The Joe Rogan Experience - #2024 - Hulk Hogan

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Hulk Hogan is a professional wrestler, actor, broadcast personality, and entrepreneur whose most recent project is a signature line of cannabis and mushroom products. www.hulkhogan.com  www.immortalbyhulkhogan.com

The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night. All day. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, the great and powerful Tony Hinchcliffe, the biggest pro wrestling fan in the world. Totally appropriate that he's here today because we have the king. Whoa. We share a birthday.

We share four letters of our last name. The fucking man, Hulk Hogan. Do I need birthday, we share four letters of our last name. The fucking man, Hulk Hogan. Do I need these things, brother? You don't have to. I like them. They lock everybody in. They look great with your do-rag.

I can't even hear you, man. You can't? Is it not on? A little cranker. Are you? Chest test test. Whoa. Here we go.

Strong, brother. Well, thank you for having me here. Please it's an honor. Oh Great to see you man. Yeah What's cracking we were talking about back surgeries before this I can't I can't believe let me let me let me wake up here I need to do the whole thing okay, okay? Well you know something Joe Rogan when I walked into this place That was the perfect style for me, dude. The paintings, the mug shots, all the people

that I beat up, I knew this was the place to be, man. So what you gonna do when Rogan and Hogan run wild on you, brother? That's a good question. Okay, I'm good. I'm good now. Childhood boner. And an adult boner, too. I'm good now.

Let's go. I'm good now. Let's go. I'm good. The coffee's great. Thank you. My pleasure. It's great. And thanks for, you have a cannabis company now. Tell us about this.

Well, I got hooked up with Mike Tyson, Flair, and all those. Ah, same company. Yeah, guys. And our buddy Chad put the whole deal together. It's like the Italians, you know. There's an open lane. There's more room at the table for one more to eat. Yeah.

And it was a situation we started talking about the CBD stuff, the energy, and the sleep stuff, and the whole nicotine thing. And there's a way to wind backwards from all the crazy, crazy bad stuff that a lot of us have participated in over the years. And so it just made sense to move in that direction. And, you know, my brand's been around for so long, there's a lot of people that we really think we can help out with this stuff. So that's why we're going down that road because a lot of my boys, you know, from the pharmaceutical side of things made a lot of missteps and aren't around today, where I think this could have been a situation that might have helped them wind down from

that crazy high they were on from the crowds and the lifestyle and everything to be able to settle back and become who they really are. Also, pain management. Yeah. That's a whole other trip, brother, because I've had 25 surgeries in the last 10 years. So when people say, you know, the wrestling's fake, it goes right up my ass. Because at the end of the day, it's predetermined. If you and I are wrestling, they're just going to tell us who's going to win or lose.

But all that stuff that happens in the middle, it hurts. I mean, you know, and, you know, it's a rough way to go. Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I think you guys have literally the hardest job in all of show business because you're out there on the road. How many days a year in your prime? Well, we were talking earlier. When I was doing this full time before John Cena and The Rocket

and these guys came around, I was really flying 300 days a year. 300 days a year. And I was wrestling 400 to 450 times a year. Jesus. I would wrestle twice Wednesday. Like a Saturday morning, I'd sell out the Philadelphia Spectrum at 1 o'clock and then that night be in Madison Square Garden.

Wow. Then Sunday in the morning and the afternoon, I'd be in the Boston Garden. And then Sunday night, I'd be at the LA Forum. So it was a pretty good stretch. That's an insane amount of work and an insane amount of punishment on your body, especially knowing what you did and the way you would fucking drop down. I mean, how many of those impacts do you think that you've experienced? Thousands, thousands.

those impacts oh my god that you've experienced thousands thousands i mean now when i see it you know the guys are younger faster smaller athletes but they're super athletes you know and the equipment the rings they have oh my god it's like they're perfectly made where you know i'd go wrestle andre the giant and let's say baltimore Center, and instead of the normal 18-foot ring, it would be a 22-foot boxing ring. It would be harder than the concrete. And Andre would go, don't go down, which means if you fall down, you're not going to get back up. So we'd actually have a match on our feet because Andre was like the boss.

He was the leader, you know, and he was my guy. So, you know, the equipment's so much better now um a lot of the guys getting hurt today are getting hurt because of how athletic and the crazy stuff they're doing but you know we were just getting hurt from just pounding on each other so much i remember watching brock lesnar do a front flip and land on his head and i'm like any other human is paralyzed from yeah any other human to be 300 plus pounds to be built like a fucking superhero and to do a front flip and land on your fucking head most people are dead I think it was a back

flip I think it was a moonsault right was it was like an inverted yeah he stood forward looking at you was like an inverted. He stood forward looking at you. It was like an inverted. So it was forward. There it is, Tony. Oh, it is forward, yeah. Look at the fucking size of him. Oh, it was a forward backflip. And he landed on his own head.

Oh, my God. Dude, that's insane. Most people are dead. Yeah. Most people are dead. I mean, I don't know what permanent damage he suffered, but by the way, he went from that to fighting the UFC. Yeah. He fought in the UFC from that to fighting the UFC. Yeah.

He fought in the UFC after that, which is insane. Well, I got him first when he came back from the UFC, okay? And I was kind of like winding down, putting guys over and doing my thing. And Vince goes, I want you to work with Brock. I went, okay. Well, I knew his buddy Brad Riggins, who lived in Minnesota. He was the coach of the Olympic team several years back. And so when Brock was in high school, we had heard of him.

We kept an eye on him, you know. But when he came back from UFC, they gave him to me first, and he was really intense, brother. You know, he was really intense. So my whole thing is we always grab somebody and squeeze them and give them the office. Like, you've got my head and you're about to break my neck. I'll give you the office so you'll lighten up, you know.

And I'd squeeze the piss out of him and give it in the office. And finally, I just started calling him Broccoli. You know, I said, Broccoli? I got him to laugh a little bit. I said, let me tell you something. If you keep hurting me in here, if you don't loosen up on the old man here, I'm going to make you look really, really bad because you're going to be in here by yourself.

You know, I used to tease him all the time because he's a really good friend. And so when I got him first, he was really, really intense. And now he's like, he's turned out to be one of the best workers this business has ever seen. I mean, he, brother, he draws money. He backpedals. He sells. He's got instinct. He's got placement.

He knows where he's at. He listens. You don't have to tell him what to do. You don't have to have a writer write the match out he goes out and listens to the crowd with his mind and his heart you know and it's something that's a lost art form he's got it man so he turned he figured it out that's interesting that it's like a lost art form because for people who don't know how you guys do a match, like there's a lot of improvisation going on. Yeah, if you're really good at what you do, you're in the back, and all of a sudden if you're really good at what you do,

back in the day, I'm talking old school stuff, the referee would come to you and say, hey, you know, Hogan, they want you to go for Piper with a leg drop or they want a count out or whatever. You know, so knowing that, you know, Piper was so good at what he did or Mr. Wonderful, a lot of guys I worked for, we wouldn't, we'd be, if we were in the same dressing room, we wouldn't even talk. I'll see you out there, brother.

You're going over tonight. Okay. I'm going over. It was that good, you know, and the crowd will tell you what to do if you listen. And you guys have worked together so many times yeah and i mean there's a lot of times where you you run into guys like chris jericho first time i ever worked with him you know they wanted jericho to put me over and jericho jericho and i went out there and i didn't know what to expect and he was brilliant in the ring

it was like magic we didn't have to say a word. I told Vince, I said, give me that guy every night. That's like a day off, you know. I didn't get hurt at all. What's incredible with Brock is that Brock went from pro wrestling to being the UFC heavyweight champion. I mean, and did so with such a short amount of time of training in MMA. I mean, obviously he had a spectacular amateur wrestling career. He was a legit top-flight amateur wrestler and a fucking genetic freak, all those things. But to be able to make that transition to winning the fucking world title against a guy like Randy Couture, I don't think he gets enough credit

for what I think a lot of people say, oh, he was so big and he was this and that and he did steroids. And there's all these excuses like you don't understand what that guy did. Like what that guy did is nothing short of insanity. Like no one's ever done that before. No one's ever gone from. I mean, the way he did it, too, and to fucking to get in there and beat a guy like Randy, who's, you know, one of the best of all time. Like, Randy was a real pioneer.

And Randy was still really at the top of his game back then. It wasn't that. It was just he was just fucking a freak. Just a real freak. Like, I always said that if, like, that guy, like, fresh out of college. Like, if we were in a different era. Like, if he's coming fresh out of college today. And someone like Firas Sahabi or you know henry hoofed like some top flight mma instructor gets

a hold of him as a young man and teaches him how to really teaches him how to strike where you know he's comfortable and and he can move just like like elite of today, fuck. He would have been unstoppable. He would have been unstoppable. He's a monster, brother. He's a monster. He still is. Still is. He's like the biggest genetic freak maybe I've ever seen in the sport.

Me and my crew used to go to the Royal Rumbles for a few years, a few years back. It's 30 people. One comes out every minute. And that's where you really see what a freak he is. Because it stands out amongst 30 other wrestlers. You can tell with two, but with 30 and he comes in and he's flying.

He's faster than the other people. He's stronger than the other people. The closest thing to it is like watching LeBron James play basketball. You're like, how does he move like that? He just got to the hoop in two steps. And that's what he's doing in the wrestling ring. You ever see his NFL combine numbers? He had like that. He just got to the hoop in two steps. And that's what he's doing in the wrestling ring. You ever see his NFL combine numbers?

He had like legit top flight combine numbers, like ridiculous numbers. See if you can pull those up. Because just a fucking freak, man. Yeah. Like a real rare one. Very fast, too. Like his run was fast. Look at this.

6'3", weighs 283 pounds, a 40-yard'7 4'7 at 283 pounds insane jump 35 inches vertically and 10 feet from the standing long jump 10 feet he's hurling 10 feet hurling almost 300 pounds, 10 feet. He bends 225 pounds for 30 reps. 225 for 30 fucking reps. That's crazy. Dude. Oh, look, it's me. Astounded. I've been astounded multiple times by that guy.

That's crazy. There's a few guys that I say, like... He can still go, brother. Yeah, I'm sure he can still go. Well, there was talk about him fighting again in the UFC just fairly recently. Like, a few years ago. You know, I mean, I'm sure in can still. Well, there was talk about him fighting again in the UFC just fairly recently, like a few years ago. I mean, I'm sure in the back of his head he still wants to stomp some people. He's intense, brother. I mean, the last time I was around him, I was in Saudi Arabia with him.

He's real intense. He hasn't changed a bit. I mean, the guy went from he goes and fights Frank Mir, who's a former UFC heavyweight champion, right into the top of the food chain, gets leg locked, comes back, and beats Frank Mir in the rematch. Just beats the shit out of him. I mean, he was the real deal, man.

A lot of people don't give him enough credit. And then there was a problem with the diverticulitis, so he had to get a long section of his intestine removed, I believe. I believe it was his intestine. Well, he eats everything that he hunts. That's the deal. Yeah. So he's always out hunting stuff.

I don't know how you get diverticulitis. Anthony Bourdain told me it's a real mystery because you could actually get it from a seed. Like a seed could get stuck. He goes, it's not just like people say, oh, he ate too much meat. That's not necessarily the case. He said there's a lot of things that could have happened but either way so he has that and then he comes back and fights alistair during the juicy juice days when alistair was on everything known to man wow i think he just got kicked in that spot right exactly by a k1 Grand Prix champion. Like Alistair Overeem was the elite of the elite for kickboxing.

And he was saucy. I mean, he came in saucy. There was no USADA back then. So you just had to pass a test on the day of the weigh-ins, which is like an IQ test. Yeah. And then just using all these masking agents and shit. There's like, you know, it's a different world back then. You know what's crazy, dude?

I found out that slap fighting, they have to test those guys for drugs. What? Wouldn't you want your slap fighters on meth? Yeah. I want a fucking energetic slap fighter. Oh, my God. I don't want a slap fighter who's fucking drinking green tea and taking creatine. I want my slap fighters drunk.

Right? Don't you? Oh, my God. It's ridiculous. Apparently, they're treating it like a real sport so it has to get approved by the athletic commissions. They just want their money, man. Yeah. That's one.

You talk about, like, I wonder how many times can you do that? How many times can you just let dudes smack you in the head? Like, you got five of those in your body? Ten? How long can you do that for? You know? Well, I don't know. First time I was ever knocked out from a slap was from a girl in the garden.

Sherry Martell. Scary Sherry. I don't know if you remember her. Oh, wow. Of course. Sensational Sherry. Yeah, I had Macho Man hooked. You know, took him over to the apron. Sherry. Yeah, I had Macho Man hooked.

Took him over to the apron. Sherry stepped up and she went to slap me. He ducked and she cut my ear. I stumbled and went down on one knee when you go down. My leg went up and I came back up. And then I sat on my butt and I was kind of like out for about 30 seconds. But just from that slap from a girl. Sherry was a tough girl and she was strong. But still was a tough girl she was strong but still i was

surprised she could knock me out with it people would be stunned at how easy it is for them to get knocked out they really would if if someone has good mechanics if they could really throw their body into it and i would imagine a woman like her who's been pro wrestler hit on the button too yes spot yeah it is the right spot yeah but it's stunning it's stunning how like easy it is the right spot. Yeah, but it's stunning. It's stunning how like easy it is to get K especially you're not expecting it when you think about all the injuries that you've had and You think about like how many matches that you Russell? I mean we're talking about Almost like a science project Like how many how many human beings have gone through that amount of punishment

over that long period of time? And before you, there wasn't really a lot to gauge before you guys. Because, like, what year did you start wrestling? 77. Oh, my God. What? That's insane. 77 all the way up to Brock Lesnar.

Yeah. Isn't that wild? Yeah. That's insane. 77 all the way up to Brock Lesnar. Yeah. Isn't that wild? Yeah. That's incredible. So, like, the amount of just physical collisions you've had with gigantic men. It's off the charts. Well, you know, I hate to keep going to the back-in-the-day thing. But, you know, when I first went to new york in 78 i'm sitting in a dressing

room you got king kong mosca there 340 swede hansen 350 of course you got andre the giant there i was like 300 pounds i was like a medium-sized guy you know when i first went up to new york i was like holy crap you know so it's and you know that type of people pushing on you know especially You know, so it's, and you know, that type of people pushing on, you know, especially back then it wasn't all the high spots and jumping up in the air and diving over the top rope. You stayed in the ring, grabbed a hold and wrestled and kind of would fight your way out. And, you know, if they were going to choke you out in the middle of the garden and the lights are 120 degrees, you got to learn how to breathe through it and think through it and know the reversal. So there was a lot of grinding with people that were big. So it kind of like wore you down, you know, a lot more than me and Jericho or me and The Rock doing our thing. It was different back then, the physicality of it.

So you started in 77? Seven, yeah. 77. And what was the first match that you did? Like, how did you get into it? Like, did you amateur wrestle? No, I didn't. I messed around in junior high school you know but then by the time i got into high school i was playing in a rock and roll band oh no shit yeah what what uh what did you play well i started out

playing guitar for several years and my dad had bought me guitar my dad was a construction worker and he bought me a cheap guitar and i took took guitar lessons. So, you know, through junior high school and stuff, I was playing in these little garage bands on the weekend. And then by the time I got to high school, we were growing up at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and playing for the fraternities and having a blast, you know. So I started, you know, playing music that, you know, for many, many years. For 10 years, I played music to make a living, anything to avoid working a real job. And then, you know, I started making good money, you know. When I was in high school, I ended up, you know, having to leave home when I was 17,

as per my father's request. And I, you know, lived in a hotel over on Davis Island in Tampa, where they had this kind of like this kind of like the disco era, like the Tower of Power, the syncopated music, that real funky stuff. And I started playing bass in a show band there. And so that just kind of ran its course. And then, you know, at the end of the day, all the rest, when I left for a while and I was traveling on the road and doing session work out of Century Artists in Atlanta.

And when I came back, I got like the good drummer from the good high school band in one of the bands. And then I grabbed one of the really good lead singers from another band that was around the area and kind of like grabbed all the good keyboard players when I was growing up. We put them all in one band called Ruckus. And yeah, there it is right there. Whoa. How'd you do that, man? Jamie's a wizard. How'd you do that?

Jamie's a wizard. What's up with that, Willis? How'd you do that? So, anyway, that band Ruckus, all the wrestlers started coming in. Hold on. Is that you in the far left? I'm in the middle. Where are you?

Oh, there you are. Oh, you're in disguise. Yeah. Kind of. I don't know. That looks like Hulk Hogan to me. But he's in the back. Well, the thing is that you're kind of kneeling.

That's why I was confused. I'm sitting on something. It looks like you're sitting on something. The other guy in front of you is sitting, too. Anyway, all the wrestlers kept coming in, right? Well, you must have been towering over these dudes, so you probably had a set. I mean i'd started lifting weights you know when i was 18 oh and i was which is unusual for a band there's another

band yeah look at that look at you wow oh that's kind of like a funky little disco type band i was in i remember very clearly when i was a kid watching Rocky III and watching you in Rocky III and saying, like, what the fuck do you do if someone's that big? Because this is like during my martial arts days. And I remember watching that movie going, there's nothing you're doing. You're not doing anything. If he's getting old, you're so fucked. That scene. That's crazy.

That scene was so wild. That's crazy. That scene was so wild. That's crazy. It was so in tribute to pro wrestling, too, even the way you talked to him after the match. Yeah. It's like he thought it was real. He didn't know what the fuck was going on. And after, he was like, hey, that was a good job. And it sort of let everybody know a little, maybe one of the first ever windows behind the scenes where you could see

what the top flight pro wrestlers actually do. You can call it fake, but there's nothing fake happening. It's just orchestrated. Or at least there's a predetermined outcome. But the fucking physicality. It's bananas.

I gotta give it to Stallone. He took all the hits and all the bumps. Oh, he was an animal. Yeah, I kind of messed his collarbone up, you know, by accident. But, you know, he was amazing. I mean, I remember when I was going to go do that film, Vince McMahon Sr. fired me because of that, because of that movie. What? Well, I'd got the call.

I didn't know there was a senior. Oh, yeah, Vince Senior. That's who I started working for, brother. Yeah, Vince McMahon Senior. So it's not the Vince McMahon that's an old guy now. No, no. His dad was a star. When I first went to New York in 78,

Vince McMahon Senior had a couple of Phil Zacco and a couple of partners. And Vinny Jr. had one building, I think, in Cape Cod, and Vince would come in once every three weeks. He'd hold a stick like Mean Gene, you know. So when I first started there, 70, however long I lasted until probably mid-80s, and I told Vince Sr. I got this crazy call to come out and do a Stallone movie. First, I was in the dressing room, and Gorilla Monsoon gave me the note.

