Piers Morgan Uncensored - ‘I’m Bitter... He'd Still Be With Us!’ Remembering Hulk Hogan With Bubba The Love Sponge

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

It’s impossible to overstate the significance of Hulk Hogan in professional wrestling - and popular culture. From the moment he toppled the Iranian “Iron Sheik” in 1984, Hogan became an all-American hero and a global brand. He later found himself right at the centre of the WWF’s steroid scandal, as well as its all-out war with Ted Turner’s rival brand, the WCW. Hogan even formed an extraordinary secret tag-team with the billionaire Peter Thiel, together suing the online tabloid Gawker into oblivion over an illicit sex tape featuring Hogan and his friend’s wife. But there is no question that Hulk will be remembered as a man who spoke freely and lived very publicly - to the delight of many millions of fans. Joining Uncensored to discuss his life and legacy is Darren Prince, owner and CEO of Prince Marketing Group and Hulk Hogan's longtime friend and agent. Piers also speaks to Bubba The Love Sponge, the aforementioned former friend who was involved in the sex tape scandal, and former WWF and WCW head writer Vince Russo. NOTE: Mr Prince was a late addition to the rundown for this segment and did not have prior knowledge of the format or panellists. We appreciate him joining us for this interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be very candid. I think that if Hogan had listened to his doctors, we probably still have Terry with us today. 24 to the 36 hours after this major surgery, he's out canvassing across America. All these people flat out live. Enough was enough. At 70 years old, Hulk Hogan cut a wrestling promo better than anybody in the business right now. was the best man at your wedding. You know, your wife was filmed having sex with him.

Had you had a chance to sit down to kind of bury the hatchet after all the problems from the fallout of the tape and so on? What would you have said to him? It's impossible to overstate the significance of Hulk Hogan, professional wrestling, and indeed in popular culture. For the moment he toppled the Iranian Iron Shake in 1984, Hogan became an all-American hero and a global brand. He had found out himself at the center of a WDOV steroid scandal,

as well as its all-out war with Ted Turner's renegade rival brand, the WCW. Hogan even formed an extraordinary secret tag team with the billionaire Peter Thiel. Together they sued the online tabloid gawker into oblivion over an illicitic sex tape featuring Hogan and his friend's wife. Well, that case sparked a frenzied national debate about free speech and privacy. But there is no question that Hulk will be remembered as a man who spoke freely, and lived very publicly to the delight of many millions of fans.

Well, joining us to discuss his life and his legacy, the former head writer at WWF and WCW, Vince Russo, Darren Prince, Hulk Hogan's longtime friend and agent, and Hulk's former best friend who hosts the Bubba the Love Spunge show, Mr. Bubba the Love Spunge. Well, welcome to all of you. Vince Russo, let me start with you as a former head writer at WWF and WCW. When I heard this news, I just felt like one of the really big cultural icons of my life had just passed.

That was how I saw Hulk Hogan. Everyone knew him. You know, everyone was aware of him. There aren't many people who have that kind of global status. Now, my kids loved WWE. They all revered him when they were younger. What was it for you, the moment when you heard, in terms of the significance to you? Yeah, it took a great.

impact on me, Pierce. You know, Hulk Hogan, you know, to simply put it, was the Babe Ruth of professional wrestling, the greatest character in the history of professional wrestling. A lot of times when somebody passes, we say there will never be another. We say it's the end of the era. All those things are true with the passing of Hulk Hogan. There will never be another. I don't think anybody will come close. He put wrestling on the map. He made professional wrestling cool, and his boots will never, ever be filled. You know, I saw a Rocky poster behind you as you were speaking there, and I was a massive Rocky fan. I remember Rocky 3 when he played, was it Thunderlips was the character, I think, the wrestling star, who sort of beats Rocky up.

And then goes from being this absolute kind of monster to the moment it's over. He's the most gentle giant, incredibly polite, and so on. And that was kind of my experience. I interviewed him at the height of the big gawker sex scandal. And I was struck by how differently seemed in person to this persona. The only Hulk Hogan I'd ever known was this extraordinary screen and stage and theater and arena performer. But the actual man himself seemed to me a much gentler character, very respectful, very polite, certainly nothing like the kind of rampation.

monster he often was in the ring. Well, yeah, I mean, in working with him, I could tell you, I never saw Hulk lose his temper. I never saw Hulk lose his cool. You know, they were always conversations with Hulk. Always, always, always, always very respectful to me. And also those that he worked with. Let me turn to you, Darren Prince, if I may.

