Episode 490: Hulk Hogan's Legacy

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Now you don't have to worry about making a New Year's resolution to save money. You did it right now. Go get a quote for yourself right now at savewithconrad.com or send me an email at conrad at savewithconrad.com. Tell me what your problems are, and we'll find a solution together at savewithconrad.com. And as always, we don't have an application fee. There's no cost. There's no application fee. If we can't save you money, we won't waste your time. But what if you could make life a whole heck of a lot easier? That's what we're talking about. My buddy in Pennsylvania is saving six grand a year. Find out how much money you can save right now for free. But let me ask you this. What happens if you don't check out savewithconrad.com? Think about that and let's start saving some money together at savewithconrad.com. Any of us number 2129, Equal Housing Lender. Savewithconrad.com. Deal and rumor. Did you keep Bruce Prichard? Yeah, with a week and see you like a week. Brother, uh-huh, yeah. Oh, a week? Yeah, let's go, man. I'm ready this week. Let's go. Bruce, it's been like almost a year. Well, sometimes a week feels like a year because it's like you have the seven days. It's kind of like the 12 months with, yeah, what's 24 hours in the day, but half days in Perth is like before. But when you come back, you've already done that. Now, it's afterwards and you're all caught up in the middle. Yeah. Okay. Caught up in the middle. Right. Caught up in the middle with you. Man, I gotta tell you, it makes sense if you don't think about it. I can roll Hootie-Koo. Yeah. Hey, I, um, I gotta admit, I'm kind of surprised that you're back. Backward. I'm never left. I'm right here. Right. Um, you're there. You're there. You're there. Yeah. Buddy, I was here the whole time. I'm here. I'm here. I'm delighted you're here. I mean, I'm really excited that you're here, but like I normally do this show with John. John. No, we do it with Dave. Right. Dave Silver's our producer. Yeah. Yeah. Dave. But like, he has to move around a lot, keep moving. Moving targets are harder to hit. He does. He's not actually hard to hit. But what, where does this leave you? He's the big target because he's a big target. He is a big target. He's a big target. I ain't throwing stones. I'm a big target too. Oh, no, no, no. Listen, I'm the biggest target of them all, but I'm big targets. What are we going to? Have you talked to? What about John? Have you talked to John? Does he know what's going on? Does he know you're back? Does John know you're back? John, Christina, no, dude. I know John. You have his last match in Washington, DC on Saturday night's main event in December. And if you want front row tickets, may I recommend savewithconrad.com? Yeah. This episode, all our episodes are brought to you by savewithconrad.com, but I'm talking about your John every time I see him. Man, I love him. I didn't think you could see him. No, I can see him. You can see him. I can see him. Well, I guess I'm asking about, I thought he was your friend, but I'm not so sure. John Layfield? Oh my God. Yeah. John Layfield. Living in Washington, DC now. Yeah. But Thuzla and Maryland or something like that. Yeah. I think that's what he has to say. They're there. They've been living in, he's Washington, DC. That's where he lives. He lives there. But he's been living on this channel for like 11 months. So if I can change the channel. Well, Lord bless JBL wherever he is. I'm trying to find him on here. You know, I've seen him. He does the thing with Briscoe. He does. Yeah. He does. He has stories with Briscoe and Bradshaw available anywhere you enjoy podcasts. One of the all time great storytellers and Mr. Briscoe and Lord, Mr. JBL just tries to keep up as best he can. And one of the all time high-end, the Jay Moore episode. Do we not? I mean, I highly recommend it as well, but absolutely one of the worst podcasts you'll ever listen to in your life. You need to listen to it because it is absolutely beyond entertaining in like the most perverse and obscene way in which you can actually watch a podcast because you kind of have to watch it like. Huh. Did he just? Yep, he did. Okay. Wow. Did he just say what? Yeah, it's great. And like, yeah, the J Mar man go right to it. Go to about the 40 minute mark. And I'm not that I know where it is or anything like that. And it's like one of the most entertaining pieces of business you will ever witness, man. Check out. Jim and Jam came along. Do you know that that's over a million views now? You know, we started that, what, a couple of weeks ago to get people to download this and to go to YouTube. Wait, a couple weeks ago. Yeah. And we told good YouTube. We want to get it up to a million and it hit a million. Well, happy. I mean, I think he's got to be. He's got to be walking around the halls of every major building in town. He's gonna walk anywhere anymore. He kind of he he actually he don't even sound like doot, doot, doot anymore. It's kind of like. Almost like out. My back. A free bird needs out. Free bird shoulder out. Mother free bird shoulder out. I got a free bird elbow out for free bird. So oh my God, I'm here for free bird. So help me. Help me. We're Jim and Jam. I'm. Because boom, boom, Terry Gordon is gone. Boom, boom, Terry Gordon. My God, it was Michael B.S. Haines. Yep. Jerry, Jerry, boom, boom, Gordon. Jerry and Billy and Billy John Rogers. Okay. Fantastic. Firebirds. Yep. Fantastic. Firebirds. That name right. All right. I keep up this shit. Things move faster out here. Well, I'm sure in the coming weeks we'll have a new fantastic Firebird shirt available for sale here at something to wrestle. And Bruce, what do you think about that new shirt? I can't believe this is real, but we've already rolled it out. I guess we should announce right now because I know you've gotten your versions. It's just me, Bruce, sponsored. And it feels just like it's just me. It's just me, Bruce. I love it. Dude, how great is that? You know, what you want? What you want to do? Who's that's all good? Honorary. Who's I was used before. Who's was cool? Yeah. And Bruce does come before the use. I mean, be ours really there. Well, listen, boys and girls, we're excited to announce that Bruce Pritchard is back at something to wrestle and I for one am here for it. I know it's been a long six days since we hung out and I'm looking forward to. You were telling us before we click record, you're not going away. You're here for the long haul. This is a weekly podcast again. Bruce is back every week. Well, he never left, but never left. Yes. I never left. And I'm here. I'm here just weekly, just like always. I love it. No interruptions. And just you know, but like a commercial free. No, no, be commercial. Connie, we got to keep the commercials rolling in there. Yeah. I was about to throw the flag on that. Yeah. Actually, it's free commercials is what we do. We offer them to you free. There's no charge. We the list. Not at all. We offer free commercials to you listeners out there. Advertisers. There is a small search arch. There. That is true. It is a small search. All right. If you'd like to promote your product or service advertised. That's not that small, but hey, no, no, it's very reasonable. But for you listeners, not only do you get a free weekly show, but as an added bonus, you're going to get a little brother love action with free commercials at no additional charge. Absolutely. Did you see recently that the other brother love was sentenced to four years in prison. I heard that. I have. I have not done all of my due diligence research on that. Four years. Four years. And 80. Bottle's a baby. Oil. Ago. Yeah. Can you believe that that's real like the other brother love who tried to steal your. Wait. Wait. That's right. It's not succeed. Yes. He backed off pretty quick. But with four years in prison, he may actually get a little bit of brotherly love. Brotherly love. Yes. Well, thoughts and prayers, if that's even appropriate here. But hey, listen, a lot has changed in the six days since you and I have recorded. And I thought that we should just start with perhaps the biggest story of the year. Only something that you and I dreaded and didn't expect that we would ever have to see. And it was actually the most recent time I saw you. We lost Hulk Hogan. So I thought rather than let's just focus on the sad times, let's talk about fun, happier times. When did you first remember hearing about Hulk Hogan? Because he was around before Hulkamania was running wild. Was it in the AWA or was it in continental? Hulk Hogan first on your radar? First time I ever saw him was, I believe Memphis. It was either Memphis or Alabama, but I want to say it was Memphis. And you know, he had this, this hair on his chest. Oh, yeah. It was shaved and it was kind of like pointy down towards the Crotchierville area. That's the French down there. Got it. There was a point going down there and it came up and then it had big old things around his titties. So he had hairy titties. I talked to these hairy titties. So he had big old hairy titties and then it came down and all stuff. So I found out later on what that was supposed to be. Do you know, are you aware? Do you know what that was supposed to be? I thought it was supposed to be like an atomic bomb cloud. So that's what he was going for. Okay. All