I'm like, yeah, right. I threw it away, because Stallone was like 150 feet tall in the public's eyes, and I saw Rocky I and Rocky II. I was like, oh, my God. So I said, yeah, another wrestling joke, like pooping in my bag

or putting locks on my stuff. So I split to Japan for like eight weeks, and when I came back again to TV again in Allentown, they handed me a Western Union letter, this time from Stallone. So I flew out there and talked with him and got in the ring with him and did a couple things. If you want to hear about that, that's a little different. What would you do? Well, when I went out there, I just had my nose broke in Japan for like the second or third time. And when I went out there, I was so enamored and such a fan of his.

You know, he goes, he had a guy with one of those big cameras, old school cameras, you know, when I came in. So I knew I was on camera, you know, so at least I knew that much back then. And so he goes, hey, let's just get in the ring and move around. I had jeans on and cowboy boots. He goes, oh, let's just get in the ring like this. So he goes, I'm like this so he goes I'm gonna try to hit you I said well if you want to you hit me the nose cuz I saw

the camera I thought it'd be cool he splattered my nose that's how crazy I was right after no surgery not in have no surgery it was right I've had my nose oh he just had broken again yeah I flew back to TV I'm just assuming you had a fixed no no no Andre Andre fix everything for. He just stand behind you with the sums and push everything down. But so I got in the ring, he goes, you know, try to hit me, you know? And so when he went to hit me, I just grabbed him. I said, I don't want to hit you. He goes, well, hit me, give me everything you have. I went, I said, no brother, you don't want that. I said, there's a certain place I can, I can hit you harder than others. But if I hit you as hard

as I can, it's not going to be cool. He goes, well, give me 50% of it. I really don't want to. What is going on with Sylvester Stallone? No, no, no. No, he was, because they were filming this whole thing. So I said, well, you try to hit me, I'll grab you, I'll bend you over and I'll hammer you between the shoulders. And I hit him.

I probably gave him 50%. And as soon as I made contact, his face hit my cowboy boots. And he came up, and his lip was bleeding. He said, oh, that's perfect, that's perfect. And so he was all excited, you know, just because I hit him. What a psycho. Yeah, and then we got out of the ring, and he goes, you're a fake wrestler. You know, boxers can kick a wrestler's ass any time.

Get mad. So he wanted me to do an interview, right? So I did the, let me tell you something, you know, that whole stick. So he goes, I want you for the film. And I've never had an agent. I've never been in a movie. I don't know anything.

He goes, I'll give you $10,000 to do the film. Me being the negotiation genius that I am, I went, I want 15. I want 15 grand. 15. I want 15 grand. So he gave me $14,000 and I signed whatever. Oh my God. He bargained with you?

Yeah. Wow. What the fuck, Sly? You're stealing. Yeah. So I signed whatever he wanted back in the day and that was it. How rude. You wouldn't even give him the 50?

That's some negotiation bullshit right there. But to go backwards, I had called Vince McMahon Sr. that night from Fall River, Massachusetts, because I was wrestling at a high school in Fall River, Massachusetts. And I called Vince because he was my guy. We were really good friends on top of him helping me, giving me the break, Vince Sr. I called him in Fort Lauderdale. I said, brother, I'm leaving tomorrow to go to L.A. to do this film. He goes, no, you're not.

He goes, it's midnight now. You have to be in Charlotte at noon for TV with Crockett because that's where Flair and all those guys were. He was sending me down to that southern swing wrestling thing. I said, no, I told you I'm not going to do that. I said, I'm going to go do this movie, and as soon as I'm done with the movie, I'll come back. He goes, well, don't come back.

You're never going to work here again. Never. So I went, okay. I was single at the time. Spent 20 to 24 weeks a year in Japan. Had a great hookup in Japan being single with my friends and all the stuff that was going on there. And so I went to Japan. And the movie came out.

And all of a sudden this guy verne gagne from minnesota called me wanting me to come in there so that was the place everybody wanted to go wrestling the awa for verne gagne i don't know if you've heard of course yeah four days a week he pays you better than any of the promoters and i just stumbled in right behind this guy the crusher he was like the hulk Hogan of the Twin Cities and that whole St. Paul across Wisconsin area with Brock Lesnar and Brad Riggins, all those guys. So Crusher was walking out, I was walking in,

and I wouldn't let anybody see my face. My arms were legitimately 24 back then, and I'd throw my arms up and I'd go, hey, if you guys want to see my face, you've got to buy a ticket. I was trying to be a bad guy. And I'd do all my interviews with the back to the camera. My back was this wide back then. And they wanted me to wrestle Jesse Ventura.

And Jesse Ventura is the one that actually turned me babyface. As soon as I walked up, they booed the piss out of him and cheered me. So I had that little run in Minnesota for three years. Then we were coming into New York. You know, Vern Gagne was going to buy TV time on Channel 9 and all up down the East Coast. That's when Vince Jr. came back and said, hey, brother, you know, I want you to come back to New York. And we had a talk. He came to my house in Minnesota at 5 in the morning.

We shook hands, and we did that whole worldwide takeover. Vince called the shots, and I went out and did the dirty work, flying around and going to all these places I shouldn't go. Good for you sticking to your guns and doing that movie. I can't imagine if you weren't in that movie. That was such an important scene. Well, what's crazy is that you were told that you'll never work in WWF again, and it was before you became the-

I had hair back then. Oh, my God. Wow. This is such a fucking great scene so much bigger than a bit so ridiculous fun fucking fun scene that was weird because brother right before I well if you came to my house and my mother was still alive she she would want to know your name, and she had a pencil. She would measure everybody, you know? What?

Mom would measure everybody? She had a whole thing, bro. Like adults? Come on, man. That was her thing. She had a thing. Yeah, everybody. Kids, adults.

And your name would be next to the pencil marker, right? That's amazing. So when I went to do the Rocky movie, I was 6'7 on the nose nose and i was like 330 pounds i had like a 34 inch waist i was in crazy shape back then yeah and so right before my mom passed away a few years ago she goes terry i want to measure i said okay mom you know this is after 10 backsters she measured me i was six foot four wow so i lost that much three inches of discs between the leg drop after the leg drop for 40 years and back surgeries and the knee replacements and the hip replacements. It changes your whole look.

Yeah, that's what happens when old people shrink their backs. Easy on the old brother. I just turned 70. Take it easy. I just turned 56. We have the same birthday. August 11th. Yeah.

Happy birthday. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Happy birthday to you, too. The Hemsworth has the same birthday as me. Really? Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. Happy birthday. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Happy birthday to you, too. No, Hemsworth has the same birthday as me. Really? Yeah. Crazy.

Yeah. Yeah, what are the odds? 365? No, probably huge. Well, have you heard of the birthday paradox? The birthday problem? Yeah, how does that work? It's one of the craziest things ever.

It's some statistical anomaly where if you have, I can't remember the exact number, but I think it's like 45 people in a room. For some reason, two people will have the same birthday. Birthday paradox known as the birthday problem states that in a random group of 23 people, there are about 50%... Jamie's the goat. How does he keep doing that? When you go to other podcasts, you'll be confused as to how incompetent those people are. I can't believe I get to watch Hulk Hogan learn what Google is no it's learn how good Jamie is like getting these things I could I'm going to learn that too so

random group of 23 people there's about a 50% chance that two people have the same birthday Wow that's weird if that then if you get with if you get to 46 people, if it's 100% chance. Oh, God. Crazy. Wow, it goes up. Interesting. So with 100 people, it seems like it's going to happen. That's so weird.

Yeah. Yeah. You know what's even weirder? People give a fuck about their birthday. Shut your mouth. Yeah. You know? Oh, it's my birthday.

I guess I get it if it's girls. For some reason, that doesn't annoy me. When dudes get really excited about their birthday, come on, bro. I'm not your mom. That's true. 40 hurt worse more than 70. 40 did? Yeah, it hurt worse more than 70.

Oh, fuck. I'm 10 months away from it. Dude, trust me. Just just stay healthy it's a number you know for you. Yeah. The guy like Hulk the thing about you is just the amount of punishment that you put your body through it's not your mind your mind's in a great place it's just uh I don't think people the average person truly appreciates the unbelievable amount of punishment you guys go through. But it's not just me. Yeah. You know, my girl Sky that I'm engaged to, I had to slowly bring her up to speed.

Because, number one, I didn't want to run her off. Because all the crazy lifestyle and my friends that are around and all the stuff I've been through. There's been a few controversial situations I've been through oh yeah but just with the injuries you know I mean I took her to 30th anniversary Monday Night Rock as I opened the show and we and so she's starting to see that it's not just me all the guys kind of walk like I do when they're all hurt and yeah see a lot of stuff on tv with these a&E things and Dark Side of the Ring where they show you how beat up these guys are. So, you know, it's what the business does to you, you know. Yeah, I mean, you're playing, you're in a rally where you're smashing cars into each other, but the car is your body.

Yeah, I mean, and a lot of guys, I mean, you know, like Brock's an animal. You know, Kurt Angle's an animal. Believe me. Oh, yeah. He's too much. And a lot of guys have come through, like Rampage Jackson, King Moe, Tito Ortiz. We've had a bunch of guys come through, and whether they're a day or three or four days, they go, we don't want to do this to our body.

Yeah. Isn't that crazy? They're in the ring. or four days ago we don't want to do this to our body yeah they're crazy they're in the ring i mean after the first day if you if you can lift your head up off the pillow without having to pick your head up you know you're fortunate you know just three or four hours in the ring the first day but you know a lot of these guys realize i have to do this crap every night to myself what has helped you the most in terms of, like, alleviation of pain or bringing back your movement? Like, what has helped you the most?

Well, I don't have the movement back, you know. I've had a real hard time, you know, just doing normal things. I can't. From the back being fused? Yeah, the back. How many discs are fused? Everything's fused. The whole back. How many discs are fused? Everything's fused. I've had 10 back

surgeries, but the thing is my knees and my hips are so old now because I had the left knee scoped three or four times, the right knee scoped three or four times, then I had them replaced. Then I had the hips replaced and they're all over 20 years old. You know what I mean?

So it's kind of like they said, oh, you can't wrestle the knee replacement i was wrestling with two knees and a hip replacement at wrestlemania 18 i was dragging the rock around the ring for a half hour yeah you can you can actually do that now with hip replacement john wayne parr had an mma fight after he had uh actually i think it was a muay thai fight after he had a hip replacement yeah Yeah. The knees are tougher, brother. The knees are hard to get by. Yeah. They're doing them now to the point where people can go back to engaging in athletics.

And I'm wondering, like, I wonder if they're going to get to the point where these things are like a permanent thing. Because they say you're about 20 years. Is that what they say? Well, they told me about 15 were the ones i got 15 but you know i think now they're saying with some of them 20 but it's like man that means like you've got a hourglass in your head counting down to 20 years where you're gonna have to go through that shit again like every operation i've ever had and i've only had a few that the thing about the the recovery's a bitch it's like a long time for your body to get used to being, first of all, put under.

And then if you have something major like an ACL reconstruction or something like that, you're fucked for months. For months. Yeah. I've had some close calls and some rough ones, man. I mean, you know, they all weren't just cookie cutter surgeries. I've had some major issues go down. Have you done stem cells yes where'd you go well i called mel gibson after seeing him on here ah yeah and mel so you went

with dr neil reardon down in panama yeah i sent my mom down there a couple times yeah and i've already had several experience experiences before yeah those stem cells and i and they just didn't i don't know how to explain it i'm different my body's different you know there's been so much it just didn't do enough well i went down there to panama for three days you know they they hook you up ivy wise then locally they blast you all over the place and their shoulders everywhere and uh after three days you know they they would call me like two weeks later and say, I feel the same.

Then a month later they call me, I feel the same. Then three months later they call me, nothing. So I didn't get anything from it. I wonder if your body's so beat up that it's just bone on bone everywhere and there's nothing that can be done. There's so much to heal that it's not even getting to the big things because it's, you know what I mean? I wonder what it would be like if that shit was in America. And if they gave, because right now you can, there are stem cells that are available in America, but it's limited. And it's a different situation.

Like that's why I always encourage people to go to like Panama or Columbia or Tijuana has a great place too. go to like Panama or Columbia or Tijuana has a great place too. But if that was legal in America, I wonder if someone like you could be able to go and just do that like once a week. Oh, that'd be awesome. And maybe they, it can fix you. Like maybe it's just a dosage and time thing. That's, that was my first thought. You know, if this is what normal people do, black this stuff once every three months, I need it once a week.

That was the first thing I thought. I wonder, I mean, it really sucks that the, because I haven't seen anything negative about the use of stem cells. So I'm just really frustrated that it's illegal in the United States and that all these people are getting great results. I know so many athletes that have gotten problems fixed through stem cells and most of them have done it in either Columbia or Tijuana. And it's kind of a bummer because if we could do that to people like yourself, like it's conceivable that you could really heal somebody. Like they're doing some amazing stuff where they're shooting it into discs and they're

creating new disc tissue. Like if they can do that to people and people can avoid getting fused. Yeah, that'd be great. Oh, my God. It's just it's such a bummer that it's it's so restricted because I don't see the danger to it when you consider it. And in comparison to the danger against some things like opiates, which are legal. Like why? Why are you restricting this? Like, this seems like, I had a full-length rotator cuff tear disappear.

Just went away from stem cells. Six months later, I get an MRI. He's like, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen. He's like, it's gone. Same. They were going to give me neck surgery. Yeah. Constant pain in my shoulder i thought my

shoulder was completely torn out got an mri they said it was discs at the base of my neck and just all the nerves it just felt like my shoulder which is crazy because i literally wanted to cut my arm off like if it was the if it was the 1600s or whatever i was like this pain sucks cut it off and then i still would have had it um but they did it they set up six up to 60 days you might you might feel better immediately It might be in 60 days and day 59. It was like someone flipped a switch Way, but I mean did you were always like sitting in the green room holding your neck? You're always doing that during kill Tony trying to listen to people I'd have to sit on my own

Legs if I sat flat on my butt for some reason so I'd have to like sit like this and listen and pay attention and try to be funny it was a nightmare I couldn't sit on my butt and you forget you would forget I would forget so like ears there's a bar stool there for some reason bar stools were the worst yeah different than the 90-degree angle of a chair kind of like so it's like a very specific angle you have to hold your head or it hurts you'd have to like hold your hip to a side or something wow because if you if the weight was straight down it was just i know the longer you're hurt the more it changes i remember i couldn't sit in a chair you know for the longest time and then i couldn't drive a car which of course sit in a chair and then my biggest thing was when I'd go upstairs and I'd look at my bed, my mindset was I dread laying down because I know when I lay down,

it's going to hurt so bad. And I'm probably going to wake up with an injury. I'd go to bed and wake up hurt. You know, it's like, how does this happen? But you know, all that being said, you know, the body's an amazing thing. And, and, you thing. With all the metal and all the abdominal surgeries and shoulder surgeries and all the stuff that's happened to me, the upside is, bro, I'm living a good life. I'm happy. I may not be able to run as good as him or walk as good as you, but at the end of the day, I'm seven years old. I train every day. I eat great. I hardly ever drink any alcohol at all you know and i don't take

any pills anymore we're through all those surgeries the doctors are just banging me with these pills and different thing and the thing that stopped me this thing that shut me down completely where i said enough's enough is when they hit me with the fentanyl stuff they almost killed me with that stuff so that's when i said i'm done you know and i didn't even know they gave it to me but morphine and dolatas and none of that stuff worked on my back i'd had so many surgeries if i just moved if i just if i say i'm just barely moving my little finger i just moved my leg that much i'd just scream like a wounded animal because everything was so torqued and then there was one night when

i don't know what i was taking i guess they had me on the fentanyl things you stick up under your gums and the patches on my legs and the lollipops remember one night my body just completely torqued and my head and shoulders were facing the opposite way and it took a bunch of emts to get me out of the house and when i came back, I said, that's it. I'm done. And I called one of my buddies in LA. And they prescribed the fentanyl to me. And the insurance didn't cover it.

So it was $2,000 every two days. And the pharmacist says, I've never seen anybody on so much fentanyl and still be alive. And so that was the prescription they were giving me because my back was so bad. They cut on me so much and compromised my, the, the structural integrity of my back by cutting so much bone away that I was just a mess, you know? And so one year, if I went to LA, another buddy of mine in Atlanta said, I can get you off it in six months. And I laid out everything I had. And I said, I'm going to get off this crap in two weeks. Two weeks. And I had these 150 milligram patches that go on my legs, and they would give me these 280 fentanyl pills, and you'd have to stuff them under your gums in the morning and then

at night. And they were giving me 15 of these 1,500 milligram lollipop things to eat during the day. That's how drugged up they had me. 1600 milligram lollipop things to eat during the day. That's how drugged up they had me and in two weeks. I laid it all out and I told my ex-wife at the time I'm going upstairs Bring me about 15 gallons of water. I don't want to see anybody And first thing I did was cut the patches in half and put them on my legs like an idiot I called my pain doctor and told him what I did. He was take that shit off your legs

That's how people overdose, you know, because it's, they're time-released. And here I'm cutting them in half and putting them on my legs so I'm getting the full blown. Oh, no. Yeah, so I pulled them right off. Thank God. I mean, I called him right away to tell him that I did. And so that would have been my first mistake. You know, but I sat up

there and I was there almost two and a half weeks and I sweated through the bed all the way through the mattress and stuff several times. I had people come in and check on me, and I saw my ex-wife's teeth come out and talk to me. I saw a plastic squirt gum come out of her chest, and this is coming off the fentanyl. Wow. But when I came off the fentanyl, I'd lost 35 pounds. Wow.

And never, well, the only other time I had it was when I, and I was clean, completely done. The only other time I had it was after a shoulder surgery where I got an infection. They had me on a drip line. I kept telling the infectious disease doctor, I feel like my light's going out, brother. Every time I do a two-hour drip in the morning and a two-hour drip at night, I feel like my light's going out, like I'm slowly dying. two-hour drip in the morning and two-hour drip at night, I feel like my light's going out, like I'm slowly dying. And, you know, the infectious disease doctor goes,

well, I give the same dose to 80-year-old ladies. You need to man up. So I went, okay. You know, I'll just man up. And about day 13, I went down. And I told my housekeeper, I said, Jeff, I'm going to faint. And I just passed out, did the splits, balls and butt on the ground, never done the splits in my life.

Hip pops out, knee replacement pops out. And when I wake up, the MTs are sticking a needle in my arm. I'm going, what is that? And they're going, oh, we're giving you something for pain. I said, well, what is it? They go, fentanyl. I'm like, oh, my God. So they shot me up with fentanyl.

