During a recent interview with the “After the Bell with Corey Graves” podcast, Hulk Hogan commented on wanting to turn heel in WWE, his run in the nWo, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On pitching the Hollywood persona to Vince McMahon and wanting to turn heel in WWE: “Vince and I had a disagreement. Vince McMahon had an opinion that Hulkamania had its run. It actually went back to WrestleMania 6 when he asked me to put the Warrior over, and I said, ‘That’s no problem at all brother.’ But my question always is if I’m putting somebody over, what are we doing after that? There wasn’t really a clear-cut answer for that. I said, ‘How about this? When I put him over, I hand him the belt and everybody’s cheering for him, I get halfway down the aisle, and how about I just turn around and just drop him and drag him around the ring and just crucify him. I want to be Hollywood Hulk Hogan. I want to be Triple H: Hollywood Hulk Hogan, the ultimate bad guy. He said that would never work, and I said ‘Vince, I could be a bad guy, I used to be a bad guy when I worked for your father, I know how to do it.’ Even way before then I wanted to turn heel. I just thought I could’ve had a hell of a run in WWE as Hollywood Hulk Hogan, but Vince and I had a disagreement.”
On signing with WCW and turning heel to join the nWo: “I did my thing and left and when I went to WCW, that was my whole plan. To come in as Hulk Hogan, do the red and yellow thing and when things didn’t work out, I was going to switch right away. But when I went in, things took off. It took a couple of years for that Hulk Hogan thing to get old, and then of course, when Hall and Nash came in, I was on the fence about teaming up with guys. Eric kept asking me if I wanted to do this gimmick and I kept saying, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know who these brothers are, and I don’t know what their deal is as far as work ethic, where their heads are at.’ I don’t even know these guys. They’re from Shawn Michaels’ clique, and I wasn’t a part of that deal. Once they came in, I was shooting a movie out in California. I started watching what they were doing, and I saw the response they were getting and how it looked like a shoot. Everybody in WCW thought this was really WWE talent under contract just to take on WCW. I saw Scott come in and then I saw big Kevin come in, and I called Eric right away and said ‘I’m in.’ And he goes ‘Good, because I was just getting ready to get Sting to do it.’ And I said, ‘Thank god, I’m the guy.’”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)