PBD - Patrick Bet-David - “Gun To My Head” – Hulk Hogan UNCENSORED: Trump, Vince McMahon & WWE Untold Stories!

Oct. 23, 2024 - PBD - Patrick Bet-David

01:34:05

“Gun To My Head” – Hulk Hogan UNCENSORED: Trump, Vince McMahon & WWE Untold Stories! | PBD Podcast

Patrick Bet-David sits down with iconic wrestler Hulk Hogan to discuss his legendary career, his close friendship with Donald Trump, Vince McMahon, and untold stories of fame, family, and wrestling's golden era. — 🍺 PURCHASE HULK HOGAN'S "REAL AMERICAN BEER": https://bit.ly/3Yxsjui 👕 TEAM USA GEAR AT VTMERCH.COM: https://bit.ly/40gZun5 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": https://bit.ly/3XC5ftN 📰 VTNEWS.AI: ⁠https://bit.ly/3Zn2Moj 👕 VT "2024 ELECTION COLLECTION": https://bit.ly/3XD7Bsm 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: https://bit.ly/3ze3RUM 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: https://bit.ly/47iOGGx 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: https://bit.ly/4e0FgCe 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: https://bit.ly/3MGK5EE 📕 CHOOSE YOUR ENEMIES WISELY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3XnEpo0 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: https://bit.ly/4d5nYlU 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: https://bit.ly/3XC8L7k 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: ⁠https://bit.ly/3XjSSRK 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! ---- SUBSCRIBE TO: @VALUETAINMENT @vtsoscast @ValuetainmentComedy @bizdocpodcast @theunusualsuspectspodcast ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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	I don't really share the story with any, but I'm going to tell you.
	When would you say the peak of fame was for Hulk Hogan?
	MTV jumped all over it.
	We had Liverachi, Muhammad Ali, every celebrity you could see.
	And then that night when I came to the building, he put a gun to my head.
	It was a mob mentality.
	Kid, my mother got my money for him.
	What year is this?
	And the more evil and the horrible stuff I did, the more people cheered me.
	What a dirty, creative place.
	I was talking like a man, but I wasn't being one.
	What do people not know about fame?
	Sheriff sent her limo for you.
	It's downstairs.
	She wants you to come over and have dinner with him.
	What?
	Sheriff.
	Vince and I have talked.
	If his father knew what we were up to, he'd roll over his grave.
	What was your first interaction with Trump?
	He's the same guy now that he was back then.
	He hasn't changed a bit.
	We even used him in the ring.
	My chest was against his chest, and when he took that last breath, I went, ah, I jumped back.
	I felt something come out of his body.
	This is much more important than business.
	Wow.
	No, this is a spiritual revolution.
	I know this life meant for me.
	Why would you bet on Goliath when we got pet David?
	Value tame it, giving values contagious.
	This world of entrepreneurs, we get no value to hated.
	Ideally run, homie, look what I become.
	I'm the one.
	So look, there's a lot of famous people in the world.
	There's a lot of people that have a lot of following.
	There's a lot of people who made a lot of money, celebrities, athletes.
	But when it comes down to the word icon, when you think the word icon, you think Michael Jackson.
	You think Michael Jordan.
	You think Tiger Woods.
	You think Lennon, Beatles.
	You think Marilyn Monroe.
	You think Elvis.
	You think when somebody comes to town, they shut the place down.
	There are certain people you can use that name with.
	My guest today is in the community of icons.
	It's the one and only Hulk Hogan.
	It's great to have you here.
	It was very kind of you to say that.
	Well, you are an icon.
	Very cool.
	Thank you.
	Yes.
	It's, it's, you know, there's certain people when you think about, my mother, we were talking about this pre.
	We're like, hey, who would you put in the icon category?
	We're trying to come up with all this.
	I'm like, man, this guy, this is in that category.
	So going back to it.
	I think it's just been around for so long.
	I don't know.
	I wrestled for 40 years and I was in every single foreign country all around the world every weekend.
	So they're just familiar with me.
	I think that's why.
	But look, I mean, I lived in Iran, okay, from 78 to 89.
	And I remember when Rocky III came out.
	Yeah.
	Right.
	And I'm watching you pick him up.
	And he's like, this is just a regular match.
	We're doing it for entertainment.
	And you throw him over.
	And then what was your name in it?
	Thunderlips?
	Thunderlips, yes.
	Who gave that name, by the way?
	I mean, that name.
	That was in the script, the ultimate male Thunderlips.
	Did you ever go up to Sly and like, hey, can we not change this name to something else?
	Oh, I like the name.
	Oh, you like the name?
	I was like 28, 29 years old at the time, you know, so I thought it was cool.
	That was sick.
	That's the image, right, that we saw.
	And he rushed.
	Just so you know, I watched this movie, you speaking in Farsi, okay, because we didn't watch it in English.
	That's how big of a name you had built where worldwide people knew who Hulk Hogan was.
	In that picture, and of course, everyone here understands, I was standing on a half apple box, a very small apple box, three inches.
	But at that time, I was six foot seven and I weighed 330 pounds.
	I had a 34-inch waist.
	Very young at the time.
	But after 10 back surgeries, two hip replacements, two knees, right before my mother passed away, she was blind.
	She goes, Terry, I want to measure you again.
	And she measured me.
	I was 6'4.
	And that's what I am now.
	But back then, I was 6'7.
	Wow.
	So you lost three inches.
	Yeah, no one told me that stuff was fake.
	Wow.
	By the way, let me ask you, when I see personality-wise with you, if we were in high school together, 10th grade, who was Hulk Hogan in 10th grade?
	Oh, my gosh, a very fat kid that was afraid to take his shirt off.
	And even because I lived in Clearwater, Florida, went to school, Robinson High School, University of South Florida.
	And I was really fat and overweight in high school and really never had a girlfriend until like my senior year.
	And we're all is that really you.
	Yes.
	There's no way that's you.
	That's me.
	And when all the kids, well, maybe I wasn't that fat, but I was fat for the kids that were in shape around me.
	I wouldn't take my shirt off when we go to the beach.
	And, you know, so I kind of like, it was weird.
	So that's why I started working out and training.
	Who in your high school ended up being the most famous outside of you?
	Like, who else?
	Was there anybody that came out of your high school that did well in life?
	Well, at the end of the day, wrestling used to be very territorial.
	Like Florida wrestling, Georgia, New York, Louisiana, California, different, excuse me, different wrestling areas.
	And two of the guys who were in my high school were a year ahead of me.
	And one of the kids, his dad was promoter.
	Mike Graham's father, Eddie Graham, was a promoter.
	So between Mike Graham and Steve Kern, that were two years ahead of me, they became kind of like famous Florida wrestlers.
	Yes, that's it.
	I was pulling that stuff up so fast.
	That's amazing.
	But they became Florida wrestlers.
	And then after that, when I got into the business, they really didn't want me in the business at first.
	You didn't?
	No, actually, when I went down to work out, they broke my leg the first day.
	They exercised me until I was going to faint.
	They put their elbow on my shin, posted my toe, pulled my toe.
	Accidentally or intentionally?
	Intentionally.
	And they said, don't ever come back again.
	So, I mean, once I got in, I became the most famous person out of that high school.
	You know.
	Would anybody have guessed it?
	Oh, no, no, no.
	Was he also shy or no?
	Kind of, yeah.
	But I was playing music.
	I was playing in a rock and roll band.
	And I kind of like what we call heat.
	I had heat with all the athletes because in high school I had two brand new cars, you know, and I was living at a place called the Islands Club at Davis Island.
	It was a really expensive hotel.
	And I was playing in a show band there.
	And so I had like heat in high school because I would play in the clubs till 2, 3 o'clock in the morning.
	I'd still be at homeroom at 8 a.m., but I'd come driving up in my brand new car.
	And so.
	How old are you?
	16, 17 years old?
	Yeah, I started playing at the Islands Club when I was 17, and my father kicked me out of the house when I was 17.
	Now, did your parents make good money?
	Were they?
	No, no, they didn't.
	My mom was a housewife.
	My dad was a pipe fitter.
	He did all the storm drains like around the big malls, the big six-foot pipe, and he was real good with math.
	I just remember he'd have a little notepad, and he would do trigonometry on this little pad.
	No computers back then, of course, back in the day.
	And he would bend pipes and get everything synced up perfectly for all the storm drainage and all the stuff.
	He had to know trigonometry and a lot of stuff to be really good at it.
	But housewife, construction worker, didn't realize where I was on the economic tree as far as where we're at.
	Had a great life, but didn't understand that we weren't very well off.
	So my thing was to get out of that cycle and make something of myself.
	Was there fire?
	Was it like, could I, if I was hanging out with you and let's just say we're going to, you know, I'm one of your best friends at 17, 18 years old.
	And we used to go to Denny's and we used to dream like, hey, one day I'm so sick of this shit.
	Would your friends hear you one day I'm going to be or no?
	Was it more you?
	Well, for me, I was, and this sounds terrible, but I was doing anything to avoid working a real job.
	And, you know, back then when I was playing music in 1972, three, four, during the 70s, if you're making $300, $400 a week, that was a lot of money, especially for a kid in high school.
	So once I got a taste of making money, all my friends that were working normal jobs like McDonald's or Construction making $2.50 an hour were, not for me.
	I'm going to keep playing music.
	And I kind of like transitioned into wrestling because the whole time I played music around the area, whenever I'd be home, because we traveled a lot, the local wrestlers would come in and I was scared to death of them.
	Oh my gosh, these guys will kill your cauliflower ears, broken noses, teeth knocked out all over 300 pounds back when wrestlers looked like big monsters, you know?
	So I transitioned into that.
	And when I say anything to avoid working a real job, I just wanted to not live the way I grew up.
	You know, when I realized the way the rest of the world was, I didn't want to be in that cycle.
	Was it purely that?
	Or would you consider yourself a big time, ambitious, competitive kid that you had a chip on your shoulder, wanted to prove a point?
	No.
	It wasn't that at all.
	It was just wanting to do well in life.
	So you never worked at McDonald's in a past because I know some people want to say they worked at McDonald's.
	You're not making that claim.
	You're not going there.
	No, I just wonder because you said McDonald's.
	I'm like, listen, I just want to verify that we're not going to get stuck.
	Where did I say McDonald's?
	You said your friends used to work at McDonald's.
	You don't want to be that guy.
	No, no.
	You're being honest, Stephanie, and I appreciate it because nowadays it's popular to say you work at McDonald's in a past.
	But, okay, so from there, in high school, did you get a lot of fistfights?
	No, never.
	Okay.
	I was a great bluffer.
	You were a great bluffer.
	Yeah, when things pushed came up, I was kind of like a big, heavy-set kid, and I would bluff my way.
	And they wouldn't want to fight you afterwards.
	No.
	Okay.
	Were you 6'7 in high school?
	Like, were you the big kid on campus?
	No, no, but right now, I've always, when I wrestled, I was always over 300 pounds.
	Right now, I weigh 265.
	And the last time I was this weight, I was in ninth grade when I weighed 265.
