built-in following of people that they thought it was cool, know that I could be, the people cheered me because I had this built-in following of people that they thought it was cool. You know that I was spray painting the belt and spray painting all Ted

Turner's trucks and the TV trucks. It was just nuts. So that second run, like I said, the second run took off almost as good as the first one, but I would have to go back to digress and kind of contradict myself and say that first run when we first took off with the red and yellow, it was so positive we changed the whole landscape. So that was bigger than NWL. You're saying the first one was bigger. I'm not saying it was bigger. It was the first time it happened so it was more exciting.

When was it where you couldn't go outside? I'm sure it happened early, early because it's like Shaq walking outside You're gonna spot the guy. He can't go anywhere because he's 7'1". You're a big guy. But when was it where you're like Something's going on. Well the first time I really Became real real real aware of it. People kept saying oh my gosh You don't realize how big Hulk Hogan is this Hulk main thing. I was just working I had my head down. All I cared about was working.

And it hit me really big when John Stossel from 2020 wanted to talk to me and he goes, you know, the headline of the New York Post says Jackie O and Jackie O or Mr. T or whoever. I can't remember the names. They said, but Jackie and somebody else can walk down the streets of New York, but Hulk Hogan can't. So John Stossel came to find out if that was true. So John Stossel came, and as we were walking down the street in New York, he wanted to put me out in front of Madison Square Garden.

I said, no, don't do that. We'll get killed. Take me over to Fifth Avenue, where there's not a bunch of wrestling fans. As soon as I got out of the car at Fifth Avenue, we got mobbed. And all of a sudden, you know, as we got mobbed, that was when the first time I realized that this wrestling had gone mainstream, that this Hulk Hogan character had crossed these imaginary boundaries and became a media star, not just a wrestling star. So that's when it really hit me the first time. And what was the, was there a moment where you're going to be invited to parties and

you're like, I can't believe I'm at a party like this. What were some of the moments and who you got a chance to meet? Well, for the first time you were even starstruck. You say, I can't believe I'm meeting Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan, whoever some of these names are. Or maybe you never experienced that. Oh, I did. I did. And both, it's kind of like two trains of thought

you just hit me with. The first time I kind of like freaked out, and I met tons and tons of celebrities, you know. Met a lot of people, Michael Jackson, met a lot of people, and this is kind of weird. But the first time I really freaked out and started shaking and got nervous, and the only person that's ever happened

was when I met Jerry Springer. I was a huge Jerry Springer fan, okay. That was a huge, because I grew up. He just passed away I think a few months ago or last year. Yeah, so I was a huge Jerry Springer fan, but the thing that really shocked me with the celebrity thing, I was sitting at the Twin Towers one day with my wife at Vince's birthday party,

and this cop comes up and taps me on the shoulder, and I yes or no I'm sitting with my wife right and the guy goes oh Cheryl sent her limo for you downstairs she wants you to come over and have dinner with them. What? Cheryl? What are you talking about? No the Cheryl the singer. I didn't you know I said get out of here what are you talking about? But you know it's kind of weird because she thought she'd just send a car and I'd jump in and come running over there. And then another time- Did you go or you didn't? No, no, brother, come on.

No, but I was with my wife. I wouldn't do that anyway. Oh, wait, wait. She didn't want to have dinner with you and your wife. She just wanted to have this. No, me, sent a car for me. This is kind of like when Madonna went to Antonio Banderas when he's married.

It's like, hey, can I spend some time with you tonight? Something like that. I got you you there's another one when Madonna put that book out the SNM book yeah I can't remember what they called it she had a party in New York City and I was at the guard that night she sent a car to pick me up to come to her party and once again I was with my wife and I'm not doing that stuff but yeah so you know those things catch off guard and that's when you kind of realize that the characters like cross these.

How's your wife reacting to this at the time? What is she saying? Babe, what is this? At the time, she was kind of used to it, you know? Oh, she was used to it. I've been married, this is my third marriage. I understand, but the first wife, I'm talking first marriage.

First marriage, it's kind of like, nobody's used to it, right? She's not even used to it. But she was kind of around, like I started wrestling in 77, so she came into the picture about 81 or 82, so she was used to seeing craziness. Got it, so it's not like- It was just another wacko situation that we were getting hit with every day.

Got it, got it. Now, at the time, who were you a fan of that you wanted to get a hold of, that you told your management team, hey, can you get a hold of XYZ? I'd like to have dinner with them. I'd like to meet this person. Did you approach anybody? No, I've never done that.

You've never done that? No. Okay, so wasn't, were you saying, I'd like to meet Michael, I'd like to meet the president, I'd like to go to the White House, I'd like to get on Air Force Force one nothing like that. No, no, is that just not part of your personality? Or was it not really I just I've never I've never been like that very cool people. What was your what was your first interaction with Trump? Um first interaction was Trump was we rented

the Trump Plaza for WrestleMania four and five. And it's kind of funny because I got some pictures on my phone where I'm in the middle of the ring doing the ear thing. I'm bleeding like a pig. And you can see him sitting in the front row just cheering and having a blast. The first first interaction with Trump was WrestleMania four and five. And, you know, I I didn't think he'd come to the show but he was there early came in the dress room met all the wrestlers is that

him is that the one Rob? Well that's probably one of them yeah it's probably one of them. So he came his back there's meeting you guys talking to Shakin Cane? Yeah came in the back met all the wrestlers and actually sat down started talking to us I was really surprised. And then they said he was sitting in the front row. And, you know, I was surprised because he went out from the first match and he stayed all the way till, you know, I wrestled and sat through that craziness. Then the next year we went back again.

And it was the same thing. We had such a good time at his at his venue venue and we made so much money there because he gave us such a good deal that we went back again. He was the same guy and he's the same guy now that he was back then. He hasn't changed a bit. I mean, he's just a really quality person. It's amazing when you sit down and actually get to know the guy. What's your impression when you say same guy now versus then?

Because there is, you've actually had one-on-one versus everybody else is getting Secondhand information right you've done business with him where you're doing events at his place behind closed doors What do you like most about his personality and how he treats you? Well, it's not that's not how he treats me. He treats and I've stole this from him when I say I treat everybody the same I learned that from him I mean, I actually watched him. Because all of a sudden, when I started wrestling, this character Hulk Hogan became popular.

All of a sudden, I was having all these dying kids and Make-A-Wish kids come to me. I was like, oh my gosh, what's going on? Then it got to the point where I got used to it. And now at 71 years old, when the Make-A-Wish people call me, I thank God it's still happening. But at first, I didn't know how to handle it, didn't know how to talk to these kids,

this is their last wish. I would see Trump talk to these kids, and not only would he spend a second or two with them, the handlers would come in and go, okay, well, Donald's busy, now he's gonna go to the, and he'd go, no, no, no, I'm not busy, not busy for John, I'm staying here with little Johnny.

I'd sit there and watch him, and not only would he talk to these kids, he'd touch them and rub their backs. And one of my favorite things is to grab these special kids. Go, hey, I'm really tired, you know, and I'm a lot older than you. And I just want to steal the energy from you. And when you get when you go home, you're going to be really tired and pass out. But I'm going to steal your energy so I can get through this day.