You were a longtime friend and agent of Hulk Hogan. And my deep sympathies to you and everyone who was, close to him because to me he was somebody I only met a couple of times but but knew of a lot to you guys you met him all the time it's a very different relationship first of all uh how do you view Hulk Hogan in terms of his place in American culture I mean it's just like you said earlier hands down you know the Babe Ruth of the sport and uh for me it was just a blessing to get to know the real terrible leah that was it was there for his friends family but God first and had a heart of gold.

For those who didn't know him, what was he really like? I mean, just like I said, I mean, he would give you the shirt off his back. You know, his fans meant everything to him. No matter how long it took, no matter where he was, he wanted to make sure those 30 seconds for that interaction, whether he had to hear about somebody's grandfather, where they were when a match happened, the father, the big brother, the uncle, he wanted to make sure those 30 seconds were that,

in it changed somebody's life and they remembered it forever. There's a great clip doing the rounds, I think, on TikTok or something. And it's of a little boy who's come dressed as Hulk, and he's kind of engaging with him as the Hulk character. And Hulk immediately recognizes what this kid is doing and joins in wholeheartedly. It's a very simple sort of exchange in many ways, but it showed to me how fundamental he viewed that relationship between himself and his fans, particularly he's a very simple sort of exchange in many ways. young fans who, you know, genuinely bought into all this.

I mean, kids everywhere. We talked about it all the time. He had four generations of fans. It just kept translating from one generation to the next, which is so hard to do. You know, in today's world, I represent a lot of icons, and that doesn't happen often, but that shows how beloved he was and how it just got passed down from generation to generation. But let me bring you in here. I mean, you must have complex feelings.

You were best friends. Hulk was the best man at your wedding. Then, of course, we had the whole scandal, and your wife was filmed having sex with him. The footage got leaked to Gorker. It became this enormous core celebrity. It closed down Gorka, which many thought was a very good thing at the time. Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire, financed Hulk's case

because he'd been outed by Gorka as Gave years before. So there's a lot going on there. But for you, that whole thing just seemed to ruin your relationship irrevocably. Did you ever get the chance to make things up? No, and I really never did. I attempted a couple times to try to reach out to him. But, you know, I don't think he was interested. I think that he thought that if we were to be friendly in his latter years,

that people would think that the second. tape was a work and that him and I were in on it and that truly wasn't how it went down. He was an innocent, you know, party to this. And that's why he was awarded the amount of money that he got from Gawker because it was an invasion or privacy situation. So, no, I didn't get an opportunity to reconcile with him like I wish I could. And I have a doc. There's a documentary coming out in about 30 days that kind of.

it touches on that subject called video video killed the radio star the truth behind the hogan sex tape so um a lot a lot of people really don't know how all that went down it didn't go down the way people think it did where i'm 100% the bad guy i i did participate in it uh but i didn't distribute it or leak it or extort anybody or anything like that so there's there's a lot a lot of stuff yet to unpack with regard to that I mean, do you know who did? Who did leak it? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, the people that the people that did leak it and extorted Hogan paid dearly. There was a second lawsuit that was sued Hogan v. Cox Media and Don Buckwold and Associates. They paid handsomely for that not to go to trial once they saw what the verdict was. Hogan's attorneys took two bites at the apple, the people that published it, and then the people that, people that distribute it. it and the people that distributed it settled out of court. Allegedly, I've been told for $55 million. Wow. And did Hulk believe you when you said you had nothing to do with that tape being

distributed? Oh, absolutely. He absolutely believe me. There's court documents that then the FBI did a big sting because the person that was trying to extort him met him and David Houston in a hotel room and tried to exchange money. And the FBI, it was a big FBI sting. And Terry knew for a fact that I did not distribute it or try to benefit from it. So yes, the answer is yes. He knew I had nothing to do with the profiting of that tape. Many people, Bubba, and it was all completely consensual, and it's not for me to be any kind of moral judge about any of that.

But when you look back on that episode in your life, obviously the fallout from that original decision to let your wife have sex, your best mate turned out to have catastrophic repercussions that went on for a very long time, including ruining your relationship with your best friend? I mean, do you regret that initial decision? Do you wish you just never got involved in that initial thing? Yes, the answer very simply is yes, times a million. I wish that, you know, Hogan was living with me at the time.