	That picture that you showed earlier, I had lost a bunch of weight because I got a girlfriend and I dropped a bunch of weight, you know, before I ran into her.
	Did you lose the weight because of the extracurricular activities or you lost the weight to look good for your girlfriend?
	I lost weight because I was really attracted to this one girl and she wouldn't give me the time of day.
	And it took me about two years to lose the weight, but then I found a different girl that liked me.
	So I was motivated by the opposite sex.
	Very cool.
	Were you good with the ladies in high school or no?
	No.
	Okay.
	So that came later on with the skill set or I'm never going to go with them.
	I'm not real good.
	I'm not real good with relationships, but this new marriage I have, my wife is a believer of my Lord and Savior.
	So we are right on track and perfectly simple.
	Very cool.
	Very cool.
	So now, wrestling, the first time where you're like, I can possibly do this and make some money at it and working out.
	Is that kind of after high school where you're starting to hit the weights and you're putting the physique together?
	And maybe I'm going to go wrestling.
	How did that happen?
	Well, in Florida back in the day, there was a real popular wrestler named Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream.
	And I became a huge fan of his.
	And when we were in high school, you know, we could kind of like arrange our schedule when you're a senior.
	And I had shop class and then phys ed and then study hall all together.
	So shop class, we would start horseplaying around.
	That would lead into the phys ed class and then study class if we stayed for study hall or whatever that was, if we stayed for that.
	And we would wrestle and act like the wrestlers and throw each other around into boxes and do all this stuff.
	But I was a huge wrestling fan of Dusty Rhodes, never dreaming that I would have the opportunity to get in the wrestling business.
	But I was such a fan, you know, it kind of just led me in that direction.
	Very cool.
	And how old were you the first time you met him?
	Dusty Rhodes?
	Yeah.
	Oh, my gosh.
	They used to go to a bar.
	There's two streets in Tampa called Kennedy Boulevard in Armenia on the corner of Kennedy and Armenia.
	Armenia?
	Armenia Avenue, yeah.
	Literally Armenia.
	Armenia, yeah.
	Why would they call a street in Tampa Armenia?
	You can pull it up.
	He's really good.
	Right here.
	Is that it?
	Is that Armenia Avenue?
	Well, it's called the Imperial Room.
	Can you turn it around?
	You can just spin it and just kind of show it if you keep going like that, keep going.
	Oh, I don't know.
	That doesn't even look anything like how I used to.
	Well, that was a long time ago.
	Maybe that was it.
	Yeah, I would go there and I'd sit in the corner and, you know, even when I was underage, I'd sneak in the bar and watch the bad guys on one side of the room, the good guys on the other side of the room.
	Dusty Rose, the American Dream, baba.
	He was in there and he was holding court.
	So I was just a huge fan.
	Very cool.
	Did you get a chance to watch Vince McMahon's documentary, Mr. McMahon?
	Yes.
	Have you seen all six episodes?
	Like you.
	Yes, I have.
	Okay.
	First of all, two friends of mine, Matt and Sheena Sapala, call me and they say, you have to watch this documentary.
	And I think it's Steve Eveyan calls me and says, you got to watch a documentary.
	So I'm like, listen, it's six of them, six hours.
	I don't know if I'm really going to watch it.
	So Saturday night, I start, kids are asleep, wife's sleep.
	I said, I'll watch it on Netflix at 1.5.
	At 10 o'clock, I watched the first episode.
	I wake up at 6 o'clock in the morning to make sure I finish all the episodes.
	I was hooked.
	I was hooked when I watched it.
	But when I was done, like, you know, a lot of people go, well, you know, let me tell you the real thing behind Vince McMahon.
	He's a this, he's a bad guy.
	He's this.
	I don't know about you, but when I watch it, I mean, you're in it, so you're watching it from a different perspective than I would watch it.
	The documentary made me like him more.
	You know, did you get that feeling as well when you watched the documentary?
	Well, I know him very well.
	Right.
	Very, very well.
	And actually, I worked for his father first.
	And I worked for his father in New York.
	Oh, my gosh, between 78 and 80.
	And then I got fired by his father for doing the Rocky movie.
	Because when I told him I was going to do the movie, he goes, well, Terry, you know, my first name, of course, you're a wrestler, not an actor.
	And you're supposed to, I was in Fall River, Massachusetts, and I wrestled the main event that night, got out of the ring about 11 o'clock, and I got a call from Vince McMahon Sr.
	Said, you have to be in Charlotte, North Carolina at noon.
	So I would have to drive all night to get to Charlotte, North Carolina, because he was lending me to another promoter there.
	Now I was supposed to be on Charlotte TV at noon.
	I said, Mr. McMahon, I already told you I'm going to the rock, going out to L.A. to film the Rocky movie with Sylvester Sloan.
	He goes, if you do that, you're fired and you'll never work here again.
	And I went, okay, fine.
	So I flew out to L.A. and did the movie.
	But that's kind of like how this whole thing progressed and moved forward by, you know, going in that direction.
	But yeah, I worked for Vince Sr. first.
	But then after I was fired for, oh my gosh, about three years, I went to stayed, spent a lot of time in Japan, spent half my career in Japan wrestling over there.
	And I went to Minnesota and started wrestling in Minnesota.
	We started this huge promotion.
	And we were getting ready to come in and take over the whole East Coast.
	We bought time on Channel 9 in New York and all up and down the East Coast.
	And right before I came in with my crew, Vince McMahon, you know, approached me, Vince Jr., who you know now in the documentary, about me coming back.
	And he had this master plan.
	And he goes, I need you to fly to Connecticut.
	Granted, she'd meet me.
	I said, no, I'm going to fly in there.
	If you want to talk to me, come to Minneapolis.
	So he flew in.
	Who's bigger at this time, fame-wise, that people know?
	Is it more you or Vince?
	I had started the whole Homania thing in Minnesota.
	Got it.
	And I had crazy momentum.
	And if you look back on some of my AWA matches in Minnesota and see how the crowd would react when I'd play that I, the Tiger music, that don't, don't, don't, don't, I come out.
	The place would go crazy.
	Vince came to me, he goes, I've got this idea.
	I want to take over the whole world.
	Not just a regional promotion, which New York promotion was New York, Massachusetts, and part of Pennsylvania.
	I want to take over everybody's territory and cross all these imaginary lines and go places no one's ever gone before.
	So I went, but he goes, I need to do it with you.
	And you saw the documentary.
	I said, okay, so Vince McMahon stayed in Greenwich, Connecticut, what I call the Eiffel Tower of the WWE offices.
	And I went out to all these different places I shouldn't go to, like Kansas City, where Harley Race's ex-Marine was the NWA World's Champion.
	And when I showed up, he tried to burn the ring down at 12 in the afternoon.
	And then that night when I came to the building, he put a gun to my head.
	And I went through all these different places between South Africa.
	He put a gun to your head.
	Harley Race.
	Harley, yeah.
	And he told everybody he's going to shoot my knees out.
	Why is that?
	He was worried that you were.
	I was the champion from the WWF.
	But for 17 years, he lived in Kansas City.
	And there was a whole nother organization called the NWA National Wrestling Alliance.
	And he was the champion there.
	And the NWA actually had more respect than any other title.
	And for 17 years, Harley Race had been the champion.
	All of a sudden, this blonde-haired idiot is on TV going, I'm the real champion from New York.
	I came into his hometown where he lived and disrespected him.
	Was he a tough guy?
	Oh, yeah.
	Was he a gangster?
	Was he a street guy?
	No, he was a street fighter, plus he was just a tough, okay, tough old ex-Marine.
	And I really didn't want any part of that.
	But, you know, once he threatened me with a gun and stuff, two seconds later, he stook his hand and he goes, I really need a job.
	And I said, you got one, brother.
	I shook his hand and him and I went around and wrestled everywhere after that.
	How did that happen?
	So I got a gun pointing at you.
	Yeah.
	Two seconds later, I needed a gun.
	Yeah, he just put the gun down.
	He goes, I really need a job because we were coming in and taking over.
	Now, are you making money at that time or not yet?
	Oh, yeah, I was making money.
	Are you making a million?
	Are you making a- Oh, yeah.
	Okay.
	So financially, everyone knows on the market you're making millions of people.
	And they knew if they went to where I went, these wrestlers that were making like $1,000 a week, all of a sudden we'd be making $10 or $15 or $20,000 a week.
	So let me ask you, are you the one that's going out there and recruiting other talent for me?
	No, I didn't do that.
	We'd pump our signal into like Los Angeles, California for four weeks.
	And once we saturated the marketplace, then I would show up and do a show.
	You know, we'd pump our signal to Toronto, Canada for four or five weeks, and I'd come in and sell it at the Skydome or, you know, Make the Leaf Gardens.
	So Vince stayed in the office and I went to these places where nobody was supposed to cross these lines as far as respect goes.
	And I would have promoters and other wrestlers and everybody else either wanted to beat me up, kill me or something.
	But sooner or later, we won everybody over.
	And I was young enough and crazy enough to do that back then.
	Was it like, you know how Mr. Olympia, the bodybuilding world, I'm sure you follow Mr. Olympia as well because it's very similar to Mr. Olympia back in the 70s, 80s had a little bit of a mob-esque type of a feeling where, hey, you better put this here, you're going to pay me this and you're going to do this and you better not go to this guy and Manny and this.
	And all these guys were small mobsters, gangsters, maybe not affiliated, but they were tough guys.
	You just didn't want to mess with them, right?
	Was there that feeling with how wrestling was in the 80s?
	Yes, there was.
	You know, it was very different.
	You know, I just remember I went to Budapitswana, South Africa, a wrestler guy named Terry Funk.
	You know, and after the matches, you know, they paid us in cash, a whole bunch of cash, and he was leaving the next day.
	And as I was in the Mercedes, I had three guys in the car.
	They're clicking their guns and pointing them at me.
	And they were driving me from Budapesswana to Cape Town.
	And as I'm riding in this car, they're pointing the guns at me, screwing around.
	And, you know, they said, you know, you were really overpaid.
	You know, you only wrestle like 15 minutes.
	I said, you know what, guys, I really don't need the money here.
	You know, take the money.
	And I get out of the car.
	First thing I did was I called the hotel and I told Terry Funk, don't try to get your money from the casino because you may not make it to Cape Town.
	So I went and I told my mother.
	I called my mom and said, mom, they robbed me, mommy.
	And my mother went to the embassy in Tampa and got my money for me.
	Get it happened.
	My mother got my money for me.
	What year is this?
	Like mid-80s or early 80s?
	This is post-Rocky.
	It had to be.
	No, no, no.
	This was after Rocky.
	Right.
	Post-Rocky.
	Because when I went to Budapestwana, I mean, it was Sun Cities where we wrestled, but they had girls come out.
	So it was after Rocky and it was before I went back to work for Vince Jr.
	I was during the time in Minnesota.
	And so I actually called my mother up like a crybaby and my mother would get the money for me.
	So it's just kind of funny.
	Now, did she call Vince and say, hey, you better go get this money for my son?
	Or she called the embassy to work?
	No, I wasn't working for Vince.
	Oh, okay.
	Got it.