I learned that from him. And I saw him do that with these kids. So I've learned a lot watching him and just he's personable, you know, and we even used him in the ring. We asked him to do this whole wrestling story where the billionaires were against each other and you could probably pull that out of the billionaire match where whoever lost the match would have their head shaved. Of course, Vince McMahon's wrestler that he was managing lost so Trump shaved Vince's head and Then we wanted a little something extra out of Trump

And we said would you mind a stone cold Steve Austin kicks you in the belly and stuns you and leaves you laying there? He goes no problem So stone cold Steve Austin kicks him in the belly hits him with a stunner, which does not feel good I can tell you and he just laid there and he was great You know, so he's he's one of the guys. I don't know what to tell you, and he just laid there and he was great. So he's one of the guys, I don't know what to tell you. It's just that simple. He's one of the guys. That's the one, Rob, we can't probably show that, right?

When you go to with WWE, they're the ones, them and UFC, you may wanna not show that, Rob, with the audience. But yeah, I mean, you hear these stories, right? You hear people telling these stories. And then, you know, then you hear what the media is saying. It's a night and day thing. But going back to...

Well, you know, I have to touch on that because the media, you know, I've learned, you know, and when he says the fake news, the fake news, it didn't really register. And then as I'm pushing my grocery cart, we have a grocery store chain here in Florida called Publix. As I'm pushing my grocery store cart to Publix, I'm going down one island down the other,

then when I come back up the other way, you check out, I see the National Enquirer. Hulk Hogan has major heart attack. I'm like, I did? You know, and I was like, oh my gosh, I get it, fake news. You know, and it really put a spotlight on what he meant by fake news because he's demonic, he's gonna be Hitler, he's gonna be this, he's gonna be that. And like I said before in several interviews, in the Bible it says, listen to where people

are speaking from. And when somebody says, he's demonic, or he's responsible for the border being opened, or he's responsible for inflation, listen to where people are speaking from. They're the ones He's responsible for inflation. Listen to us where people are speaking from. They're the ones that are responsible for that. And it's just it hit me like a brick when I saw that Hulk Hogan had a heart attack. I'm like, okay, I get it. It's all BS. It's not true. How old were you the first time? How old were you the first time you experienced fake news?

The first time they said a story like there's no way this is true. Gosh, probably 20 years, 25 years ago. Still in the 90s, you're thinking. Okay, so it's in the late 90s. I was buying into all this stuff because I would travel and go through every airport in the world and the only thing that was in the airport was CNN. That was the only news source I got. And so now I realize the majority of America

Would get the mainstream news and they don't really get you know The real truth of what what really is going on you work with Ted Turner, right? Did you spend a lot of time with him? Yes, I did what was about the way the difference between him and Trump What's the difference between the two personalities and maybe even Vince McMahon in that conversation because Ted is a I mean he's a pioneer what he did with CNN 24-7. You know what it's it's hard because with Ted and I it was just real business you know all I can say is anything Ted Turner would say he would do it. As the personalities, I didn't get to know Ted like I did.

So you didn't break bread with him. No, no, no, no, no, because my main relationship, like you said, was with Eric Bischoff. Makes sense. Because Eric Bischoff was running, and Harvey Shiller were running interference between Ted and doing whatever he was doing. But all I know is everything that he said he would do,

he did. So you're complimentary of Ted. You have good memories of Ted. When you think about- Yeah, I've got nothing bad to say about Ted Turner. I don't know where he stands, you know, as far as his political views, his personal views. I have no idea.

By the way, I don't know if you've ever read his book. At the end of his book, I think the book is called Ted. The last chapter is how disappointed he is in what happened to CNN. He said, I created CNN to make the news the star. He said, now the news is no longer the star, the anchors are the star. That's not why I created CNN.

The ending of the book is a phenomenal book to read. The guy was ahead of his time for what he created. But maybe let's do the comparison with Eric Bishop. Because when you're saying he's in Connecticut, I think you were saying Connecticut, right? Vince McMahon and you're on the road, you're going all Kansas City, all these places you're going. So he was in front camera like doing what he was doing.

And then you see where Bischoff comes up and he becomes the head, he becomes the executive producer and they're going out there now. They're taking people away from Vince. Now they're coming after all the talent, they come to pick you up, then they got a bunch of other guys, why would you leave? Well, you just did that,

why are you upset now that we're doing it? Well, you know, and that was a little bit of the controversy in the documentary, which I thought it was fascinating. What was Eric's style of moving you guys and challenging you guys and selling you the vision or creativity? Where did he have the edge over Vince at the beginning? Not at the end, we know what happened at the beginning.

Well, I think Eric was real aware of things had to be fresh and more organic, you know, and he wanted everything to be live, you know, not live to tape. He wanted it to be live, you know, not live to tape. He wanted it to be live, live. And you know, when I came in, it was like a small Southern belt type wrestling company, you know, and all of a sudden, as soon as I came in, we started ramping up all these other wrestlers like Macho Man, I even brought, you know,

like Mean Gene with Mindy announcer and Bobby Heenan and several people. Kind of like, it's horrible to say. I mean, it sounds so egotistical, but the character, not me, but the character where the Hulk Hogan character went, the wrestlers kind of knew that there would be more revenue generated because like when I was in New York working for Vince, we sometimes we were running three towns a night. We'd say the Hulk Hogan town against Macho Man, maybe the A town, the B town might be the warrior, and the third town would be the tag team champions would be on top.

But when guys would get their booking sheets, they'd look to see if they were on the Hulk Hogan card because they knew instead of making like 500 bucks in the first match, they'd probably make three grand, you know, so they kind of knew that we're going to draw money and that the arenas would be sold out and that even sounds egotistical, but it's true. And so I think when I went down to Ted Turner and also the numbers started to spike, I think Eric Bishop had an open checkbook and he,

that's checkbook, right had a checkbook right exactly right he could offer these guys better deals and they can make more money with part of the problem was at the time was the schedule we'd be on the road 300 days a year you know you have to work hurt but Eric gave these guys an opportunity to work a lot less and make more money so it made sense to make more money and be able to be home with your family. Is that what you were selling to the guy saying, look, this guy I'm working, I mean, from 300 days,

what did they work in, 200, 150? Was it a dramatic? Oh, 50% less. Yeah, well, it was. I'm not saying 50, but it was around 50. Because I didn't work as many days as the other guys. And he's still making the same kind of money while he's doing that.

You don't have to do... Making more money. Making more money doing 150 instead of 300. And one of the things that I thought it was very dirty, but I thought it was very creative, where they're like, okay, you don't need to watch a show because we're live, this is recorded, here's who won, this person tapped out, this person... What a dirty creative play to say it in advance where the other guys are not live. So you're having people giving you an update on what's going to come.

Why am I going to watch it? I'm going to stick around and watch you, Bishop. That was very creative. There's no substitute for victory. Yeah, I mean, and he even talks about this podcast today is called the 83 Weeks. I believe he calls the podcast 83 Weeks, with what he's got going on. So do you think later on when Vince buys Bischoff and the entire WCW, I think it's WCW, right?