I didn't even know it, but I didn't get back on the train again, you know what I'm saying? But since then, you know, after having 25 surgeries in 10 years, since then, when I drink my coffee in the morning, if I'm really, really hurt, I'll eat two Tylenols. You know, and then later in the day, if it was to get really bad, because I need a cup of coffee about four in the afternoon, so I'll start to nosedive. Sometimes I'll take two more Tylenols later in the day. Sometimes I won't, but done with it all. That's why the stuff we brought in, what I've seen with all my buddies and all my wrestlers, there's got to be a better way than these opioids and crap.

Do you use CBD? Yes. Do you take it edibly? Do you use it as a muscle balm? Well, we've got the drops and then we've got the gummies, the CBD gummies. Yeah, those are great. Yeah. Man, they've helped so many people that I know with arthritis. Dude, I don't need to tell you anything.

I don't want to bring it up, but yes, that's something else I've inherited from my parents. Because before my mother passed, my mother lived to be 88. I mean, my dad lived to be 88, my mom lived to be 90. And their hands were just twisted and crippled. And when I was in my prime wrestling, seeing my parents all the time, because they lived close by me, they'd say, Terry, you need to be careful with that wrestling. It's going to make that arthritis kick in.

I said, Mom, knock it off. I'm not going to get that crap. Sure enough, man, it's coming. I can feel it. Does CBD help ward it off for you? Yeah, it does. It does. Do you use a lot of other stuff like using curcumin and turmeric?

Yeah, brother. I've got a nutritionist and a whole vitamin regime that I take. Did you get some of that turmeric coffee? I don't know what I got. This coffee is great, man. That's what you got. That's the Laird Hamilton one. This is great.

Laird Hamilton gave us a machine. That's the surfing guy, right? Yeah, he's a freak, like a real physical freak. And just a guy's a maniac about training and recovering and nutrition. And so he has this superfood coffee line where it's like turmeric, coconut oil, or coconut milk. And he blends them into these different coffees. And it's just you press a button for whichever one you want. But they're all like super healthy food, coffee, and it tastes great too. It's very addictive.

This is going to really sound weird to say because I've never admitted this in front of anybody, but I wanted to be him. You wanted to be Laird Hamilton? When I saw him riding those big waves, bro, that big, tall, blonde guy that was built like crazy, I said, man, I wish I could have been him instead of me. That's crazy because you're all going no can you imagine riding one of those waves bro the rush i have uh several friends that are big wave surfers and i am in awe i am in awe i can't the the just the risk you're taking and the the way they're able to adjust their weight and balance on a fucking wave of energy coming from the ocean.

On a shortboard. It's crazy. I mean, that's insane. Bro, you fall off. You may not come out of that thing. No, you might be dead. You might get knocked unconscious by the force of the water. I mean, the amount of water you're talking about is so insane.

You're going to get driven to the bottom of the ocean for sure. You could bang your head off a rock. I these guys are fucking maniacs yeah and they're some of the nicest people do you surf you know i used to i used to my uh old attorney henry holmes old school gangster entertainment attorney he was the president of the Malibu Surf Club right there where the wall was I spent I kept a home in Thousand Oaks and in Westlake for 23 years during my first marriage because my first wife's family was from there so during the summer I'd spend a lot of time out there when the kids were out of school and Henry being my attorney I was always hanging out with him and he took me down to the wall and taught me how to surf you know those little baby two three foot breakers real consistent right there so that's where i learned you know and

did it for years i mean you know whenever we'd stop in hawaii you know we'd grab a long board one of the rental boards that go out and paddle as far as we could to diamond head and catch that thing i wouldn't ride it all the way back in i just had a jet ski to pull me out because it took it was about a mile to get out there. So yeah, I did it for a long time. It's the only sport where you have a real possibility of interacting with monsters. You're literally doing a sport where monsters live.

Oh yeah. Yeah, it's frightening. Oh yeah. Did you see the shark in the LA River that was raised from Hurricane Hillary? What? That's not real. Oh, it's not? No.

I'm such an idiot. Bro, I live on the beach, right in Clearwater Beach, Florida, Gulf of Mexico. Yeah. And we have friends come over, you know, because especially when the sun's going down, they come in. And they just kind of like, there's a clear water channel. And then I live up the beach, but you can see them come down, you know, the coast and they're going to the clear water channel because all the fishing boats, all the chum and the fish heads in there. And they're just, you know, from like seven to eight at night before the sun goes down, they're just cruising along, you know, taking their time. They'll hit something if it's in the water.

So when our friends come over, they have young kids or stuff. I don't want them in the water. Fuck that. Even, you know, taking their time. They'll hit something if it's in the water. So when our friends come over, if they have young kids or stuff, I don't want them in the water. Fuck that. Even, you know, waist deep just in there. So it's kind of like. It happens. It's a real thing. Yeah.

They just found a shark in Idaho. They found a shark 500 miles from the ocean. I believe it was a salmon shark. It is very rare. There it is. Idaho officials find strange shark on riverbank in the landlocked state. That is insane. That's crazy.

They suspect someone left the creature by the salmon river as a prank. I wonder if someone, like, let it go. Like, someone had it as a pet and let it go into the water. But they know that there's certain sharks, like bull sharks, they can live in fresh water. You know that whole movie Jaws is based on what happened in a river? It's based on bull sharks in New Jersey. Bull sharks...

Those are the worst, bro. There's something about them, they're very aggressive, but there's also something about their metabolism where they can breathe fresh water and they just urinate way more. They have some different system. So they can survive and thrive in fresh water, they just piss all the time. Well, they're the only ones in Florida that keep coming back and love the taste of humans. They'll come back and keep hitting you.

You'll get hit by a lemon shark or a tiger shark or a hammerhead. They may just bite you just to see what you are, and they could keep moving if you're lucky. But those bull sharks, they don't go away. They're full of testosterone, and, man, they just finish the job. What kind of shark was it that killed that dude in Egypt, that horrific Internet video that everybody's seeing now? You've seen that video, video right where the guy's

screaming for his father yeah and he's a tiger shark tiger shark yeah those are those are highly aggressive too a lot of those are what bites people in hawaii yeah we've dealt with a few of those oh fuck that yeah i was back back in the day i was filming a show with uh carl weathers and chris Lennon. Two different shows. One was Thunder in Paradise, and the other one was Assault on Devil's Island, some two-hour TNT movies, you know. And we went down and had to do the whole Navy SEAL thing.

And Stuart Cove, who was down in the Bahamas, the shark wrangler, I don't know if you've ever heard of him. No, I haven't. But if you go to the Bahamas, you can go to his place, and he'll take you on a shark dive, and they'll put the mesh on you, and you can sit around the big metal can where he's got all the chum, and you just sit there and keep your arms in with a metal mesh on, and you can have all the sharks circle you, and you get the shark dive experience.

Oh, wow. Yeah, we used him for a couple of the shows, you know, and we caught a tiger shark about 7 in the morning, and he was very irritated. So all the stunt guys anchored him to the bottom, tied a rope around his tail, a couple of ropes on him, which was kind of like crazy. And Stuart Covey goes, oh, we'll come back later in the day, and he won't be able to oxygenate his gills, and he'll be real docile. So me and Carl Weathers are doing good.

And so right when we popped up about 7.30 in the morning, because we were all diving, of course, and we loved being in the water. We were playing Navy SEALs and having fun with it. We were all certified. So whenever we could dive, we could. And we watched them catch the shark, and then we came back up. And when we did, there was this, like, 100-foot-plus Coast Guard cutter that pulled up on us. He said, what are you guys doing?

And we were all making excuses. And if they would have known what we were doing, we would have been in a lot of trouble. And so we took off. Came back later that day, dove down to where the shark was, and he was pissed. I mean, he was pissed from being tied down all day. They needed one shot. They needed me swimming underwater with what was supposed to be a dead Navy seal on my back. And the stunt guys drilled holes in the shark's tail and put monofilament line in the tail.

And as I had one of those little scooters and as the shot came into frame, I had a guy off to my right that was going to give me the thumbs up one to turn around and bump him with a scooter. And we got the guy on my back, the stunt guy, who had shark bites all over him because he works with sharks all the time anyway. And he put chum in his BC, right? Oh, God. So I'm swimming underwater with these crazies. I've never done this before, so I'm listening to what they're telling me to do.

And all of a sudden, a guy gives me the thumbs up. And when I turn, I couldn't even get the scooter under the shark's mouth when I turned I bumped him in the nose he was so close to our heads

and those stunt guys jerked him with that monofilament line and that shark disappeared like a magic trick jerked him like 10 yards

away from me Stuart Cove goes he's got the camera he goes that was fucking great let's do one more I went fuck you I the camera. He goes, that was fucking great. Let's do one more. I went, fuck you. I'm going up. I'm glad that was so great

because I won't do that ever again. I'll never forget when that helicopter crashed on the Twilight Zone movie. Remember that? That was the first time it put in my, oh, people die when people do stupid shit. Like, if someone does something that's not wise

or too dangerous, that can happen. That can happen in a movie set. That can happen on a TV show. It can happen. They take chances. And they take chances with you. And that's a big fucking chance, man. You got a shark.

I mean, most likely the shark probably would have just tried to get away. you know, because it had been. I don't think sharks fight, right? No. They probably just eat and kill. And it probably would think it's in danger. And now that it has freedom, it would probably just take off. But still, it's a fucking wild shark.

It's a killing machine. And things just happen anyway. Things just happen and you can't move out of the way. It's like you don't have... Oh, Jesus, that's so insane. Is that it? That's so insane. That's it. Is that it? Yeah. Oh, cool. Dude. Well, there you go.

How do you do this, man? How do you get this done? He's the man. Unbelievable. Jamie's the fucking man. That's it, yeah. I can't believe you got it. This is so dumb. Yeah, tell me about it. And then he wanted to do it again is... That's it, yeah. I can't believe you got it. This is so dumb. Yeah, tell me about it. And then he wanted to do it again. Oh, my God, dude.

This freaks me out just watching it. Dude, it was crazy. People get killed. It happens. There was one time, there's been two times when I was filming Fear Factor that I told the producers, like, don't do this. And one of them was riding bulls. Oh, I forgot about that show.

I love that show. Yeah, it was fun oh wow i forgot you did that they yeah they rolled some dice they rolled some dice when they made people ride bulls because i was like you you can't control this thing you know what's so weird even when you don't expect it like i went and did a couple episodes of walker texas ranger yeah and he's sitting in there at 5 30 in morning in the makeup trailer telling me about one of those Delta movies he made. Yeah. Well, the last shot of the day, the helicopter's taken off,

and I guess he wanted to get home to his wife and kids, and his body double says, Chuck, go ahead, man. Just go ahead and go on home. I'll get in the helicopter, and we'll fly off in the sunset. Just need to get the lift off. Chuck's telling me he's in the car with his driver. He looks at the helicopter. It takes off.

He watches it fall out of the sky and everybody gets killed. Oh, my God. Yeah, I was like, yeah, that's how. So I'm scared to death of helicopters. Helicopters and horses. I'm scared to death. Helicopters are freaky. I went up in a helicopter with Bill Burr, though.

It was fun. We went off, flew around downtown L.A. It's like, the thing is, it's not like a plane. You can kind of go anywhere. It's really pretty amazing. You could just kind of float around downtown

and it's legal. I'm like, we could just do this? He's like, yeah. We could just fly over buildings. I'm like, that seems insane that you're just allowed

to go wherever you want because nobody's up there. Right. It's like you have your, it's like you have an open road but you have a thing that moves very different than an airplane. But Bill does, you know, he takes like serious lessons and he's very good at it. And I knew what to expect. And it was fucking great.

I enjoyed it. But I don't know if I'd want to be in a lot of those. No. No, if stuff goes out, it's not where you want to be yeah they're playing in Hawaii yeah you can glide for a long time in a plane and a lot of other things you can survive on a boat if the engine fails for a while yeah for helicopter they have some sort of I think it's called auto rotating yeah but but you're hitting hard still no matter what you're coming down yeah um we did the thing in Hawaii where you go over the volcanoes.

It's pretty fucking wild. It's pretty wild, and you have to do that by helicopter. But one of those just crashed. God, it had to be something really special to get me in a helicopter. I can't think of anything that would get me to go up again. Seeing the volcanoes is pretty special. It's pretty wild. You're literally watching the island

grow like because i think it grows like a foot a year you're watching all the lava pour out into the ocean i might have made up that foot a year how much how uh much does hawaii grow every year because of volcanoes but it's just insane to watch because we know it's real we know that's how it was created But to actually see the process you're just like whoa That's the center of the earth. That's the lava hot Molten rock is coming out and creating the island Every year it's lava expanse Hawaii by 40 acres Wow

Speaking of rock, you mentioned WrestleMania 18. Yeah. And what's crazy is that it's one of the greatest wrestling matches of all time.

Like if I was going to show you literally and because I've thought about this because whatever a decade ago when we would have our crazy wrestling arguments,

I always, I had to think to myself, well, what would I show Joe first? And it would be probably that, right? It was definitely a moment. I know The Rock says he's never experienced anything like that before. I don't think anyone's seen anything like that.

It was crazy, man. It was much different than I expected. I'll put it to you that way. How so? What did you expect? Well, I'd been working for Ted Turner for like 10 years, and I started that NWO thing with Eric Bischoff and Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. You probably know who I was.

Which was WCW, the competitor of WWI. So we'd been trying to put Vince out of business for 10 years, and we were killing him in the ratings for like 83 or 88 weeks you know we're just killing him then there was a turnaround he brought Tyson on and we we made a bunch of mistakes you know programming wise like we were live live live and their stuff was all taped we go don't watch Monday Night Raw tonight because Mick Foley's gonna beat The Rock and this guy yes we'd give him the finishes, just dirty pool, you know? Right.

So you need to watch the show because we're going to tell you who's already going to win, you know? And so after 10 years of this craziness, I was pretty much done. You know, this was Hollywood Hogan, the bad guy. And I had this crazy run. It was just as big as the red and yellow run as Hulkamania was. It was just as big or bigger. And so at the end of the day, I was done. Ted Turner merged with American Online and where his office was, they kicked him to the curb. He was down at the end of

the hall, so Ted wasn't in charge. Ted's the one I made the deal with and Eric Bischoff and Harvey Schiller and all these guys. And so I wasn't really going to do anything. I got a call from Vince, you know. And he goes, you know, we'd like you to come up and work with The Rock at WrestleMania. I said, well, yeah, I can still go, you know. If you need me to come up there, we can make it work. And he goes, well, you know, he used to call me Monster.

Well, you know, Monster, let's just know that things are different now up here. I said, what do you mean different? And he goes, well, you know, if you're going to come up here, you got to really bring it. Because, you know, the Rocky goes, the Rock does this thing in the ring, like bring it. And so I didn't say anything as a smartass. I'm thinking, if you want me to bring it, you're going to be asking me to take it back when I'm done with this bullshit. So anyway, you know, we went up there, had the match. There was a bunch of stuff that happened before the match that was a little bit different the weeks before. But when I went up there, what we did on TV was I did everything I could to be a bad guy.

I was in Chicago. Place was just slammed in Chicago. Just crazy. face was just slammed in Chicago, just crazy. I mean, I had so many matches in Chicago, and the past accolades were so intense there that when I came out as a bad guy, the people were like with me, you know? And so all of a sudden, The Rock comes out,

gets in the middle of the ring, challenges me to WrestleMania, I go to shake his hand, he won't let my hand go. You know, he pulls me back in. And right where face to face he rock bottoms me you know and dumps me in the middle of the ring on the back of my head so here come my guys i mean you have to realize that the this these are the most electrical moments ever like in pro wrestling history the like if you saw it on video these things this is

this is the epitome of the entire what makes the entire thing entertaining. Because you're kind of rooting for both. Both are kind of bad guys, but have such likable qualities. So it's a win-win no matter what. I mean, this stuff is beyond. This here is totally top shelf pro wrestling history. I always loved the two-tone beard mustache combo. Yeah.

So anyway, after he dumps me on my head, my guys come down, Kevin and Scott, and we just crucify his ass. We unload on him and we just grind him. So I go out of the ring and I get a toolbox and I dump the toolbox out and there's this ball peen hammer, right? So they got him hooked. And they're thinking I'm going to hit him from the front. I go and while they got him hooked, they thought I was going to blast him in the face with a hammer.

I hit him from behind with a hammer, right? I catch him from behind. You know, I'm not killing him. I'm pretty good at what I do. Is it an actual hammer? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Bro, I can put this thing between your forehead.

I won't even hurt you. Please not. He's a professional. No, but listen., I can put this thing between your forehead. I won't even hurt you. Please not. He's a professional. No, but listen. You're hitting him with a hammer? Yeah. Like, actually hit him with a hammer? Oh, yeah.

But he's a professional. Yeah, I'm pretty. Believe me, I can hit you with a hammer, brother. You'd be good. You know, but. What? Yeah. No.

It's a hammer. You know who first. Since this guy's so good at pulling stuff up, pull up Rocky III where I get Stallone in the corner and I throw that straight-in punch to him. Oh, okay, yeah. Because he said, oh, I don't want to get hurt. I said, you just stand there and don't move. With this straight-in punch, he goes, I've never had anybody throw a punch

that looks like it was going to kill me. Yeah, no, I think this is it right here. Look, look, look, look. That was straight into his forehead. Yeah. He goes, you didn't even hit me. I said, well, I'm not supposed to. But I did make contact.

So anyway, long story short, hit him with a hammer, drag him outside the building, put him in an ambulance, put chains around the ambulance, right? I go get in a semi truck without the trailer on it, just the cab of the semi. And, of course, as I'm getting in the cab of the semi, they pull Rock out of the ambulance. And I run that ambulance over with the semi. Oh, my God. Vince goes, do it again, do it again.

Yeah. This is so hilarious so anyway the ambulance is chained up yeah so dude so now the rock's in there we just we slide him out when they cut to me here you go and so at the end of the day I did everything I could to be

the worst most evil person in the world bad guy. And we go get in Toronto for WrestleMania after I've done all these horrible things. Oh my god. Now I had to back up and run him over again. Now after I do all these horrible things and I come out of the building

at WrestleMania and the place is cheering me out of the building. Yeah. I'm like, oh my god, how are we going to fix this? Because the rock is splitting to go to the Scorpion King. And I'm passing the torch, giving him the rub, everything I can to help him be the greatest wrestler ever. You know? And because that guy was so good in the ring, bro,

and I'd never worked him before, but second, third generation wrestler, instinct, timing, placement. He had everything. It took us about seven or eight minutes. I got it all turned back around. And he had certain input that we did. And I said, well, if some of that stuff doesn't work, we're not doing it. But it was just the craziest situation.