	She went somehow or another, the embassy or whatever she did.
	I really never asked her, but she got the money for it.
	Your mom's got a strong personality.
	She did a great job.
	Well, she's Phantamanian, so she's kind of like...
	Respect, respect.
	And I've been to Panama.
	It's a beautiful place there.
	So now at this point, you're on the road.
	You're going.
	By the way, the difference between Vince McMahon Jr. and Senior, what was their different approach one-on-one with you behind closed doors?
	Like, was Vince selling the vision?
	And was the father the tough guy that you feared?
	What was the difference between the two?
	Well, you know, Vince and I have talked, and we've said several times, if his father knew what we were up to, he'd roll over in his grave.
	Because Vince Sr. was very respectful of those relationships.
	Like his main attraction at the time was Andre the Giant.
	And he would send Andre the Giant to Louisiana for a week.
	And Andre would wrestle all the guys and then they'd have the big blow-off with the battle royal with 30 guys in the ring.
	And then he'd send Andre to Georgia for a week and do the same thing.
	Then Minnesota for a week and do the same thing.
	Because Andre was such an attraction, you just couldn't keep him in New York all the time.
	So Vince was very respectful.
	Vince Sr. was very respectful of the relationships of all the promoters and all the small territories around the country.
	So when Vince Jr. took over and he came to me, because at the time I was on a crazy roll in Minnesota, I had figured it out.
	I had the notoriety of the Rocky movie.
	I'd figure out how to work a crowd.
	And I really had the art form down at that time.
	And my timing was impeccable.
	I had everything lined up, not only media-wise, but in the ring.
	My timing was good.
	And I could work with anybody that, you know, when Vince and I got together and decided to try to take over all the territories and do this global juggernaut theory that we had, if Vince Sr. would have known about it, he would have killed both of us.
	Because of the relationship.
	Like, hey, you can't broke.
	We broke.
	They take their guys away.
	We broke all the handshakes.
	So in a mob world, they would call that homerta, right?
	Like, you know, breaking silence or whatever.
	And there was a certain code between the five families, right?
	The commission with Lucky running the whole thing.
	Was Vince's father the one where we don't break this code?
	That family's this.
	We don't cross the line.
	And you guys came in and said, forget about it.
	We're going after everybody.
	And to do what we did, if you think back, like when I started in the 70s, you know, they broke my leg the first day.
	You couldn't do that to a kid now.
	You know, you couldn't take some kid and take him to a wrestling school and break his leg.
	The business has changed, you know.
	But back then, when we crossed all these imaginary lines and broke all these handshakes, it was a mob mentality that we have to stop these two clowns, Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan, from doing this stuff.
	But we were making so much money and doing so well.
	All these top stars in Louisiana, like Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Junkyard Dog and all these other huge stars like Dusty Rhodes and Dusty Rhodes, who I got watching, came up in workforce.
	Wow.
	You know?
	And, you know, it was kind of weird for me because I love Dusty so much.
	I was the main event in Madison Square Garden.
	It was hard to watch my idol be like the second or third match on the card.
	So that was kind of tough for me because I loved him so much.
	But he had so much respect for the business and for what I'd done.
	And it was mutual, you know, that we just got along so well.
	At the peak of it, go to the peak of it.
	When would you say the peak of fame was for Hulk Hogan?
	What year would you say was like the ultimate, ultimate peak?
	Well, it's hard to say because I had two, we call everything a run.
	Like how long is your show going to be on the air?
	That's a run.
	Is it going to be six months?
	Makes sense or 60 years.
	Sure.
	How long are you going to be married?
	How long's your run?
	Are you going to be married for four years or for a lifetime?
	Totally get it.
	So in wrestling, it was, you know, how long is your run going to be?
	So my first run where we kind of took over the world was the night I beat the Iron Sheik in Madison Square Garden, January 23rd, 1984.
	The political storm, the landscape couldn't have been greater for the storyline.
	Wow.
	Because the Iron Sheik was actually the real bodyguard for the Shaw of Iran.
	Cosbo Lazari was his real name.
	He was the actual bodyguard.
	And at that time, Iran was holding 444 American hostages at that time.
	So you had this real American hero, Hulk Hogan, the character going against the Sheik of the Iron Sheik.
	And once I beat him, Hulkamania took off.
	And it was this crazy run.
	We brought in City.
	Well, you saw it on TV.
	We brought in Cindy Lauper.
	MTV jumped all over it.
	We had Liberachi and Mohammed Ali, every celebrity you could see wanted to be part of it.
	I'd go wrestle in L.A. and you had Gene Hackman, Farah Fawcett, Lee Majors fighting for front row seats.
	I'd go to Detroit.
	You have Ayakoka and Edsel Ford and everybody wanting seats.
	So it was crazy.
	But it's so hard to say which was the bigger run because right after that, Vince and I had a little blowout after about 10 or 12 years.
	I went to work for Ted Turner for 10 years.
	That's the Bischoff, right?
	Eric Bischoff.
	Yeah, and I had the black beard and I became Hollywood Hogan, the bad guy.
	And the more evil and the horrible stuff I did, the more people cheered me.
	So the worse I got and the nastier I got and the meaner I got and the evil, as evil as I could be, the people cheered me because I had this built-in following of people that they thought it was cool.
	You know, that I was spray painting the belt and spray painting all Ted Turner's trucks and TV trucks.
	It was just nuts.
	So that second run, like I said, the second run took off almost as good as the first one.
	But I would have to go back to digress and kind of contradict myself and say that first run when we first took off with the red and yellow, it was so positive.
	We changed the whole landscape around.
	So that was bigger than NWO.
	You're saying the first one was bigger.
	I'm not saying it was bigger.
	It was the first time it happened.
	So it was more exciting.
	When was it where you couldn't go outside?
	I mean, I'm sure it happened early, early where because it's like Shaq walking outside.
	You're going to spot the guy.
	He can't go anywhere because he's 7-1.
	But you're a big guy.
	But when was it where you're like, something's going on?
	Well, the first time I really became real, real real aware of it, people kept saying, oh my gosh, you don't realize how big Hulk Hogan is, this Hulk Amain thing.
	I was just working.
	I had my head down.
	All I cared about was working.
	And it hit me really big when John Stossel from 2020 wanted to talk to me.
	And he goes, you know, the headline of the New York Post says, Jackie O and Jackie O or Mr. T or whoever, I can't remember the names they said, but Jackie O and somebody else can walk down the streets in New York, but Hulk Hogan can't.
	So John Stossel came to find out if that was true.
	So John Stossel came and as we were walking down the street in New York, he wanted to put me out in front of Madison Square Guard.
	I said, no, don't do that.
	We'll get killed.
	Take me over to Fifth Avenue, you know, where there's not a bunch of wrestling fans.
	As soon as I get out of the car at Fifth Avenue, we got mobbed.
	And all of a sudden, you know, as we got mobbed, that was when the first time I realized that this wrestling had gone mainstream, that this Hulk Hogan character had crossed these imaginary boundaries and became a media star, not just a wrestling star.
	So that's when it really hit me the first time.
	And what was the, was there a moment where you're going to be being invited to parties and you're like, I can't believe I'm at a party like this.
	What were some of the moments and who you got a chance to meet where for the first time you were even starstruck?
	You say, I can't believe I'm meeting Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan, whoever some of these names are.
	Or maybe you never experienced that.
	Oh, I did.
	I did.
	And both, I can, it's kind of like two trains of thought you just hit me with.
	The first time I kind of like freaked out.
	I met tons and tons of celebrities, you know, met a lot of people.
	Michael Jackson met a lot of people, and this is kind of weird.
	But the first time I really freaked out and started shaking and got nervous, and the only person that's ever happened was when I met Jerry Springer.
	I was a huge Jerry Springer fan.
	Okay.
	I was a huge Jerry Springer.
	You just passed away, I think, a few months ago or last year.
	Yeah.
	So I was a huge Jerry Springer fan.
	But the thing that really shocked me with the celebrity thing, I was sitting at the Twin Towers one day with my wife at Vince's birthday party.
	And this cop comes up and taps me on the shoulder.
	And I said, yes, sir.
	Now I'm sitting with my wife, right?
	And the guy goes, oh, Shara sent her limo for you.
	It's downstairs.
	She wants you to come over and have dinner with her.
	I'm like, what?
	Share?
	What are you telling me?
	No, the share, the singer.
	I didn't, you know, I was like, get out of here.
	What are you talking about?
	But, you know, it's kind of weird because she thought she'd just send a car and I jumped in and come running over there.
	And then another time.
	Did you go or you didn't?
	No, no, brother.
	Come on.
	No, but I was with my wife.
	I wouldn't do that anyway.
	Oh, wait, wait.
	She didn't want to have dinner with you and your wife.
	No, no, no.
	I got me.
	This is kind of like when Madonna went to Antonio Banderas when he's married.
	He's like, hey, can I spend some time with you tonight?
	Something like that.
	I got you.
	There's another one when Madonna put that book out, the SNM book.
	I can't remember what they called it.
	She had a party in New York City, and I was at the guard that night.
	She sent a car to pick me up to come to her party.
	And once again, I was with my wife.
	And I'm not doing that stuff.
	But yeah, so, you know, those things catch you off guard.
	And that's when you kind of realize that the character is like cross these.
	How was your wife reacting to this at the time?
	What is she saying?
	Babe, what is this?
	At the time, she was kind of used to it, you know?
	Oh, she was used to it.
	I've been married.
	This is my third marriage.
	I'm talking about the first marriage.
	I'm talking first marriage.
	First marriage, it's kind of like nobody's used to it, right?
	She's not even used to it.
	But she was kind of around, like I started wrestling in 77.
	So she came into the picture about 81 or 82.
	So she was used to seeing the craziness.
	Got it.
	It was just another wacko situation that we were getting hit with every day.
	Got it.
	Now, at the time, who were you a fan of that you wanted to get a hold of that you told your management team?
	You're like, hey, can you get a hold of XYZ?
	I'd like to have dinner with them.
	I'd like to meet this person.
	Did you approach anybody?
	No, I've never done that.
	You've never done that?
	No.
	So, okay, so wasn't, were you saying, I'd like to meet Michael?
	I'd like to meet the president.
	I'd like to go to the White House.
	I'd like to get on Air Force One, nothing like that.
	No, no.
	Is that just not part of your personality or what?
	Not really.
	I just, I've never been like that very cool with people.
	What was your first interaction with Trump?
	First interaction with Trump was we rented the Trump Plaza for WrestleMania 4 and 5.
	And it's kind of funny because I get some pictures on my phone where I'm in the middle of the ring doing the earthing and I'm bleeding like a pig.
	And you can see him sitting in the front row just cheering and having a blast.
	But the first interaction with Trump was WrestleMania 4 and 5.
	And, you know, I didn't think he'd come to the show, but he was there early, came in the dressroom, met all the wrestlers.
	Is that him?
	Is that the one, Rob?
	Oh, that's probably one of them.
	Yeah, that's probably one of them.
	So he came, his back doors meeting you guys, talking to you, shaking hands.
	Yeah, came in the back, met all the wrestlers, and actually sat down, started talking to us.
