On a recent edition of his “The ARN Show” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson discussed Hulk Hogan leaving WWE for WCW in 1994.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On whether WCW had the infrastructure to bring in Hulk Hogan from WWE: “You know, they were still — you got to look at WCW for what it was at that point in time. It was still a startup company. It wasn’t Jim Crockett Promotions, albeit there were leftover talent that were featured with Jim Crockett Promotions. But it was still a startup company. I was a little worried. You know, to bring a guy in like that, which — you know, a year or even a year earlier you would have said, ‘Well, that’ll never happen, Vince will never let him go, he’s there for life!’
“But then, when it happened, I remember having a thought, ‘Well, who do you have heated up that’s hot enough, that’s got enough heat that’s gonna be something that is must see?’ You know what I mean? You know, I ran down the the lineup in my head and just went — for a guy to come in like that, if he’s gonna wrestle right away you need to have a guy on the other side of the ball that has got a ton of heat and says ‘Oh, you want to come into my company? I’ll take care of these guys.’ You know what I mean? But done in a heel way, you know.”
On WCW using Hogan as a star: “I mean, you gotta — he’s got to be your focal point if you’re going to spend that kind of money, period.”
On the locker room reaction to WCW paying Hulk Hogan big money: “That’s a natural way for those guys to feel [unhappiness]. I mean, just the way you just laid it out: he’s gonna work less dates for more money. You know, he’s gonna have a relaxed schedule, he’s gonna be allowed to do anything outside that he wants, movies. So I’m sure Ted Turner is a brilliant man. I’m sure — you know, he didn’t build the empire that he built by being stupid. In the back of his mind, he’s thinking, ‘Okay, will Hogan do another Rocky III? Which propelled Hogan into superstardom. I mean, good God Almighty, who hasn’t seen that movie?”
On the internal concern of bringing in Hogan: “Here’s the one thing that you can think about. And it’s a good thing, and it’s a bad thing. When you find out a guy’s gonna come in and have the opportunity to make — you know, I’m sure he was like, PPVs was a percentage, right? It was no fixed income. The beauty of WCW, which I took a lot of pride in, [was] the fact that we had guaranteed money, and if you didn’t draw a lot of money, you still got your pay. But now you’re going to be wrestling Hulk Hogan. If you had been working for Vince, you would have — if you got to sell out Madison Square Garden, and you were wrestling Hulk Hogan, you would have got a huge payoff. Now you’re going to get what you always get, your weekly salary.
“And guys, they don’t think about, ‘Well, I got paid for a week that wasn’t very good, wasn’t very profitable and I still got my money, whatever that was.’ You know, that’s the way that I thought about it. But the guys that, you know, if there was a big house and it was sold out they would — if you came from the era of working for Vince and every other company out there. Turner was the first guy to give guaranteed money, you know? And it’s just the way, how do you approach it, how do you look at it? It was a point of contention with a lot of guys. And a lot of conversations I’m sure went down, because of it.”