I mean, this is it, dude. This is like the craziest shit of all time. And Hogan scores with a right hand. Hogan's in the up in the air. Tony is aroused. I mean, it's unbelievable. You have to realize that this is aroused. I mean, it's unbelievable. You have to realize that this is like it. The two entertainers.

It was so loud in there. How old were you at this time? I think I was 53 or 54. That's amazing. Yeah. And I had a hip replacement. That is amazing. And two knee replacements.

That at 54, you were still this jacked. That's incredible. Another one. Another one. WrestleMania 18, after being in one, two, three, four, five. And the next year, I took Vince McMahon to Safeco Field and actually had a blast with Vince. Got to beat the shit out of Vince.

That was fun. Bro, he's all in. That crazy nut was all in. He loved it. That's so nuts that he can do that still too. I mean, so, it was just so weird because all of a sudden, you know, the lines were just so blurry. Right. You know, going out there thinking that I was going to be the most

hated person in the world. I went out there, oh my God, we got a real problem here. But if Rock wasn't as good as he was, we could have never you know, just like I was in there with somebody that had been in the world I went out there oh my god we got a real problem here but if rock wasn't as good as he was we could have never you know just it's just like I was in there was somebody that had been in the business instead of 40 years like me 50 years he just had that that instinct that I've been in the room with a lot of guys and he had it when a lot of people didn't have it he has it so back in 77 when you first started how did you get going? Like, what were the first matches that you did? Well, before then, I drove the wrestlers crazy because they were coming in the clubs when I was playing music.

Dude, I was scared to death of them. They're all 300-pound guys, teeth knocked out, cauliflower ears, beer drinkers. I mean, there was no fluff right back in set in the 70s okay so i was a huge wrestling fan my whole life because dusty roads was down in that florida territory and all that stuff so one of the guys i went to high school with named mike graham his dad was a promoter he was a big jock in high school and they all hated me because i was playing in a rock and roll band i had long and i had two brand new cars in high school. Plus, I was living at a hotel.

You know, it's, you know, I just didn't really fit in. How did you have two brand new cars in high school? Because the lady that was my babysitter, Lila Silverwood, when I was a kid growing up, she was president of Atlantic Bank on Dale Mabry in Tampa. And I bought two brand new Roadrunners. They were like $3,000 a piece back in the day. So I bought a Roadrunner, a four-speed, little 440, and then I bought a date car, a Roadrunner with bucket seats, console, little 383 car.

And Lila Silverwood, who was my babysitter, I was like 17 at the time, gave me the loan, and she signed for me. The president of Atlantic Bank loaned me the money, and then for me the president atlantic bank loaned me the money and then she signed the note for me you know that's insane that at 17 you decided to have two road runners yeah an automatic and a manual one for dating big yeah i'm a big mopar guy man still in yeah i love mopar almost those mopar i have a seven what are we talking about i forgot uh we're talking about the initial wrestling matches that you had. Okay, so anyway, the back story is I got used to seeing these wrestlers.

You know what I'm saying? And Mike Graham, who went to high school with me, was a year ahead of me. I didn't really fit in with these guys. So I went and I'd watch at the Sportatorium every week the wrestling matches. And finally, Mike Graham says, look, you've been coming here every week. And I'd ram my mouth around town telling everybody I wanted to be a wrestler, which is the worst thing you can do. So at the end of the day, he set me up with a guy named Hiro Matsuda,

a Japanese wrestler. And what they did was the first thing they did was they made me run. And so Matsuda got in a station wagon. He got like five or six feet behind me, and he made me run around Tampa Stadium two, three times until I was ready to pass out. Then they got me in the building where the ring was, and they had me do jumping squats and push-ups and side straddle hops and jumping squats until everything was white, and I was getting ready to faint.

Then they threw me in the ring, and Matt Suda got between my legs. He stuck his elbow in my shin, grabbed my toe, and broke my leg. Oh, God. And said, don't ever come back again. They told me, don't you ever. And I had long-ass hair, blonde hair. You saw the picture of the band and stuff. They said, don't ever come back again.

So I had a Ford Econoline van to put some of the music equipment in with a clutch. I couldn't drive it. So when my father got home from work, he worked construction for Azarelli Construction. He had to come down with my mom and he drove my van home. When I got home, I really got my ass beat. It was a little bit different.

And he goes, don't you ever let anybody hurt you again. So when he broke your leg, what specifically broke? The bone above my ankle. Bone above my ankle. He posted my shin and pulled my toe. He did it on purpose.

Oh, hell yeah. So that guy broke your leg and then you went home and your dad beat you up for getting your leg broken? Yeah. That's fucked up. No, it's just old school, bro. That is fucked. No, no, it's not. That is fucking brutal.

That's not fucked up. That's just how things are. That's how you were built. No, that, it's not. That is fucking brutal. It's not fucked up. That's just how things are. That's how you were built. No, that's how they were... Don't talk to me then. But so, anyway, to make a long story short, long story short,

I, you know, laid around for three or four months, cut my hair short like yours, went back with the mindset that nobody's going to hurt me again. So they spent... I saw guys come through, like, I don't know if you know who Paul Orndorff, who paul earned off mr wonderful i saw him come through six weeks and they trained

him he started wrestling i'm there two years i'm there two years and now they got me so do you have to go back with the dude who broke your leg oh yeah you and you're working with him well not only that i started taking japan with me when i was wrestling in Japan. We became like best friends, bro. Wow. It's a certain amount of respect that goes along with this business if you're broken the right way. So he respected that you came back. Oh, yeah, man. They couldn't run me off.

Right. They did everything they could. They weren't running me off now. I don't want to go home and face my dad again. I would imagine, though, you'd want to get that dude back. No, I was too afraid of him. I was scared of him, man. He was like the master.

Oh, he was the man. You're the student. Submissions, all that jiu-jitsu stuff. I didn't know nothing. I didn't know nothing about that stuff. I'm playing music, you know? Right, right, right. So now they spend two years teaching me how to wrestle, hook, submissions, all that stuff.

Whoa. Armbar. That's over in Japan. Wow. Oh, wow. So in japan do they like different techniques see like in japan i didn't do any of the ear stuff or the you know the hulk heavy and stuff over there i would actually wrestle these guys you know is that what they like in japan oh yeah yeah a lot of there's a lot of blurriness in japan too with there is now with pro wrestling and mma yeah there was a lot of blurriness back in the too. There is now. With pro wrestling and MMA.

There was a lot of blurriness back in the day when Takada was fighting for pride. Because Takada was a huge pro wrestling star. And they had him as the anchor of pride. That company, Shindapan Pro Wrestling, that I work for over there? Yeah. Pride was their partners over there. Sometimes we'd be on the card and the pride guys would be there. And I'm looking at, in the dressing room, looking at the lineups, it's all in Japanese.

I'm going, a good buddy of mine crazy saw to this Japanese guy. I said, who am I wrestling? I hope it's a gaijin, an American, you know. Because I didn't mind wrestling the Japanese. I just didn't want to fight the pride guys. You know what I'm saying? Right, right. Because they were all big, man.

Back in the day, in the 70s, those guys were like 220, 240. They were all big. Yeah. You know? And the pride was the Wild West, too. It literally, and Ensign Inouye went, and he had a contract that literally said, I think he said it was in all capital letters, too, we do not test for steroids.

Oh, God. He's just like saying, look look we're trying to make the best product possible so why would we test you for steroids have fun yeah and so the pride days were the wild west and people just had insane physiques and they could go for days and some of the best fights of all time came out of that era those pride days some of the best fights of all time came out of that era. Those Pride days, some of the best fights of all time. But the best example of the Wild West of Pride was a guy named Bob Sapp. Oh, yeah. And Bob Sapp was 375 pounds with abs.

It was the craziest thing. And he fought Minotauro Noguera in, like, the most epic fight of all time. I used to love watching him. And Noguera tapped him with an armbar. It was fucking crazy, though. But he got piledrived on his neck, and his neck was fucked for the rest of all time. I used to love watching him. And Noguera tapped him with an armbar. It was fucking crazy, though. But he got piledrived on his neck, and his neck was fucked for the rest of his career from this one fight. Sap would get tired. He'd just start

swinging wild haymakers. Have you seen him, Tony? Okay, you need to see this, because it defies logic. You look at the size of him. Go with Bob Sap versus Noguera. When you see how physically big he is when he's moving, you're like, this isn't a real person. This is like the Hulk.

This is like a comic book character. Like, look at the size of him. Watch this. Look at the size of him. So this is the right away Noguera shoots and he gets pile-drived. Oh, no. Yeah. By a guy who's fucking enormous.

Look at this. Oh, man. I love it. Bro, look at the size of him. He was such a freak. But anyway, as the fight goes on, Noguera actually winds up submitting him, and it's insane. That's crazy. But he takes a lot of punishment in the process.

He finally gets on top of him. Bob Sapp gassed out. I mean, there's no way you can have endurance when you're that big. It's literally not even possible. He made a lot of money in Japan, man. You can have endurance for a little while, but you're never going to have endurance like a guy like Noguera, who's 230 pounds and natural.

Like, you're going to eventually gas out. There's too much tissue. There's too much going on there. He was a huge star in Japan. Giant. He ran afoul with some promoters and stuff, and it all went bad for him. But before that, they had, like, Bob Sapp dolls.

They had, like, he was everywhere. He was huge. He was promoting so many different products. He was gigantic over there. Yeah, he sure was but uh those those pride guys there was some blurriness back then because there was a few fights in pride that um a lot of fight experts were like that looks fake a lot of fans a lot of martial artists were like that looks fake like something i think that's a fake fight and i think there was some

fixed fights everything got blurry over there. I mean, it was like the wild, wild westerns, 70s and 80s over there. It was so different when you went over there. They like to do a lot of freak show things. Like they would have giant people fight small people. They have this lady, Gabby Garcia. Have you ever seen her? Oh, I have at the at the uh

at the championships at abu dhabi yeah we went to abu dhabi yeah she's so big she's like 240 plus pounds yeah and they have her fight women who look like they just pulled them out of the like housekeeping and said hey put some shorts on you're gonna fight like that's crazy it's a complete mismatch but they do stuff like that like kind of on purpose yeah when you wrestled in japan was it a acknowledged that they had a different kind of style like what what else did you have to change like you didn't do the thing with your ear no no didn't do the drop that's why when i stayed with the japanese guy for a couple years, I didn't know how to wrestle at all, nothing.

You know, playing a rock and roll band. So they spent a couple years, and their mindset was, this kid might turn out to be something because they couldn't run me off. And so I kept coming back and coming back. So at the end of the day, I got to where I was warming the guys up and all the marks, like police officers or producers who wanted to be wrestlers, they'd give them to me first because I was in crazy shape. I was like 245, 50 pounds.

I got to the point where I could do these exercises all day, and I'd wear them out. Then I'd give them to Matt Suda and another guy named Gordon Nelson, who was a crazy shooter. We put wooden bars on the door so they couldn't run and escape. We kept them in there. Can I explain to people what shooter means? Yeah. There's works and shoots. For people who don't know what we're talking about, a work is you have a predetermined outcome.

A shoot is like a real fight, right? Even with holds. It's like with a hold here. Like a top wrist lock. Ouch. He's going to kill you, like a top wrist lock. Ouch. He's going to kill you, Tony. No, this is a work. You're dead, man.

This is a work, okay? This is a shoot. Ah. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Just even with holds, even like with a headlock. Right. When you have a headlock on you, this part of my arm is against your face. It's a work.

If I turn my hand this way and put that bone across you. Right. Then you're trying to hurt him. Yeah. So anyway, I spent a couple years with him. you right then you're trying to hurt him yeah so anyway i spent a couple years with him and then they taught me how to do the wrestling where you hit the ropes and take a backdrop and the first day they started teaching me i started crying because i had no idea i was so into this i thought it was like full-blown you know shoot go after the guy. They had me programmed. I mean, they had me beat down so much that I, when Eddie Graham, the kid, I went to high school.

Then his dad got in the ring with me. He goes, and Eddie Graham was a big star, like the Hulk Hogan, Dusty Roadstar. And they called me and said, Eddie Graham's getting in the ring with me this week, and he's going to work out with you. I was scared to death. I'm going, oh, my God. Should I just quit? Because I've been through so much. I don't know if I can handle going in the ring with

this main event. God, I thought he was going to kill me. He showed me how to lock up and how to hit the ropes. I started crying because I knew they had been screwing with me. It finally clicked. They've been torturing me for no reason, and they could have taught me this a year and a half ago. But back then, their whole mindset was different.

If you were a wrestler they were protecting the business so much they didn't want some guy to go in the bar and get his ass kicked you know they didn't they didn't want to they didn't want somebody that they didn't think would at least go fight you know what i'm saying if something went down so long story short it all worked and then when i ended up going to japan in 78 79 I took Matsuda with me because he was like a god in Japan. And there was a mystique that the Japanese knew what had happened to me with my leg. They knew that Matsuda broke me in. And when I went over there with him, I didn't even have to wrestle.

I was already made. Oh, wow. Because I was Matsuda's boy, you know. And so that was a good shot in the arm for me. Then a few years later, I took Classy Freddy Blassie with me over there. I remember that guy. And Classy Freddy Blassie used to wrestle a guy named Ricky Dozan over there. And Blassie had two sets of false teeth.

One he'd eat with and another pair he'd file down on TV. Then he would bite the wrestlers in the head in Japan, suck the blood out of their head, then spit it back in their face. No, I'm serious, bro. I'm serious. And on TV aside, on TV aside, the first weekend Blassie wrestled on TV, 308, he's passed out and died at home.

Now this is a Fred Blassie story telling me. That is insane. So this is Blassie telling me this stuff. So now, I've got Matsuda, and I'm going over there over there Blassie and Ricky Dozan was the mafia guy and he got killed by a mafia guy over in Japan but now I got this backstory of Matsuda and Blassie that's why I stayed over there 22-24 weeks out of the year it was like I loved it over there that's amazing yeah it was great and they don't call me Hulk Hogan. They call me Ichiban there.

Oh. Yeah, so whenever you see me with those black and silver tights, that's the Ichiban number one logo on my tights. And so. That's incredible. So what a great place to experience the different styles of pro wrestling too right because like american style pro wrestling versus japanese style and then there's like uh mexican styles different styles well right yeah how many different styles of pro wrestling are there is it's bigger in america

and bigger in japan than anywhere else right? Well, lucha labor is a different thing because when you see anybody in America, boom, they take your arm, they take your left arm. They always work off the left side, everything you do. Mexico, they work off the right side. My first time I was in Mexico City, I was in that big arena that has the hole in the roof, Mexico City, the big building.

And I'm in a six-man tag. They put the roof in Mexico City, the big building. Yeah. And I'm in a six-man tag. They put me in a six-man tag for some reason. I don't do tag matches. I got two Mexican partners who don't speak English. And there's three other Mexican guys who don't speak English. They don't even tag over there. You know, you usually have to wait to get the tag.

They're just running out of the ring without a tag. It took me like 10 minutes to figure out that you didn't need to tag. Nobody told me. So it was just crazy. But the stuff they no tag. It took me like 10 minutes to figure out that you didn't need to tag. Nobody told me. So it was just crazy. But the stuff they do is just like a whole other level. You know, the Eddie Guerreros and Chavo Guerreros and all these guys, man. They're in Rey Mysterio. These guys are just supermen. Wild acrobatics.

Yeah, and they can wrestle too. I mean, Chavo's the man. His whole family, you know was their their legends so in the 70s when you were first getting going that how many different organizations were there were there like small local places and then there's one big one that was on television like how many different organizations were there back then like when I grew up I saw Florida Championship Wrestling you know and I saw that's the only thing I saw Florida Championship Wrestling you know and I saw

that's the only thing I saw you know. So that was like a local Yeah it was just a local promotion. Was it cable back then? No no no. Regular TV. It was just local TV and we didn't get channel 17 Ted Turner's cable and at the time I didn't know that there was Madison

Square Garden, New York territory that is New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts and that there was Madison Square Garden, New York territory. That is New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. And then there was like Minnesota, Vern Gagne's territory. Then there was Fritz von Erich, Dallas. Bill Watts had Louisiana. Michael LaBelle had LA. So there were all these little teeny territories, and all the promoters respected each other. So if Joe Rogan had Texas, I would never come in to Dallas and try to run a

show in your area. There are these imaginary boundaries that you don't cross your spec. That was Vince McMahon senior. And he was loyal to all these promoters. And every once in a while, he's in like superstar Billy Graham down to Florida to wrestle or Ox Baker from New York down to wrestle. And we'd see these guys come in, and I didn't know where they came from. But they'd come in, and the local hero, like Dusty Rhodes, would beat them up, and they'd be gone. So I had no idea how the whole system worked. And all I saw was Florida Championship Wrestling.

So after I got in and I figured out all these territories, like I went to Minnesota and wrestled, and I went to North Florida, fuller territory which is Pecola and all through Mobile Alabama and Birmingham that small territory I went to Memphis and worked for Lawler and Jerry Jarrett for a while but then when I went to work for Vince

Jr. and I went back after being fired and having my first run in New York when I went back in 84 to beat the Iron Sheik Vince wanted to cross all those imaginary boundaries. You know, and I went, wow, this is going to be dangerous. So Vince says, are you up for it?

I said, yeah, I'll do it. And so Vince stayed in Connecticut, in Greenwich, in the office. And, you know, then I was booked in Lafayette, Louisiana. We pump our signal in there for like eight weeks. You know, prime example is Kansas City. I don't know if you've ever heard of a wrestler named Harley Race. NWA champion.

Tougher than hell. Meaner than a snake. Great guy though. Okay. We pump the signal into Kansas City for eight weeks. And Harley Race has been there like 18 years. He was the NWA champion. I'm the champion of the world and he's a very proud and

mean son of a bitch. And all of a sudden here comes this blonde haired idiot from New York going, hey I'm the WWF champion. I'm the WWE champion. I'm coming to Kemper Arena and we're pumped to signaling. So I come, I fly into town and I show up about two in the afternoon. My guys

call me, Harley Race came down here with a gun and he tried to light the ring on fire whoa and the cop had the cops ran him up and they didn't arrest him i went oh and they told me harley said when i show up he's going to kill you so i go across the street and i go to the rusty scupper this bar right and I'm not I was notorious at the time for not kind of like being on time because the matches would start like it 730 to 8 o'clock and they wanted you to building at 630 I'd come rolling in about 930 you know after intermission and I'd have time to put my boots on cuz I don't want to talk about Russell I just want to do it you know

it's like playing guitar or anything that's like like chess. You think two, three moves ahead. And so now I don't need to be at the building early. I damn sure don't want to run into Harley Race. This guy's going to kill me. I'm scared to death of him anyway. I've known him since I was a kid. So now I'm across the rusty scupper drinking bottles of wine, drinking bottles of wine. And now I've got to go to the building.