right. He wanted to be like, you know, explode, you know, all this stuff. But, you know, because everybody knows the top bomb, you get hairy titties. Everybody knows that. That's how I got mine. 100% 100% fact fair folks, you listen to this show. You are also going to be back. So there it is. Yes, it is. So it's supposed to look like an atomic bomb. And so like with the atomic bomb, it is actually known that you will grow hairy titties. But when actually having the opportunity to say, Oh, what were you thinking with the hair and the bones? Your brother was thinking, you know, is across between him and not your man talking here, but. He was, he was, he was thinking of atomic bomb, going for atomic bomb. But he goes, I don't know, brother. He goes, I just looked down to look at big hairy pussy to me. And he left it. All right. The atomic bomb just turned into a big hairy pussy. And I'm sure when Hoaxer was making a lot of atomic bombs, but by God, this is what happened. Can we even say big hairy pussy on the show? We just did. I'm pretty excited about it. All right, y'all Saturday, it's survivor series war games from Petco Park in San Diego. And my bookie has odds on every match. Want some action on John Cena defending his intercontinental championship against dirty Dom? My bookies got you covered. Find out who is favored, the vision or the team of Cody, C and punk, the Usos and Roman Reigns. Maybe you want to lay something down on Stephanie or Nikki Bella, who are going to face off for the women's world championship. You see it, my bookie, you're not just betting winners. You're betting on entrances, turns, shock wins and getting paid when you read the story right. Sign up with the code, wrestle 50 and my bookie will back you on your first deposit. $100 gets you $50 extra. 200 bucks gets you a Benjamin. Now what you do with it is up to you. Survivor series is this weekend. Bet smart cash in only at my bookie. All right, I want to ask, you know, when you're when he's first on your radar, is that through the magazines? Because you said it was in Memphis or Alabama. How are you keeping up with those other territories back then? Yeah, you know, through the three magazines and things of that nature, you see who's who's where, what, what, who's doing what and what have you. And guy was impressed and looking so it looked good. Um, and I want to say it was Sterling Golden. Yeah, first time that, uh, that I saw him and then he went to New York and became, uh, the Incredible Hulk and then the Incredible Hulk. So would you have ever predicted like, I know that you were a super fan even as a young person, but I know that your heroes were the funks, you know, Dory and Terry were the guys. And so when you saw Terry Balea jacked with the long blonde hair and the crazy chest hair, it's, I mean, clearly no one would have predicted they were going to be the biggest star in the business, but did he look like someone who could have been successful to you as a young fan? Did you think, Oh, this guy's going to be somebody? Yeah, because he made you stop and look. Yeah. So, you know, it's, you have the airport test in which you have somebody walk through an airport and they may not know who the hell they are, but people stop and look and stare and look and first and next and go, who's that? So you have the airport test. And then you also have, you know, the magazine test, picture test. If you're going to stop and look at the magazine, go, who the hell is this? Oh my God, look at this son of a bitch. And you look at it and go, all right, that guy's going to be a star. Made me look. He made me look. He made me look and he made me find out who he was. So, you know, and then from there it was due to him working in New York with Vince McMahon Sr., the size and just, you know, it was Freddie Blasey. He looked like a million bucks. It was New York. And here's this Greek guy. They immediately program him with Andre the Giant. And Andre versus Hulk Hogan was an attraction all over the country. You know, Watts brought it into the Superdome and had it on his car. You know, they did it out in LA. They did it, Sam. All over the place in Florida, Shea Stadium. That was an attraction. So Hulk, thanks to Andre, became known all over the country and in worldwide, really, Japan. That photo right there in Alabama. Can you believe it? That's crazy. The Alabama belt that you see Hogan wearing there against Andre. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Freedom, my blammer. Yeah. You know who I do? You know who my new favorite personality, sports personality is? Pat McAfee. No. Is that Nick Saban? Really? Yes. You came around on Nick Saban. Nick Saban is an entertaining, crotchety, straight. Oh my God, he's entertaining, man. He is. Now, you said McAfee first. I love Pat McAfee and of course, he is great just in general. But I think Pat McAfee has found the way to pull out that personality from Nick Saban. Yes. But Nick has gotten relaxed, man. And holy cow, he is entertaining as hell. I will watch for the duo of Pat McAfee and Nick Saban. His Nick is, yeah, Nick is, he's got credentials and if he says it by God, you better believe it. Who is the wrestling equivalent of Nick Saban, where it's somebody who you wouldn't it, you knew, you knew them, you were familiar with them, but you didn't think that they could turn it on and be entertaining because they were so serious, so fast, idiot, so particular and they could just flip a button and they kind of surprise you. You know, that's a good one because you threw in the serious part and they, and they never seen him break because I believe that when you look at people like Bobby Heenan and even Jesse, they were entertainers. They were possessed of a quick wit early on. And so you knew they would be good. And it's really, well, that's maybe mom soon is going to be your closest thing. Okay. To that, because he was just such a straight laced, you know, right down the middle guy that was highly entertaining when given the opportunity. So maybe one soon with fifth and next saving role. That's an interesting comparison. Did you see gorilla? There was a new book that just came out on gorilla monsoon. Have you had a chance to see that yet? I have not. Yeah. I'm anxious to crack it open. I've got it pre-ordered and I guess my, my device just has it downloaded to check because I know the book's out now. So check out gorilla's new book. He didn't write them in paper form where you can, you get it and it's like, it's a book. Yeah, but then I'd have to carry it with me and you got to read it. Oh, wait a minute. That's your new book. When you need it, you got it. You got to put glasses on. Just read us what's on the paper right there. Top line unfiltered. What does it say? One twenty one twenty five paid two thirty three interest only balance fifty five. That's not nearly what I was hoping for. It sounds like you're reading my notes over here. Yeah. So, well, let's see what this one says. I see that I don't, I don't, I don't use these. These are journals. What's it? Now listen, some of them are. This is a book of my greatest ideas right here. They fucking are. Oh, they're all blank. That's Bruce's last fifty one weeks on something to wrestle with. Right there. I'm I love them all. Conrad. Loggable. Got them all logged right there. You know, I know this is silly. We're bouncing all over, but I'm just excited to be talking to you again. Are you keeping handwritten notes like you used to way back in the 80s and 90s? You still doing that now? Oh, God, yes. Okay. But it's not digital. You have to write it down on paper. Yeah. If I don't write it down, it's very, very difficult for me to remember. Because when you write something down, you may you make the commitment to put pen to paper. Yes. And and then you can. All that. Well, my daughter left me a note. I'm a child. Maybe I should read it. You should read it. But I love that you still have that letterhead. Are you using that at the office too or just at home? Yeah. No, I have other letterhead there. I love you. Thanks for an amazing day. Yesterday, you're amazing. XOXOXO Mo sweet baby girl Amber Pritchard. That's my sweet baby girl. Wait, did she sign it? Sweet baby girl. Yeah. Oh, God gag me. That I love you. I'm a little sweetie. Oh, baby girl. I can't believe anybody loves you like that, Bruce. My baby girl. Of course. Roll title. That. Hey, let's get back to our topic. Hulk Hogan. Oh, OK. We are eventually going to talk about it. Back on topic, folks. I for seeing everyone's I'm going without my glasses so you don't have the glare and all that stuff and so that it matches all of my other interviews and things again. Twenty one minutes we've been going. Conrad, you got to get to the point. I'm doing my best, but I'm doing my best around Hulk Hogan's Harry Bush, Bush, Bushy, Teddy, hair, Bushy, Teddy, hair. OK. Yeah. All right, it's time to enter the room. Do first this episode. Well, then all of our episodes are brought to you by Blue Chew. Blue Chew is not just a tablet. It's a cheat code for your crotch stronger, harder, longer lasting. Like somebody gave you downstairs a pep talk in a gym membership. Blue Chew is the original brand offering chewable tablets for better sex. I tried Blue Chew and now my hog has a zip code in voting rights. Guys, we're not just talking about performance. This is about your legacy or your third leg. Let's