He buys them for $2.5 million. And then he buys the catalog, Rob, if I'm not mistaken, for $1.7 million. So you buy the catalog Rob if I'm not mistaken for 1.7 million dollars So you buy the catalog and you buy the entire thing for 4.2 million But do you think without Bischoff if there is no Eric? You know Vince is not forced to recreate himself to become who he becomes next like he almost needed an Eric as an enemy Well competition is always great, especially in the wrestling business. And at the time, um,

there was a situation where Eric Bischoff was trying to negotiate a deal to buy WCW. He had an investor named Brian Badal, who started some type of sports network or something. I'm sure he can find it. And, uh, so I, it was around 50, 55 million bucks or whatever it was. But then all of a sudden that time came where Ted Turner emerged with American Online. And basically, you know, they didn't want rassling as part of their portfolio because on TBS and TNT, we had the two highest rated shows on Turner's network, but they wanted movies of the week, new programming and Turner classics.

So at the end of the day, when American Online merged, Ted Turner kind of like disappeared and ended up kind of like at the back of the hallway, if I could say it that way. And American Online kind of took over. And instead of Eric coming in and buying it at the time, the only thing that was left was the, there were no TV rights. So the only thing that was left was basically the logo in the library. At that time, I didn't think of the library. So my thing was I called Vince, you know, even though I was his competitor at the time

and trying to put him out of business for 10 years, I wouldn't even say try to put him out of business, but try to be a bigger company than him at the time. I called Vince and said, hey, Vince, WCW is for sale, you know, and Eric's not buying it. You can probably just buy it for pennies on the dollar, maybe three or four million bucks. I didn't even think about the library. Yeah, so that was his idea to buy the library.

What did he do with the library, though? Oh, he's got a 24-hour network, the WWE Network. And by the way, Ted Turner got screwed in that American online, Time Warner, whatever that was. If you ever read the book and read the story, that deal didn't go his way. He could have made an additional $7, $8, $9 billion, but it ended up not. Again, the deal, he lost air control and he was a founder. He was good with the ideas.

He was a driver. People trusted him. he kept his word and then once that was gone, the swagger that they once had, they just didn't have anymore. It changed completely, it was a completely different company to be working for once he was out of the control. In that moment, did Eric realize, shit, I no longer have Ted backing me up, I gotta go knock on the door with Vince, And were you part of that conversation? Like, did Eric come up to you and say,

hey, I'm thinking about going to Vince? Or maybe can you put me in contact with Vince? Or was it organic the way it happened? That transition is a little boring for me right now because... After that happened, I think I just... I think I just, my body pretty much shut down on me and I ended up having like 25 surgeries in the last 10 years. Like I said, I didn't know that stuff was fake. No one told me.

And I went ahead and started helping with a show out of Universal Studios called Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and this lady named Dixie Carter owned it. And Eric came in to help produce the show, and I was there like for four years, and they wanted to renew me again, and I just had enough, I just had enough. I was ready to go home and relax.

And I was- Was it just boring, or was it just- No, it wasn't that. It was just a grind. And Dixie wanted to compete with Vince. I said, well, then we gotta go Monday nights on the road. We gotta go live. And we went out and to compete with Vince, 50, 60 million, 70 million dollars isn't gonna do it.

You need an influx of money consistently to compete with that monster up there. And it got real exciting for a while But then when that influx of money just didn't come pouring in for whatever reason You know it didn't make sense to move on so after like four years when when it was time for me to renegotiate There was a couple year deal offered and I just was done, you know, and so it was like two days later I was sitting in the park of meridian in New York in the hotel there, and I was getting ready to do something.

I can't remember if it was a business deal or an appearance or something. I get a phone call and it was Triple H, the son and all. He goes, hey, Jerry, we heard you heard you didn't resign, you know? And, you know, Vince wants to talk to you. I said, yeah, man, put him on the phone or whatever. Recall me. I can't remember exactly how it happened, but he goes, I'd like to come back You know and you know Vince wants to talk to you said yeah, man put him on the phone or whatever recall me I can't remember exactly how it happened But because I'd like to come back and you'd come back up here, you know and wrestle the rock, you know

I said yeah that could that might work and so we cut a deal and I went back and Were you happy to be back? Did you feel like you're back home or no was it? It's kind of like You know, you're a player, you're playing for one team and you have a run, you win a couple of World Series or Super Bowls or championships, whatever you wanna call it. Then you get traded and you kinda go and you're at a team, you're like, yeah, whatever, I'll come and show up

and play the 82 games, the 162 baseball, whatever it is. But man, I'm a real Yankee. Yeah, I'm a true Laker. Did you feel like you're coming home back to the Yankees? Yeah, I did. I felt like I was coming home, and the whole idea was for me to come in as the bad guy, to wrestle the rock.

And of course, I wanted Kevin and Scott, my partners, to come with me from the NWO. And when we were going in there, we talked, we said, hey guys, you know, these guys in the dressing room, we've been going against them for 10 years. So we might not get a warm welcome when we walk in there. So you better be ready. But we had big Kev to hide behind, you know. So we came in and the guys were pretty cool in the dressing room. You know, they knew it was business, but it just felt a little strange, you know.

And then once I went out in the ring, you know, and got in the middle of the ring with The Rock in Chicago, I listened to the people, I said, oh, yeah, they're with me. They still love you. Yeah, and I was the bad guy. You're right. You know, so I did everything I could to be an evil guy. I hit The Rock in the head with a hammer.

I put him in an ambulance. I put chains around the ambulance. I ran over the ambulance with a hammer. I put him in an ambulance, I put chains around the ambulance, I ran over the ambulance with a semi twice. Did everything I could to get him hating on me. And so WrestleMania 18, I go out to WrestleMania Rockman, they just cheer me out of the place. You know, because they're just loyal to a fault, the wrestling fans. Yeah, that's got to be. And by the way, was it something where, is there also a love affair with different fans or to you it's, no, it's just my fans no matter where I go.

It's a different kind of a love you get from your kid and a different kind of a love you get from your wife, somebody you love, mom, sibling, friend versus the fan love is different. Would you say there's a different affinity with the fans? When they do something like, man, you guys still care about me. You guys still pay attention. I'm still selling out. I still matter. Is there that kind of a feeling?

Yeah, it's real. It's transparent with the fans, because not only do they watch Hulk Hogan the character and they've seen the sacrifices. I mean, I got this wrestling business in my blood. I had a chance to do the movie thing and stuff like that. And after about 22 movies or whatever, I tapped out and I came back to wrestling. And you know, I had a chance to get launched with Bob Evans at Paramount and do the John Wayne thing.

I'm going back to wrestling. But it's just so weird because when you think about the fans, it's more than just fans and a character. They know me as a person now and they've seen me make mistakes career-wise. They've seen me make mistakes personally. They've seen me crash and burn career-wise. They've seen me crash and burn personally. I've got so many scars on me from being a real person. I'm more like them now and they can relate to me. Oh my gosh, Hulk Hogan and Terry does make mistakes in business and in his personal life.