So now I go to the building, and I had to go to the bathroom. My stomach was killing me. So I'm sitting there on the toilet go to the building, okay? So now I go to the building, and I had to go to the bathroom. My stomach was killing me. So I'm sitting there on the toilet going to the bathroom. And I don't know if you know a wrestler named Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog. Yep. Oh, my God, the fucking king is here. The fucking king is here. He's going to kill you, Hogan.

Davey Boy comes in and screams at me. I pull my wrestling yellow tights up. Don't even wipe my ass. You know, as fast as I could, because I don't want to get caught with my pants down, I don't want to have a fighting chance. I come blowing out of the bathroom, I turn around the corner, he puts that gun right in my face.

And we're in Kemper Arena, and he goes, you know what, I should kill you, Hogan, for coming in here and doing this. And this is Harley Race talking to me. And then he puts the gun down, he goes, but I really need a job. Wow. I went, holy shit.

You know, holy shit. I shook his hand, brother. And I was a huge fan. Loved the guy to death anyway. But that's the type of stuff me and Vince were doing. We were going to other people's territories. And then, you know, you go through, you know, you go to hotel rooms and stuff, you never know when stuff's gonna put crap in your bag or stuff like that.

We went down to Puerto Rico. But anyway, Harley became a good friend again. And I knew him before I was a fan. He used to come hear the band play and everything. But anyway, like going down to Puerto Rico. First time we go down to Puerto Rico, I've never been to Puerto Rico before. All the boys tell me how violent it is. They cut you, they burn you with cigarettes, they throw everything at down to Puerto Rico, I've never been to Puerto Rico before. All the boys tell me how violent it is.

They cut you, they burn you with cigarettes, they throw everything at you in Puerto Rico. So I'd never been. I didn't need to go. But now Vince wants to go down to Puerto Rico. And Carlos Colon had the territory there for like 30 or 40 years. So here we come. And I go rolling down to Puerto Rico with Cynd Cindy Lauper with me, right? So I go down to Puerto Rico, and we have the match, and we saw the stadium.

Me and Macho Man go back to the room, and we go walk in his room, and his room is trashed. His room is trashed. And so all of a sudden, I go, oh, my God, I'm going to go to my room. So all of a sudden, I go to my room, and I don't want to say the guy's name, but when I open the door, he's sitting there because he's still really active. And he's sitting there with a gun. He said, if you ever come back here, I'm going to kill you. I said, okay.

I was going back to Tampa. I hauled ass to the airport. I got on an Eastern Airlines flight, the last one out of town. I flew to L.A. I was supposed to be going home to tampa about four months later bruiser brody goes down there has a little argument the booker calls him into the shower cuts his throat and kills him jesus so that's down there in puerto rico jesus christ i don't know if you guys ever heard the brody story the promoter cut his throat well he was the booker he was one of the invaders um rodriguez and uh brody was kind of hard to do

business with in the ring he's really stiff and would beat the out of you he wouldn't put anybody over and he was he was a big big man8", 330 pounds, in crazy shape. And, you know, they wanted to beat him. He was, nah, not tonight, brother. Wow. So after the match, they said, hey, Jose wants to talk to you in the shower. Brody went walking in the shower. He jumped him, cut his throat, and died right there.

And all the wrestlers that saw it were afraid to go back and testify. That's – Wow. So it can get crazy. That's about as crazy as it gets so you guys were the first ones to break those boundaries and kind of barnstorm the whole country like that vince is a gangster bro that's such a whole country how about going to germany or south africa you know because they had wrestling over there, too. How about blowing in South Africa and, you know, getting challenged by the South African heavyweight champion, Wilhelm Ruska, that judo guy. My God, it goes on and on and on, you know, with how crazy it got, you know.

What was that like? It was different. You know, the good thing was everywhere I went, I had like the crew with me, you know, except for when I went to South Africa. That was a little different. But everywhere I went, it was always the crew and the WWE 20 or 30 wrestlers that were there, so you felt a lot better. I try not to peel off on my own too often, especially when we're walking someone else's backyard

that they've been promoting wrestling for 30, 40, 50 years, and all of a sudden you come here. And they have the same sort of unspoken rules out there? And we broke them all. Wow. Yeah, I never even considered that as a possibility that there would be these territories. Well, that's one of the main things that made Vince Jr. so famous and changed the game forever.

Vince Sr. always wanted him. Wasn't it like a promise, a handshake deal? You can have the company, son, but just please don't ever mess with the other territories. And Vince is like, okay. It's like Vince told me, he goes, if my dad knew what we were getting ready to do, he would have never sold me the territory.

Yeah. Wow. I'm like, okay. He goes, you up for it i said yeah let's do it was the dad alive when this was going down for a while yeah for a while i had pancreatic cancer and uh he was alive like when i went back when i went back oh god it's such a crazy story i hate to get into all this stuff but it's's all true. Like when I went back, I had just been in Minnesota, spent three years, Hulk Hogan had really that Hulk of anything and started there. And I was on fire there. I mean, really on fire. And so now when I go back to New York,

Vince had flown to my house. We talked about doing a deal. So on a certain day, I'm coming back to New York. I did two, three weeks of TV of TV They're not supposed to be the Iron Sheik for the belt that night Then seniors there. He always had these half glasses that he'd look over and he's always clicking quarters together when he talked to you You know and I'm standing there with Vince Senior and Vince jr. And myself and Bob back when standing there who was the champion that the Iron Sheik beat for the belt now the Iron Sheik's got the belt and Backlund thought he was getting the belt back and Backlund was my guy go to Japan with him and train with him in Japan when nobody else would run steps with him and everything in the hotel all of a sudden I'm sitting there and Vince is clicking the quarters

together and he goes well I'm really thinking you you know, that I really don't think we should do this tonight. We should put this off for about six months. And Bob Backham pops up and goes, yeah, I think a real athlete should be the champion. So I'm looking over at him, right? And like, what the hell's going on here, you know? And then out of nowhere, you know, I said, well guys, I just had a huge bridge I just burnt down in Minnesota.

I built a big bridge there. I tell you what, I'll rest down in Sheik's and I'll put his ass over because that's business, but I'm leaving, I'm going back and rebuild that bridge. Thank you guys very much for bringing me up there. I went back to the dressing room, it was about 10 or 15 minutes later, Vince Jr. came in.

He says, oh, everything's okay. I talked to my dad. Everything's settled down. I said, are you sure? Now what I don't know on the backside is when I leave Minnesota, the promoter Vern Gagne, who worked there, the Iron Sheik, Cosgrove Lazario, whatever his real name was, he was a real bodyguard for the Shah of Iran.

He was the real deal, bro. He's got all these huge dents and holes in his head. They used to beat him and stuff, he was a real bodyguard for the Shah of Iran. He was the real deal, bro. He's got all these huge dents and holes in his head where they used to beat him and stuff when he was over there. Little did I know, Kaz, the Iron Sheik, broke in with Vernganya in Minnesota, right? So now I come to New York, and I'm going to win the belt, and Vernganya was pissed at me for leaving. So he calls Kaz up and says, I'll give you $100,000 to break Hogan's leg. Right? And now this guy's a ncaa champion the real deal i'm not you know so vernon offers him a hundred grand to break my leg and we go in the ring and i mean i'm giving you my arm and take my

head and take my leg i mean you know i think we're working you know not shooting and he told us afterwards you know my accent's terrible the iron secret but you know vernon called me and want to give me a hundred grand to break your leg but i'm a businessman i just hope we can keep working i said brother don't worry we're gonna work together all the time wow but i don't know if you knew about that if you're a wrestling fan i didn't know that he was offered a hundred,000 to break your leg. Smart move for him to not take it. You get $100,000 there, and then you guys never work together, and he's never anywhere near what he became, one of the ultimate heels of all time.

Yeah, but everybody knows these stories, man. Also, he's an athlete. He's not a hit man. Right. It's kind of fucked up. It's a different business. You'd be surprised. I'm sure.

Those rules don't apply all the time yeah i'm sure it's just i love the iron chic oh he's great yeah i uh i hung out with him one time in that uh toronto pot place you know where they have that marijuana show where the entire room was filled with weed smoke yeah and the iron chic got on stage with me yeah he's the man i roasted him three times la toronto and hamilton canada i told him he's such a nice guy he'd give you the shirt off his head yeah he was a freak athlete too man you ever see him do the clubs yeah none of us could do it we all tried none of us could do it i couldn't do it andre couldn't do it None of us could do it. We all tried. None of us could do it. I couldn't do it. Andre couldn't do it. None of us could do it.

Andre couldn't do it? None of us could do it, bro. Wow. Those clubs are like 85 pounds apiece. Are they really? Yeah. They were heavy as shit. He just manhandled them.

Yeah. That's really hard to do, those things. I do them with these little 25-pound ones, and it's hard to do. And the longer the handle, the more difficult it is to maneuver. You put them behind your head and do them like cause does? Yeah, shield casting. You do this. Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, and then I do these. I do a bunch of different ones with it. But it's a very weird kind of strength. And when you watch him do it, it's like he must have been spectacularly strong. He was a legit wrestler. Oh, yeah. Amateur wrestler. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, Pan Am champion. I can't even have a bunch of. Oh, yeah. Amateur wrestler. Oh, yeah. Pan Am champion. I can't even – had a bunch of other accolades. Yeah, there's – I mean, think about how many, like, real legit – Kurt Angle's a great example. Kurt Angle wins the gold medal with a broken neck. Won a gold medal in the Olympics with a broken neck. Dude, I'm in the ring with Kurt Angle, and we go to square off, he gets down in an amateur stance, his

eyes roll back in his head like a dart. I'm looking at him going, brother? Brother? And so when I first started working with him, I mean, you're supposed to make, you're supposed to, you know, I work with the one-man gang a certain way, I work with Piper a certain way, people

work with Hulk Hogan a certain way, there's a certain protocol to set a storyline up. You know, well, Kurt Angle is just coming at me and taking me down and going behind me and yoking my shit up every night. This is going on for like three or four nights in a row.

I know he's kind of like green. He's just getting started and he's got that amateur wrestling mindset. If you can't break him with that, he's not gonna draw any money. I mean, as soon as Brock got that out of his head, he drew nothing but money. So Kurt's coming to me, Kurt's coming to me. I finally had a sense of, brother, what is your deal? I said, I'm here to make money.

I'm here to make a living. I said, what's going on with you, man? Why the first five or six minutes you're trying to grind me out here? Well, Vince told me to screw you. I said, really? Vince told you to screw you. I said, oh, really? Vince told you to do that? I said, I can't wait to get a hold of Vince now. But Vince put it in Kurt's ear, when you're on these house shows with Hogan

and nobody sees you, you're not on TV, go out and grind his ass, you know? So that was a big thing for Vince. You know, if it was wrestling San Antonio tonight with no cameras, he'd sit Kurt Angle on me for the first five or six minutes. But why? What was the reason? Just for fun, just a joke. Yeah, so all we all we would all do that shit to each other it's just a normal wrestling rib you know Kurt Angle's neck looks like a waist yeah it's like

a normal person's waist yeah yeah he's he's a monster man he just had both of his knees done you know yeah I would I was gonna ask, he must have experienced a ton of injuries, right? Yeah, good guy, though, brother. Really good guy. So he had knee replacements? Yeah. Matt Serra just had one of those. Yeah, he's back to doing jujitsu.

What is this? Kurt. Oh, wow. Oh, God. He's wearing a wig. He's wearing a wig. That's hilarious. He had a wig on.

Oh, my God. This is so funny. Apparently after we started working together. Hilarious. Now you put it in. hilarious hey B's working a real job oh fuck yeah that's what a crazy story about Vince and the taking over the entire

country yeah I mean it's just wild ass times wild ass times for the country. Yeah. I mean, it's just I I mean, wild ass times. Wild ass times for the sport. Yeah. I remember Killer Kowalski. Remember that guy? Oh yeah, Walter. We used to watch it on, like,

there was like a local Boston channel that would have local Massachusetts pro wrestling. You're from the Boston area? Yeah, that's where I went to high school. Dude, that old Boston Gardens was magical. Oh, yeah. Man, I could just look at people in there, and they would start coming towards the ring.

I'd have to just look at them, and they'd come, man. It was, like, intense. I mean, I had some of the greatest matches in there simply because if those people are into it, you just go. Yeah. You push it beyond you know is the new one the td garden is that in the same place or is it a totally new location did they redo the old place or did they make is it a totally new location we were just there this past weekend for the ufc yeah i've wrestled in it several times, to tell you the truth. I didn't even pay attention.

Some of the things that you do, like the hand to the ear and all that, was that Vince or you, or you guys think of this stuff together? No, that was stolen. That was stolen. From what? Well, this guy named Austin Idol, he's another guy that looks like Flair, just like Flair almost. And I was in Dothan, Alabama one night, and I saw him just do this.

And it was louder than any reaction he got from the whole match. I saw him and said, oh, that's kind of interesting. So I just kind of like wound it up and started going and just place blue you know and then when I'm on when I'm down and they lift mom once somebody's getting asleep with my mom twice and then I left mom the third time and I put my mom and I go stole that too fromy Rhodes. Saw him do that when I was a kid. How about the Hey Brother? That was mine. Nice.

Yeah, that's a big one. But anyway. Tony's excited. Say your prayers, take your vitamins. That was mine. Nice. The shirt tear, that was an accident. I was in the Rosemont Horizon, and I had, once again, a six-man tag. And, God, who the hell was it? Oh, I know who it was. and I had once again a six-man tag and

God who those oh, I know it was I was in there with Jerry Blackwell, so a couple guys all three guys were playing the Sheiks I can't remember what the hell was I was in the ring with these two guys Greg Gagne Who was the promoter son Jim Brunzel? I'm standing in the middle of the ring and they just reached up and ripped my shirt off me. Each guy grabbed my shirt and ripped it, and the place went crazy. I went, oh, shit, that works. And plus, I get tired of carrying around that big-ass robe and stuff.

You have to carry an extra bag at the airport. So T-shirts, I'm in. So different things like that. The whole Himania thing, of course, there was Beatlemania. And then all of a sudden, that guy that did the ear thing, Things like that, you know. The Hulkamania thing. Of course, there was Beatlemania, you know. And then all of a sudden, that guy that did the ear thing, Austin Idol, I heard him say, Idlemania. And, you know, do this with his face because he's a good-looking guy.

Austin Idol, I heard that Idlemania. Mmm. Mmm. I'm going to steal that, too. Yeah. Mmm. Oh, it all worked out well. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you like doing the other stuff too, like movies and things on TV shows and things along those lines? I used to, but no. No. Not anymore. I don't know how many. I don't know if I've done 15 or 17 little low-budget kids movies or had cameos and you know I've got I've done three ninja movies with Lonnie Anderson and Jim Varney Muffet Street I'm in a mega mountain I played Dave Dragon the

superhero I've done gremlin movies I've done Baywatch Bay oh god yeah I was partners with Baywatch guys now you know done different Tony has followed your career very closely. Yeah, but the thing was it was the process. It's like when I first got with Vince, we took off. We did a wrestling movie called No Holds Barred. And Tiny Lester, he was in it with me. Great guy, man. I love him to death. But the thing was, other than that first wrestling movie that i did with vince

i started doing a bunch of other movies i did the first couple movies that new line cinema ever did uh suburban commando and mr nanny it's the first two movies i ever did and then that guy um jordan belford gave me money to do a couple movies that wolf wall street guy oh wow yeah if you pull up like Santa with Muscles, you can see him producer credit, you know. So he gave me money to do Santa with Muscles and another movie. But I did like... Did you get a chance to talk

to that guy? No. No, I never did. He... No, I take that back. I did meet him one time. I met him one time at the Grand Havana room. And with Brian and Stan Schuster who were running the Grand Havana room and with Brian and Stan Schuster who were running the Grand Havana and in Beverly Hills I didn't know who he was and I was talking to him and they saw this is the guy that put the money up

and I did meet him but you know that was the only time it didn't have a conversation or anything but I would like to know how much that movie was made up and how much fat was real. That movie was great. Like, were you really that out of control? That was a great fucking movie. Yeah. My problem was, even when I did American Gladiators with Layla Ali at the Sony soundstage, they would have my RV on the side of the soundstage,

and you'd be in makeup at 5.30 in the morning, and you know how it is, and then all of a sudden, it's getting dark, and they've used you for five minutes. I couldn't stand the process. Right. The whole time i was thinking about i could be out doing a lot of things yeah yeah i mean especially the wrestling you know yeah to walk away from that type of intensity and that type of money to be locked in an rv all day i couldn't handle it man well i think if there's one thing the way like maybe you or I might look at it because it's just a thing we do kind of on the side, like sometimes do it. But for those people, that's like game day.

This is what they actually want to do. I don't have that desire for it. I'm on your team. Like they do. Yeah. I get it. I mean, I'm glad that they do, that there's people out there that live for that because I like watching movies. that there's people out there that live for that because I like watching movies.

But I would imagine for you part of the thing would be like trying to pick what to say yes to because you probably have so many different kind of ideas coming at you. Yeah, it's a little different. I mean, I've had the same agent, Peter Young, for over 40 years. Wow. And at the time, my attorney Henry Holmes, that we were like a team. And I think the reason

Peter's still my agent is because I say no to everything. Because after, you know, the great life I've had, you know, in the entertainment business, I just love being

on the beach, man. You know, I said, can we get Joe Rogan to come to us, man? Isn't that possible, you know? You know, so, I mean, that's my mindset. I just hate leaving the beach. You just like relaxing now. Well, not even that.

It's just, I just, you know, it's kind of like my girl that's with me now, it's like she understands, you know, and it took a while until she, you have to experience it, comprehend it. Everybody has like a Hulk Hogan story, you know, and it took a while until she, you have to experience it, comprehend it, comprehend it. Everybody has like a Hulk Hogan story, you know, and it's true. Now she, she goes, I get it. Everybody does. And she's like, people come say, man, my dad just want to say hello to you. He played Venice beach with, played basketball in Venice beach with you for five years. Tell your dad, I said hello and I still love him. I haven't played basketball a day in my life. Or my dad grew up

with you. I grew up in Tampa, Florida. Or my dad grew up in Tampa, Florida and he's the one that taught you how to lift weights. So tell your dad I love him, man. I can't wait to see him again. I never lived in Venice Beach. But it's kind of like those stories come along. Do you remember riding next to me

15 years ago on an Eastern Airline from here to LaGuardia? Yeah, brother, how you doing, man? The one that kills me, the 40-year-old guys come up to me and go, do you remember me? You met me when I was seven years old. I'm like, dude, you look a little bit different now than when you were seven. You got a full beard and everything. But it's cool, though, because people are so nice and respectful. And most people are really, honestly, just really nice people.