see. Give her group chat something to talk about. Nothing makes you more of a legend than a little blue chew. Go discover your options right now at blue chew dot com. And we've got a special deal for our listeners. As always, get your first month of Blue Chew free. Just use the promo code, wrestle a check out and pay five bucks for shipping. That's it. Join Blue Chew's mission to upgrade humanity one thrust at a time. Head on over to Blue Chew dot com for details and important safety information. And a big thanks to Blue Chew for sponsoring the day's podcast. When did you first meet Hulk Hogan? Would it have been at the same? 87. Okay. When you went to work for Vince in Buffalo, New York. Yeah. Okay. Sure did. Tell us about your first meeting with the Hulkster. So I started in in 87 in April of 87. My first TV was a Worcester and then New Haven. And then the next TVs, I think were Buffalo and Niagara Falls. So the first, the very first one. We're walking around and all this shit, just kind of observing in awe, man. You can't believe your eyes because we're coming from Texas, the mid south, where the production in WWE was a hundred times what it was there. Right. We thought we thought we were ahead of the curve. So it was upstate New York. First year was Buffalo, maybe in Niagara Falls, but I know it was that trip. Upstate New York. And Vince had asked me, he says, Hey, have you, you met Hulk? Have you talked to Hulk? Have you seen how we do our customized interviews? I said, No, I haven't. He says, well, make sure you go in one of the rooms today and make sure you introduce yourself to Hulk. Just by chance, I'm backstage. I'm going into the different rooms and I'm watching them do it. And it was Gene Okerlin standing there doing interviews with Hulk and for the customized towns. And there was another one that was Billy Red Lions. Billy Red Lions was doing stuff for Canada. And he was doing that there as well. And he was doing that there as well. But I went in with Hulk and he finished to take the gene and saw me there. Because I, you know, I just snuck in and stand in the background and didn't know who the hell I was. And he came over and introduced himself. I said, I'm sorry, I didn't want to interrupt you. I was going to introduce myself, but that was it. And he just said, he goes, Hey, how are you doing, man? I'm Terry. And I was like, All right, cool. I'm Bruce. Or actually, I said, I'm Mr. Love. No. And that was it. So it was early on, man. It would have been like April, May of 1987. Had you seen WrestleMania three at that point? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Can you put in the proper context? Because I know when that event was happening, you were not yet working for the WWF. But for fans who, who weren't alive to see the pandemonium and the attention and just the way it shifted the landscape in the last days of the territories. Can you give us some context about the significance of WrestleMania three as an outsider, not someone who works for the company, but how it was viewed and received by everyone else in wrestling? Well, WrestleMania three was a milestone because it was the the first time I think that your general audience and when I say your general audience, those that weren't weekly fans tuning in to every single thing you did. These were folks that didn't necessarily watch wrestling, but they saw WrestleMania three. They saw Hulk Hogan slam seven foot giant and they saw 93,000 people in the Pontiac Silver Dome. So it was a record breaking moment. It was a historical moment and it was a larger than life moment to see that many people and to see this climactic build of the two biggest stars in the industry at that time, Hulk versus Andre. So it was huge. It was huge outside of the business because wrestling had set an indoor attendance record. And people found that absolutely amazing and it was very intriguing because they didn't get it. And then, you know, for those of us in the business, wrestling had set the indoor attendance record. So you're very proud of that. And the naysayers, if you will, that would always complain, Hulk can't wrestle, he can't do this, he can't do that. You had to take notice. You had to go, OK, the guy can't go out and have your your classic catches catch can amateur style wrestler may not know wrist lock from a wrist watch. But you know what, he could put 93 asses and seats, 93,000 asses and seats. So that's impressive. And again, I've said this before on the show, it was Hulk Hogan, who I had the discussion with one day about, hey, who's the best worker in the business? You know, a lot of people and I said to him, a lot of people would argue, you know, Flair is the best worker in the business. And a lot of people, you know, say, well, you're not the worker. No, he goes, he says, me now, you want to know who the best worker in the business is? Vince is because he makes the most money. Me, I'm second best. And I love that analogy because that was true. It was all right. Well, who really is the best worker? Best worker is the guy that can draw the most people and make the most money. And that's what the business is measured on. So any other measurement is irrelevant. What's relevant is how many people you can draw and how many people you can draw to pay money to come and see you. So that was that was Hulk Hogan. And so for inside the business, you looked at him and saw him as here's the golden goose. When we went up for the first set of tapes, I'm going back to Worcester now. Hulk made a benefit that show. I think he worked with one man gang or something or killer con. I don't remember which, but. Nelson Swegler, who was the producer at the time, told Joe Watts, nice. Oh, come on out here, you know, and listen to this, you'll never see that you've never seen anything like this before. And Hulk came out to an ear shattering roar, ear shattering pot, man. You know, we joke about the road warrior pot. Well, Hulk Hogan pop, you know, would kill that road warrior pop every day of the week. And it's just what it was. And the kids were there to see him. The parents were there to see him. He was the biggest megastar in the business. So I remember Joe looking at me and saying to Nelson, yeah, well, have you ever seen the rocking roll expressed in the Tulsa fairgrounds? And Rock and Roll Express did great. Get great ovations everywhere they went, streaking teenage girls and just the crowd. I mean, amazing. Hulk was a megastar. Hulk, you know, again, could blow that out of the water in a different way. And I'm not, I'm not discounting roadwars. I'm not discounting Rock and Roll Express. It was just different and it was a different level. There are levels to this shit. And Hulk was on a different level. I think the match you're talking about, I just looked it up was on Halloween night in Worcester. 1987 Hulk Hogan pins the one man game. No, it was in April. Yeah, yeah. No, this would have been in April or April 23rd, 1987, 9,805 fans there, believe it or not. That was a non televised. I mean, never aired. But Missy Hyatt did Missy's Manor with Randy Savage and Elizabeth. Is that the same show? Man, that's wild. Who'd Hulk work with? Because it would have been a dark match. Does it say? It doesn't say. I don't even see that he worked that night. Yeah. I believe you though. Yeah, it was it was an advertised dark match. Let's I do want to talk about Missy's Manor some other time, but we'll move on for now because we're trying to celebrate Hulk Hogan and we want to talk a little bit about him. And I'm curious more about your relationship. Like when you meet him, he's fresh off of the biggest event in wrestling history. Yeah, he's now crossed over into the mainstream. He's he's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He's got Saturday morning cartoons. He's been on the late night TV shows. He's been on Saturday Night Live. Like he's got action figures. Things are rolling as big as they possibly could be. But you said he introduced himself to you as Terry. Did you get a chance to forge any sort of a relationship with the real life? Terry, like how often were you with him in that era? Was it just every three weeks at TV or had he already bought a house in Connecticut and was spending time at the office in 97? No, Hulk was he was living and spending his time between Tampa and North Stanford where I live now. I live now roughly a mile from where he used to live. In North Stanford, so he was splitting his time between Stanford, Northeast and Tampa. But he was up to him. He'd spent most of his time in Tampa. But when, you know, when when he came up and if he would travel with us from time to time and things of that nature, we became friendly and spent time in his house and Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Just it was. Yeah, it was a friendship. You know, he would he would come over to come hang out, just get out of the house and get away from things. And he'd come to my apartment and we would sit and watch videos and do other sort of things and and just. Chill out. Get away from everything. So we became friends and I got to know. I got it was a lot more Terry in those days. Right. I think the the Hulk Hulk Hogan consumed Terry eventually. And I think that it was very difficult to separate the two. I mean, up until the day that he passed, you know, the night before I'd send him a text, a sentence, Terry. And that's how we, you know, it's funny. That's how we communicated. Sometimes sometimes addressed in this Hulkster. Sometimes I addressed him as Terry. So kind of dependent on what. Your context was. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're at a show, he's Hulk Hogan. But if you're just chatting with your buddy, he's Terry. Is that the divide? It depends on what we're doing at the at the live event sometimes. You know, if you're just if you just sitting there be asking with him and all that stuff, he's Terry. He's Terry. When you're talking about, all right, Hulkster, this is what we're going to do tonight, then then he's Hulk. I got you. Did you grow up in the 80s or 90s? Do you and your friends still talk in movie quotes like it's your own secret language? Then buddy, grab a drink and let's get ready to rewind. I'm talking about the hilarious podcast. Be kind. Let's rewind. Think of it as your weekly nostalgia fix for all things TV, movies, music and video games from the greatest decades ever. Every Friday, the boys crack open a few cold ones and dive deep into the pop culture moments that made us who we are with big laughs, bold opinions and the occasional. Does that really happen? Each week they'll hit you with segments like booze of the week. Boring ass facts. Shit stuck in my head and the very popular Norm McDonald clip of the week, because no one told the joke quite like Norm did from back to the future to the 40 year old virgin from Tommy boy to South Park in the Simpsons. Be kind. Let's rewind is your time machine to simpler days. Be sure to subscribe to their YouTube page at be kind. Let's rewind and you can engage with their show on Instagram, X and discord. I'm telling you, if you love 80s and 90s nostalgia, this is the show for you. Check it out. Be kind. Let's rewind. By the way, this ad was paid for by JBL. You said that he eventually that the Hulk Hogan character consumed him. You know, we're not here to do a hit piece on Hulk Hogan. We're celebrating the happy times, but I am curious. Do you remember what era that was? Would that be late 80s? Is that early 90s? Is it when he comes back in 2002? When do you think that was when Hulk Hogan was here and Terry was hard to find? I think that. I think for some people that may have always been the case. Because they only dealt with him when he was on. I see. And if he were working, man, he was Hulk. Yeah, he had to think. We joke about it. I talked about himself third person or people that do that. We joke about that. When. Hulk was working, he was Hulk. That's who you had to deal with. And that's who he had to become. And he had to put on the he had to put on the Hulk Hogan hat. If he was doing interview interview or whatever, he always was looking after that image of Hulk Hogan. And he was always looking at protecting that IP, protecting that character. So that he had that all back on and. Sometimes would hide Terry from the public. You don't always want to give it all out there. So you said that, you know, he would come over to your your apartment and you guys would watch videos and stuff. Are you saying you guys were watching like ninja movies that were straight to VHS? Are you watching other territory tapes? Are you watching the WF product? Like, what did you guys bond over socially? Like, Hey, let's throw in a tape of blank. General hospital. Come on, man. I was trying. I don't know. Michael, Michael Hayes used to take one of the soap operas. I think it was General Hospital. You're fucking around. Oh, no, I'm not. Michael Hayes. Michael's a big soap opera guy. You're lying. He loves. No, I am not lying, Conrad. I'm so excited. You just made my day. I'm going to have the best afternoon ever texting him today. It's making fun of him. Ask him which soap opera it is that he follows. He he want days of our lives. I'm in the rest list is probably it. Is it? I don't know, but it's one that he really, I mean, he can tell you everything about it and and things like that. No, we would watch. So like we would watch Old Mid-South tapes. Okay. We would. Yeah, we would watch other stuff. So it is trying to get ID trying to be creative. Conrad last night on the plane, traveling home. We watched the boiler room brawl from SummerSlam. I mean, I just got finished. I just got finished doing two and a half. Wait, no, two hours, SmackDown, and we get on the plane and we watch more wrestling. So yeah, yeah, man, it's it's a I I love what I do. And I and we would just watch he loved watching other shit. I I've been told. What's that? See who's out there? Oh, yeah, I got you. So you're maybe scouting future opponents. I mean, you you're doing that in everything you do. Right. Twenty four hours a day. So at that point, it's like when you're watching tape, you're watching it for the entertainment. And if somebody really entertains you and they're good, then all right, man. Just chocolate up for that. Write that name down and see what we can do. So yeah, you're always working. You're always looking for talent. And Hogan was always looking for opponents. Hypothetically speaking, I think that. Jim Ross has talked about spending time with Gorilla Monsoon and that those three would sometimes enjoy some quote unquote chocolate cake together. Would it be a stretch to imagine that as you and the Hulkster are watching some old tapes from territory matches that maybe there may have been some chocolate cake there as well? Wow, you're you saying that Hulk Hogan would put chocolate cake in his body? No, but he might put a left handed cigarette there. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Has that always been synonymous with wrestling creative? Do you think? I think that it. Definitely helped the creator process. You know, when people and for those of you that are wondering, God damn, chocolate cake, hell, I like chocolate cake. I should. I should have done my nose hairs before I got on because they're tickling me. Folks, I was going to come on with like the two the wax things in my nose and then pull them out. Conrad said no. No, that's not true. You did. You you you you up my young. You said, oh, do not have to heat up the wax. Yeah, let's do it live. Let's do it live. Live. So yeah, I just feel like, you know, the creative creativity, sometimes the what if you can get in that frame of mind a little faster, maybe. What if? Yeah, I do. It comes from, look, when people talk about the territories and they talk about getting in cars and right into the next town, that's where you bonded. But you're coming off of a high. You're coming off of working that night and you you don't have the same nine to five routine that most normal people had. Your routine was, you know, you didn't wake up, hopefully, until the early afternoon or whatever. So at night, you're coming off this great high of performing in the energy of the crowd and everything else. And you want to relax and maybe you want a couple of beers, maybe you want to smoke a joint, whatever that may be, to help bring you down and relax. And then coming down off of that creative high of performing. Yeah, it helps. It helps loosen you up. To start talking about other things. So yeah, we would sit. We would sit back and and we would enjoy. Uh, some nice greenery and talk about, you know, talk about life, talk about ideas, talk about what we were doing with, you know, with him. But he was always, he was always also talking about other guys. What are you doing with them? OK, hey, what about this? And then you watch, sit there and put a tape on. Oh, who's that? What do you think? And. The, you know, it's just a camaraderie of relaxation. Some guys like to get high. Some guys like to take things to make them get get higher. More excited. I couldn't do that. I wanted to come down. Hulk was kind of a guy, man. Hulk like to like to relax and chill out, have a few beers and and chill out. So that's what, you know, that's what we did. And it did help in the creative process. From the standpoint of just losing your inhibitions. Right. And not and not living in that box that you're sometimes put into. I do want to ask, were you able to go out with your friend, Hulk, at the time? Like could the real life Terry Belaya, could y'all go to dinner? Could you go to a bar or was he such a star at that time that that wasn't really possible? If y'all were going to hang, it had to be at somebody's house. No, we could. We could. And we did. But it was for the most part, and especially up here, where there was the. The restaurant up there, it got a good name of it. And it's been three names since I've come back. But they knew him in there. So we could go in and just go back to the back. Um, there's. Right, right off of Longridge here. And now it's a steakhouse that we used to go to. Relax and get away. Like if he was brother, brother. Hey, meet me and we would go there because we could go in. We'd go to the bar and we were kind of off to the site. And nobody, nobody really messed that we used to see in him. So he was not Hulk Hogan and was, oh, there's Hulk. And we would just kind of sit in the back and drink our beer and get some food and chill out. So you're spending some time with him, you know, socially. I assume you're also producing his segments because you guys forge a relationship. Does he request you or has Vince already assigned you to him? Or how does your professional relationship grow outside of just being social? You know, a