	I was really surprised.
	And then they said he was sitting in the front row.
	And, you know, I was surprised because he went out from the first match and he stayed all the way till I wrestled and sat through that craziness.
	Then the next year we went back again and it was the same thing.
	We had such a good time at his venue and we made so much money there because he gave us such a good deal that we went back again.
	He was the same guy and he's the same guy now that he was back then.
	He hasn't changed a bit.
	I mean, he's just a really quality person.
	It's amazing when you sit down and actually get to know the guy.
	What's your impression when you say same guy now versus them?
	Because there is, you actually had one-on-one versus everybody else is getting secondhand information, right?
	You've done business with him where you're doing events at his place behind closed doors.
	What do you like most about his personality and how he treats you?
	Well, it's not so much how he treats me.
	He treats, and I've stole this from him when I say I treat everybody the same.
	I learned that from him.
	I mean, I actually watched him because all of a sudden, when I started wrestling, this character, Hulk Hogan, became popular.
	All of a sudden, I was having all these dying kids and make-it-wish kids come to me.
	I was like, oh my gosh, what's going on?
	Then it got to the point where I got used to it.
	And now it's 71 years old when the make-it-wish people call me.
	I thank God it's still happening.
	But at first, I didn't know how to handle it.
	Didn't know how to talk to these kids.
	This is their last wish.
	I would see Trump talk to these kids.
	And not only would he spend a second or two with them, the handlers would come in and go, okay, well, Donald's busy.
	You know, he's going to go to this.
	And he goes, no, no, no, I'm not busy.
	Not busy for John.
	I'm staying here with little Johnny.
	I'd sit there and watch him.
	Not only would he talk to these kids, he'd touch them and rub their backs.
	And one of my favorite things is to grab these special kids, go, hey, I'm really tired, you know, and I'm a lot older than you, and I just want to steal the energy from you.
	And when you go home, you're going to be really tired and pass out, but I'm going to steal your energy so I can get through this day.
	I learned that from him.
	And I saw him do that with these kids.
	So I've learned a lot watching him and just he's personable, you know.
	And we even used him in the ring.
	We asked him to do this whole wrestling story where the billionaires are against each other.
	And you could probably pull that up, the billionaire match where whoever lost the match would have their head shaved.
	Of course, Vince McMahon's wrestler that he was managing lost.
	So Trump shaved Vince's head.
	And then we wanted a little something extra out of Trump.
	And we said, would you mind if Stone Cold Steve Austin kicks you in the belly and stuns you and leads you land there?
	He goes, oh, no problem.
	So stone cold Steve Austin kicks him in the belly, hits him with a stunner, which does not feel good, I can tell you.
	And he just laid there and he was great.
	You know, so he's, he's one of the guys.
	I don't know what to tell you.
	You know, it's just that simple.
	Yeah, that's one of the guys.
	That's the one, Rob, we can't probably show that, right?
	When you go to with WWE, they're the ones that meant UFC.
	You may want to not show that, Rob, with the audience.
	But yeah, I mean, you hear these stories, right?
	You hear people telling these stories, and then you hear what the media is saying.
	It's a night and day thing.
	But going back to.
	Well, you know, I have to touch on that because the media, you know, I've learned, you know, and when he says the fake news, the thing is, it didn't really register.
	And then as I'm pushing my grocery cart, we have a grocery store chain here in Florida called Publix.
	As I'm pushing my grocery store cart through Publix, I'm going down one aisle and down the other.
	And then when I come back up the aisle, you check out, I see the National Enquirer.
	Hulk Hogan has a major heart attack.
	I'm like, I did.
	You know, and I said, oh my gosh, I get it.
	Fake news.
	You know, and it really put a spotlight on what he meant by fake news because he's demonic.
	He's going to be Hitler.
	He's going to be this.
	He's going to be that.
	And like I said before in several interviews, in the Bible, it says, listen to where people are speaking from.
	And when somebody says he's demonic or he's responsible for the border being open or he's responsible for inflation, listen where people are speaking from.
	They're the ones that are responsible for that.
	And it's just, it hit me like a brick when I saw that Hulk Hogan had a heart attack.
	I'm like, okay, I get it.
	It's all BS.
	It's not true.
	How old were you the first time?
	How old were you the first time you experienced fake news?
	The first time they said a story, like, there's no way this is true.
	Gosh, probably 20 years, 25 years ago.
	Still in the 90s, you're thinking.
	Okay, so it's in the list of the buying into all this stuff because I would travel and go through every airport in the world, and the only thing that was in the airport was CNN.
	That was the only news source I got.
	And so now I realize the majority of America would get the mainstream news and they don't really get the real truth of what really is going on.
	You work with Ted Turner, right?
	Did you spend a lot of time with him?
	Yes, I did.
	By the way, the difference between him and Trump, what's the difference between the two personalities?
	And maybe even Vince McMahon in that conversation.
	Because Ted is a, I mean, he's a pioneer of what he did with CNN 24/7.
	You know what?
	It's hard because with Ted and I, it was just real business.
	You know, all I can say is anything Ted Turner would say, he would do it.
	You know, is the personalities.
	I didn't get to know Ted like I did.
	So you didn't break bread with him.
	No, Because my main relationship, like you said, was with Eric Bischoff.
	Exactly.
	Because Eric Bischoff was running, and Harvey Schiller were running interference between Ted, you know, and doing whatever he was doing.
	But all I know is everything that he said he would do, he did.
	So you're complimentary of Ted.
	You have good memories of Ted.
	When you think about it, I've got nothing bad to say about Ted Turner.
	I don't know where he stands, you know, as far as his political views or personal views.
	I have no idea.
	By the way, I don't know if you've ever read his book.
	At the end of his book, I think the book is called Ted.
	The last chapter is how disappointed he is in what happened to CNN.
	He said, I created CNN to make the news the star.
	He said, now the news is no longer the star.
	The anchors are the star.
	That's not why I created CNN.
	The ending of the book is a phenomenal book to read.
	The guy was ahead of his time for what he created.
	But maybe, maybe let's do the comparison with Eric Bischoff.
	Because when you're saying he's in Connecticut, I think you were saying Connecticut, right?
	Vince McMahon.
	And you're on the road.
	You're going to all Kansas City, all these places you're going.
	So he was in front camera, like doing what he was doing.
	And then you see where Bischoff comes up and he becomes a heat.
	He becomes the executive producer, and they're going out there.
	Now they're taking people away from, you know, Vince.
	Now they're coming after all the talent.
	They come to pick you up.
	Then they got a bunch of other guys.
	Why would you leave?
	Well, you just did that.
	Why are you upset now that we're doing it?
	Well, you know, and that was a little bit of the controversy in the documentary, which I thought was fascinating.
	What was Eric's style of moving you guys and challenging you guys and selling you the vision or creativity?
	Where did he have the edge over Vince at the beginning?
	Not at the end.
	We know what happened at the beginning.
	Well, I think Eric was real aware of things had to be fresh and more organic, you know, and he wanted everything to be live, you know, not live to tape.
	He wanted it to be live, live.
	And, you know, when I came in, it was like a small Southern Belt type wrestling company, you know?
	And all of a sudden, as soon as I came in, we started ramping up, all these other wrestlers like Macha Man, I even brought, you know, like me and Gene with me, the announcer, and Bobby Heenan and several people.
	Kind of like, and it's, God, it's horrible to say.
	I mean, it sounds so egotistical, but the character, not me, but the character where the Hulk Hogan character went, the wrestlers kind of knew that there would be more revenue generated because like when I was in New York working for Vince, sometimes we were running three towns a night.
	We'd say the Hulk Hogan town against Machaman may be the A town, the B town might be the Warrior, and the third town would be the tag team champions would be on top.
	But when guys would get their booking sheets, they'd look to see if they were on the Hulk Hogan card because they knew instead of making like 500 bucks in the first match, they'd probably make three grand.
	So they kind of knew that we were going to draw money and that the arenas would be sold out.
	And that even sounds egotistical, but it's true.
	And so I think when I went down to Ted Turner and all of a sudden the numbers started to spike, I think Eric Bischoff had an open checkbook.
	Ted's checkbook, right?
	He's got a lot of stuff.
	Exactly.
	He could offer these guys better deals and they can make more money with part of the problem was at the time was the schedule we'd be on the road 300 days a year.
	You know, you have to work hurt.
	But Eric gave these guys an opportunity to work a lot less and make more money.
	So it made sense to make more money and be able to be home with your family.
	Is that what you were selling to the guy saying, look, this guy working, I mean, from 300 days, what did they work in?
	200, 150?
	Was it a dramatic?
	Oh, 50% less.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Well, it was.
	It was, I'm not saying 50, but it was around 50.
	Because I didn't work as many days as the other guys.
	And he's still making the same kind of money while he's doing that.
	You don't have to do.
	Making more money.
	Making more money doing 150 instead of 300.
	And one of the things that I thought it was very dirty, but I thought it was very creative where they're like, okay, you don't need to watch a show because we're live Disney recorded.
	Here's who won.
	This person tapped out.
	This person.
	What a dirty, creative play to say it in advance where the other guys are not live.
	So you're having people giving you an update on what's going to come.
	Why am I going to watch it?
	I'm going to stick around and watch you, Bischoff.
	That was very creative.
	There's no substitute for victory.
	Yeah, I mean, and he even talks about his podcast today is called the 83 Weeks.
	I believe he calls the podcast 83 Weeks, what he's got going on.
	So do you think later on when Vince buys Bischoff and the entire WCW?
	I think it's WCW, right?
	He buys them for $2.5 million.
	And then he buys the catalog, Rob, if I'm not mistaken, for $1.7 million.
	So you buy the catalog and you buy the entire thing for $4.2 million.
	But do you think without Bischoff, if there is no Eric, you know, Vince is not forced to recreate himself to become who he becomes next?
	Like he almost needed an Eric as an enemy?
	Well, competition is always great, especially in the wrestling business.
	And at the time, there was a situation where Eric Bischoff was trying to negotiate a deal to buy WCW.
	He had an investor named Brian Badal who started some type of sports network or something.
	I'm sure he can find it.
	And so it was around 50, 55 million bucks or whatever it was.
	But then all of a sudden, that time came where Ted Turner emerged with American Online.
	And basically, you know, they didn't want wrestling as part of their portfolio because on TBS and TNT, we had the two highest rated shows on Turner's network.
	But they wanted movies of the week, new programming, and Turner Classics.
	So at the end of the day, when American Online merged, Ted Turner kind of like disappeared and ended up kind of like at the back of the hallway, if I could say it that way.
	And American Online kind of took over.
	And instead of Eric coming in and buying it at the time, the only thing that was left was there were no TV rights.
	So the only thing that was left was basically the logo in the library.
	At that time, I didn't think of the library.
	So my thing was I called Vince, you know, even though I was his competitor at the time and trying to put him out of business for 10 years.
	I wouldn't even say try to put him out of business, but try to be a bigger company than him at the time.
	I called Vince.
	I said, hey, Vince, WCW is for sale, you know, and Eric's not buying it.
	You can probably just buy it for pennies on the dollar, maybe three or four million bucks.