Yeah. And it's just amazing. There's very few idiots out there. Yeah. It is amazing. Yeah. Most people are really nice. It's just there's so many of us that you hear about the idiots.

And they do exist. But there's so many of us that you hear about it so that it's like statistically pretty small number of people. It becomes the thing that everybody concentrates on all the time, and it gives you a distorted perspective of people, of the human race. It's like driving a car. Driving a car is dangerous. Yeah, but it's pretty amazing how good everybody is at it. It's pretty amazing that most days you can get around and never see an accident. I mean, you're dealing with so many cars,

there's thousands of cars that you see every day if you live in a city. And most days you don't see an accident. Like the vast majority of days you don't see accidents. You know? That's amazing. I mean, you might see one that had already happened but how many do you actually see right in your whole life you might see like a dozen you know it's kind of

crazy because it's a difficult task that everybody gets i think it's just easy to get cynical when you pay attention and bad shit and that's the news has always given us bad shit. We always have things to worry about. And now they're talking about there's a new strain of the virus we have to be really scared of. It's like every day. It's like new problems from all over the world, and you're inundated by it. And so it's very difficult for people to just kind of chill out.

That's amazing because the stuff I was looking at, I was saying, well, everybody's going to start wearing masks and we're going to isolate and, you know. Yeah, there's some college just put, reinstated a mask mandate, which is like, oh my God, you people, you're loving this.

It doesn't even make any sense because if you're a college, that would mean you're in an institute for higher education. If you're an institute for higher education, wouldn't you be paying attention to the latest data? Oh yeah. If you were, you would realize that masks don't have a significant impact. That's not statistically significant.

It doesn't work. And especially like regular ones. If you have like one of those K95 and whatever the fuck they are, and it's tightly fitted, that'll provide you with some protection. Also, you're not supposed to wear it more than an hour a day. They're saying it's not healthy to just breathe through this fucking cloth thing all day. It's stupid. I mean, it's just insane that these people want to give back into this mania again. It's like they miss it.

It's weird, right? It is. It is. It's a weird victim embracing mentality. It's almost like people run a 100-mile race, and after they're done, they're like, I'm never doing that again. And then two weeks later, they're like,

I'm going to do another one. It's like they want to experience something exciting, whether it's being scared out of your fucking mind, whether it's showing the world that you're a really good person by putting a mask on. All of it is just nuts. So that throws in the face of what I said earlier. I was like, most people are good people. They are. Most people are. But there's a good percentage of people that are out of their fucking minds. A good percentage. Just bouncing off the walls out there.

Well, they're being led around by people that have a different agenda. It's also shocking how easy it is to just get people to just believe nonsense. Hardly any work has to be involved. As long as experts on TV say it, they go, to believe nonsense like hardly any work has to be involved it's not something like they don't they just kind of as long as like experts on tv say it they go okay we're in and then when it's proven that they're wrong there's no sort of reconciliation there's no there's no moment where they go well now i'm not now i'm gonna like look at other news sources now i'm gonna see if there's any experts and scientists that disagree with certain things.

But most people are just like, you know, if you're 40 years old, you've got a mortgage, you've got kids, you're working all day, you don't have time. You don't have time to be paying attention to this shit. You know, we're very fortunate that we're comics, that we have the day to do whatever the fuck we want, and we can read things that maybe, you know, we send each other or watch a documentary or something and get a new perspective. But the more I do that, the more I get bummed out. Right.

It's like I don't want to hear more about the opioid crisis. I don't want to hear more about just nonsense that's happening in the world. It's just, you know, I don't know, man. It's just a very uncomfortable moment for this country, for people in general, I think. I just don't think that this access to information, the way we get it, is good for us.

I think it just freaks us out. I think there's just too much going on all the time. Well, if I were to look back, even, I was going to say five years ago, but if I look back a year ago, I would never have dreamed where we would be where we are now with all the insanity that's going on. Yeah, it's very strange. It's like we're kind of awakening to, first of all, how connected we all are. And we're also being integrated to AI. And really quickly, this chat GPT shit,

people are getting busted using it for school papers already. And it's just so easy to get this thing to do work for you. It's like, why would I do this? Why would I do it? And you can kind of see where the writing on the wall is going. It's like, boy, that shit's overwhelming. First of all, it overwhelms people's emotions with the social media and self-harm is up and suicides among young girls are up. And they think that there's a direct connection to social media and what it does to kids.

But as it gets more and more – I mean it's going to become a part of us and we're kind of the last generation that's ever going to remember what it was like before the internet we're the last generation because the kids today that's just what they know it's like we know electricity you know if you lived a long fucking time ago and electricity came about it'd be the most magic shit of all time it's just a very tough road ahead man it is but for a guy like you that you know came up pro wrestling in the 1970s i mean for you have gone through all that wildness and to get to where you are today, where people are watching pro wrestling matches on YouTube instantaneously on your phone, it's a pretty amazing journey.

Yeah, I mean, we did some great business with licensing and merchandising. I kind of wish the internet would have been around when we were... Oh, yeah, for sure. Because once that first Hulkamania red and yellow run took off, it was pretty intense, you know, and that's with no internet, you know. Yeah, just word of mouth. Yeah, I mean, just when you go to Detroit, you have Edsel Ford there and Iacocca in the front row, or when you go to L.A., you'd have Gene Hackman and Brad Pitt and everybody sitting there.

So it was like, it was different, you know. If we go to New York have Gene Hackman and Brad Pitt and everybody sitting there. So it was different. If we go to New York, Blondie was always backstage and everybody. It was a circus. Andy Warhol, everybody was there. Really? Oh, yeah. How did they get the word out? Were they doing TV ads?

Were they doing billboards, like radio? What did you guys do? Well, it was mainly radio and print back then. Radio? What did you guys do? Well, it was mainly radio and print back then. And the launch pin was that WrestleMania 1. Because I'd been out and I'd done a few episodes of the A-Team with T. And I think I did three episodes. And then they wanted me to come back the next year.

They wanted to do the salt and pepper thing, you know, with me and T. And I just couldn't deal with it, man. T and George Pappard were at each other's throats. They were, like, pulling me back and forth. You know, T's going, don't talk to him. And George Pappard goes, let me go over the lines with you. And I'm like, you know, I was being pulled back and forth. And it was kind of uncomfortable, you know.

But I did meet my agent, Peter Young, there because he was T's agent. So that's why I've been with him so long. He just ruined the A-team for me. Now I know that George Pappard and mr. T didn't like each other Oh, dude, they were at it full-time now. I'm so sad. I can't watch old episodes now. Oh my god I feel like oh who was the dick oh You have to say I don't know a real question. I really't know. I take it back. I pity the fool, whoever it was. I pity the fool. I pity the fool.

Stop your jibber jabber. Bro, he was fucking amazing in Rocky III. Holy shit. Yeah, he was. He was amazing. He was terrifying. Yeah. Hey, woman.

Since your man ain't got no heart, what's going on in my apartment tonight? I'll show you a real man. There you go. What? What? Fuck you. That was a great scene. That was go. What? What? Fuck you. That was a great scene. That was good.

Him doing the chin-ups. He was a very convincing killer. Yeah. They did a good job on the ring, man, at WrestleMania I. I had a little bit of a problem with Piper and Orndorff back then,

but they ended up being cool about it. They wanted to kill him it they wanted to kill him who wanted to kill him piper paul uh roddy piper and paul earned off the two guys we wrestled that guy piper right sure i know roddy piper and orndorff because they we hadn't had any celebrities come into our sport like that you know oh and they wanted to kill him they wanted to beat him up yeah and so it was like a couple mad dogs. I was begging them, please, let's just get through this damn thing, you know? Did they go hard on him?

Not real hard, but, you know, T had a little bit of an amateur wrestling background, you know? The problem is, is when you're out there, you can do all the cardio you want, you can do all the workout you want, you can do all the working out you want, but something about your nerves will blow you sky high where you can't even get a breath. And, I mean, just standing on this apron. Just adrenaline. Yeah, just standing on the apron.

You know, I knew that he would have a hard time with his nerves once we got out there. And so once he had that first little run at the beginning of the match, and I got back in, I kept watching him on the apron. He was hang-dogging, you know. He couldn't get his breath back in. It was just nerves. It wasn't that he wasn't in shape.

It was the nerves that got the best of him. But he rallied around, and we did get through that. But it was interesting because he brought a lot to the table, man, a whole lot to the table. Oh, yeah, after Rocky III, he was a fucking superstar. Dude, he was a major star from that A-team in Rocky. He was on fire. Yeah.

Yeah, and he gave me a great rub, man. Me rubbing up against him made me a bigger star. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, he was quite a character back in his day. There was always some talk about whether or not, like, I might be misremembering it. Like, he never talked about, like, having pro fights or anything, did he? Was there ever anybody made big offers for him? Mr. T?

No, no. Why did I think there was something I'm probably miss remembering this there was something after rocky 3 where they were trying to get him to actually fight I know he started out as a bodyguard in Chicago he was very convincing in rocky 3 he was fucking terrified so shredded too yeah that was great the aam was such a weird show. You know, those guys driving around in a van, solving problems. I've got a bar in Clearwater Beach called Hogan's Hangout, right?

Monday nights are monster, monster nights because we have karaoke there, right? And I've got a Mr. T guy. The kid's about 6'2". He's got all the jewelry on him. Of course, it's not the real stuff. And he's got the mohawk. He looks a lot like T. And he drives the van. He's got the gray van with the red wing on the side.

He drives the A-team van. I mean, you could see him at the Bucks games, at the Rays games. They've always got him on camera. That's a weird thing to stick with. Yeah, well, he's sticking with it, man. It works for him. That's hilarious.

But he comes to our karaoke, and it's kind of funny when he walks in. The place goes crazy. There's something about those TV shows, those nostalgic TV shows. They do make me happy, going back and watching, like, an episode of, like, The A-Team. and back and watching an episode of the A-Team. It's like a capsule in time. They're never going to make shows like that again. There's never going to be a Dukes of Hazzard again.

There's never going to be any of those shows. What you're watching is like a weird peek into a time before there was an internet and when people were just a little goofier. They were just a little goofier they were just a little goofier yeah they they didn't need their entertainment to be so multi-layered and it didn't have to be stranger things oh what's up what shows this c18 this is you in the 18th oh my god are you okay yeah yeah you gotta nail them Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

Can you find out what year that was? Look at you. I could actually run. And there's the van. Like even the acting. They're acting like someone pretending to be acting. I think it's the directing. Like how do you see that and go, that's it.

Let's move on. We're all on coke. Yeah. Jeez. Hollywood was all on coke back then. Budget restrictions. There's a moment in Hollywood history where you watch some of the films and you go, oh, they were on coke. Like, Showgirls.

You ever see Showgirls? Yeah. For sure someone was doing coke. Whoever fucking wrote that movie and produced and directed that movie. That movie, have you watched that lately? No. It's insane. It doesn't even seem like a real movie. You watch it and you're like, this is crazy.

It's like they were doing a very subtle parody of a movie. That's what it's like. And that's just cocaine. It's like cocaine made that movie. I'm just guessing. I'm just guessing i'm just guessing no accusations but there's a fun time in you know hollywood where you could see like certain films look like people were on coke when they were making them they just don't make any sense you guys ever take a pee break yeah take a pee break is that cool yeah let's do it that coffee

and this thing's got listen yep Listen, absolutely. Let's go. So we're back. We're back from the piss break. Thank God, because I think I was rambling about nonsense. We were talking about just the crazy times that we live in. Are you doing any fan things

where you do meet and greets and stuff like that where people can come out to meet? Because you're like one of those guys that everybody wants to meet. There's like bucket list people. If you're a pro wrestling fan, you're on the Mount Rushmore. Yeah, I don't do a lot of them. Once again, not to be repetitive, but the sports company I work with, Darren Prince Sports, his story is he tried to get me to work with him for almost

20 years. I wouldn't do it. I just don't. I'm not one of the weekend warriors, you know, that kind of like now that I'm done with wrestling, I go out and sign autographs and do that stuff. I just really don't do that. I made like last year, I think I did one, you know, like a big one in Chicago. And then I've got these little retail stores where I sell. I've got one in Clearwater Beach. I've got one in Orlando where I sell T-shirts and memorabilia and stuff to the kids and the wrestling fans.

And usually like once a year, sometimes twice a year, I'll do an autograph signing in Clearwater and one in Orlando. But I just don't make the rounds that much and go out every weekend because I mean I could work every weekend signing autographs at comic cons and different things but I just really have never done that what are you doing the majority of your time these days it's a good question I seem to be busy all day long you know uh my day starts out with training every day i trained a couple hours in the morning and everything's everything stuff you're doing it's weightlifting you know and everything's a compromise i had no olympic bars at all and uh you know i have a rack of dumbbells i have straight bars and easy curl bars and of course the old school i carry in machines

all my equipment's about 40 years old. You know, the good stuff. A lot of strive stuff, you know, chambered cam stuff where you can train around injuries. Like for biceps that are torn everywhere and all the holes I have in me from tearing stuff that I never fixed. You know, there's a chambered cam that you hit the peak and the top, but you can eliminate this part if it's the weak part of your arm. Training around injuries so i do that and then i kind of like get rolling man i just i'm a beach bum you know i just love being on the beach and just stay busy um the lady i'm getting ready to marry you know she changed

my life she's got three kids you know and um i just on paper we've talked you know seven-year-old man with a younger lady 47 year old lady with three kids you know 16 14 and 9 on paper doesn't work at all you know because I'm just way too over that by fell in love with the kids you know and so it's just I just love having people around and it felt crazy in love with her. So, you know, a lot of the stuff is her and I figuring out what we're going to do, where we're going. You know, we love to go out and eat and hang out at the beach. And she likes to train, too.

And then her kids are like a full-time job. And I do a lot of stuff on the phone. You know, I make deals on the phone. on the phone. I could sit in my office and have a $50 day or it could be a high seven-digit day depending on where we're at with this stuff. I just stay busy all the time. I'm still under contract with the WWE and just have a ton of licensing and merchandising stuff. I think when I was the world's champion, I had 300 licenses of 300 different products, like watches, headbands, frisbees, tennis shoes, potty seats for kids, chalk, kites, you name it.

I had cameras. I had like 300 licensees. Now that I'm not the world's champion and I haven't wrestled for quite a long time, I've got like 800 licenses. know wow it's just insane like it's like it's kind of like what's old is new again you know and they're kind of like i feel like i'm the elvis that's not dead yet you know the way they're licensing and merchandising so i know when i kick the bucket my stuff's going to go through the roof oh through the roof yeah Oh, through the roof. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I stay busy with all kind of craziness, man. You know what's really encouraging to me is that despite all the physical abuse your body's had, your mind is very sharp. And even though you've gone through this whole fentanyl problem, you know, the opioid thing with people with injuries, my God, it's so legendary. So many people have had those issues. But you came out of the other end, and you seem clear as day. Well, I don't have an addictive personality, you know, because I'm either all the way in or all the way out. And you got to realize that all these wrestlers, and I don't know the numbers, but you know, if you said football, how many wrestlers have died in the last 25 years, the number could be 10 or 20.

You know, if you said baseball, the number could be 10 or 20. But when you say wrestling in the last 30 years, it's a couple hundred. 250 guys that have heart attacked, overdosed, this, that, and the other. And I was the ringleader. You know, I was definitely the ringleader, and I ran real hard. But I just kind of knew when we got to the edge I knew when to pull back so what was does this party in or is this did it start with injuries and then lead to the schedule it was the schedule first off and not have any real rules because like it's like Vince McMahon runs the show, okay?

And so when, let's just say, Roman Reigns goes out, who's one of their biggest stars now. I don't know if you guys are familiar with what's going on now, but Roman Reigns is a huge star. And when he goes out to wrestle somebody like Dolph Ziggler, you know, the referee or Vince or whoever's the agent, will say Roman Reigns is going to beat you, Joe Rogan, with the sleeper hold or something or Superman punch. Okay, fine.

Well, back in the day, you know, when we first started and Vince took over, I'd go to the Philadelphia Spectrum and Vince would say, okay, I want you to beat Piper the leg drop. So, okay, I'd go tell him, hey, Roddy, you know, Vince wants me to go over and beat you the leg drop. He'd go, no. Okay. Well, what do you want to hey, Roddy, you know, Vince wants me to go over and beat you to the leg drop. He'd go, no. Okay. Well, what do you want to do, Roddy? You know.

And then I'd have to explain business to a lot of guys. And I love Roddy to death. We hated each other for years. And then we became really, really close before we passed the last five or six years. And so I would always tease him when we became friends. I'd say, Roddy, like when you didn't want to do, Randy and I would flip the belt back and forth all the time because Randy would do business, you know,

and if I needed the belt back after a movie, give it back, then I'd drop it to him again. And I told Piper, I said, you made a lot of money, but can you imagine how much money, I mean, you got eight kids or seven or eight kids. I said, can you imagine how much money you would have made if you'd let me beat you one time? Then I could have went to Vince and said, hey, we can trust this guy. Let's put the belt on Piper because I don't need the belt. I got the gimmick, bro. I'm all clear in my stuff.

I was locked in. I needed somebody to take the belt so I could chase him. Because if I can put that belt on you, I see a big dollar sign there. I'll chase your ass all over the place. I said, Roddy, can you imagine how much money you would have made if you let me just beat you once? ass all over the place right i said roddy can you imagine how much money you'd have made if you let me just beat you once and then you come to wcw and i'm a bad guy you beat me every night big deal i mean it's it's a work brother you know it's all about the money and the miles that there's money to be made let's make it brother you know so throughout all this stuff running with these guys i saw them all drop off you know one at a at a time, one at a time. And it was the schedule, which is very taxing because we were running really hard back in the day. It was you could go to Austin, Texas tonight.

Hey, Doc, I hurt my back. I hurt my back. Okay, Piper or Hogan, here's 30 perks. And the next night you're in Chicago. Hey, Doc, I hurt my back. Oh, okay. Every single town there was a doctor, you know, and that's how this whole thing got started, you know, and then, you know, all of a sudden it ends, you know, for whatever

reason, you go get a couple DUIs or you get in a fight and hurt somebody really bad or whatever the case may be. And all of a sudden you're either too old or you get injured or you hurt somebody or you do some stupid legal stuff, and your career ends. And then you go home, and you don't fit in at home because you've been gone for 10 or 12 years, and your wife's raised the kids. You walk in, you don't fit in. So dad's home now, so what are you doing here? And you don't fit in.