lot of, a lot of the things that hope did that that was Vince. Vince was very hands on and in Hulk's character and what Hulk did. But Hulk, Hulk trusted me and. In talking to him and talking about things he did gain a trust and would tell Vince that, yeah, hey, let Bruce do it. And. Once Hulk trusts me and then Vince trusted me and I can go and do those things. So a lot of a lot of that was also the trust in Hulk that, you know, sometimes. If you're working with somebody and they, they shit the bed or you shit the bed. Sometimes somebody's going to get buried there. Hulk was usually pretty, pretty quick to stand up for me and either take the heat. And so no, no, no, that was my call. And and we had, which has had a good relationship, but he, and it wasn't just me. Hulk was like that with everybody. He would, he would step up and take the heat unless it was. Just absurd. And he, you know, I told brother brother not to fucking do that. But we started, man, almost. Yeah, I mean, almost, almost off the top. And when I say off of off the top, I would say, you know, starting November, December, when I really got into my groove and knew what I was going to be doing. So now you're working together and things are going well. And you mentioned earlier that he lived at the time or he had a home at the time, about a mile from where you are now. I know eventually he's going to move on from that place and go back to Tampa. But I'll admit, I didn't know that he ever owned a home in Connecticut until I did a show with Eric Bischoff in the wake of Terry's passing. And Eric dropped something on me I'd never heard before. And I want to ask if you remember that ever coming up. I guess the real life Hulk Hogan, Terry Balea, was really hoping at some point, Vince would have given him equity in the company. And that sort of blew me away because I never really imagined that that would have even been a conversation. I didn't remember hearing that, but hearing that you guys were watching tapes together and he would ask you, Hey, what are you doing with so and so? And he's coming up with ideas for other guys. Do you think that was maybe, obviously he wants to ensure as much success as he can. But was that part of the strategy of moving to Connecticut? Like, Hey, maybe I can position myself to be a bigger part of this thing beyond just my role on camera. Did he have aspirations like that that he shared with you? You know, it might have been initially the reason that he moved to Connecticut was because he was doing so many things up here, especially in the early stages of the expansion. He and Vince worked together every day. They trained together. They worked together and they were constantly coming up with new things to do. New York being the media epicenter, it was easier if you got Hulk Hogan right here for him to go do things in New York. So that was the original reason for Hulk moving up here and having a place up here so that he could be close to the machine. And I wouldn't wouldn't surprise me a bit. And yes, I do believe that Hulk enjoyed being on the other side and wanting to have more control and be be a part of. I don't know how serious those discussions ever got with Vince. But I do think that Vince probably saw that as well. At some point in that relationship, I know Vince always saw Hulk as his Babe Ruth. Yeah. And always wanted Hulk to be here and always wanted Hulk to be a part of the company and vice versa to be have the company be Hulk Hogan. So that was, yeah, it was a mutual. I think it was a mutual, mutual thing. Mutual thing. I don't know how much and how serious any of those discussions ever really got. It's an interesting what if because had they worked that out where Hulk became, you know, part owner of the WWF, he probably never leaves to go to WCW. The NWO was never really what it became. Like, I don't know that Ted Turner's WCW would have made it as long as it did without Hulk Hogan. Yeah, look, man, a lot of people can argue a lot of different things. And I will argue and still stand by the. Hopefully the WWE was. Man, that was a blow. Yeah. He sliced it and spin it any way you want to spin it. But that was a blow. And for him to go to WCW, initially, it wasn't successful. Initially, it was a flop. And it didn't work. And I think the reason that it didn't work was the same reason that it wasn't working in WWE when Hulk left. It was the same presentation. It was the same old, same old. The desire to turn Hulk heel and to. Have have Hulk be the center point of your promotion in a different role and create something new, a new persona. Was foreign in a lot of respects, man, because it was you had the golden goose in Hulk Hogan. You didn't want to lose that. And. WCW. With Hulk Hogan there. I don't think that he was ever accepted as a WCW guy. They always looked at Hulk as the WWE guy. And they always looked at Hulk as an outsider. My opinion. So when you, you know, everybody talks about the the NWO and the Monday night wars and 83 weeks and all that other crap, man, none of that, none of that happens without Hulk Hogan turning heel. I agree. And completely blowing up the red and yellow character that he had. Worn and and made and by God, you know, ended with that. But. You had to blow it up to bring it back in the stronger the baby face is stronger, the healer, the stronger, the healer, the stronger, the baby face. So in Hulk's turning now something new. It's like, oh my God, my guy from forever is now. Oh my God, what's he doing? So. That. Was entry. That was that was good storytelling. That was a deep character that it was a character that they that they took a rich character that they did not have the ability to build from baby face until they started building sting in that vein. So they took the character that had been built and turned it upside down and built another layer, another richness to the character of Hulk Hogan with Hollywood Hulk Hogan. And I thought it was, I thought it was brilliant. I thought it worked great and it gave it gave people, you know, another, another reason to tune in and see what Hulk Hogan is doing right now is Hollywood Hulk Hogan. Oh my God, I hate this guy, but you hated him and you loved him. All at the same time. And that was the beauty of Hulk Hogan. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew I'm going to be a heel and I'm going to be so damn cool. They're going to start loving me. Eventually they did. All right, man, I got to tell you, this is maybe our best offer of the year from Stopbox USA. 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By the way, the holidays just got a lot safer and a whole lot more affordable. Right now, for a limited time only, our listeners are getting a crazy deal, really. Not only do you get 10% off your entire order when you use the code STW10 at stopboxusa.com, but they're also hooking you up with a buy one, get one free for their Stopbox Pro. That's right. 10% off and a free Stopbox Pro when you use the code STW10 at stopboxusa.com. That's stopboxusa.com and the promo code is STW10. We know that allegedly through the years, people have suggested, oh, a John Cena heel turn. And once upon a time, I think the narrative was out there that Vince would say, we can't do that. That man feeds us. So when you see Hulk Hogan turn heel on WCW, how do you think Vince received that? Like when he turns and drops the leg and now he's a bad guy and the next time we see him, he's in black and white. Do you think Vince thought that would work or did he think it was a missed opportunity? Did he think it was a mistake? Well, he didn't like it. He didn't like it from this vantage point. He felt that it was killing everything that had been created already and that it was kind of shitting on the legacy of Hulk Hogan. And while that's true, I think that they're, what they were doing was they were creating another layer to that legacy of Hulk Hogan. And I think that layer made him last all that much longer. Um, you know, it's, it's funny because a lot of people just thought, oh, well, they could not have, they couldn't have continued with Hulk in the red and yellow baby face that he was portraying then because he was just another WWE guy. Right. It was the WWE guy. Now, to take the WWE guy and flip him on their programming to be the anti WCW guy without saying WWE and create a new NWO. Again, that's, that was the new, that was the building. That was the building blocks and the layers that for all of those guys for Hull and Ash too, that gave them new life. And, and again, I, I applaud that creative for the NWO. I thought that that was, that was great. It was, it was a way to take something old and make it new. And it was very successful. I do want to ask, you know, when, when you think back on your time with Hulk in the golden era, did you ever hypothetically pitch one of those what ifs about Hulk Hogan turning heel about Hulk turning heel? Oh God. Tell us one of those ideas back in the day. It didn't, it never got far. And it never got far at all because Vince didn't like it. Vince did not want to turn Hulk heel held Hulk in the highest of esteem and felt that the audience would turn on us as a company if we had Hulk Hogan be a bad guy. Because the, your sponsors, your partners, everybody's, everything was Hulk Hogan. You can't, the ability to pivot as it is today didn't exist then. If you wanted to have a Hulk Hogan action figure, you