You know what, it makes you just more tangible to him. Like you feel like you're more with the people when they see what you've gone through and you still stand up, you still keep moving forward. Right, you know, the president and I were talking last week and I said, there's three phases every father and son goes through. You idolize him, you demonize him, you humanize him, right?

And sometimes that happens with your voters, for you with your fans. Everybody idolizes the Hulk, then they demonize him. You know what, I can't stand him because of it. And there's like, oh man, I love this guy, humanize him. He's human like me, right? It's like that one famous song that I think Geico uses. What's the song?

I'm only human, right? Who says like that one famous song that I think Geico uses. What's the song? I'm only human, right? Who says I'm born to make mistakes? You know what song that is, right? So go back to it with wrestling. You say you came back to your love wrestling. Was it you came back to your love wrestling or you came back to your partner and the guy you like working with the most Vince, which of

the two would you say was more of? Well, it was both. Now, I really love working with Eric. He was wide open for suggestions, and he kind of let me run amok, which was cool. Vince would look, Vince would kind of like keep a little harness on me, when I come up with some crazy ideas. Eric was more open. And in saying that, as much as I loved working with Eric, it was really fun to actually come back home and get in that big machine and that banner of protection that Vince and the whole WWE has for you and they

make sure things are done right. And you know when you go to do an appearance or when you go to the ring or when you're involved with them, I mean it is they don't miss a beat, you know, and there's no holes in their boat. That's why I like going back there. Was there a like, you know, there's a difference when you're working with a guy who is green Phase one Vince right 81 82 whatever the year was when you guys spoke when he's like, hey, let's go do this together My dad can't know but let's you and I go do this right? So that's a green Vince

I'm gonna do better than my dad and XYZ Then you leave then you see a losing Vince 83 weeks Eric Bishop all the stuff that you guys are doing leave then you see a losing Vince 83 weeks Eric Bishop all the stuff that you guys are doing what did you notice change with him where he recreated himself from the 82 guy to the 90 guy to the guy when he came back with him in the rock when the Triple H called you well when I left Minnesota and I went back to wrestle the Iron Sheik Vince didn't play music on the way to the ring I did you know with all my guys Vince didn't sell any merchandise at the time. I was doing that in Minnesota.

I was actually making more money selling merchandise than the wrestling part. So when I came in and they saw how the music worked, oh, my gosh. Then all the wrestlers wanted entrance music, you know. And then when they saw how the merchandise was selling, oh, my gosh. Vince Vince went, oh my gosh, merchandise? Let me try, get in this thing. And he became just a monster at it. You know, whatever he did, he really capitalized on it. He really turned into something huge and great. So I saw him develop over the 80s and turn this into this international juggernaut. But then when I came back, you know, with the internet and all the different vehicles, they had to sell the merchandise. It just wasn't arena sales or mail order anymore.

They had everything in place with the social media and this and that. It was like coming back to, oh my gosh, they just set you up for greatness. They can take a guy that's lukewarm milk that might look like a bag boy in a grocery store and make him a superstar with a machine. Oh my gosh, what a machine this is now. They've got this thing down to a science. That was the difference when I went back. I said, my gosh, when I say there's no holes in their boat,

there are no holes in the boat. But did you feel an energy about him where something was different about him? You're like, he no longer second guesses himself. Something's different in his eyes, the way he talks to you, like, did you sense something else? Like he has better generals, he is,

what was it about him? Did you feel anything about him? The only thing I saw with him was he was so hands-on. He worked even harder than before. It kind of caught me off guard because, you know, when I was there before, I didn't have to deal with writers. You know, everything I said,

such as the speech at the Republican convention, that's all me. I wouldn't read the teleprompter. That's not how I do things, you know. It's always been instinct and feel as an art form. You know, you got to listen with your ears and your heart. And so you know how to work a room, you know. And so when I went back, all of a sudden, they got 25 writers,

you know, and they're signing me a writer to write my promo for me. I mean, you know, this guy, this kid, this 26 years old, he used to work for NBC's and would tell Hulk Hogan how to be Hulk Hogan. Like, really? You know, so I would be going out to open the show and I'll be standing out to open the show, and I'd be standing at the grill positions, which is right before you walk out of the curtain,

you want a live crowd, and a writer would come up and hand me a stack of papers. They were hot. They just printed them. I looked at Vince, I said, really? Are you kidding me? He goes, nah, I don't worry about you. I just throw the papers up and walk out and do my thing.

But what I saw with Vince was he was working harder than before. Even with the 25 writers, he would grab the show at, and then we're going live at eight o'clock, he grabbed the show at six o'clock and rewrite the whole show himself. And then there'd be a post-production meeting. If you're the main event, you're in the building at like 11 or 1130, he'd have a post-production meeting. He'd stay in the room until two in the morning. I'd run back're the main event, you're in the building at like 11 or 1130, he'd have a post-production meeting. He'd stay in the room till two in the morning. I'd run back to the hotel room,

he'd be banging on my door, let's go work out, come on monster, let's go. I said, are you crazy? I ain't going out there. I ain't gonna go work out with you at two, three o'clock in the morning, but that's what he did. No shit.

Oh yeah, and he was working harder than ever. Did he ever tell you where that fire came from? Was there like a, was there a chip? Like I'm gonna prove to you guys that I'm above and beyond everybody it was just in the love of the game. He loved it man he just loved the business. Was he fun to be around even the last like yeah yeah he was and he had his family with him he had this monster I called it the slave ship because I'll just fly with me. It's money, not raw. He wouldn't let you off the plane.

Come back to Connecticut, go here with me. This is that. I used to tease him. I used to call it the slave ship because he had his family on there. He had his daughter with him. Shane was on the plane a lot. He had his son a lot there.

So he was like traveling. He had his whole family with him. So why go home? Let's just keep working. But yeah, his work ethic is, you can't touch it. And the dynamics of the family, the way they made it work was, again, the documentary was very interesting to me.

The son, what he wanted to do and who he wanted to be, I kinda liked him, his son, in the documentary as well. And the daughter Stephanie with the triple H H and then all the different stories with You know Bret Hart. It was it was it was just all the emotions mixed into one this stuff It's got to be the best documentary the year Rob. I mean, there's a lot of great great documentaries That's got to be one of the best documentaries of the year now In regards to when I had when I talked to Rick Flair I don't know where I talked to Ric from,

must've been six, seven years ago when I had him on the podcast. And we had a lot of different conversations. Ric Flair's energy to me is different than yours, right? Ric is bragging about the partying, and Wendy's sitting right there and he's telling all these stories. I'm a 5,000 woman and I'm doing this and I'm doing that.

Were you the party guy? No. You don't give me the party vibes. Yeah, that wasn I'm doing that. Were you the party guy? No. You don't give me the party vibes. Yeah, that wasn't you. No, I was the business guy, brother. I got it. So for you, were you the one that had the lifestyle and the nice cars and the nice jewelry and stuff like that?

Or that wasn't? Well, anything I've got is pretty much given to me. If the t-shirt fits, I'll wear it. I am addicted to cars, yeah. You are addicted to cars? I got a problem, big problem. Favorite car you ever bought or favorite car you own right now?