And then that's when the drink end, and then there's that note. I tell my girl all the time, I said, I get this crazy turbulence in me. You don't fit in, and then that's when the drink in, and then there's that note. I tell my girl all the time, I get this crazy turbulence in me, and it hits me like at 7 or 8 o'clock at night. I get, like if it's another man, I'm real good with turbulence with another man, but just with normal people like her, I don't want to start anything with her or pick at her. But that turbulence from every night going from playing cards with Andre, you know, at 9 o'clock at night until 10 minutes later, somebody kicking you in the head, kicking you and stomping you and beating on you. Yeah.

And coming up raw. So do you think your body was, like, programmed to get ready to do violence at night? Yeah. I could go from sitting here talking to you like this and two minutes later I walk out there and I'm spinning around, spinning around. When I slide under the ropes, this bad guy's stomping me in the head. And you've got to make that adjustment.

So all of a sudden at night, I'm sitting around at 8 o'clock at night and I'm going like this. I'm watching American Idol. I'm going, what is wrong with me? I can feel this turbulence ramping up in me. And that's why I get the gym in my house because sometimes I'll go downstairs and I'll crank

at night just, you know, because when you're used to breaking that sweat every night and wrestling a guy your own size and physically getting completely worn out to where you're like, okay, now I can relax. I've had enough, you know. Yeah. You miss that. And a lot of these guys go home after doing this. They don't know how to adjust.

And all of a sudden, they adjust with over-medicating and drinking. And then they really don't fit in at home. And the next thing you know, there's a tragedy. Or they do too many solos or too much blow or too much this. And it's just been a repeat scenario in our business. So for me, you know, talking about all this negativity and the stuff that's going on, my life is really good, brother. I mean, you know, I might have some physical issues from all the surgeries, but I'm healthy as a horse, you know. And at the end of the day, I train, I eat good.

I mean, you know, I really have a great outlook on everything. You look good. You look healthy. You really do. It's great to see. Well, I mean, I just turned 70. That's amazing. And a lot of guys that are around that I went to high school with when I see them, they look like they're 95.

Yeah. And I had some guy come to me, we got the same birthday, we're the same age. And it was during karaoke at my bar. And he me though. We get the same birthday. We're the same age I looked and it was it during karaoke in my bar And he goes where the exact same. He looked at him bro. He was like 100 miles a bad road Yeah, I'm like what did this guy do to stop moving? They stopped moving this table taking care That's what Willie Nelson told me. He's a hogan if you slow down you go down But look at fucking Mick Jagger We went to see Mick Jagger last we went to see the stones last year and it was Mick Jagger's Biden's age and he has two

trailers that he brings everywhere he goes that are just exercise equipment well this guy trains every day trains every day and that's that's how you can still move around like that when you're 80. He's up there dancing and shit and singing and putting on this amazing show at 80 fucking years old. Yeah, but I think a lot of it's mindset, too, you know, because not to Bible thump you to death, bro, but I keep one foot in each zone, man. I keep, you know, in this human incarnation, I keep one foot, you know, kind of like in the human incarnation, you know in this human incarnation i keep one foot you know kind of like in the human incarnation i keep one foot in the spiritual incarnation you know when stuff goes down or this goes down or things go wrong in my life i deal with it you know as efficiently as i can then i bracket it and i go

back to center you know and i've got this crazy relationship with god, and I've got this crazy relationship spiritually with who I am and why I'm here. And so all that takes precedent over all the noise, you know, the border and this and the criminals and the crooks and the government. I listen to it and I kind of, I kind of, I'm really, really aware of what's going on, but then I go back to center, you know, I go back to center because I've got a whole bunch of opinions about certain things and at the end of the day my most important thing is to know what my number one priority is and stay centered and stay as close to God as I can so that's why I look at things really positively you Bro, my girl out there has corrected me so many times.

I'm not trying to say anything weird or anything, but there's so many times where I can go the wrong way quick. And when I go one way quick, I'm all in. So I've got to be careful. So if I start deviating a little bit, there's certain people that can talk to me. Okay, well, it's not that bad. Just think about the big picture

So, you know these guys in the cartel cool Yeah, but I'm just saying what I'm trying to say is all this stuff we've talked about Yeah, when I look at everything around me I go back to where I'm at. I'm going man life is good, brother I think this this is a very important thing for people to hear because there's a lot of people that dismiss religion Because they think they're too smart for it. I think there's a great value in being connected to whatever you believe. If you believe in God, if you believe in Allah, if you believe in whatever you believe, there's a great value to believe that there's a higher power and that there are like there's good ways to live life

there's a there's a correct way to live life and it does bring you more peace and it can it does really work and so for a guy like you to say that i think is it's important for people to hear because i think when i was younger i always dismissed religion too because I kind of dismissed it as stories that were written by people but that's not dismissing God and the idea of God it's like we don't know what is going on in this bizarre life that we live but I do know that a lot of people that I know that are very happy and grounded and centered are also religious a lot of people i don't think it's a factor that anyone should discount and um people are very smug about it you know they're too smart for that you're not going to trick me you know that kind of when did you uh were you always religious or when did you start becoming religious well you know i kind of like would go to a southern

baptist church when I was a kid because I went to Battles Point Elementary School in Tampa, and right across the street from Battles Point was Battles Point Baptist. And my kids, not my kids, my mom and dad took me to church one time there, and I was hooked. My parents only went once with me, but it was close enough to my house. You know, back in the day, bro, in the 60s, you could ride your bike anywhere and stay out. Even when the streetlights came on, nobody's going to steal you or kidnap you or anything.

So we'd just stay out throwing rocks at each other and raising hell, you know. So I would ride to Ballast Point Baptist Church every Sunday. And, you know, I kind of liked going there because a lot of the kids from elementary school their families would go there you know right and so I would go there to Ballast Point Baptist so I was raised in a southern baptist church and then when I started playing in a rock and roll band when I kind of like got in junior high and stuff I kind of like wasn't going to church at all and a couple buddies of mine who became ministers there were were twin brothers, Ron and Don Satterwhite, they asked me to come to Hank Lindstrom's youth ranch because all the kids were there.

It was like a Bible study thing and Bible bros and all that stuff. And they would all sing, but they didn't have anybody to play guitar. So they knew I played guitar. So I went there and I played all the three-chord progressions for the little Christian songs and stuff. And then this minister, Hank Lindstrom, hit me hard with the John 3.16. God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes that he gave his son will not perish but have everlasting life. And I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 14. But then I derailed, kept playing music and rock and roll bands.

I got way away from my faith. And then as the years went by, you know, I started seeing how things went. And it's got me to the point now where I'm locked back in. I'm locked and loaded, you know, after all the life experiences and, you know, seeing how people live and what money does to people, you know. Okay, money makes it easier, but it's not the live and die all situation that some people say it is, you know. And it's just that relationship I have, not so much with religion, but with my Lord and Savior is what I function on. When did this, was this a gradual transition to coming back to your faith or was it yeah it was it was and the thing was the hulk hogan character kind of pushed me in that

direction because that crazy character that hulk hogan character that was all the way up here forget the americana forget the blonde hair forget venice beach cal California, forget the tan. It was the three demands of the training, the prayers, and the vitamins. Bro, I'm captivated by that left bicep of yours. Look at the size of these fucking things. Do you see his hands? 70. Give me a gun.

Give me that left gun. Left? Oh, come on, man. I'm a lot of gas. Look at this, dude. Just look at the size of his fuck. Jesus Christ. The motherfucking python.

70. My triceps are still huge. Insane. Hold on, man. I got a tricep his fuck. Jesus Christ. The motherfucking python. My triceps are still huge. Insane. I got a tricep back here. Hold on. He's got to pull it out. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah.

Look at the size of that thing. Yep. That's like a rabbit burrowing under your arm. I forgot what I was saying, man. Sorry, sorry. You look fucking amazing. Oh, the character Hulk Hogan. The training, the prayers, and vitamins.

It took the man Terry Bollea and started bringing me up because all of a sudden I hit on this character. Training, say your prayers, and your vitamins. Believe in yourself. The four commandments, brother, to be a Hulkamaniac. I hit with all that stuff. Right. I was out running around drinking, weed doing yahoo going crazy running wild with my boys and all of a sudden all these make-a-wish kids want to come see me and i had

years where michael jackson mr t mickey mouse i saw more what make-a-wish kids than any of those people and all of a sudden the character started making me a better person, you know. And the character, this fake character of the training person by them started making me a better person. And I kind of realized that kind of really, really worked. And then I bottomed out, you know, with my first marriage. There was a situation where I get through this. I was the person that thought when you do this contract under God for better or worse till death do us part, I thought you're supposed to be serious about that. I used to brag.

I'm the only world's champion that was never divorced. I used to brag about it. Flair's been married 29 times. All my boys have been married 29 times. Everybody's been married 29 times. All of a sudden, when I went through this divorce and I really bottomed out you know it was a tough one and then my wife split with a younger younger man it was uh it was a little rough on me and then I started searching I started searching and I watched that

movie The Secret you know oh wow and all of a, I kind of like watched it and bought into it. Then I had a Mercedes at the time, and I had my buddy who had a car stereo shop deprogram the navigation, and I put the secret in there. So every time you started the car, the secret would come on, on the navigation screen. Really? Yeah. So I probably saw it and heard it 10,000 times, okay? And then I saw what the law of attraction was. It was a natural law that not only does science say it works, and the Bible says it works.

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. We're talking about relationships. We're talking about money. We're talking about health. We're talking about everything. You know, you attract what you think. Everything comes from the heart. Your tongue speaks what the mind's thinking.

So at the end of the day, I saw that that law of attraction is actually a scientific law that we're given such as aerodynamics. You know, how a plane will stay in the air with the wind going over the top of the wing faster than underneath. Buoyancy. You know, how buoyancy works. And then gravity. It's working right now, you're probably not even thinking of it. I'm not thinking of gravity. Okay, I know you're not, but gravity works too.

And also the law of attraction works too. Rich get richer, poor get poorer, like attracts like. You know, and so at the end of the day, after seeing the secret thing and having a beat in my head, I went, hmm on this guy named James Ray who went to prison for that sweat lodge thing sweat watch yeah he had a sweat watch oh yeah people died right yeah yeah yeah James Ray he he he at the time said something that really hit me hard on a secret he goes there's

probably things in your life that you're not proud of. And there's probably a lot of things in your life that you are proud of. But when would now, and he said the word, when would now be the time to change? And I went, I mean, you can change your direction of life by changing your thinking? And I went, you've got to be kidding me. So anyway, I started praying. I want to meet James Ray. I want to meet James Ray I want to meet James Ray and you think like it's already done

it's like when you pray you don't pray like oh please heal my back I'm hurting no you say thank you God for my perfect health for my healing you pray like it's already done oh that's what you do? yes that's what you do you pray like it's already done and

you guys are killing me you want me to shut up? No. I love you. What are you talking about? I'm killing you. So anyway, now I'm praying to meet James Ray, right? Right.

Praying, praying, praying. All of a sudden, I get a phone call. Hey, Dad. What's up, Nick? Oh, you know, I'm in the bathroom here at this Beverly Hills hotel. I think that guy's in here that's in that movie, The Secret. I said, ask him what his name is. Nick goes, hey, excuse me, sir, what's your name?

My name's James Ray. I put him on the phone. So now the guy I've been praying to meet, he's in the bathroom with my son. Okay, coincidence, whatever. There are no coincidences in life, but whatever. So anyway, now the long guy with the dreads, Michael Beckwith, now I start praying,, because I want to want to see him, you know, I want to meet him now So I'm figuring this crap support this works So all of a sudden I had a really really bad

Day one day and I walked off the set of American Gladiators. I just walked off And I had the number one show on NBC eight o o'clock. Ben Silverman had an office in Beverly Hills. I had one in New York. Ben Silverman goes, you own the network. The numbers were crazy. We were doing really, really good. And I had a really bad situation happen. I just walked off the set.

And I didn't come back. And I was in Tampa and Leila Ali called me. She goes, what's up with you? I kind of told her what kind of was going on. goes I want you to come to church with me and nobody's ever asked me to do that right so I said when do you want me to come she said how about this Sunday I said I'll be there I was in Tampa so I flew out there we go to church guess who's preaching Michael Beckwith so I'm like you know the guy I wanted to meet the guy with the dreads so anyway I started listening to what he said he ended up marrying me the second time, and we became friends and stuff.

But it kind of led me down that path, you know, to start searching and finding what worked for me and what I believed in. And ever since then, man, that's been the number one priority. And it kind of locked me in, you know, to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and what I believe in. And so everything else is a distant second to what happens around me. Yeah, that provides you with a lot of, like, peace, right? Oh, my God. That's the thing that all my friends that are very religious say,

that it gives them a peace that I don't think people have without it, which is interesting. Yeah, and the craziest thing was Sky, the girl I'm engaged to, is such a crazy story. I swore I'd never date another blonde. I swore to God I'd never date another blonde, right? That's hilarious. Yeah. So the really cool thing was after I met her, there's a whole long story to that situation.

But after I met her, the fact that she's a believer, too, is just really kind of like makes things so easy. It would be probably difficult for you at this stage of your life to date someone who wasn't. Yeah. Well, I was I was married to somebody the second time who wasn't. It didn't really resonate with her that it was more the universe and the wayne dyer and all that stuff you know esther hicks and all that stuff well i mean that's a little bit of the law of attraction too yeah it is but there's a lot of uh yeah there's a lot of idolatry there bro and worshiping false idols so i just i'm not on that team i hear what you're saying yeah i keep an open mind about whether or not the law of attraction is.

There's probably something going on with our minds and the way it interacts with reality that's not measurable. And I think you could say, like, we know that people that have a positive outlook and positive thinking and they do the right things, they get further and better in life, right? So it's obvious that like the direction that you put your thoughts and your time and your effort into, if you're doing it the right way, yield results. The problem that I have with like a lot of these people that think that you could just think about things and then they happen. It's like everybody that's thought about things and happened has already done. They do a lot of shit. There's a lot of movement. It's not as simple as just like thinking about something.

But it might be a real aspect of it. Because I know a lot of talented people that have a negative perspective and shit never seems to go right for them. Even though they're really talented. There's like something about the way they look at life and reality. They're kind of like hamstringing themselves. It's more than just thinking it, brother. You have to believe it and you have to feel it like it's already done. And then you get a better shot at it.

When you said that it's like scientifically proven, how is the law of attraction scientifically proven? Well, it's proven because like attracts like. Well, positive charges and negative charges are opposites, you know, but they repel away from each other. You know, if you try to put them together. Well, positive, I take that back. Positive doesn't. Maybe I didn't misspeak. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.

We suck at science. Yeah, you're right. Everyone knows it. Yeah. We're not here for science. It's all Kogan weeds. Good. It's a little too good.

It's a little problematic. I'm going to tell you, there were some times I was lost. Yeah, but just at the end of the day, everything that I've read, mindset, and just like you're saying, if people are really, really negative, you're not going to attract really greatness to yourself if you're always upset or mad or thinking bad thoughts. No. No, you certainly aren't. It's interesting. My friend Will Harris, he interviewed Sugar Sean O'Malley, and he did this whole series on Sugar Sean before he won the world title this weekend.

And there's a – it's probably on his Instagram, where he's talking to him and he's like, you manifested this. Like, you manifested this success. Like, you had this mindset. You applied the work, but you knew, you had a vision in your mind of what was going to happen. And you made it happen.

And what is that like? He's like, well, I always knew it was going to happen. But still, when it happened, here, here play this because it's pretty crazy and don't let me forget to tell you something okay this shit's so real like or or is it like i mean you talked you talked about how you planned all this do you wake up sometimes and and and look at this situation and just be like man man, this is crazy? Yeah, usually in camp I have more quiet time to myself. That's where I feel like I grow the most is in camps because of that reason alone.

I'll find myself sitting outside by myself kind of just thinking about all this shit. But yeah, it's... It is... It's like if you would have asked me years ago, am I going to have all this, want to do all this, I would have said yeah. So it's not like, holy shit, I can't believe this, because I can believe it, but it is still like, damn.

It was all a vision at one point. All I wanted was a nice house with a backyard, a hot tub and a cold plunge and a sauna and a Lambo. Oh, shit. Okay, well, I got all that pretty quick, so. What's next? Beating up Peter. You know, getting that championship belt.

Maybe two. I want to do big things in the sport. It's good. But it's like, that's an example. I mean, massive amounts of hard work. But also, believing this thing. That's an example. I mean massive amounts of hard work, but also Believing this thing and having this like sort of unstoppable focus on this thing. There's a great value of that I don't know if it's you would say it's the law of attract I don't know if that's real it may be real it might be some aspect of it's just real

But I know that that shit works like if you could think like that and and work like he does and you have Talent you can make wild things happen in this life And it's amazing to see and when someone like when he just won the title this weekend. There's something amazing when you see a Spectacular performance that you know has come out of years and years of intense labor Yeah, intense discipline. Yeah, and a mindset focused on this. And then you see it happen. Right. People can do extraordinary things. Agreed.

It's really, and it's amazing for all of us, as long as you're not a hater. And if you're a hater, you're robbing yourself of inspiration. Yes. Agreed. If you're a hater, you're literally robbing yourself. You don't know it, but you're stealing from your own ambition by being jealous of others. It sucks, but that's just what it is. It's like if you can instead look at someone like that and go, holy shit, if he did that, what if I applied myself like that?

What if I thought like that? What if I went after something? With every fiber of my being, like he went after that title. Could I do something good? Could I do something that I'd after that title. Could I do something good? Could I do something that I'd be proud of? Could I do something magical? Yeah, you could. Yeah, you could.

Just got to think the right way. What I wanted to tell you before, I didn't say that, but I said something kind of like that. When I was still playing in a rock and roll band and all these big, scary wrestlers were coming in, and all these big scary wrestlers were coming in and I was this long-haired hippie playing in a band that one of the wrestling managers was kind of like nice to me, you know? And I said, oh, can I come over and talk to you someday? He goes, yeah, come by my house.

And he told me where he lived. And as I'm sitting in the living room, this guy's managing superstar Billy Graham, Joe LaDuke, a guy named Steve Strong, who is, I don't know if you know who these guys are, with superstar Billy Graham, Joe LaDuke, a guy named Steve Strong, who is, I don't know if you know who these guys are, with superstar Billy Graham. Yeah, sure. And as he came in the house, he goes, what do you want to talk about? I said, I want to get in the wrestling business.

