When
looking back at the birth of Hulk-A-Mania, it is easy
to assume that it started in 1984 when Hulk Hogan
dethroned the Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden.
However, Hogan had a successful run as a babyface
in the AWA leading up to that. The Immortal One sat
down with Steve Austin on The
Steve Austin Podcast and spoke about leaving the
AWA for the WWF.
"I
was doing really great in Minnesota, it was probably
the most fun time of my life, I loved the Twin Cities,"
Hogan recalled. "I was single, and I lived behind
the old Met Center where the stewardesses stayed.
When I came in, I thought I was going to be a heel.
But the Crusher had just left, and he was their Dusty
Rhodes, so I just slid into that role. I was there
for three years, doing great, making a lot of money."
"We
were at the Rosemont Horizon (Chicago) and it was
Hulk Hogan, Greg Gange, and Jim Brunzel in a six-man
tag, of course, the place was sold out, against Sheik
Adnan-El-Kassy, Sheik Patera and Sheik Blackwell,
they were all under the garb. When I got ready to
go to the ring Steve Taylor (WWF photographer) saw
me, and he says take this card and it said call Vince.
I said I'm not calling Vince (Sr.), he said I would
never work there again. He took a picture, with the
little white headband on, that became the cover photo
for the first-ever WWF Magazine. I told him I'm not
calling Vince and he said, 'no, Vince Jr.!' One thing
led to another, when I get home, I call him and he
said he was getting ready to take over for his dad
and he wanted to talk with me."
|After
Hogan made the call, he knew he had to keep the meeting
under wraps. He sent his wife to get the younger McMahon
from the airport. It was a groundbreaking deal that
led him to bid farewell to the Minnesota territory.
"I
didn't want to be seen at the airport with him, so
I sent my wife Linda to pick him up. He came to my
place, we had a few drinks and at about four or five
in the morning we shook hands. He said he wanted me
to be the face of his company, to go into other territories
and cross lines that had never been crossed.
"I
have heard a lot of guys say, 'If it wasn't for us,
there would be no guaranteed contracts,' Well, in
1983, I had a guaranteed contract," Hogan revealed.
"When I left Verne for Vince, I had a ten-year
deal for a guaranteed minimum amount of money, I had
the first guaranteed contract. What lured me back
was, I'm a mark, I love Madison Square Garden and
Vince says he is going to put the WWF title on me?
I had just figured this babyface thing out for three
years. I knew what it was like to get reactions from
the crowd. I knew if things went well, that I could
get over."
WrestleMania
has become the pinnacle event of professional wrestling.
Hogan recalled when it began and his responsibility
for it becoming the household name it is today. He
also revealed that "Dr. D" David Schultz
was originally scheduled to be in the WrestleMania
main event in the spot that eventually went to Paul
Orndorff.
"It
wasn't a big corporate thing, it was this personal
thing," Hogan explained. "It was like if
you, I and our friends talk about starting a new company.
When I first got up there it was just Vince and me,
Patterson came about a year and a half later. When
he started talking about the WrestleMania thing, I
was only up there for a year. He started talking about
leveraging things, putting up the farm, putting up
his house, he pretty much rolled the dice on this
WrestleMania thing.
"The
match, which was really crazy between me, Mr. T and
Piper and Orndorff was Dr. D (David Schultz) idea.
All the sudden we started building it up as Piper
and Dr. D vs. me and (Mr.) T. David decided to do
his own angle. At the Forum, I had T sitting ringside,
because he was a friend of mine. And out of nowhere,
Dr. D rolled out of the ring and b---h slapped him,
a shoot slap. Chief Strongbow had him arrested. Vince
was pissed, that was pretty much the bullet that did
him in."
Hogan
and McMahon have had a tumultuous relationship over
the years on and off-screen, and the two even squared
off at WrestleMania XIX. However, there was a time
when they were very close, which led to professional
wrestling getting white-hot very quickly.
"It
has always been weird, it has always been a love-hate
relationship," Hogan said. "But that didn't
start until I got to full of myself or he got to full
of himself, one or the other. I had known Vince since
'78 or '79 when he was the commentator. He would hang
out with Muraco and the Grand Wizard, he was around
the boys a bit. When I moved up there, it was business
that we needed to be together, that is when we became
close. We rode Harley's together, we worked out together.
It was basically Vince and me in the office.
"It
was instantly, it was like everything built up and
exploded," Hogan exclaimed. "For whatever
reason, the backstory with 'Rocky', selling out Shea
Stadium, when I came back, it was like they were ready
for something new. They had five-years of Backlund,
as soon as we hit Madison Square Garden, it was like
a rocket ship. We sold out everywhere we went."