had that planned out nine months in advance. And that's how long it took to produce. There were, it just things moved much slower at that time. So the lead time was much more so than it is today. Today, come up with something and we can have a mockup of it and have it up on fanatics tonight and be selling it and while it's in production. Right. Right. And the production isn't nine months, it's nine weeks. So it was, it was a different world. So it's kind of hard to compare apples to apples there. And Vince wanted to keep that, that purity of that character of Hulk Hogan. So, you know, Pat and I throughout the years pitched different ways to turn Hulk heel. I know Hulk wanted to turn heel. Um, there was a pitch going into WrestleMania nine and it was debatable. Who, who would be the heel of having, um, dusty back and do, you know, we never touched baby. Me and Hulk Hogan, who we have the best. What, you're talking to 93 here? Yeah. Wow. Okay. Okay. This is, this is when this is actually kind of like right before, before Hulk left. Like this was a pitch to, you know, hey, don't, don't go away and go on your sabbatical. What if we did this? And it was kind of like the battle of, of the legends, the battle, the battle of the two mega stars, the two biggest heroes, Dusty being from, uh, WCW and obviously Hulk from WWE. And it was, it was a story of, of Dusty. We ain't never touched babies. I just want to touch you one time. So you can feel the dream. You can feel thought of him feel and we'll get a little funky like a monkey. We're going to have a little fun. But when we leave there, Hulk may not want to be running wild no more because everybody going to be living the American dream. And they're going to know that's all they is to believe it. So that was, it was a pick them in a lot of ways. But Dusty and Hulk both felt that the other, you know, that each one of them should be healed in the felt that they would be the heal in that scenario, which I loved. It's hard to imagine either guy in that era as a heal, right? Yes. But again, it's as I've said so many times before, a WWE fan who only watches WWE. Right. I don't know what the hell they're doing on WCW. Right. The folks that listen to us and watch other things and do all of that. They're great. They're very educated. They know everything else that's going on. The majority of people don't. And they sure as hell didn't then. They were either WCW fans or they were WWE fans. Dusty had been in both by that time. Hulk cannot. And Hulk, I think, I think Hulk in this particular time. Because I might have said, you know, this is a pick them. Because there's an audience member I don't know who I'm rooting for. And I didn't care. But I cared about the match. So I think Vince and Hulk both felt that that put Hulk in a precarious situation. Because he wasn't the definitive hero. Well, and there was a big ask because Dusty was still in WCW at the time, wasn't he? And he hadn't been wrestling for a while. Now he did come back and did a mixed tag with Dustin and he had a bunch of matches after that. And this was used in Dustin in this. This was the whole arm thing and all that stuff. This was to use Dustin. OK, I got you. But launches Dustin, but we attached Dusty and Hogan's involved. I mean, yeah, I'm talking, you know, huge pie in the sky. Yeah, what I thought would be a pitch that could hook Hulk into going, I knew he always wanted to work with Dusty and knew he loved Dusty and I thought, OK, I can get him to buy into this. How we get there is we get there with Dustin. Right. You know, he does the heavy lifting and yeah, it just didn't work. It just didn't do it. And I think that after WrestleMania nine and all of that, that Hulk felt that he wasn't loved here anymore and wanted to move on to other pastures. I mean, they had worked together over in Japan, but that was like before. Not a program. Right. That were just matches and long before Hogan was was Hogan. I do remember there being a discussion on Logan Paul's podcast where Hulk Hogan suggested, hey, what if he turned heel after WrestleMania six? Do you remember that after the warrior thing? Maybe you want to. What can you tell us about that? And why didn't that happen? Because he's going to have a movie coming out and nobody wanted to mess with the movie. I got you. So you needed you needed the baby. Had to have the baby face is a makes car. But Hulk, without a doubt, Hulk wanted to turn on on warrior that night at WrestleMania six, one drop title and turn on him all the same night. But I felt all right. Hey, let me turn heel and, you know, Vince didn't see it and convinced him, especially with the movie coming out with everything else happening that he needed to remain a baby face. There was also a waning. The audience had started. Pops weren't as loud and what have you going into the warrior match? But I'll tell you this coming out of the warrior match. The reaction and the just the pops were louder, longer, better than they ever were. It's insane. The movie you were referencing there is suburban commando. Of course, I know that wound up coming out in 2001. But if we go back the first foray in the movies, not Rocky, but I'm saying once he's really established this whole code and is, of course, no holds barred. And I think that's interesting because you start in April of 87. You forge this relationship with the whole. Only on paper. Yeah. And then a year later, you can have a little OG STW here for you today. I want to ask you about 88 because 88 is going to be when, when Hogan's going to take some time off to go film the movie. So we're going to establish the macho man as the world champion. He's going to leave WrestleMania for winning a tournament concept, something they never tried again at WrestleMania. And yeah, no doubt. And you're giving the rub as much as you can from Hulk Hogan to the macho man. And what follows that is one of the greatest storyline arcs in wrestling history. I mean, I think I would put the mega power story up there with Austin and McMahon as far as just all time great put us on the map. Do I have that right? Like, is it one A and one B to you or would it be something else? Oh, without a doubt, I think it was one of the greatest thought out stories. And the beauty of it was we were telling you this story for over a year. And you didn't even realize what story we were telling you at the time until they exploded. And then when we went back to show you all the beats in the story, it was like, I remember that the talent didn't even 100% know production didn't know. Nobody knew what we were doing along the way. We would tell the talent what to do. We would tell production how to shoot it. But they didn't know what they were what they were really getting when they did it. So it was it was simple as. Hulk putting Liz on Randy's shoulder, steadying her with the hand. Hulk, you know, staring too long at the title. Just little nuance things that. We said, get a close up Hulk's face. Hulk gives the look. The thing that you're watching it in the moment. You just you got to look. Yeah. But when you take it and it was I know I've talked about this before, but one of the best storytelling mechanisms that I truly love is. There was a show on Showtime and we did again. This is what we did in 1988, 89. All right. And then we're going to the affair. Yeah. And you had the first part of the show starts off from the husband standpoint. The second part of the show is from the mistress's standpoint. The exact same scenes, but from different points of view. And all the same things happened, but it was how the other one saw it. So it was exactly what we did there. It was Randy Savage saw one thing. I'm lost in your eye. I'm a great bear, brother. And Hulk was like, bro, she was so jacked up. I had to keep her steady and make sure she didn't fall off. So, you know, it all made sense. Nobody was right. Nobody was wrong. For everybody was right. Nobody was wrong. But Randy's jealousy took it to the next level. So it was. I just I thought the story was beautifully told. Beautifully done. And it was a long term story that now people started paying more attention to the nuances where. If you see a look, man, you're wondering what that look means. If you. If you see something errant, then was that supposed to happen? You know, you wonder, maybe it was, maybe it won. Maybe it was just innocent. Who knows? If we go back and tell that story and help tell that story in a better way, then. Let's go. How do you think Hulk Hogan. Got along with Randy Savage in that era. I know they had problems later, but at, you know, they had such a great run as the mega powers, I think about a year and a half. And then they few did for roughly another year. So there's like a two and a half year run here where those two are peaches and cream. I mean, they're synonymous. They're salt and pepper. And then something changed. How was their personal relationship during that two and a half years? I think it was good. It was good. You know, they traveled together. They did things together. Um, yeah, it was good. It was Randy knew his role. Randy knew that he was the successor in that situation, but also knew that he was going to hand that title back and go a different route, go back to what, you know, in, in his mind, what he was more comfortable doing. That was being a heel. So they, they got along great. And, you know, after, I think