I'm a Mopar guy, Dodge guy. Interesting. Yeah, I'm addicted. I got a problem. Really, so you go to DA meetings. I got a big problem with cars, yeah. Dodge Anonymous, right? Did you say Viper? What car did you say? I've had big problem with cars yeah. Dodge anonymous right? Did you say

Viper? What car did you say? I had probably 10 Vipers. I just bought a couple more cars. Oh there's the old one yeah I gave that one I just auctioned that one off at Mecham for charity. There's an old 68. Oh that's a 71 446 pack Kuda that's one of eight. That car's worth a lot of money right there. Oh there's a 69 Roadrunner, I've got two of them. I had two black Roadrunners in high school. That's why I bought those cars. See that one, the red one with the black stripes?

That was my date car in high school. Is that the actual car? No, but I had to buy it because it was the exact same car. Had white buckets, these cars are gorgeous inside. And that was my date car when I finally got a girlfriend so let me ask you when you told the story earlier on with your father what's his 17 years old he kicked you out and you know whatever the relation when you said you went did you guys the relationship when he took off did your dad come up and say I had no

idea this is what you were up to was there that moment with you and your father that he was proud of you oh Oh yeah, yeah. It was bad because you know playing music and playing in a bar when you're high school in high school is not conducive you know to someone that's trying to get through high school. So it wasn't a part of his plan. You know he wanted me to do better than him and for me to be playing music in a bar it really upset him. So it didn't work out real well. And then I ended up going to the University of South Florida and I had a major in finance and management and a minor in music.

Finance and management. Yeah. And then when I quit the University of South Florida after about three years to go on the road with a band called the Genie Conroy Show. It was a show band with horns and did all the funky syncopated music, all the tower power stuff and all that stuff. That really upset him when I quit college to go play music again. And we just really didn't really hit it off that well. And then when I started to get in the wrestling business, I would come by his house during the day because he had this driveway that he poured with asphalt and I would do what we call jumping squats. And I did so many jumping squats. I'd do thousands on the day that I actually tore his driveway up with my tennis shoes.

This black asphalt driveway. I just destroyed the driveway. I do so many jumping squats all day when he was at work. And so he wasn't real happy about me getting in the wrestling business, you know? He was not happy at all. And then I started in 77 and then in 1984, I flew my mother and my father up to Madison Square Garden where I wrestled the Iron Sheik. First time they ever saw you?

Mm-hmm, first time. The first time they ever saw you? First time they ever saw me wrestle. And they flew up there and there's pictures there, they are in the dress room that night, I'm on the belt. Wow. And that night he told me how proud of me he was and I made the right decision. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah, so that was a big night for me to have him there with my mom. What did it feel like when he said it to you? Because the vibes it is that dad was tough, right? So what feeling did it give you when you heard it? It was great for him to tell me, you know, that he was really proud of me. That night was a great night, but probably the the best day of my life was when my father was on his deathbed. And we hadn't really had much relationship then, but when he told me he was proud of me, it made me feel like a million dollars,

you know. But then the greatest day of my life was when he was on his deathbed and he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior in probably three minutes before he died, you know. Because he was, oh, don't worry, Terry, it's all mother nature, which is kind of right, you know. But when he finally said those words to me because I just want to let you know how much I love you I'll let wall cuz I hadn't heard that ever since I was in high school Wow. Yeah, so that was the greatest day of my one was that what was that? How long ago was that? Oh my gosh, my dad passed you could look about Peter Bollea. I can't remember the year now probably

My gosh over 20 years ago. December 2001, December 18, 2001. 23 years ago. Yeah, but that was probably the greatest day of my life because it was really, really cool. Were you a Christian at the time? Yes, I was. And did you ask him to accept Jesus Christ as a Savior? For years I had, but I accepted Christ as my savior when I was 14 years old. But I derailed, of course, playing music and wrestling, and then I came back to my faith eventually when I realized it was the only truth there was. So that was a huge day for me. So it was a miracle. It was great. Wow. Is your mom still around? Your mom still? No, she passed. She passed.

After him? Yes. Yes. Well, sorry to hear, man, but the fact that that's the story, that is powerful. Yeah. It was a great day. Wow. And I don't really share the story with anybody, but I'm going to tell you. The weirdest thing was, you know how you shake hands like this? I was shaking, I had his hand like this.

My chest was against his chest, his face was right here. And when he said, hey, I love you, Terry, I said, I love you too, dad. And he went, oh, about two minutes later, you know, he went, oh, and when he took that breath, his face was just like yours, tan, nice looking face. Oh, as soon as he took that breath and he breathed out, his face turned instantly gray. Instantly gray when I looked at him.

And all of a sudden I'm leaning and looking at his face and my chest on his chest and I went, ah, ah. I jumped back. I felt something come out of his body and when it hit me, I don't know if it went in me or through me, but there's something more than just this meat suit brother. You could call it energy. You could call it spirit.

You can call it your soul or whatever it is. I felt it push me back. My chest was against his chest and when he took that last breath was about a second later. It was like I put my finger in electrical socket. It knocked me backwards. It was like I put my finger in electrical socket. It knocked me backwards. And so at that moment, I realized that there's much more to this than just that meat suit you're walking around in. It was a huge wake-up call for me.

Was it a thing that it went from faith to being real like there's something there Oh, yeah, conviction went to it changed me BAM on the spot instantly Had the doubt influence you on the way you lived your life after December 18th of a one when that happened It changed a lot of things. I started getting better and better and better and it was a gradual It was a gradual change for me to get correct. You know, I would deal with all these humanistic problems and I would fight it and I'd push and I'd struggle and scratch and claw and then I would surrender and go back to center.

And then, you know, if I had some really crazy problem like with the IRS or with my wife or my kids, I'd try to deal with it instead of just lamenting on it and driving me crazy. I realized the sooner I surrender, let it go. And as soon as I bracket it and go back to center and all is well and he's in total control, then I was fine. So I got better and better and better.

But that was kind of like the moment that made me really wake up and go You know what? There's a lot more here than just this this this and the show and you and I mean There's so much more to this than just this short little teeny run Like I would say the short little run we have here. It's just a wisp compared to what you know, the real deal is Yeah, that that Yeah that's interesting because when you go through it at a time like this especially with your pops and you hear that I love you and you haven't heard that and I'm proud of you and I'm accepting Jesus Christ I mean that's got to be a moment you go

through that changes the way you view life. By the way let me ask you this question there's a lot of young guys that are getting into wrestling today Logan Paul you're seeing what he's doing, right? He's got all this stuff. Acrobatic, I can't believe how talented the guy is when you're seeing the stuff that he's doing. I'm sure you can write a book on fame, right? How do you, you know, how do you break down fame?