	I didn't even think about the library.
	So that was his idea to buy the library.
	What did he do with the library, though?
	Oh, he's got a 24-hour network, the WW networks.
	And by the way, Ted Turner got screwed in that American Online Time Warner, whatever that was.
	If you ever read the book and read the story, that deal didn't go his way.
	He could have made an additional seven, eight, nine billion dollars, but it ended up not.
	Again, the deal, he lost air control.
	And he was a founder.
	He was good with the ideas.
	He was a driver.
	People trusted him.
	He kept his ward.
	And then once that was gone, the swagger that they once had, they just didn't have anymore.
	It changed completely.
	It was a completely different company to be working for once he was out of the way.
	In that moment, did Eric realize, shit, I no longer have Ted backing me up.
	I got to go knock on the door with Vince.
	And were you part of that conversation?
	Like, did Eric come up to you and say, hey, I'm thinking about going to Vince or maybe can you put me in contact with Vince?
	Or was it organic the way it happened?
	That transition is a little bury for me right now because after that happened, I think I just, my body pretty much shut down on me.
	And I ended up having like 25 surgeries in the last 10 years.
	Like I said, I didn't know that stuff was fake.
	No one told me.
	And I went ahead and started helping with a show out of Universal Studios called Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.
	And this lady named Dixie Carter owned it.
	And Eric came in to help produce the show.
	And I was there like for four years.
	And they wanted to renew me again.
	And I just had enough.
	I just had enough.
	I was ready to go home and relax.
	Was it just boring?
	No, it wasn't that.
	It was just a grind, you know.
	And, you know, Dixie wanted to compete with Vince.
	And I said, well, then we go to go Monday nights on the road.
	We go to go live.
	And we went out.
	And to compete with Vince, you know, $50, $60 million, $70 million, if you're going to do it, you need an influx of money consistently to compete with that monster up there.
	And, you know, it got real exciting for a while.
	But then when that influx of money just didn't come pouring in for whatever reason, you know, it didn't make sense to move on.
	So after like four years, when it was time for me to renegotiate, there was a couple year deal offered and I just was done, you know, and so it was like two days later, I was sitting in the Park and Meridian in New York in the hotel there and I was getting ready to do something.
	I can't remember if it was a business deal or an appearance or something.
	I get a phone call and it was Triple H, the son-in-law.
	He goes, hey, Terry, we heard you heard you didn't resign, you know?
	And, you know, Vince wants to talk to you.
	I said, yeah, man, put him on the phone or whatever or call me.
	I can't remember exactly how it happened, but he goes, I'd like to come back and you to come back up here, you know, and wrestle the rock, you know?
	I said, yeah, that could, that might work.
	And so we cut a deal and I went back.
	And were you happy to be back?
	Did you feel like you're back home or no?
	Was it kind of like, you know, you're a player, you're playing for one team and you have a run.
	You win a couple of World Series or Super Bowls or championships, whatever you want to call it.
	Then you get traded and you kind of go and you're at a team.
	You're like, yeah, whatever.
	I'll kind of show up and play the 82 games, the 162 baseball, whatever it is.
	But man, I'm a real Yankee.
	Yeah, I'm a true Laker.
	Did you feel like you're coming home back to the Yankees?
	Yeah, I did.
	I felt like I was coming home.
	And, you know, the whole idea was for me to come in as the bad guy, you know, to wrestle the rock.
	And of course, I wanted Kevin and Scott, my partners, to come with me from the NWO.
	And when we were going in there, we talked and said, hey, guys, these guys in the dress room, we've been going against them for 10 years.
	So we might not get a warm welcome when we walk in there.
	So you better be ready.
	But we had Big Kev to hide behind, you know.
	So we came in and the guys were pretty cool in the dress room.
	You know, they knew it was business, but it just felt a little strange, you know.
	And then once I went out in the ring, you know, and got in the middle of the ring with a rock in Chicago, I listened to the people.
	I said, oh, yeah, they're with me.
	They still love me.
	Yeah, and I was the bad guy.
	You're right.
	You know, so I did everything I could to be an evil guy.
	I hit the rock in the head with a hammer.
	I put him in an ambulance.
	I put chains around the ambulance.
	I ran over the ambulance with a semi twice.
	Did everything I could to get him hating on me.
	And so WrestleMania 18, I go out to Wrestle the Rock and they just cheer me out of the place.
	You know, because they're just loyal to a fault, the wrestling fans.
	Yeah, that's got to be.
	And by the way, was it something where is there also a love affair with different fans?
	Or to you, it's, no, it's just my fans, no matter where I go.
	You know, it's a different kind of a love you get from your kid and a different kind of a love you get from your wife, you know, somebody you love, mom, sibling, friend versus the fan love is different.
	Would you say there's a different affinity with the fans?
	When they do something, they're like, man, you guys still care about me.
	You guys still pay attention.
	I'm still selling out.
	I still matter.
	Is there that kind of a feeling?
	Yeah, it's real.
	It's transparent with the fans because, you know, not only do they watch Hulk Hogan, the character, and they've seen the sacrifices.
	I mean, I got this wrestling business in my blood.
	You know, it's, I had a chance to do the movie thing and stuff like that.
	And after about 22 movies or whatever, I tapped out and I came back to wrestling.
	And, you know, I had a chance to get launched with Bob Evans at Paramount and do the John Wayne thing.
	I'm going back to wrestling.
	But it's just so weird because when you think about the fans, it's more than just fans and a character.
	They know me as a person now, and they've seen me make mistakes career-wise.
	They see me make mistakes personally.
	They see me crash and burn career-wise.
	They see me crash and burn personally.
	I've got so many scars on me from being a real person.
	I'm more like them now.
	And they can relate to me.
	Oh, my gosh, Hulk Hogan.
	Terry does make mistakes in business and in his personal life.
	You know what?
	It makes you just more tangible to him.
	Like you feel like you're more with the people when they see what you've gone through and you still stand up.
	You still keep moving forward, you know?
	Right.
	You know, the president and I were talking last week, and I said there's three phases every father and son goes through.
	You idolize them, you demonize them, you humanize them, right?
	And sometimes that happens with your voters for you with your fans.
	Everybody idolizes the Hulk.
	Then they demonize him.
	You know what?
	I can't stand him because oh man, I love this guy.
	Humanize him.
	He's human like me, right?
	It's like that one famous song that I think Geico uses.
	What's the song?
	I'm Only Human, right?
	Who doesn't want to make mistakes?
	You know, you know what something is, right?
	So going back to it with wrestling, you're saying you came back to your love wrestling.
	Was it you came back to your love wrestling or you came back to your partner and the guy you like working with the most, Vince?
	Which of the two would you say was more of?
	Well, it was both.
	Now, I really love working with Eric.
	You know, he was, he was, I mean, he was wide open for suggestions, you know, and he kind of let me run amok, which was cool.
	Vince would kind of like keep a little harness on me, you know, when I come up with some crazy ideas.
	Eric was more open.
	And in saying that, as much as I loved working with Eric, it was really fun to actually come back home and get in that big machine and that banner of protection that Vince and the whole WWE has for you.
	And they make sure things are done right.
	Yeah.
	And, you know, when you go to do an appearance or when you go to the ring or when you're involved with them, I mean, it is, they don't miss a beat, you know, and there's no holes in their boat.
	That's why I like going back there.
	Was there a like, you know, there's a difference when you're working with a guy who is green, phase one, Vince, right?
	81, 82, whatever the year was when you guys spoke when he's like, hey, let's go do this together.
	My dad can't know, but let's see and I go do this, right?
	So that's a green Vince.
	Hey, I'm going to do better than my dad and XYZ.
	Then you leave, then you see a losing Vince 83 weeks, Eric Bishop, all the stuff that you guys are doing.
	What did you notice change with him where he recreated himself from the 82 guy to the 90 guy to the guy when he came back with him and the rock when the Triple H called you?
	Well, when I left Minnesota and I went back to Wrestle the Iron Sheik, Vince didn't play music on the way to the ring.
	I did, you know, with all my guys.
	Vince didn't sell any merchandise at the time.
	I was doing that in Minnesota.
	I was actually making more money selling merchandise than the wrestling part.
	So when I came in and they saw how the music worked, oh my gosh, then all the wrestlers wanted entrance music, you know.
	And then when they saw how the merchandise was selling, oh my gosh, Vince went, oh my gosh, merchandise?
	Let me try, get in this thing.
	And he became just a monster at it.
	You know, whatever he did, he really capitalized on it.
	He really turned into something huge and great.
	So I saw him develop over the 80s and turn this into this international juggernaut.
	But then when I came back, you know, with the internet and all the different vehicles that had to sell the merchandise, it just wasn't arena sales or mail order anymore.
	They had everything in place with the social media and this and that.
	It was like coming back to, oh my gosh, they're just setting you up for greatness.
	They can take a guy that's lukewarm, melt that might look like a bad boy in a grocery store and make him a superstar with a machine.
	You know, oh my gosh, what a machine this is now.
	You know, they've got this thing down to a science.
	That was the difference when I went back.
	I said, my gosh, when I say there's no holes in their boat, there are no holes in the boat.
	But did you feel an energy about him where something was different about him?
	You're like, he no longer second-guesses himself.
	Something's different in his eyes.
	The way he talks to you.
	Like, did you sense something else?
	Like, he has better generals.
	He is, what was it about him?
	Did you feel anything about him?
	The only thing I saw with him was he was so hands-on.
	He worked even harder than before.
	It kind of caught me off guard because, you know, when I was there before, I didn't have to deal with writers.
	You know, everything I said, such as the speech of the Republican Convention, that's all me.
	I wouldn't read the teleprompter.
	That's not how I do things.
	You know, it's always been instinct and feel.
	It's an art form.
	You know, you got to listen with your ears and your heart.
	And so you know how to work a room, you know.
	And so when I went back, all of a sudden they've got 25 writers, you know, and they're signing me a writer to write my promo for me.
	I mean, you know, this guy, this kid that's 26 years old, used to work for NBC.
	He's going to tell Hulk Hogan how to be Hulk Hogan.
	I was like, really?
	You know, so I would be going out to open the show and I'd be standing at the gorilla positions, which is right before you walk out of the curtain.
	You're going to live crowd.
	And a writer would come up and hand me a stack of papers.
	They were hot.
	They just printed them.
	I looked at Vince.
	I said, really?
	Are you kidding me?
	He goes, no, I don't worry about Terry.
	I just throw the papers up and walk out and do my thing.
	But what I saw with Vince was he was working harder than before.
	Even with the 25 writers, he would grab the show at, and we're going live at 8 o'clock.
	He'd grab the show at 6 o'clock and rewrite the whole show himself.
	And then there'd be a post-production meeting.
	If you're the main event, you're in the building at like 11 or 11:30.
	He'd have a post-production meeting.
	You'd stay in the room till 2 in the morning.
	I'd run back to the hotel room.
	He'd be banging on my door.
	Let's go work out.
	Come on, monster.
	Let's go.
	I said, are you crazy?
	I ain't going out there.
	I'm going to go work out with you at 2, 3 o'clock in the morning.