It was when him and he was probably at the low point of his life, he was living. with me. We had my wife and I had somewhat of a open relationship. I was trying to cheer my buddy up and it just it was a complete mistake on my behalf and I truly wish it would never happen. I'll come back to you Vince.

I mean that was obviously like I say the one time I interviewed Hulk was about that scandal actually but in the end he was completely vindicated in taking the action that he took. He was lucky I think Peter Thiel help finance it for him, but he managed to shut down Gawker completely, which was an enormous

thing at the time. I remember in the wrestling world, did any of that scandal tarnish Hulks' reputation or even enhance it? I mean, how do you view the impact of the scandal on his legacy? Well, you know, there's been some negativity about Hulks since his passing. He did have some issues when he was alive. But Pierce, here's what I say about that. We are all flawed human beings. We are all flawed individuals. None of us are perfect. But here's the one thing about Hulk. You know, towards the end of his life, he was baptized. He found Christ. I think if anybody knew he was flawed, it was Hulk himself. And, you know, he lived with some mistakes that he had made. But at the end of the day, man, he was a human being like us all. And in his legacy, I just hope that those things

aren't held against them because at the end of the day, we look at him as Hulk Hogan. We look at him as Paul Bunyan. The reality of the situation is he was Terry Bolea, he was a man, and he was flawed just like the rest of us are. Darren, I see you nodding there. And I think not everyone would completely agree about that. And it was clear to me when, I interviewed him about it, that it was, he felt very, very embarrassed. That was his overriding thing about it, was that he just felt a deep sense of personal embarrassment that a story like that had gone so big around the world. Was that your sense about it for him? I mean, it's just like you just said, we're all flawed. I just celebrated 17 years sober in

early July. You think I lived a perfect life and now I'm helping people all around the world, you know. And he didn't do that. any of that. None of that. That wasn't the human he was. You, I think, went through a period of Opeerud addiction in the early 2000s. The help was very helpful to you. Is that right? Extremely helpful. Extremely helpful. And brought us closer to God together to, and as you know, peers, I've got my own foundation now. We've scholarship people for the Aming High Foundation all over America and made a lot of mistakes in my life. but that's not me anymore.

How much do you think, Darren, in the end, that work played a part in him dying? A lot of people have come out to say he was being overworked towards the end of his life, that he should have been taking it easier and so on. Other people say, look, he was a wrestler, it's a hard, brutal business. You know, you're lucky, you're lucky if you have a very long, long life as a wrestler,

statistically. Where do you sit with that debate about his work-life balance in the last few years? I mean, I represent a lot of global icons, and I see it all the time. I mean, it's their competitive nature. You know, you've got to find that replacement. So once they're out of the spotlight, they always find something in the world of business to just go 150 miles an hour. And nobody was going to tell them any different. You know, no superstar athlete is any different once they retire.

Bubba, before you fell out, you were incredibly close to Hulk. Tell me about the real man behind the kind of legend. Well, I mean, you know, he's the godfather of my son. He was the best man of my wedding. Vince will tell you that, you know, I really, I dabbled in the wrestling business a little bit through TNA and stuff, and it was not because of my ability or because I was a wrestler. It was because Hulk, you know, told Vince and Dixie, hey, let's bring Bubba in and they found some kind of job for me.

So he was, and he was, you know, he was like everybody on this panel right now, will say the common denominator is Hulk. Hulk, Terry, had a heart of gold. He was an ultimate showman. He was a good father. And, you know, he just, he just was so giving and, and iconic and immortal. And those are, those are the words that I can think of, you know, more than anything, iconic, immortal, gracious, loving, just great, just a great guy. Vince, how good a wrestler was Hulk? Let's just talk about him as a wrestler. You know, to be an iconic figure, I saw him naming his own Mount Rathmore, a clip was doing the rounds. I think he had the rock in there. He had Rick Flair, I think. He chose a few, you know, big, big characters from wrestling. But how good was he? Well, you know, listen,

he was an iconic character. And Hulk Hogan wrestled a certain way. And Hulk Hogan used the same repertoire over and over again. That's all Hulk Hogan needed. But wrestling historians will tell you when Hulk went over and wrestled in Japan, which is a totally different type of style, Hulk could go. He was really a good wrestler. But with the iconic nature that he built here in the United States, he wasn't known for his wrestling. He was known for that larger than life persona. He was known for Hulkomania. And, you know, like I said, he had a handful of moves that everybody wanted to see. And at the end of the day, man, he gave the people what they wanted.