What do people not know about fame, that the good, the bad, the ugly part of fame and your relationship with it? It's very fleeting. It only lasts, it's temporary. It's like everything else in this life, it's just temporary. And some people strive for fame and you know, you're very disappointed sometimes when you get there because it's not what you think it is. You know, I kind of like moved away from fame and started using the word greatness, you know, because I want to be great at everything I do. You know, we just. My new wife, Sky, who I love to death, that's a believer, she sometimes with not that she didn't understand me, but sometimes, you know, like homeless

people, you know, I see homeless people. I don't give them 20 bucks. You know, I'll I don't give them 20 bucks. I don't want to talk about the lady I was married to before, but sometimes if I had a lot of hundreds in my wallet, I'd take them out and just give them to them. It's just because I love seeing people do good. We had a situation actually yesterday where her sister and her husband were in a little weird situation in the flood.

We got flooded and they lost a car and they only had another car that I would call a beater and they both had, you know, jobs and a kid and they couldn't get around. So my wife was talking to me about, you know, what should we do if they don't have money for a down payment? I said, just go buy another car. Go buy, just go buy another car. So Sky went out and did that yesterday. Her sister was so grateful. You know, they didn't have money for a down payment, didn't

know how they're going to do the financing. It just relieved so much stress. And I've said this so many times that I think, I don't even know if it's cool to say it, but if I was a billionaire right now, I could help millions of people, And so when I see how Trump helps people, it's really amazing. I would like to grow up and be like him. So it's just really, it's very important to me that people understand who he is. By the way, did he invite you to go speak at the RNC

or did you volunteer? I can't remember how it happened. I can't remember how it happened. I can't remember how it happened. My partner, Chad, I'm afraid he could tell you. So much stuff has happened, I don't know. But all I know is I didn't want to split my audience, because as a businessman,

you stay out of politics and religion. I didn't want to split my audience. And I just remembered how affected I was when John Kennedy Jr. got killed. I'm not not Johnny Kennedy Jr. John Kennedy, I was in fifth grade when he got assassinated. I just remember how it affected me. And when they tried to kill Trump, someone that I knew personally, it affected me worse. And you know, I sat up off the couch and I said, that's it. This has to stop.

You know, I don't want to split my audience as a businessman, but now I don't care. This is much more important than business. Now this is a spiritual revolution. Now that this guy is coming out, trying to help people. He wants to help millions of people. He wants to help America have God in our country, in our homes, in our schools. And I said, I can't, I can't handle it. So I don't know if I told Chad or they call, I don't know how it happened. I really can't remember. But all I know is the reason I did it was because there's no place in this world for stuff like this, you know?

And if I was acting like a man, I was at home going, well, you know, if China invades or this happens, they'll come to my door and I've got guns. I was talking like a man, but I wasn't being one. You know, I didn't stand up like I should have. And so that Republican convention was my first time to actually stand up and be a man and not just talk like one, but actually be one.

So I felt so strong about it. That's why I did it, because there's no place. And then they tried to shoot him again a couple weeks later. This has to stop. You know, there's no place for anything like this in our society. So, I mean, it was like the reason I did it and I didn't care, you know, what people thought at this point. I just knew it was wrong.

And this is about what's right and what's wrong. And I can tell the difference. I know that much. It's got a lot to do with common sense, and that is wrong. In the 80s, when you were saying, like in 84, you go on Iron Sheik, and it was a former bodyguard to the Shah, and they're releasing the prisoners, the 52 prisoners that they kept for 444 days,

and the day, minutes after Reagan gets elected, they release him and Reagan gives credit to Carter. What comparisons do you or maybe you didn't follow politics at that time, maybe you did. What comparisons do you see to today's times versus the 80s with Reagan or is it night and day? It's very different. Well, I was too young to really know what was going on back then. But I remember the

country I grew up in, okay? And I grew up in a very poor area, which I did not even understand at the time. I got one bicycle and when I was a kid it got stolen, I never got another one. So I mean, I didn't realize, I thought that was my fault, and I understood that. I didn't realize that they couldn't afford to buy another one at the time, you know. So I know that the country I grew up in, playing Little League Baseball, and they were doing high school sports and messing around, you know, playing football and stuff like that, and how safe things were, you know, where we didn't lock our doors,

and I only had to be home when the streetlights were on, you know, and sometimes I'd come home a little later than that and get away with it. You can't do that nowadays, you know? Um, I've got a beautiful stepdaughter and when we're sitting in a restaurant and she asked if she could walk 20 ft to go to the bathroom, I say no, not unless your mother goes with you and not stand outside the door. I mean go in the bathroom first and check the stalls. Because I don't know what type of person is going to be in there. It wasn't like that when I grew up.

So I think Trump is going to do his best. And I said it on other interviews before, not the way things used to be. Trump wants things the way they used to be. No he doesn't. He wants things the way they used to be. No, he doesn't. He wants things the way they should be, the way America should be right now. And so that's what I'm praying for, that we can get this country back on track,

where we can all be safe and financially lead a good life where we don't have to grovel and choose between medicine or not feeding ourselves so that we can feed our kids. It shouldn't be that way. And not to go too far because I don't know what I'm talking about, but when I see billions and billions of dollars going to foreign countries to protect these foreign countries and make sure their borders are secure, we need to take care of our people here, that are homeless and the veterans and protect this country. And so I'm just praying that we can get back on track.

Have you always voted? No. No. First time I ever voted was for Trump. Seriously? Wait, you've never voted? First time I ever voted was for Trump. So it's not like you're a political guy.

You used to be a Democrat. You voted for whoever and you were a Republican. You voted for Reagan. You've never voted. No. Why didn't you vote all those years? I just didn't think we were in that bad of a shape. I didn't think it made a difference who was in, you know, but in 2016, I saw what was

going on back then, you know, and I started noticing how things changed and I saw the story of the news was coming out with and then later on I'd find out what was really going on and did my research and stuff and all of a sudden, you know, with the internet and stuff you can find out a lot of the truth. And there's a lot of misleading stuff on there too, but it just didn't nothing added up for me and knowing this man personally and knowing what he wanted in that whole theme, Make America Great Again, which I really think the theme should be, Make America Greater than it's ever been. I just couldn't pass and sit by anymore. I had to vote. I thought it made a huge difference back then. I still believe that now.

Wow, I was watching Danica Patrick yesterday. You know Danica Patrick, the driver. Yes, I was watching her too. She said she also was the first time she voted for Trump. She's never voted before. And that was her position as well. It's interesting to see folks who were not as active. It was like, honestly, I didn't follow a lot of the policies. And then she said she went to an event,

I don't know what event she was talking about, and it could have been AmFest that she talked about that inspired her to say, I wanna get involved. For you, when you're saying, first time I voted for Trump, was that 16 or 20? 16. Oh, you voted 16. Yeah, when he won.

Got it, got it. And over the years, have you guys communicated? Have you guys been in touch? Oh, we've been back and forth. We've communicated back and forth. And, you know, I used to be the celebrity judge for Us Magazine. When the celebrities would have fights, like Jay will be mad at Madonna. I'd go, okay, Jay will win because of this and Madonna lost because of that. And then I'd always tag it with a funny tongue and cheek little line.