And I told him this straight to his face. I said, I'm going to be the greatest wrestler that ever lived. And I told him that. Now, not knowing if I was or not, but all I'm saying is the mantra, the very, very positive mantra of the training, prayers, and vitamins, what did it attract? Yeah. And nothing against a lot of the other wrestlers. I wasn't Mr. Perfect throwing bubble gum.

I wasn't doing the Undertaker with death and body bags. I wasn't doing the Stone Cold thing drinking beer. He's a huge wrestler. All these guys are Undertaker. They're all huge. But for me, that training, prayers, and vitamins, I just wanted to really get in the wrestling business and make a living. I didn't know that it was going to spiral like that.

Well, how could you? No. But he's saying he knew it. I didn't know it. I just said it. Right. Like it was already done and just threw it out there. I'm sure there's a lot of other people that said it and didn't make it, though.

That's the problem. We're not factoring those people in. It's the thing with the law of attraction. You don't really factor in losers. There's not an accurate count. That's true. So many people are not quite honest about it either because it's very painful to fail and that's why many people don't try to it's um i don't know it's it's

interesting but it's it's interesting to me to see a guy like you with a very positive mindset in this new sort of appreciation for your faith and that you're you're you're showing great benefits from it. There's times when people – do you know the story of Oliver Anthony? Do you know who Oliver Anthony is? No, I don't. He's this guy who has the number one song in the country. And he recorded it in his backyard in Virginia.

Is this the red-haired kid we're talking about? Yes. Oh, yeah. So this guy gave himself to Christ like 30 days ago. Wow. And was having all sorts of problems with substance abuse and the normal chaos and hit rock bottom and and like I don't I want to speak for him I don't know what he actually said but it was something to

the tone of please God if you can straighten my life you just straighten my life out i will i will dedicate myself to you and i'll be on the right track and then 30 days later wow he's clean and he hits with this insane song do you know the song yeah yeah play that song jamie because this song is insane and this guy doesn't have a label he's not attacked it won't sign anything people are trying to get him to sign things. They're offering him like millions of dollars. And he's like,

you know, nope, nope, nope, I'm not signing shit. I'm gonna be myself and be independent. He's probably gonna do a lot better

being himself. Listen to this. Yeah, this is amazing. Over time I was Bullshit paid So I could sit out here And waste my life away Drag back home And drown my troubles away It's such a simple song. Yeah.

What kind of instrument is that? That's not a banjo, right? It's such a simple song. Yeah. What kind of instrument is that? That's not a banjo, right? It's a guitar? No, it's a guitar. He's got a capo on it. He's playing way high up on the neck. That's a D. If that was where it normally was, it's played an A minor, a C, a G,

and that's a D there that he's playing. Does that metal thing where he's strumming behind it, does that change the tone? Yeah, it does. It makes it a little more banjo-esque. Right. But yeah, he's got that capo halfway up the neck because his voice is a lot higher. Isn't it crazy that just this guy and the guitar, just singing, just captivates people? That's amazing, right?

It's amazing. Just captivates people. That's amazing, right? It's amazing. But this is another example of a guy who just, like, hits rock bottom, fully all in. He's saying what people think, man. Yeah, he is. And people are freaking out, like, trying to attack him and trying to figure out what's wrong with him.

What's wrong with him? This guy's probably got a shady past. Like, can't people just ever just appreciate someone's thing that they put out there? Can't they just appreciate that? Why don't they just appreciate things? How about not judging people? How about just from this moment forward, moving forward? Some people should be judged. There's a lot of criminals out there.

I'm not saying we shouldn't judge. I just think we should be more charitable. And when someone just puts out a beautiful song like that you should go that's a beautiful song just enjoy it why can't we just enjoy things you know true words yeah I mean if people really lived like Christians would it be probably a better place for most folks you know I agree when you go to church now is it chaos does everybody try to get selfies like what's that like no man it's really cool I go to Indian Rocks Christian Church with with sky sky skies my you shouldn't

probably tell people where you go to church because they're gonna go to church with the Hulk's not huck away more run around more people there all right you're gonna get it they're coming yeah pastor to church with the Hulkster. Hulk and weenie are running wild. I want more people there. All right. We're just going to get it. They're coming. Yeah. Pastor Aaron's my boy, man. He needs to be tested.

And her son goes to, one of her sons goes to Indian Rocks Christian, so we go there every Sunday and really look forward to it. It's just kind of like it's something that you don't let go of a lot of people plug in and plug out but it i don't plug out once i'm plugged in i'm i'm there you know because i've seen it change a lot of people a lot of people there's also some real power to a bunch of people getting together to agree that they're there to be a better person in the eyes of god yeah there's. There's something very powerful about that. A group of everybody that meets together in the community at a certain time,

dresses nice, and just all agrees that we're here to try to be a better person in the eyes of God. I've seen it change people. The brother that is responsible for this shirt, the John 316 devotional team, Mel Chancey, he was the president of the Chicago Hells Angels for years. He had Zito in New York. Yeah. And Mel was the president of the club in Chicago. And, you know, knew him very well back in the day.

And when I go to Chicago, it would be, you know, ripping and running. And then Mel did about nine years, you know, and a bunch of stuff. Rico stuff and all kind of craziness. And actually when Mel came out, he tried to get a hold of me. I had second thoughts going, whoa, what's up with the brother here, you know? Right. I haven't seen him for a while, you know. And one of the last times I saw him, you could probably pull it up,

was when we were in Knoxville and I had the Hells Angels circling the ring on their Harleys, you know. They said I didn't have any backup, and so I made a phone call because I got a bunch of friends back in the day that were in the club. And so they all showed up in Knoxville, and that's the last time I saw Mel before he went away. And he came out, you know. And people sent me a couple messages.

He was out. I'm going, oh, my God, here we go again. Here we go again. And so all of a sudden we hooked up and touched base. Oh, yeah. Oh, this was the shit. I think Mel's on the right. I mean, this is peak Heel Hogan.

Bad guy. We were evil people. Went from the best good guy to the best bad guy. Yeah. Oh, we were talking about that when we were getting coffee. That was your idea to turn heel. Let me just finish the story. And now Mel comes out of prison. and dude, he's been saved.

He's accepted Christ as his Savior. There's big Mel right there. But anyway, you know, I have this Jesus Callings book. I have a Bible in the kitchen. I have two in my office, and I have one upstairs in my bathroom because I can't really stand for a while. I brush my teeth, and one thing's one thing. But when I pull the ponytail out,

and I got these fake hair extensions, so I look like Hulk Hogan, you know, with the blonde hair hangs down. Trying to straighten these hair extensions out and do whatever I'm doing. I have a chair, you know, that I kind of sit there and have this, all my Bibles and stuff, and I have Jesus Calling and different books.

And Jesus Calling has a morning and afternoon message, you know. So I read this one, man. I said, you know what? That's perfect. I'll call Big Mel up. I said, I know you've got social media, Mel. I want you to go on and read this today, you know. So Big Mel, he goes, I don't know.

He goes, you read it. I said, no, you read it. You know, we went back and forth a little bit. So he actually read it. Now he's got this huge following. I guess I don't know how you do it. You Google him or something on Instagram. But he's got this huge John 316 devotion.

Just people all over the world are following him now. And he puts the word out every Sunday. So I've seen people change, brother, from being straight out enforcers, badass, crazy people to being people that walk in one with Christ. People can definitely change. Yeah, it's amazing. They definitely can change. And that's a way that people do change.

I mean, there's a reason why they have it in Alcoholics Anonymous as part of the 12-step program, giving yourself up to a higher power. Yeah, but it's like for me when we were talking about the pain pills and stuff and stuff like that, some people I feel bad because they have addictive personalities, you know, and sometimes they get caught in that web. So as I had all these surgeries and they were hitting me with all this stuff, I said, enough's enough, you know. And so it's kind of like everything.

If I want to quit drinking or quit doing stuff, it's pretty easy for me. But I just feel bad for the guys that couldn't get out of the cycle, you know. Yeah, there's some guys, man, whether it's booze or pills or whatever it is, like you can't keep away from it. I had a good buddy of mine that died, I think he died in 2001, 2002. And he just was always up and down he just always it was coke and pills and and then booze to calm him down and then i'm gonna clean up and then he didn't and then later in his life it got to be pills it got to be heroin and it was just that's what killed my brother. Yeah.

It's the number of opioid overdoses. I don't know if it's the number one killer of young people, but it's 100,000 people a year that are dying of fentanyl overdoses. A lot of it is accidental when they're getting it in something else. They're getting it in some street Xanax or street in some, you know, street Xanax or street. I mean, I didn't even know what it was. And when the doctor prescribed it to me, I figured it was something that, you know, kind of like the normal pain pill stuff. But when I got my system up, man, I can't even look at my dogs. I can't even remember my dog's names.

I mean, what in the hell? That's why I said, you know, at the time I said, I'd rather be dead than on this stuff. I mean, really, that's where I was at with it because they had me so loaded up. I had no idea it was some crazy drug that was going to change society completely and kill everybody that touches the stuff. A lot of these police officers just have encounters opening bags up and they overdose just from contact. It's insane when you see the size of the amount you need to die from it. It's so tiny. It's so fucking sketchy. And it's coming through the border.

And the precursors come from China. Holla. Holla. The whole thing is just insane. And I don't know how to solve that problem. I mean, there's probably a bunch of steps that should be taken. But the point is, for a person that's gone through it like yourself and has come out of the other end and you're showing that, you know, that this is what's really helped you. I think that's very powerful.

That's the truth. I believe it. Yeah. I mean, you speak the truth. It's clear. It's the truth. It's awesome. It's the truth. It's awesome It's awesome to see you and it's awesome to see how sharp your mind is man. Like what are you?

do you take supplements vitamins and things like that or like are you yeah, I used to be the organic guy, you know and Go straight to nature's food patch Which is a little independent grocery store where we live and of course i still buy the food there but i was buying the vitamin stuff and then i got with a nutritionist you know that kind of like did muscle testing or if there's like five or six vitamin c's she can tell you which one works the best for you you know by having

the product there and testing it on the spot and And so I've gotten sucked into buying all the vitamins from her, you know. And so I, you know, I got that from the A to the Z, as the sheik would say. I get all the vitamin stuff just, and if I take too many, man, at one time I have to split them up a couple times during the day. If I eat the whole water once, man, you just get. Oh, so you're going ham. You're taking a lot of stuff. Oh, yeah.

I just get sick as a dog nauseated yeah but it sounds has it made a noticeable difference when you started doing that um not in not in the the amount of pain in my body and in the way i feel yes it's just it's just my mindset and everything. It's kind of like, instead of going down that rabbit hole like I used to, I reel myself back in. I gotta check myself at the door a lot, because I can be pulled really, I don't have road rage if somebody pulls in front of me

or anything like that, but when things happen, business-wise or somebody that I care about or a very good friend lies to me or something, I kind of like, I get that good Hulk here, the bad Hulk here, you know, and I kind of like, I lean into it and I, it's just our business, we just handle things differently with men. Like I talk to men differently than I talk to women. Sure.

And with men, we've always been able to kind of like. Don't fuck me, Mike. Come on, buddy. Whatever. It's just, yeah, it's just, it was just, the business I was in was so different. If we had a problem, it'd either be fixed there or out there, you know? And so it's just kind of like, I kind of like keep it dialed in now, you know? And so it's, things are good, man.

It's, things are really good. That's good that you could avoid that kind of stress but you you have more access to resources like mental resources when you're healthy so if you're you're taking good nutrition you're eating well and sleeping well you'll make better choices for the most part then if you're tired that's why people make such poor food choices when they're tired it's like literally something that goes on with your brain when you're exhausted that you'll just go, fuck it, let's pull into a jack-in-the-box

drive-thru. And you'll eat a bunch of shit you feel terrible about five minutes after you eat it. But that's just, you don't have if you were healthy in the middle of the day at noon, you wouldn't I'm not going to eat that. I'll feel like shit. You'll eat better. You make better choices when you're healthier. and when you have more energy and your body is

Given all the proper nutrition and rest and fluids and you're well hydrated. You're gonna function better. You're gonna think better You're gonna make better choices. You're gonna do more things. It's just a smart thing to do. Yeah Well, what I was drinking a lot of alcohol which which january 1st i quit drinking i went seven months without drinking anything and all i know is when i was drinking at night when everybody would wind down i'd be the one eating the popcorn eating the protein bar getting the ice cream and all that stuff you know i was hovering Even about two years ago. I was still hovering around 300 pounds, you know Well, and so, you know, I'm down like 260 now or 265. That's kind of like what I weighed in ninth and tenth grade So, you know, I feel much better, you know

Just cleaning my act up and just like you said, you know If we're not drinking last night and raising a lot of felt like crap's sitting here It's so hard when you're when you've had a few drinks and then you come home. It's so hard not to just go ham. Oh, I go crazy. I eat everything in the refrigerator. Start making sandwiches. And I made two, three egg fried egg sandwiches one night.

So I ate six eggs, fried eggs with bacon. Like peppers? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah pepperoncinis yes and um primal kitchen chipotle lime mayonnaise so i've got that oh my god american cheese melted let's go let's go that's great i ate two of those and i felt terrible after i was like what's wrong with you it's two in the morning you tip fucking dipshit. I did Chicago Theater Saturday night. And Yoni's like, Phillip from Sushi by Scratch, they have a Chicago location. So they're sending sushi.

I'm like, awesome. That's good. We're going to feel good. He goes, and also the best pizza chef in all of Chicago wants to actually cook pizza in the kitchen of the green room. He has his own oven. He's done it before. He's going to make fresh Chicago pizza. And oh my God,

we went crazy. I must've had 10 slices of pizza and I've been pretty much, you know, no bread. Cause it's like poison. Once you stop eating it, you know what I mean? But that was basically just like,

it's like doing heroin. It was so exciting. Did you crash? Oh man. I mean like you crash? Oh, man. I mean, like you wouldn't believe. Like it was just like, I was just like disgusting afterwards. Even compared to like drinking. It's funny because you drink and you eat shit and you feel like shit the next day.

But what I've learned only recently is that you can drink as long as you don't eat the shit. You're going to be much better than if you ate the shit. Like a lot of the hangovers coming from the In-N-Out and from the Chicago style pizza and all that. Yeah. When you go to In-N-Out, dude, you just kind of go flying Dutchman. Just the patties. Protein style, animal style. That's the way to go, man.

That's the way to go. Well, Hulk, it's great to see you thriving. Tell everybody about your cannabis line, too, before we leave. Because it confused us for like a solid 45 minutes of the podcast. Yeah. This stuff's too strong. I think we got it back. Really?

We're back. Yeah, it's good stuff. Back of the crazy stuff down there. We got the CDB stuff. CBD. This sunburn vape pen is amazing. Flower vape pens. Yeah.

Where can people have access to that stuff? Oh, my gosh. It's everywhere now. The nicotine stuff, the vapes are everywhere now. So you guys have nicotine vapes. Did you give us those, too? Yeah. Those away from Jamie.

He goes crazy for nicotine vapes. Every day. Every day he's out there vaping with the kids. Yeah, and the THC stuff is one state at a time, of course. When are they going to just federally make that legal? And get the taxes. Get the taxes from it, you mutts. It should be legal.

It should have been legal a long ass time ago. Send it to the Ukraine. And do you guys sell CBD as well, like gummies or any of that stuff too? Yes. Yes, we do. And where's a website where people can go and find out where they can purchase that? Ugh. Don't know?

Ugh. They'll find it. Oh, Jamie already found it? There you are. Oh, there it is. Yeah. We've got all that stuff in the bag there. ImmortalbyHulkHogan.com.

So that's what it is. Just go to ImmortalbyHulkHogan.com. You's what it is just go to immortal by hulk hogan.com you have access to all that stuff coming soon brother put your email address in there subscribe now there you go uh hulk hogan you're the fucking man i had my day brother a fan since i was a kid so to hang out with you here and to be able to do this it was very fun appreciate you very much man it's a really cool setup you got here, brother. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you. Much respect.

Shout out to the great and powerful Tony Hinchcliffe. Every Monday on YouTube, the best live comedy show in the world is Kill Tony. It's filmed and recorded live from the mothership right here in Austin. Tony's the master. You're the fucking best at hosting a show like that that I've ever seen. or you're the fucking best at hosting a show like that that I've ever seen. And you know what went on sale during this actual taping that we're at right now is the new podcast, live podcast from The Mothership with Ric Flair, which we're filming for the first time next week.

That's right. So they're doing, you guys, this is so hilarious because you talked about it when Ric was on the podcast and then you guys went back and forth. You sent me a text message, an email. I'm like, I knew how big this is to you. This to you is like, I mean, it's literally like somebody just gave you a Ferrari or something. It's crazy.

It's insane. Ric Flair messaging me going, I want to do a podcast with you. I'm like, okay. Oh, that's crazy. So look at this. The Goat and the Pony. Ric Flair and Tony Hinchcliffe. The tickets are on sale.

You can watch it live. It's a 2 p.m. show on Tuesday, August 29th. What was the other one, Jeremy? That's 2 and 4 Tuesday and 2 and 4 taping on Wednesday. So is this a one-time deal or are you guys going to be consistent? I think we're going to do it consistently. It's going to be fucking huge. Yeah, he's going to come out for two days every month and we're going to do it consistently. It's going to be fucking huge. He's going to come out for two days every month

and we're going to shoot four during the day. 2pm and 4pm. Release one a week. The goat and pony. I've never seen you more excited about a potential project. Don't make him laugh because if you make him laugh, he laughs at his own jokes anyway. We're going to laugh.

That's great. One thing that you guys all have in common as pro wrestlers is the old school guys that I bring in here. You guys have tremendous character. You're just awesome people. It's just fun to talk to you, whether it's Dallas or Jake the Snake or all these, The Undertaker. You guys are some of the coolest fucking people. We've seen the pyramids, man. You've seen it all.

All the dead bodies, that's for sure. You've seen it all. I didn't mean that. And on Instagram, what is your handle on Instagram? It's Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan on everything? Hulk Hogan on everything? All right.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you very much. Thank you, brother. Tony Hatchcliffe, you're the man. Thank you. Bye, everybody. Awesome. Thank you, guys.

Oh, are you playing the song? Let me see it. Put it. Thank you. Bye, everybody. Awesome. Thank you, guys. Oh, are you playing the song? Let me see it. Put it on the screen. Oh, yeah. Hulk Hogan theme song. We'll wrap it up with this. Oh, my gosh. That's kind of scary.

That's kind of scary. I don't know how you do it. Bye.