	But that's what he did.
	No shit.
	Oh, yeah.
	And he was working harder than ever.
	Did he ever tell you where that fire came from?
	Was there like a, was there a chip?
	Like, I'm going to prove to you guys that I'm above and beyond everybody.
	Or was it just the love of the game?
	He loved it, man.
	He just loved the business.
	Was he fun to be around?
	Even the last, like, yeah, he was.
	And he had his family with him.
	He had this monster.
	I called it the slave ship because, oh, just fly with me to Monday Night Raw.
	He wouldn't let you off the plane.
	Come back to Connecticut.
	Go here with me.
	I used to tease him.
	I used to call it the slave ship because he had his family on there.
	He had his daughter with him.
	Shane was on the plane a lot.
	He had his son-in-law there.
	So he was like traveling.
	He had his whole family with him.
	So why go home?
	Let's just keep working.
	But yeah, his work ethic is you can't touch it.
	And the dynamics of the family, the way they made it work was, again, the documentary was very interesting to me.
	The son, what he wanted to do and who he wanted to be.
	I kind of liked the son in the documentary as well.
	And the daughter, Stephanie, with Triple H and then all the different stories with, you know, Bret Hart.
	It was just all the emotions mixed into one.
	It's got to be the best documentary of the year, Rob.
	I mean, there's a lot of great documentaries.
	That's got to be one of the best documentaries of the year.
	Now, in regards to when I had, when I talked to Rick Flair, I don't know where I talked to Rick from.
	It must have been six, seven years ago and I had him on the podcast.
	And we had a lot of different conversations.
	Rick Flair's energy to me is different than yours, right?
	Rick is bragging about, you know, the party and Wendy's sitting right there and he's telling all these stories.
	I mean, 5,000 women and I'm doing this and I'm doing that.
	Were you the party guy?
	No.
	You don't give me the party vibe.
	Yeah, that wasn't you.
	No, that's a business guy, brother.
	I got it.
	So it wasn't.
	So for you, were you the one that had the lifestyle and the nice cars and the nice jewelry and stuff like that?
	Or that wasn't.
	Well, anything I've got is pretty much given to me.
	If the t-shirt fits, I'll wear it.
	You know, I don't, I am addicted to cars.
	Yeah.
	You are addicted to cars.
	I got a problem.
	Big problem.
	Favorite car you ever bought or favorite car you own right now?
	I'm a Mopar guy, Dodge guy.
	Interesting.
	Yeah, I'm addicted.
	I got a problem.
	Really?
	So you go to DA meetings?
	I got a big problem with cars, yeah.
	Dodge Anonymous, right?
	Did you say Viper?
	What car did you say?
	I've had probably 10 Vipers.
	I just bought a couple more cars the other day.
	Oh, there's the old one.
	Yeah, I gave that one.
	I auctioned that one off at Meekum for charity.
	Yeah, there's an old 68.
	Oh, that's a 71 446 PAC CUDA.
	That's one of eight.
	That car's worth a lot of money right there.
	Oh, there's a 69 Roadrunner.
	I've got two of them.
	How many cars?
	I had two black Roadrunners in high school.
	That's why I bought this car.
	See that one?
	The red one with the black stripes?
	Go back.
	That was my date car in high school.
	Is that the actual car?
	No, but it's because it's the exact same car.
	Got it.
	Had white buckets.
	This car's gorgeous inside.
	And that was my date car when I finally got a girlfriend.
	So let me ask you: when you told a story earlier on with your father, well, it says 17 years old, he kicked you out and, you know, whatever the relation when you said you went.
	Did you guys, the relationship, when you took off, did your dad come up and say, I had no idea this is what you were up to?
	Was there that moment with you and your father that he was proud of you?
	Oh, yeah, yeah.
	It was bad because, you know, playing music and playing in a bar when you're high school, in high school is not conducive, you know, to someone that's trying to get through high school.
	So it wasn't part of his plan.
	You know, he wanted me to do better than him.
	And for me to be playing music in a bar, it really upset him, you know.
	So it didn't work out real well.
	And then, you know, I ended up going to the University of High School, I mean, University of South Florida, and I had a major in finance and management and a minor in music.
	And then finance and management.
	Yeah.
	And then when I quit the University of South Florida after about three years to go on the road with a band called the Genie Conroy Show, it was a show band with horns and did all the funky syncopated music, held the tower power stuff and all that stuff.
	That really upset him when I quit college to go play music again.
	And we just really didn't really hit it off that well.
	And then when I started to get in the wrestling business, I would come by his house during the day because he had this driveway that he poured with asphalt.
	And I would do what we call jumping squats.
	And I did so many jumping squats.
	I'd do thousands of them a day that I actually tore his driveway up with my tennis shoes.
	This black asphalt driveway.
	I just destroy the driveway.
	I'd do so many jumping squats all day when he was at work.
	And so he wasn't real happy about me getting in the wrestling business.
	You know, he was not happy at all.
	And then I started in 77.
	And then in 1984, I flew my mother and my father up to Madison Square Garden where I wrestled the Iron Sheik.
	First time they ever saw you?
	First time they saw you.
	First time they ever saw you.
	First time they ever saw me wrestle.
	And they flew up there and there's pictures.
	There they are in the dressing room that I don't want to go.
	And that night he told me how proud of me he was and I made the right decision.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	So that was that was a big night for me to have him there with my mom.
	What did it feel like when he said it to you?
	Because the vibes, it is that dad was tough, right?
	So what feeling did he give you when you're it was great for him to tell me that he was that he was really proud of me.
	That night was a great night, but probably the best day of my life was when my father was on his deathbed.
	And we hadn't really had much of a relationship then, but when he told me he was proud of me, it made me feel like a million dollars, you know.
	But then the greatest day of my life was when he was on his deathbed and he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
	And probably three minutes before he died, you know, because he was, oh, don't worry, Terry, it's all Mother Nature, which is kind of right.
	You know, but when he finally said those words to me, he goes, I just want to let you know how much I love you.
	I'm like, whoa.
	Because I hadn't heard that ever since I was in high school.
	Wow.
	Yeah.
	So that was the greatest day of my life.
	And when was that?
	What was that?
	How long ago was that?
	Oh, my gosh, my dad passed.
	You could look it up, Peter Bolea.
	I can't remember the year now.
	Probably, oh my gosh, over 20 years ago.
	December 2001.
	December 18th, 2001.
	23 years ago.
	Yeah, but that was probably the greatest day of my life because it was really, really cool.
	Were you a Christian at the time?
	Yes, I was.
	And did you ask him to accept Jesus Christ as a Savior?
	For years I had, but I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 14 years old.
	But I derailed, of course, playing music and wrestling.
	And then I came back to my faith eventually when I realized it was the only truth there was.
	So that was a huge day for me.
	So it was a miracle.
	It was great.
	Wow.
	Is your mom still around?
	Your mom's still around?
	No, she passed.
	She passed.
	After him?
	Yes.
	Yes.
	Well, sorry to hear, man, but the fact that that's the story, that is powerful.
	Yeah, it was a great day.
	Wow.
	And I don't really share this story with any, but I'm going to tell you.
	The weirdest thing was, you know how you shake hands like this?
	I was shaking.
	I had his hand like this.
	My chest was against his chest.
	His face was right here.
	And when he said, hey, I love you, Terry.
	I said, I love you too, Dad.
	And he went, about two minutes later, you know, he went.
	And when he took that breath, his face looked just like yours, tan, nice-looking face.
	As soon as he took that breath and he breathed out, his face turned instantly gray, instantly gray when I looked at him.
	And all of a sudden, I'm leaning and looking at his face and my chest on his chest.
	And I went, ah, I jumped back.
	I felt something come out of his body.
	And when it hit me, I don't know if it went in me or through me, but there's something more than just this meat suit, brother.
	You could call it energy.
	You could call it spirit.
	You could call it your soul or whatever it is.
	I felt it pushed me back.
	My chest was against his chest.
	And when he took that last breath, it was about a second later.
	It was like I put my finger in electrical socket.
	It knocked me backwards.
	And so at that moment, I realized that there's much more to this than just that meat suit you're walking around in.
	And it was a huge wake-up call for me.
	Was it a thing that it went from faith to being real?
	Like there is something there.
	Oh, yeah.
	Conviction went to.
	It changed me, bam, on the spot, instantly.
	How did that influence you on the way you lived your life after December 18th of 01 when that happened to you?
	It changed a lot of things.
	I started getting better and better and better.
	And it was a gradual change for me to get correct.
	You know, I would deal with all these humanistic problems and I would fight it and I'd push and I'd struggle and scratch and claw.
	And then I would surrender and go back to center.
	And then, you know, if I had some really crazy problem like with the IRS or with my wife or my kids, I'd try to deal with it instead of just lamenting on it and driving me crazy.
	I realized the sooner I'd surrender, let it go.
	And as soon as I'd bracket it and go back to center and all is well and he's in total control, then I was, I was fine.
	So I got better and better and better.
	But that was kind of like the moment that made me really wake up and go, you know what?
	There's a lot more here than just this, this, this, and the show and you.
	And I mean, there's so much more to this than just this short little teeny run.
	Like I would say, the short little run we have here.
	It's just a wisp compared to what, you know, the real deal is.
	Yeah, that's interesting because when you go through it at a time like this, especially with your pops and you hear, I love you, and you haven't heard that, and I'm proud of you, and I'm accepting Jesus Christ.
	I mean, that's got to be a moment you go through that changes the way you view life.
	By the way, let me ask you this question.
	There's a lot of young guys that are getting into wrestling today.
	Logan Paul, you're seeing what he's doing, right?
	He's got all this stuff.
	Acrobatic.
	I can't believe how talented the guy is when you're seeing the stuff that he's doing.
	I'm sure you can write a book on fame, right?
	How do you, you know, how do you break down fame?
	What do people not know about fame, that the good, the bad, the ugly part of fame and your relationship with it?
	It's very fleeting.
	It only lasts, it's temporary.
	It's like everything else in this life.
	It's just temporary.
	And some people strive for fame.
	And, you know, you're very disappointed sometimes when you get there because it's not what you think it is.
	You know, I kind of like moved away from fame and started using the word greatness, you know, because I want to be great at everything I do.
	You know, we just, my, my new wife, Skye, who I love to death, that's a believer.
	She sometimes with not that she didn't understand me, but sometimes, you know, like with homeless people, you know, I see homeless people, I don't give them 20 bucks.
	You know, I don't want to talk about the lady I was married to before, but sometimes if I had a watt of hundreds in my wallet, I'd take them out and just give them to them.
	You know, it's just, because I love seeing people do good, you know, and we had a situation actually yesterday where her sister and her husband were, you know, in a little weird situation.
	In the flood, we got flooded and they lost a car and they only had another car that I would call a beater.
	And they both had, you know, jobs and a kid and they couldn't get around.
	So my wife was talking to me about, you know, what should we do?
	They don't have money for a down payment.
	I said, just go buy them another car.
	Go, mom, just go buy another car.
	So Sky went out and did that yesterday.
	Her sister was so grateful.