things didn't sour until after Elizabeth was off the road and, um, you know, Randy and Elizabeth weren't together all the time. And that's when things kind of went crossways. I do want to ask, you know, we've talked a little bit about this with regard to other talent, but clearly as far as star power goes, established mainstream crossover Hulk Hogan's number one and macho man's probably number two at that point, don't you think? Yes. If there was no Hogan, like if Hogan had not been in the WWF and he just decided, I'm going to play bass or whatever, would Savage have been in that spot? Or did Savage need the rub from Hogan? No disrespect to Savage. I'm just asking your opinion. Well, I think it would have gone back to how Randy was brought in the whole nine yards. Randy could have gotten there, but if there is no Hogan, then are you fighting harder for a Dusty Rose or you're fighting harder for somebody else to be that Hulk Hogan? And I don't think that you would have been fighting for Randy Savage at that point in time because Randy was having to prove himself. Come in. Randy was an outlaw. Nobody wanted to touch Randy. Vince took him in and gambled on him. Every promoter in the country would tell you, I don't want to touch Randy Savage. I'm touch those Paphos. But Randy proved himself and Randy proved what kind of a warrior he was and got in there and made it work. So, but in the beginning, I don't know that there was a trust factor there. There wasn't. There certainly wasn't a track record, you know, for Randy and Randy had worked independence and Randy had worked, started working Memphis. But other than his reputation was not great. So I don't think it would have been Randy. And you look back and you think of some of those guys, would it have even been a superstar Billy Graham tried to bring him back into it? Would it have been a putzki? Would it have been a Tito Santana? God, Jimmy Snooka could have been in there. And frankly, probably during that time, maybe they would have fought harder for Sergeant Slaughter. You know, there were a lot of people in the running and that, you know, I think of people in the WWE at the time. I think Sarge probably would have been at the forefront. Does it not? We got to get Sarge and make Sarge the guy. Because Sarge was, you know, people discount how, how hot Sergeant Slaughter was during that time. Man, he was unbelievable. Just mega baby face. You know, Snooka, good guy. And Jimmy was unbelievable. And, you know, but Snooka couldn't be relied on. Sarge could have been. Sarge absolutely could have been the guy. But the whole G.I. Joe thing that kind of blew up and that didn't work. So it's a lot of variables. But if Hulk hadn't done it, yeah, Sarge could have been a great, great guy to be the first one to start there. All right, man, I love my Ridge and you're going to love your Ridge too. And especially if you've got somebody in your life who's hard to buy for, maybe you've seen them. It's an uncle, it's a grandfather, it's a guy at work. 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I think the audience got it. They go, OK, I can see that. So the audience did it. Well, that really wasn't something that that anybody had in the cards early on, I don't think. Just involved in that storyline. I mean, obviously, Hogan and Savage are giving their input. They've earned that right. I know Vince, you and Pat. Is there anybody else that we've not acknowledged who deserves some credit as being an unsung hero in that whole storyline for the the mega powers and stuff? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was that was pretty much it at that time. You know, and that was primarily that was primarily Vincent Pat and Hogan Randy. And now, you know, I was involved because of, you know, the TV and just so I got involved in ideas about how to tell the stories once everything was decided upon and and make sure that those happen, make sure we told those stories correctly. You know, we've never tried to do it here on the show, but one of my favorite parts of that story is the silly, exaggerated handshake. Brother, you want to try to do a mega powers handshake here on the show? You got to know you got to go the other way. Yeah, you got to go the other way. Well, you got to come the other way. We're going to I'm going right. At you. No, yes. Oh, use your other hand to go the other direction. Then we're going the same way. Yeah, we're going to shake hands. No, now we meet here. Shake hands. No, look, I'm looking at I'm looking at it. I'm looking at it. Yeah, just tell them up. Yeah, I'm putting my hand to your screen. My hand is in you right now. My hand's in you right now. And you can see my I'm working here like a puppet. You some bitch. Oh, you know, you're ready. That's why you're why you want your hand like that. It looks weird. Don't use your hand like that. That looks weird. Let's move on. We may need to take a break here. Well, did you know they were going to milk that the way they did? Or are they just performers and they hear the audience and they just milk and milk and milk and that's it. Hey, look at you. Look at the two people you're talking about. Yes. That's going to happen. Are you guys cracking up in the backstage area when you're seeing this? This has to be something. Loving it, man. Loving it. And again, you know, it was things. They. Being both of those guys are such great pros. And being in the ring with either one of them. And if you just shut up and listen, they'll get you through it and it'll be great. But the beauty about both of them is as intense as Randy was. And I'm sure people come out and he had to write down everything. No, he didn't. And he was in. Take a break. Randy could also be one of the most calming people. When he's in his element in the ring, Hogan controlled everything in the ring. All right, slow down, brother. Easy, easy. We got this. All right, hang on, man. Let's ask them over here. What do you think? I'm going to kill him. Hold on, brother. You're going to go all four corners on your end. And inside you're feeling like, oh, my God, I'm dying here. I'm dying here. And it just gets bigger and bigger and then you relax and you get in the moment. And it's. You make it move it, baby. You make it move it. We just stop in our own motion picture. You know, a lot of people when they're asked to do public speaking or speaking in front of an audience or they're going to be on camera, they're going to be on the radio or whatever it may be, they'll get their head a little bit. They'll get anxious. Their heartbeat will change. They'll get dry mouth. They'll start speaking faster. They just get uncomfortable. What you just described sounds like Hulk Hogan. The real life Terry Balaia was very, very comfortable in the ring, fair to say. Oh, without a doubt. Without a doubt. He's home. Yeah. It's home. And you can always tell, man, when somebody gets into the ring, I watch people just getting into the ring. What? And how they do it and what they do when they're in it. You see you guys that will get in the ring and just kind of like lay on the mat. Get in the corner. Send the ring and just watch. You know, pull themselves up on the ropes and just air at home. Walk around. There's no apprehension. There's no nothing. They watch people to get in. They're nervous. They fucking make trip and they're sitting around and everything's rigid. Oh my God. I'm going from here to here. It's the ring. You should be as comfortable in the ring as you are in your living room. And then everything else would come easy. And walking into the ring with someone like Hulk Hogan. It's his living room. So it's up to him to make you comfortable and invite you in. And then you're going to be comfortable. It's up to him to make you comfortable and invite you in and entertain you while you're there. So it was it was a learning process, but it was a fun process. I man, I I loved working with Hogan. I mean, it was. Now one, two, three. Four, five. I mean, just just in my inner and outer office here, you know, so many pictures of of of us together. Yeah. And in the ring, backstage, all stuff. And I was I was really disappointed when when he passed and I asked for some Candid's and they had very few of Bruce and Hulk. There's a lot of brother love and Hulk, right? But just so few Bruce and Hulk. And I was like, damn, because I know of the things that we did and I know there are pictures that exist somewhere that. You know, we had fun when when when he, oh my God, that that was in Houston when I believe that may have been. The Paul Bosch retirement show to be interviewing Hulk. And very first time that I'm doing play by play in Houston, I'm doing interviews and what have you. And first time I'm working with. Hulk Hogan, which is just absolutely insane to me. And 24 years old. God, look the same, though. Yeah, the way. Okay. He made me comfortable. He made me feel at home. He calm me down because man, I was shaking like dog shit in peach seed and. Just so bad anxiety. You're talking about fear, stage fright. Just I was terrified that night. But he always calmed you down. And his years went on and everything and. He came back in the 2000s and everything and I did pretty much all of his creative at that point. And I was the liaison. I was the guy that dealt with him on a day to day basis and and we came up with the whole Mr. America stuff and all that wonderful