So there was one thing, I can't remember who it was. It was Trump and J.Lo or Trump and somebody. And I said, well, you know something, Trump, you won this because you're right. And I was being honest, he was right. But so and so, whether it's J.Lo or Madonna, I said, J.Lo has better hair. And I get this letter from him going,

Terry, this and that and the other, you made fun him going, Terry this and that and the other, you made fun of my hair this and that and the other. He was like serious, you know, because, but it was, it was kind of like a joke, a tongue in cheek joke. But he took it seriously. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, but you know, he thought I was making fun of him. I really wasn't. It was just a little comedic relief there. Yeah. I mean, he's different. That's the one thing about him. He's very different than, you know, the other day, I don't know don't you ever had any interaction with Mark Cuban. No, I have it. Yeah the other day Letter released that Trump wrote to Mark Cuban when Mark Cuban's show failed

I don't know if you've seen this letter or not. Have you seen what he says? This is Trump's letter He writes him on October 18th on my birthday. Oh for dear mark you mr. Cuban I am truly sorry to hear that your show has been canceled for lack of ratings when I initially called you to congratulate you on the benefactor little did you or I realize how disastrous and Embarrassing it would turn out to be for you If you ever decide to do another show, please call me and I'll be happy to lend a helping hand best wishes Donald and you got to realize who writes letters like this. That's crazy. Oh My gosh, that's crazy

Alicia know how he feels Have you had any interactions with Ilan have you have you and Ilan ever met or spoken or now? No, we haven't. Got it. At this phase of your life right now, are you planning on doing anything else with wrestling? Are you still involved? Are you actively involved? And if yes, in what capacity are you?

Well, I guess last year, a year and a half ago, I signed a five-year deal. I saw that. With the WWE. And it's not a legends deal, there's a lot more to it than that. But we've got a ton of projects, documentary stuff, movie stuff. Is a movie for you, weren't you supposed,

but I thought I saw a movie that was supposed to come out with Chris Helmsworth starring you and the director was the director of a recent movie that just came out, Joker I wanna say, or Top Gun, right, that guy. What happened with it? There was a Netflix deal or something that happened with it? They kinda like missed a beat in the contract, you know? So Netflix screwed up?

Yeah. There was a payment that wasn't placed at the right time. The script was amazing. Actually Scott Silver, who wrote the script, did the Joker stuff, Wolf of Wall Street, a bunch of other movies, said this is the best thing I've ever written. And when I read it, I went, oh my God, this is really good. And at the time I was in a space where I told him the positive stuff about wrestling and the negative stuff about wrestling spent about three

years with this writer going back and forth and when I read it it was just very very dark if that would be the right word but it was really probably what the public may want to see you know and, and I just, when I read it, I went, oh my gosh, if this thing comes out, you know, there was talk that, you know, Chris Hemsworth had never played a real person before and he could probably win an Oscar. This thing's so powerful, very powerful.

And I said, oh, that's great. Everybody's going to do really great. But then I'm going to be left here, cheese stands alone. And that might be the last thing people remember me for so I just was moving forward at the time and when they business-wise missed a date there was an option for me to pull out and I did. Oh so you didn't want it to happen? I pulled out yeah. Oh so if you do do it you won't do it with that same script because it's too dark? Well no I would do it with that same script because it's too dark Well, no, I would do it with the same script then there's also a documentary to a check and balance system There's also a four-hour block of TV like the OJ stuff to tell the real story a check and balance system

This had no check and balance system. What it did do was it took me right up to the time I turned bad guy and if this internal until I turned to Hollywood Hoagie went to the WCW so this movie did blow through the roof like they expected it would then there would be another one which would be really cool. Did you did you watch Trump's new movie that came out the apprentice? Have you seen it? No I haven't okay yeah it was it was by this director it was a 17 million dollar budget it did 1.6 million opening weekend it was supposed to be a hit piece but it was a big flop that they had. At this point when the story is, especially for you, when they want to make a movie, how do you manage it if they want to tell a part of the story that you don't want to be told?

You can't manage anything with that, right? Unless if you're producing it. Because I know Ben Affleck and I think Matt Damon, they're trying to do something as well. I don't know if it's a movie or a documentary that Ben is supposed to play you Mm-hmm is that that you're not involved in that at all? No, no, I got it. No, they they would probably all are the same demise that Gawker did if they did that I don't know where they're at with it, but wish him the best of luck it's just an old story anyway, but who knows?

I'm not really sure other than, you know, reasonable creative input is not the same as creative control. I'm- Reasonable input is not the same as- Reasonable creative input is not the same as creative control. Which would you prefer, creative control?

Creative control. I got you prefer creative creative control? I got it. Who's gonna give that up though, right? How about they want the movie and I would be very fair but there has to be a balance It can't be just lopsided evil evil evil right? By the way, do you have control like if somebody wanted to write it and produce it without your permission? Can they do that or no? They can do it but they you know any type of life story rights and stuff, you know, they could be in a really bad position legally if they, you know, don't have me involved.

So, I mean, there's so many hills and valleys when you do something without someone's permission. Is there any documentaries on you or any movies yet on you? Oh I think any did a documentary on me? Don't know. There's been so much stuff. I've done so much stuff on TV you know and done so many of these things. I really get confused. Is he pulling it up? The trials of free press? What is that? I don't think this is about Hulk per se. I think this is more about the Gawker lawsuit. Oh yeah. No, what I'm asking about, I'm asking about like an actual, you know, like the Vince McMahon

documentary or the Last Dance with Michael Jordan or the Captain with Derek Jeter. Has something like that been done on you or not yet? No, I have to start actually this month, November, sitting down with writers for a documentary that they're doing like they did with Vince. I think that would blow up. We're gonna find out. Oh well listen I mean I don't know if you're seeing how this thing is performing. Normally I'll know if a doc or show or something is doing well. You know how when you got 20, 30, 40 people tell you,

go watch this, go read this, go see this. And then when influencers are texting you, you have to watch this, like okay, there's something going on with this. This documentary that they did on Vince was very unique. I thought it was phenomenal. It gave you the perspective of realizing nobody walks on water, the POV and the vision of a visionary,

how they look at the world in a different way, getting all of you guys in there to tell your own stories. I got a great experience, I had this, I had that. Even the scene with Bret Hart saying, when the cops called me that I trusted him, and they said, Bret, I know you don't wanna to hear this and you want to think that he was involved. He was not involved This was not intentional. This was a mistake like these are all moments that The part where Bret Hart said when Owen fell and the strap didn't protect him and he died

He says, you know Vince did this he would do something like this and in the documentary a Cop or one of the guys calls him and says, bread, I know you don't wanna hear this, but Vince had nothing to do with it. This was a pure accident. It was done so well. So if somebody does the doc on you, and they do it well, you need controversy.

If it's a boring story, you don't have controversy, no one's gonna see it. And you got plenty, you can go back, and like you said, the two runs, there's plenty plenty stories. That will make for one hell of a documentary. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, so I can't wait to watch. By the way, tell us about this beer before we wrap up. The beer, oh my gosh, it all started out with a crazy little idea. My partner and I chatted, we're at a little convention, and I had a crazy line, you know, wanting to take pictures and get autographs and when I'm on my own and I'm not being hustled, you know, I

really like to spend time with people. Like if I'm working for another company or something like that, sometimes you like to rush people through, but for me I like to sit down and shake people's hands, look at them in the eye and it's kind of weird being around wrestling for 40 years and wrestling that long. Everybody has a whole program story and they're really good. And sometimes they're hard to listen to. But some people, you know, I was their favorite wrestler. Some people grew up without a group, without a father.

