Hulk Hogan never worked with Ric Flair on a WrestleMania card, and he recently spoke with Sports Illustrated to comment on the Hogan vs. Flair match that almost happened at WrestleMania 8 but didn’t.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On wanting to work with Ric Flair: “I wanted to work with Ric. There’s no doubt he was one of the greatest ever. Earlier in my career, I wanted to work with Piper and Orndorff. Later on, I loved working with Chris Jericho. He was just amazing. I wrestled a match with Randy Orton, and I loved that. I always loved wrestling, and I liked the challenge of working with different guys. I loved wrestling The Rock. If you’re going to create magic, there is a formula, a feel, a timing, and a placement. That’s the ‘It Factor’–you need to be able to see it and feel it.”
On getting reactions from the crowd: “I know I wrestled a lot of giants, and I enjoyed that too, but I also knew I didn’t need to get squashed by Earthquake to make the crowd respond. If Piper brought me down to one knee in the sleeper, we could make the place rumble. Nowadays, you see that in Roman’s matches. You see it with Randy Orton, too. There’s a feel for the crowd, and they have it. I think me and Ric would have had it there, too.”
On never really facing Flair in WWE: “We never really had the chance to run wild together in WWF. That gave us a chance for it to happen in WCW. That was round two for us. People wanted to see it, and you’ve got to give the people what they want to see.”