Barbara, I noticed you when Darrell was talking, you were sort of nodding about the overwork suggestion with Hulk. And you were certainly posting about some of this at the time. But what was your understanding of what was going on there with Hulk and his work? Well, I mean, I'm going to be very candid. I think that if Hogan had listened to his doctors, we probably still have Terry with us today. He had a procedure that is a very major procedure and was told to slow down and, you know, not get out for four to six weeks. And 24 to the 36 hours after this major, major surgery, he's out canvassing across America doing the beer deal, doing the shoot style wrestling stuff. So, and you know, really, the only person, and I was the only person that was reporting his true health status.

And I didn't know that Vince Russo was going to be on this panel today. But that guy right there, that gray-haired guy right there is the only dude that believed me when eight, six, six, seven weeks ago, I was getting reports that he wasn't doing good, that he was potentially on his deathbed, that the family had been summons. and everybody, I got so much heat and so much hate and so much vitriol for telling the truth when the, when his wife and the Brian Blairs and the Jimmy Hearts and the Eric Bischoff's, all these people flat out lied. They flat out lied about his condition. And I was the only one. And I wasn't trying to pound my chest and say, I'm the only one.

I was the only one saying, hey, this is a serious situation. I know I have inside sources, inside circles. You know, this is a very grave situation. And we may not have Terry around much longer. And it all started with a complication that he had from the stage four cervical surgery that he had. And he was told not to, you know, but he had his beer investors and he had his folk style wrestling investors. And he has all these people that are pulling at them that probably have tens of millions of dollars invested. And out camvons, you know, you sell X amount of cases of beer in Green Bay, Wisconsin when Hogan's there.

and you sell X amount when he's not there. And so I think had he actually slowed down, and a guy like Kevin Nash or some of these guys that are retired and don't have to go out all the time are healthy and are in good shape, and Terry needed to slow down, enjoy his wealth, and not jeopardize his health. I think he'd be with us today had he done that. Darren, what do you think of that?

I mean, honestly, just like I said, you're not going to tell somebody any different. I'm here to pay respect and homage to a dear friend in my life, not to talk about what could have, should have been in life, because only God knows when our time is up. What do you think his legacy should be, Darren? As an individual, you know, I said earlier, you know, a man that loved his friends, his family, as loyal as they come, and a heart of gold.

And hands down the bebruth of wrestling and one of the biggest cultural icons over the past, you know, 50, 60 years, without a doubt. You know, Vince, we lost Ozzy Osbourne, who was a good friend of mine. And then a couple of days later, we lose Hulk Hogan. And you could argue the two of them, actually in the last 50 years, probably in my lifetime,

would be in the top 10 cultural icons, really. But very different reasons, but two just incredible larger-man-life characters with big global appeal and fan bases. You know, peers, it's funny, man, because I've really been thinking about this the last couple of days. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be walking in Hulk Hogan's shoes.

He had to be Hulk Hogan 24-7. If you put a picture of Hulk Hogan in front of anybody in this, world. They knew who it was. So you're talking about a guy that goes out to a grocery store, a guy that wants to go for a drive in his car, you know, guy that wants to go to the beach. They see Hulk Hogan. And for him to always have to be on and always have to deliver and always have to be the guy that his fans, you know, thought he was and wanting him to be. Think about that for 40 plus years. I can't imagine peers living that type of a lifestyle for one year. This guy did it his whole entire life. And God bless him, and I don't know how he did it. The expectations were

absolutely huge all the time. It's very true. But what was interesting was he kind of steered clear of too much political comment or revealing his allegiances and so on. Until quite recently, when he decided to get fully behind Donald Trump, but actually I was at the rally at Madison Square Garden. I've only ever been to one political rally in my life for anyone. And I spoke to Donald Trump that morning. He said, why don't you come down? I went down.

And it was an extraordinary event. It was a week before the election. And it was clear to me then Trump was going to win because it was right in the middle of New York. And there were no protests. There were just 50,000. people trying to get in who were pro-Trump. And I thought, well, this election's over,

if even New York has just rolled over. But Hulk got up and made a really, like, heartfelt speech as an American, really, that day. But, of course, he was aligning himself with Trump in an overt political manner at a rally. And because of that, he got a bit of sniping from those who, you know, don't like Trump and so on. Do you think he was wise to get political as he got older?