	You know, they didn't have money for a down payment, didn't know how they were going to do the financing.
	It just relieved so much stress.
	And I've said this so many times that I think I don't even know if it's cool to say it, but if I was a billionaire right now, I could help millions of people, you know.
	And so when I see how Trump helps people, it's really amazing.
	Like, I would like to grow up and be like him, you know?
	So it's just really, it's very important to me, you know, that people understand who he is.
	By the way, did he invite you to go speak at the RNC or did you volunteer?
	I can't remember how it happened.
	I can't remember how it happened.
	My partner, Chad's up front, he could tell you.
	So much stuff has happened.
	I don't know.
	But all I know is I didn't want to split my audience, you know, because as a businessman, you stay out of politics and religion.
	And I didn't want to split my audience.
	And I just remembered how affected I was when John Kennedy Jr. got killed.
	I'm not, not Johnny Kennedy Jr., John Kennedy.
	I was in fifth grade when he got assassinated.
	And I just remember how it affected me.
	And when they tried to kill Trump, someone that I knew personally, it affected me worse.
	And, you know, I sat up off the couch and I said, that's it.
	This has to stop.
	You know, I don't want to split my audience as a businessman, but now I don't care.
	This is much more important than business.
	Wow.
	This is a spiritual revolution now.
	This guy is coming out trying to help people.
	He wants to help millions of people.
	He wants to help America have God in our country and our homes and our schools.
	And I said, I can't, I can't handle it.
	So I don't know if I told Chad or they call, I don't know how it happened.
	I really can't remember.
	But all I know is the reason I did it was because there's no place in this world for stuff like this, you know?
	And I was acting like a man.
	I was at home going, well, if China invades or this happens, they'll come to my door and I've got guns.
	And I was talking like a man, but I wasn't being one.
	You know, I didn't stand up like I should have.
	And so that Republican convention was my first time to actually stand up and be a man and not just talk like one, but actually be one.
	And so I felt so strong about it.
	That's why I did it because there's no place.
	And then they tried to shoot him again a couple weeks later.
	This has to stop.
	You know, there's no place for anything like this in our society.
	So, I mean, it was like the reason I did it.
	And I didn't care, you know, what people thought at this point.
	I just knew it was wrong.
	And this is about what's right and what's wrong.
	And I can tell the difference.
	I know that much.
	You know, it's got a lot to do with common sense, and that is wrong.
	In the 80s, when you were saying like in 84, you go on Iron Sheikh and it was a former bodyguard to the Shah.
	And, you know, they're releasing the prisoners, the 400, the 52 prisoners that they kept for 444 days.
	And the day, minutes after Reagan gets elected, they release him and Reagan gives credit to Carter.
	What comparisons do you, or maybe you didn't follow politics at that time, maybe you did.
	What comparisons do you see to today's times versus the 80s with Reagan?
	Or is it night and day?
	It's very different.
	Well, I was too young to really know what was going on back then.
	But I remember the country I grew up in.
	Okay.
	And I grew up, you know, in a very poor area, which I did not even understand at the time.
	You know, I got one bicycle and when I was a kid, it got stolen.
	I never got another one.
	So, I mean, I didn't realize, I thought that was my fault, you know, and I understood that.
	I didn't realize that, you know, they couldn't afford to buy another one at the time, you know.
	So I know that the country I grew up in, playing little league baseball and doing high school sports and messing around, you know, playing football and stuff like that, and how safe things were, you know, where we didn't lock our doors.
	And I only had to be home when the street lights were on, you know, and sometimes I'd come home a little later than that and get away with it.
	You can't do that nowadays, you know.
	I've got a beautiful stepdaughter, and when we're sitting in a restaurant and she asked if she could walk 20 feet to go to the bathroom, I say, no, not unless your mother goes with you and not stand outside the door.
	I mean, go in the bathroom first and check the stalls because I don't know what type of person is going to be in there.
	You know, it wasn't like that when I grew up.
	You know, so I think Trump is going to do his best.
	And I said it on other internets before, not the way things used to be.
	Oh, Trump wants things the way they used to be.
	No, he doesn't.
	He wants things the way they should be, the way America should be right now.
	And so that's what I'm praying for, that we can get this country back on track where we can all be safe and financially lead a good life where we don't have to grovel and choose between medicine or not feeding ourselves so that we can feed our kids.
	It shouldn't be that way.
	And not to go too far, because I don't know what I'm talking about, but when I see billions and billions of dollars going to foreign countries to protect these foreign countries and make sure their borders are secure, we need to take care of our people here, you know, that are homeless and the veterans and protect this country, you know.
	And so I'm just praying that we can get back on track.
	Have you always voted?
	No.
	No.
	First time I ever voted was for Trump.
	Seriously?
	Wait, Terry, Hawk, you've never voted.
	First time I ever voted was for Trump.
	So it's not like you're a political guy.
	You used to be a Democrat.
	You voted for whoever, and you were a Republican, you voted for Reagan.
	You've never voted.
	No.
	Why didn't you vote all those years?
	I just didn't think we were in that bad of a shape.
	I didn't think it made a difference who was in, you know, but in 2016, I saw what was going on back then, you know, and I started noticing how things changed.
	And I saw the story of the news was coming out with.
	And then later on, I'd find out what was really going on and did my research and stuff.
	And all of a sudden, you know, with the internet and stuff, you can find out a lot of the truth.
	And there's a lot of misleading stuff on there, too, but it just didn't, nothing added up for me.
	And knowing this man personally and knowing what he wanted and that whole theme, Make America Great Again, which I really think the theme should be Make America greater than it's ever been, you know.
	I just couldn't pass and sit by anymore.
	You know, I had to vote.
	I thought it made a huge difference back then.
	I still believe that now.
	Wow.
	I was watching Danica Patrick yesterday.
	You know, Danica Patrick's the driver.
	She said she also was the first time she voted for Trump.
	She's never voted before.
	And that was her position as well.
	It's interesting to see folks who were not as active.
	It was like, honestly, I didn't follow a lot of the policies.
	And then she said she went to an event.
	I don't know what event she was talking about.
	And it could have been Amphest that she talked about that inspired her to say, I want to get involved.
	For you, when he's saying first time I voted for Trump, was that 16 or 20?
	16.
	Oh, you voted 16.
	Yeah, when he won.
	Got it.
	Got it.
	And over the years, have you guys communicated?
	Have you guys been into it?
	We've been back and forth.
	We've communicated back and forth.
	And, you know, I used to be the celebrity judge for Us magazine when the celebrities would have fights like Jay Will be mad at Madonna.
	I'd go, okay, J-Wo won because of this and Madonna lost because of that.
	And then I'd always tag it with a funny, you know, tongue-in-cheek little line.
	So there was one thing, I can't remember who it was.
	It was Trump and J-Lo or Trump and somebody.
	And I said, well, you know something?
	Trump, you won this because you're right.
	And I was being honest.
	He was right.
	But so-and-so, whether it's J-Lo or Madonna, I said, J-Lo has better hair.
	And I get this letter from him going, Terry, this and that and the other.
	You made fun of my hair, this, that, and the other.
	He was like, serious, you know, because, but it was, it was kind of like a joke, a tongue-in-cheek, cheek joke.
	But he took it seriously.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Got his hair.
	But yeah, but you know, he thought I was making fun of him.
	I really wasn't.
	It was just a little comedic relief there.
	Yeah, I mean, he's different.
	That's the one thing about him.
	He's very different than, you know, the other day.
	I don't know.
	Have you ever had any interaction with Mark Cuban?
	No, I haven't.
	Yeah, the other day, a letter released that Trump wrote to Mark Cuban when Mark Cuban's show failed.
	I don't know if you've seen this letter or not.
	Have you seen what he says?
	This is Trump's letter.
	He writes him on October 18th, on my birthday, 04.
	Dear Mark Cuban, Mr. Cuban, I am truly sorry to hear that your show has been canceled for lack of ratings.
	When I initially called you to congratulate you on the benefactor, little did you or I realize how disastrous and embarrassing it would turn out to be for you.
	If you ever decide to do another show, please call me and I'll be happy to lend a helping hand.
	Best wishes, Donald.
	And you got to realize, who writes letters like this?
	That's crazy.
	Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
	At least you know how he feels.
	Have you had any interactions with Elon?
	Have you and Elon ever met or spoken or now?
	No, we haven't.
	Got it.
	No, we haven't.
	At this phase of your life right now, are you planning on doing anything else with wrestling?
	Are you still involved?
	Are you actively involved?
	And if yes, in what capacity are you?
	Well, I, gosh, I guess last year, year and a half ago, I signed a five-year deal with the WWE.
	And it's not a legends deal.
	There's a lot more to it than that.
	But we've got a ton of projects, documentary stuff, and movie stuff.
	It's a movie for you guys.
	Weren't you supposed, wait, I thought I saw a movie that was supposed to come out with Chris Helmsworth Right, right.
	starring you.
	And the director was the director of a recent movie that just came out, Joker I want to see or Top Gun, right?
	That guy.
	What happened with it?
	There was a Netflix deal or something that happened with it?
	Yeah, they kind of like missed a beat in the contract, you know?
	So Netflix screwed up.
	Oh, yeah.
	There was a payment that wasn't placed at the right time.
	The script was amazing.
	Actually, Scott Silver, who wrote the script, The Joke, did the Joker stuff, Wolf Wall Street, a bunch of other movies.
	He said, this is the best thing I've ever written.
	And when I read it, I went, oh, my God, this is really good.
	And at the time, I was in a space where I told him the positive stuff about wrestling and the negative stuff about wrestling, spent about three years with this writer going back and forth.
	And when I read it, it was just very, very dark, if that would be the right word, but it was really probably what the public may want to see, you know?
	And I just, when I read it, I went, oh my gosh, if this thing comes out, you know, there was talk that, you know, Chris Hemsworth had never played a real person before and he could probably win an Oscar.
	This thing's so powerful, very powerful.
	And I said, oh, that's great.
	Everybody's going to do really great, but then I'm going to be left here.
	Cheese stands alone.
	And that might be the last thing people remember me for.
	So I just was moving forward at the time.
	And when they, business-wise, missed a date, there was an option for me to pull out, and I did.
	Oh, so you didn't want it to happen?
	I pulled out, yeah.
	Oh, so so if you do do it, you won't do it with that same script because it's too dark.
	Well, no, I would do it with the same script, but then there's also a documentary to a check and balance system.
	There's also a four-hour block of TV, like the OJ stuff, to tell the real story, a check and balance system.
	This had no check and balance system.
	What it did do was it took me right up to the time I turned bad guy.
	And if this, until I turned to Hollywood Hogan and went to the WCW.
	So if this movie did blow through the roof like they expected it would, then there would be another one, which would be really cool.
	Did you watch Trump's new movie that came out, The Apprentice?
	Have you seen it?
	No, I haven't seen it.
	Okay.
	Yeah, it was by this director.
	It was a $17 million budget.
	It did $1.6 million opening weekend.
	It was supposed to be a hit piece, but it was a big flop that they had.
	At this point, when the story is, especially for you, when they want to make a movie, how do you manage it?