Or some people were addicted to drugs and still they started following the character when they saw me get baptized to change their life. So I get all these crazy stories. So I love to hear them. And as I was shaking people's hands and I want to hear what they have to say, I read their name tag and one gentleman had Pabst Blue Ribbon, vice president.

I went, oh my gosh, that's the beer my dad used to drink. I totally forgot about it. My dad drank that beer. And so the gentleman said, well, have you ever entertained doing something in the beer space? I went, you know what? I'm always looking for those Wild Wild West deals. And now that I've been watching Bud Light

and how they crashed and burned, and they didn't understand their audience, their marketing plan fell apart, I see this crazy open lane. And it's for beer that's Middle America, country, western, NASCAR, wrestling, mom, Apple Pie, baseball, it's all the above. And I really think I have an idea Western, NASCAR, wrestling, mom, Apple pie, baseball. It's all the above. And I really think I have an idea because, you know, I realized sometimes the

neighbors don't talk to each other and the Democrats and Republicans don't talk. And I said, we were so much more like them. We are different that if we had a beer and we could just have a conversation, like in the dressing room, you know, instead of going out and getting beat up in the ring all the time, sometimes I sit down with my opponent, I say, let's have a beer and talk about it. You know, even if you don't like me, we got to go work together. And so I said, maybe we could have a beer that would bring America back together.

So I said, I've got an idea for Hulk Hogan's real American beer, and we can bring America back together one beer at a time. And when I said that to the gentleman, his eyes lit up, oh my gosh. And my partner Chad and I get approached by several different people in the industry, and we finally decided to do it on our own. And this thing just took off like crazy all of a sudden.

It's kind of like jumping on another lightning bolt, like a Hulk mania lightning bolt, but everywhere we go, I'm just glad we're kind of like jumping on another lightning bolt like a Hulk mania lightning bolt but everywhere we go I'm just glad we're kind of like not doing it on the weekends because we're going to all over the country like during the week and even when kids are in school and people are working and the lines are crazy at the Walmart's and Targets and Kroger's and everywhere. I can only imagine. Yeah and and the beer is just doing really great so that's where the idea came from.

And so now we're out to prove a point and we're gonna try to make it America's number one beer. And so this can be found where? Folks can order this or where can they find it? We're in 16 or 17 different states now, and we're gonna cover all 50 states, but it's usually the big stores. So you're all over Florida there, I mean, not including the big stores. So you're all over Florida

there I mean not including the map nationwide so you guys are everywhere now. Yeah yeah I mean you know we were we're actually going to Michigan again tomorrow and you know we've been everywhere from Ohio to Missouri. We're all over the place so we're we're doing really well we've only been pushing for about three and a half, four months, and we're way ahead of a lot of other people that are around for a long time. I love the logo. Yeah.

I love the logo. That guy in the middle, zooming a little to show the logo right, that you can't go any closer. That's a sick logo right there. Yeah, that was a logo from, oh my gosh, one of the WrestleMania's four or five. And Nikon and Triple H, they granted me the rights to use that logo, you know. And, because I didn't want to go ahead and

decide on a new one. Redraw or do something different. People were real familiar with that one. So they gifted it to me and it was really cool that they did that. Well, sir, I gotta tell you, Hawk, I mean, I don't, you know, for me, learning the stories, the family, you know, being vulnerable with your pops, your father, my dad's 82 years old, still with me.

And oh, grateful every day, both my mom and my dad. So when I hear the stories, everybody's got their own unique stories for you to go to where you were at. And then sitting down here with you, how likable you are just spending that 90 minute conversation. I wish we had four hours together for us to spend more time together.

But I appreciate you for coming out and we're gonna put the link below to the website, Rob, if you can, for real American beer. And you can go find it everywhere, whatever locations there are, and support this man because you're loved. You're loved by millions around the world.

Everybody and anybody I talk to in my community, friends, family, anybody, I don't know anybody that doesn't like you. There are certain people that are liked, there are certain people that are loved. You're absolutely in the loved community from financial industry, private equity guys, business guys, finance guys,

everybody has a Hulk Hogan story. So I appreciate you for coming out and giving me this 90 minutes. It was fantastic. Thank you, my brother. I appreciate it. Thank you. I enjoyed it. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. This was great. You're going to think I'm crazy when I tell you this, but the last 13 and a half years,

I've been working on my first fiction book to write ever. Fiction book to write. And while I finished this book a year ago, I got the strangest phone call about one of the characters in the book where the guy wanted to meet with me and he read the book. And afterwards, it's like, wait a minute, am I the villain in the book? This is a story about a character named Asher, who is half Armenian, half Assyrian, whose father was involved in the Iranian revolution, linked to Savak, working with the Shah, that they escape and he gets recruited to a secret society. When you go to the secret society, it's been around for a couple thousand years, they've

developed some of the craziest leaders of all time, and they test you. There's unique tests that they have at the society where they test to see your emotional mental toughness. One of the tests that they have is very rigorous. It's purely mental. Of course, there's a physical one, but one is mental and emotional. If you're Armenian, if you're Syrian, if you're Persian, this is a book you're going to be reading and saying, holy moly, this is the kind of stuff you talk about in here?

Yes. If you're somebody that's fascinated by history, this is a book for you. Characters, there's a technology that this society, secret society builds where you go into a vault. I won't spoil it for you. When you go down, they have a technology where you get to sit down and watch and have a three, four hour conversation with Tupac. You can set up a debate between Karl Marx and Ayn Rand.

Karl Marx is in the book who wrote Communist Manifesto. Ayn Rand who wrote Atlas Shr Marx is in the book who wrote Communist Manifesto. Ayn Rand who wrote Atlas Shrugged is in the book. Marilyn Monroe explains the concept of seduction and sex in the book. When you read the book, it's about development of the next leaders in the world and how they do it and how they've been doing it for many years. And it's also about how to prevent the end of civilization and how this organization goes about doing it. So, I've

never written a parenting book before but if I ever wrote a parenting book this is the closest thing to it because it's all mindset, a lot of crazy stories. Again 13 and a half years. Trust me I told myself I will not publish this book until I sell my insurance company and I'm fully disconnected from it where it's no longer my responsibility 100%. When you read this if you're a creative person, if you like fiction books, if you enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, if you enjoyed Divergent, if you like books like that, I think you can enjoy reading this book. It's the creative side. Business books is very easy. Here's how you do it. Here's how

it works. This is very creative. If you haven't placed your order yet, now you can order on Simon & Schuster, Amazon. I'm going to put the link up below somewhere here maybe even in my profile go order the book and read it i sincerely i've never written a book where i can't wait to read your reviews to do see what you think about this book so i'm going on this wild journey and we have some plans with this book here uh if you support the things that I work on I would appreciate you going on reading the book, order the book on Amazon and then post a review.