You know, I think that Vince would back me on this. Terry had a really good, he could read the room quite well. That's what made him one of the best workers ever is he could literally read the room. He could work the room. He could read the room. And so, you know, he never really dabbled in the politics, you know, the political world too much. But when, you know, when Donald Trump, I think, was going to be the guy, you know, Terry aligned himself perfectly. You know, he had some projects coming up that would make his brand, make Terry, make Terry. brand even stronger with that large of a stage being on the RNC. He nailed it. He absolutely nailed it. And I like to rewind just a little bit by saying, you know, when I was talking earlier about him slowing down and convincing across America, I wasn't trying to be disrespectful to somebody that I've loved so very much. I'm somewhat bitter, and I wish that his handlers may, you know, maybe we have listened to the doctors and slowed him down because I don't say that out of disrespect. I say that out of, you know, my grieving for my former best friend, and I just wish you would have slowed down.

I had no way was trying to be disrespectful. Let's take a look at that clip. What happened last week when they took a shot at my hero, and they tried to kill the next president of the United States. Enough was enough. I mean, Darren, what did you think about that? Obviously, it was a very powerful. moment. Everybody watched the clip and went everywhere. But I noticed a lot of people, you know,

on the left who didn't like it and didn't like the fact he was so aligned with Trump. Do you think he cared at that stage? Hulk or was he like, no, I'm doing this? No, at that point, it was after the assassination attempt. And we had many opportunities in 17, 18, 19 to support Trump. And, you know, celebrities have to be very careful in today's world. Now, what side you're choosing because you're losing half of your family? And after that assassination attempt, that was it. He just put his foot down and went all in. Did he mind at all about any of the backlash?

I mean, there was obviously a lot of people cheering him on as well. It was like it was just a wall of noise afterwards, good, bad and ugly. Did he have any regrets for us? I mean, not. No. Yeah, at this time, there wasn't as much backlash as I think there would have been if it was, you know, five, six years earlier. Yeah, I think that's right.

I mean, Vince, did you think it made any difference to his legacy that he went all in on Trump at the last election? I'll tell you this was the legacy, Pierce, because I was watching that at home. I've been in the wrestling business for, my God, 35 years now. At 70 years old, Hulk Hogan cut a wrestling promo better than anybody in the business right now. At 70 years old in front of millions and millions of people watching that live,

Hulk Hogan showed everybody how it was done. That's the guy we're talking about. That's why he was at the forefront of Mount Rushmore, because at 70 years old, man, he was still doing it better than everybody else. Bubba, just finally, had you had a chance to sit down with Hulk, with Terry, your great friend, to kind of bury the hatchet after all the problems from the fallout of the tape and so on? What would you have said to him? I would have said, Terry, I think you know the truth on how this got out and who disseminated it

and who was trying to profit from it and it was all part of a radio war to get me fired. Inevitably, that's what happened. I lost everything from it. and you know that now that you've gone through the deposition process of both of these lawsuits. But more importantly, I owe you an apology. I love you. I hope you can forgive me. And, you know, Pierce, I actually had.

And one of the people that I was, when this all went down, he had just married Jennifer, his second wife. He had just married her, and this thing dropped in 12. And it was really, really not good for their relationship, as obviously that wouldn't be. but just recently I had an opportunity to apologize to her I got on the phone with her and I apologize to her because that's somebody that I always wanted to apologize was his innocent wife who he just married that got caught up in this big salacious sleaze ball tape deal and she didn't have a dog in the fight at all so I do I sleep better at night knowing I got a chance to to apologize to her but I really wish that Terry and I could have had a conversation in some way, shape, or form.

And I would have 100, I mean, I take onus, I take onus of it all. He was an innocent bystandard. They got caught up in a radio war. You know, he made a lot of money from it, and I lost everything. But, you know, maybe that's, maybe I had it coming to me. Well, I'm very sorry to all of you for different reasons in different ways about the loss of this great character. Like I said, I met him once. He was a lovely man to meet.

And as a fan, I was a, like, so the performance alone in Rocky. I never went to the wrestling much, but with my kids or never young, but the Rocky performance was just so iconic. And just showed the world what a large of the life, massive, incredible character he was. And he'll be greatly missed. It was a real part of all our lives. So I'd like to thank all of you for joining me to pay tribute to him. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Piers Morgan Unsensored is proudly independent. The only boss around here is me. If you enjoy our show, we ask only one simple thing. Hit subscribe on YouTube and follow Piers Morgan Unsensored on Spotify and Apple Podcast. And in return, we will continue our mission to inform, irritate and entertain. And we'll do it all for free. Independent Unsensored Media has never been more critical, and we couldn't do it without you.