	If they want to tell a part of the story that you don't want to be told, you can't manage anything with that, right?
	Unless if you're producing it.
	Because I know Ben Affleck and I think Matt Damon, they're trying to do something as well.
	I don't know if it's a movie or a documentary that Ben is supposed to play you.
	Is that that you're not involved in that at all?
	No, not all.
	I got it.
	No, they would probably fall under the same demise that Gawker did if they did that.
	I don't know where they're at with it, but wish them the best of luck.
	It's just an old story anyway, but who knows?
	I'm not really sure other than, you know, reasonable creative input is not the same as creative control.
	Reasonable input is not the same as the.
	Creative input is not the same as creative control.
	Which would you prefer?
	Creative control.
	Control control.
	Got it.
	Who's going to give that up, though, right?
	Depends on how bad they want the movie.
	And I would be very fair, but there has to be a balance.
	It can't be just lopsided.
	Evil, evil, evil, evil wrestling.
	By the way, do you have control?
	Like, if somebody wanted to write it and produce it without your permission, can they do that or no?
	They can do it, but they, you know, any type of life story rights and stuff, you know, they could be in a really bad position legally if they don't have me involved.
	So, I mean, there's so many hills and valleys when you do something without someone's permission.
	Is there any documentaries on you or any movies yet on you?
	I think Andy did a documentary on me.
	Hell no.
	There's been so much stuff.
	I've done so much stuff on TV, you know, and done so many of these things.
	I really get confused.
	Is he pulling it up?
	The Trials of Free Press?
	What is that?
	I don't think this is about Hulk per se.
	I think it's more about the Gawker lawsuit.
	No, what I'm asking about, I'm asking about like an actual, like, you know, like the Vince McMahon documentary or The Last Dance with Michael Jordan or The Captain with Derek Jeter.
	Has something like that been done on you or not yet?
	No, I have to start actually this month, November, sitting down with writers for a documentary that they're doing like they did with Vince.
	I think that would blow up.
	We're going to find out.
	Oh, well, listen.
	I mean, I don't know if you're seeing how this thing is performing.
	You know, normally I'll know if a doc or a show or something is doing well is when you know how when you got 20, 30, 40 people tell you, go watch this, go read this, go see this.
	And then when influencers are texting you, you have to watch.
	It's like, okay, there's something going on with this.
	This documentary that they did on Vince was very unique.
	I thought it was phenomenal.
	It gave you the perspective of realizing nobody walks on water, the POV and the vision of a visionary, how they look at the world in a different way, getting all of you guys in there to tell your own stories.
	I had a great experience.
	I had this.
	I had that.
	Even the scene with Bret Hart saying, when the cops call me that I trusted him and they said, Brett, I know you don't want to hear this.
	And you want to think that he was involved.
	He was not involved.
	This was not intentional.
	This was a mistake.
	Like these are all moments that go.
	The part where Bret Hart said when Owen fell and the strap didn't protect him and he died, he says, you know, Vince did this.
	He would do something like this.
	And in the documentary, a cop or one of the guys calls him and says, Brett, I know you don't want to hear this, but Vince had nothing to do with it.
	This was a pure accident.
	It was done so well.
	So if somebody does the doc on you and they do it well, you need controversy.
	If it's a boring story, you don't have controversy.
	No one's going to see it.
	And you got plenty of, you know, you can go back and like you said, the two runs.
	There's plenty of stories.
	That will make for one hell of a documentary.
	Yeah, I agree.
	Yeah.
	So I can't wait to watch it.
	By the way, tell us about this beer before we wrap up.
	Oh my gosh.
	It all started out with a crazy little idea.
	My partner and I, Chad, we're at a little convention, and I had a crazy line, you know, wanting to take pictures and get autographs.
	And when I'm on my own and I'm not being hustled, you know, I really like to spend time with people.
	Like if I'm working for another company or something like that, sometimes they like to rush people through.
	But for me, I like to sit down and shake people's hands, look at them in the eye.
	And it's kind of weird being around wrestling for 40 years and wrestling that long.
	Everybody has a Hulk Hogan story.
	And they're really good.
	And sometimes they're hard to listen to.
	But some people, you know, I was their favorite wrestler.
	Some people grew up without a father.
	Or some people were addicted to drugs.
	And so they started following the character.
	And when they saw me get baptized, it changed their life.
	So I get all these crazy stories.
	So I love to hear them.
	And as I was shaking people's hands and I, you know, want to hear what they have to say, I read their name tag.
	And one gentleman had Paps Blue Ribbon Vice President.
	I went, oh my gosh, that's the beer my dad used to drink.
	I totally forgot about it.
	You know, my dad drank that beer.
	And so the gentleman said, well, have you ever entertained doing something in the beer space?
	I'm like, you know what?
	I'm always looking for those Wild, Wild West deals.
	And now that I've been watching Bud Light and how they crashed and burned and they didn't understand their audience, their marketing plan fell apart.
	I see this crazy open lane.
	And it's for beer that's Middle America, Country Western, NASCAR, wrestling, mom, apple pie, baseball.
	It's all the above.
	And I really think I have an idea because, you know, I realize sometimes the neighbors don't talk to each other and the Democrats and Republicans don't talk.
	And I said, we're so much more alike than we are different that if we had a beer and we could just have a conversation like in the dressing room, you know, instead of going out and getting beat up in the ring all the time, sometimes I sit down with my opponent.
	I say, hey, let's have a beer and talk about it.
	You know, even if you don't like me, we go to go work together.
	And so I said, maybe we could have a beer that would bring America back together.
	So I said, I've got an idea for Hulk Hogan's Real American Beer, and we can bring America back together one beer at a time.
	And when I said that to the gentleman, his eyes lit up.
	Oh, my gosh.
	And my partner Chad and I got approached by several different people in the industry, and we finally decided to do it on our own.
	And this thing just took off like crazy all of a sudden.
	It's kind of like jumping on another lightning bolt, like a Hulk Mania lightning bolt.
	But everywhere we go, I'm just glad we're kind of like not doing it on the weekends because we're going to all over the country, like during the week, and even when kids are in school and people are working and the lines are crazy at the Walmarts and Targets and Kroger's and everything.
	I can only imagine.
	Yeah, and the beer is just doing really great.
	So that's where the idea came from.
	And so now we're out to prove a point and we're going to try to make it America's number one beer.
	And so this can be found where folks can order this or do where can they find it?
	Well, we're in 16 or 17 different states now and we're going to cover all 50 states, but it's usually the big, the big stores.
	So you're all over Florida there.
	I mean, not including the map nationwide.
	So you guys are everywhere now.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I mean, you know, we're actually going to Michigan again tomorrow.
	And, you know, we've been everywhere from Ohio to Missouri.
	We're all over the place.
	So we're doing really well.
	We've only been pushing for about three and a half, four months, and we're way ahead of a lot of other people been around for a long time.
	I love the logo.
	Yeah.
	I love the logo.
	That guy in the middle, zoom in a little rob to show the logo right that you can't go any closer.
	That's a sick logo right there.
	Yeah, that was a logo from, oh my gosh, one of the WrestleManias four or five.
	And Nick Con and Triple H, they granted me the rights to use that logo, you know, and because I didn't want to go ahead and redraw different people real familiar with that one.
	So they gifted it to me and it was really, really cool that they did that.
	Well, sir, I got to tell you, Hulk, I mean, I don't, you know, for me, learning the stories, the family, you know, being vulnerable with your pops, your father, my dad's 82 years old, still with me.
	Thank God.
	And oh, grateful every day, both my mom and my dad.
	So when I hear the stories, everybody's got their own unique stories.
	For you to go to where you were at and then sitting down here with you, how likable you are just spending that 90-minute conversation.
	I wish we had four hours together for us to spend more time together.
	But I appreciate you for coming out.
	And we're going to put the link below to the website, Rob, if you can, for Real American Beer.
	Oh, thank you.
	And you can go find it everywhere, whatever locations they are and support this man because you're loved.
	You're loved by millions around the world.
	Everybody and anybody I talk to, my community, friends, family, anybody.
	I don't know anybody that doesn't like you.
	There are certain people that are liked.
	There's certain people that are loved.
	You're absolutely in the loved community from financial industry, private equity guys, business guys, you know, finance guys.
	Everybody has a Hulk Hogan story.
	So I appreciate you for coming out and giving me this 90 minutes.
	It was fantastic.
	Thank you for your job, brother.
	I appreciate it.
	Thank you.
	I enjoyed it.
	Thank you, sir.
	Thank you very much.
	Thank you.
	This was great.
	You're going to think I'm crazy when I tell you this, but the last 13 and a half years, I've been working on my first fiction book to write ever, fiction book to write.
	And while I finished this book a year ago, I got the strangest phone call about one of the characters in a book where the guy wanted to meet with me and he read the book.
	And afterwards, it's like, wait a minute, am I the villain in the book?
	This is a story about a character named Asher, who is half Armenian, half Assyrian, whose father was involved in the Iranian revolution, linked to Savak working with the Shah, that they escape and he gets recruited to a secret society.
	When you go to the secret society, it's been around for a couple thousand years.
	They've developed some of the craziest leaders of all time.
	And they test you.
	There's unique tests that they have at the society where they test to see your emotional mental toughness.
	One of the tests that they have is very rigorous.
	It's purely mental.
	Of course, there's a physical one, but one is mental and emotional.
	If you're Armenian, if you're Assyrian, if you're Persian, this is a book you're going to be reading and saying, holy moly, this is the kind of stuff you talk about in here.
	Yes.
	If you're somebody that's fascinated by history, this is a book for you.
	Characters.
	There's a technology that this society, Secret Society, builds where you go into a vault.
	I won't spoil it for you.
	When you go down, they have a technology where you get to sit down and watch and have a three, four hour conversation with Tupac.
	You can set up a debate between Karl Marx and Ayn Rand.
	Karl Marx is in the book who wrote Communist Manifesto.
	Ayn Rand, who wrote Atlas Shrugged, is in the book.
	Marilyn Monroe explains the concept of seduction and sex in the book.
	When you read the book, it's about development of the next leaders in the world and how they do it and how they've been doing it for many years.
	And it's also about how to prevent the end of civilization and how this organization goes about doing it.
	So I've never written a parenting book before, but if I ever wrote a parenting book, this is the closest thing to it because it's all mindset, a lot of crazy stories.
	Again, 13 and a half years.
	Trust me, I told myself, I will not publish this book until I sell my insurance company and I'm fully disconnected from it, where it's no longer my responsibility 100%.
	When you read this, if you're a creative person, if you like fiction books, if you enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, or if you enjoy Divergent, if you like books like that, I think you're going to enjoy reading this book.
	It's the creative side.
	Business books, it's very easy.
	Here's how you do it.
	Here's how it works.
	This is very creative.
	If you haven't placed the order yet, now you can order it on Simon ⁇ Schuster, Amazon.
	I'm going to put the link up below somewhere here, maybe even in my profile.
	Go order the book and read it.
	I sincerely, I've never written a book where I can't wait to read your reviews to see what you think about this book.
	So I'm going on this wild journey and we have some plans with this book here.

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