crap. But we had fun doing it. And and then later on when he came back as Hollywood Hogan and that was actually before that. But we we had fun and first cameos when he would come back. He would always come in brother brother. When he did a signing at the place in Friendswood, Texas. I was at the movies in Friendswood and I come out of the movie and there's a big science is Hulk Hogan signing today. Oh, son of a bitch. So I just walked down as big courtyard area and I walked down as I walked down. People are in line out in the courtyard and people start seeing me and you know, ask me for autographs and pictures and shit. And I'm walking by now. I'm on the outside of the courtyard. Hulk is in deep. In the store. And the guy comes out says, hey, excuse me, because Bruce, right? And I said, yeah, he says, Hulk would love to say hello. And I was like, oh, shit. So stopped the line and went in and we sat and talked for a while and all this stuff. And then like we had a beer that night. But it was just that and we had been we had been away from each other for a while. We worked together at TNA. It was, you know, it was fun in later years when he would come in. You know, he has so many back surgeries there at the end. He shrunk. I think he shrunk a total of five inches, maybe. But every time I'd see him, I forget in Philadelphia, we're standing there. We're almost eye to eye. And I said, Terry, you shrunk. Yeah, brother and back in my neck and so I would take pictures. I like to take pictures of us together backstage and everything. And then I was I would tell him, you know, yeah, I'm watching how how much color I'm getting, not telling him you're shrinking. I'm growing. And the last the last time we were together in LA and he looked at me and goes, I know what you're doing here, brother. So just take the picture because I've got pictures in my office where I'm standing there. I'm looking out looking up at him like this. You know, it's like, oh my God, you know, and then it I'm almost almost I level with him there towards the end. And it was it was crazy. But it was, you know, he had good nature about it and and could laugh at it. But yeah, it was it was insane. I want to spend a little bit of time talking about you working with him as brother love. I'll admit as a young wrestling fan, that was my first introduction to you. I hated you as a kid. Not much has changed. Thank you. But I loved the execution as an adult of the earthquake angle. And you did a lot of angles with Hulk Hogan and a lot of told a lot of stories on the Brother Love show and you were involved in a lot of really cool things. But I think it was as the brother love character and working with Hulk Hogan that you scratched off something off almost any performers bucket list in New York City. Right. Oh my God. You know, first of all, to to to be in the ring and think about when I started brother love was 25 years old. And I got to main event Madison Square Garden with a brother love show. My guest Hulk Hogan in National Coliseum. We did my favorite story of talking about selling out. National Coliseum was had one of one attraction on top wasn't doing well at all. I think we read 30 percent the week out and being on the phone. Hulk was on the phone with this and talking about coming to Connecticut. So you get me in town next week. So yeah, go you could do NASA. And he's no no no no. I can't get in the ring and I'm not in any kind of shape. No, no, no. He was was just do something with you. Still bright. I'm sitting in the office and some speed. Brother love sitting in front of me. We knew a brother love show. It was all that I could do. So this was on a Thursday. I went home got my brother love stuff went to the studio cut promos. To air that Saturday and Sunday in the New York market and the following Saturday. The show was on Saturday night. Following Saturday. So had three shots from us didn't couldn't get home. And we sold that son of a bitch out. I sold it out. I was on top. I hope I hadn't been in the market and something like 911 months or something like that. But I sold it out. And Hulk Hogan was my guest. But we went out and did that. But the beauty of it there were times when Hulk would get bored. His time off. Say, hey, God, I want to do something, but I don't really want to work. He goes, can you just put me with brother love and we'll just, you know, go do some Gaga beat him up, bounce around the ring and all stuff. So we would go man and headline shows. The return of Hulk Hogan on the brother love show. And we would go in the ring and I would do my thing with him and boom, I would I would take the take the ass weapon. I would take the finger point. I'll throw three punches, get him blocked. Bam, boom, slam, boom, fuck you, leg drop, boom. Got a being at the chase and boom. Oh, we must pose. It was great because she could be in Chicago one night. The next night, like they may be in Oshkosh or Milwaukee or something, he would skip that. And we go to LA for the next night. So have they off in LA with him and we would just party and chill out. And then we then you do LA and then maybe go to San Francisco and then take like a day or two off and then go do Dallas and then go do Houston and then take another day or two off and then go. It was great. I loved it. And he would think of me and those kind of things like, let's go. He knew I wanted to get out of the office. And if Hulk asked for it by God, you know, this would accommodate. So that was that was a good thing. And I had a lot of fun doing that. He was in the very beginning. So I started Brother Love when Hulk was off doing no holds bar to think. That's right. And when he came back, he said he came in the studio and he says, brother. And he says, you have the kind of heat that I just want to take a shotgun to. I said, that's good. He says, that's dangerous. He says, no, seriously, man. He goes, I hated it and I have a hard time getting through to you. In that character. Andre was saying, wait, they hated the character, hated it. Blast from us, hated it. Until we got to work together. And they they they saw the heat and with Hogan. God, it was so easy. It was just so easy. That, you know, there was just you just out there dancing and it's in its fun and it's what the business should be. Because we're just we're playing around. I never know what's going to come out of his mouth. He never knew what was going to come out of mind. And we would just we would just do shit. And we knew where we wanted to end up. We had a really good idea of, OK, this is where this is going to go. And we need to end up here. I'll get you there. You have the out and let it play out. And I would I would be terrified of, you know, later years of doing that with with talent and would need to have everything written down for him. I don't think I could have done that. But you didn't have to use one out. He followed me and I followed him. Hey, real quick, got a quick question for you. Do your balls stink? I bet they do. And I bet they wouldn't if you had Mando. You see, Mando is whole body deodorant that's safe to use anywhere on your body. 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Just use the code STW at shopmando.com. That's S-H-O-P M-A-N-D-O dot com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Mando's got you covered with deodorant plus sweat control. Say goodbye to sweat stains and hello to long lasting freshness. We went to the prom at the land, if you will. You know, we saw Hulk Hogan, you know, help establish brother love. He established earthquake. He established Randy Savage as a tippy top guy. And he certainly did his best with warrior. And I think everyone agrees that that experiment wasn't exactly as a lot of people would have hoped. What did what did a Hulk Hogan think of transitioning to the warrior? You mentioned earlier that he liked the idea of turning heel. Did he have confidence that the warrior could take the torch that Hulk Hogan had been carrying for the WWF? Hulk was, look, Hulk was willing to try and help. Hulk was willing to do whatever it took to get warrior over. I don't think that he had total confidence that it was going to work because he didn't feel that warrior was fully vested and that he was in it for... He really didn't like the business and didn't care where Hulk was kind of a lifer and loved the business. So that was always the rub with warrior. Warrior was was in it for the money and just was what he was. But Hulk was like, no, man, we'll do everything we can to get this guy over. And he did, but I don't think that, you know, the experiment didn't work. Hulk kind of wanted to turn heel. Then I think a little bit of when after the Hulk had dropped the title, Hulk was nervous going out in front of a live crowd the first time. Really? Very. Because he thought that he was a failure. He thought that they would see him. He lost the title. And I dare say the pops were bitter after that. They wanted him to win so bad. Well, that's what we used to sort of launch Earthquake was the idea simply, you know, like it had worked before. Hey, we need a heel factory. Let's establish a new monster heel and make him a real viable threat to Hulk Hogan and we'll help make a guy in John Tenta. Absolutely. Big formidable opponent standing in front of you. You look at him. It was a mountain to climb. Those are hard to find. So we know that, you know, it's a it's a magnificent angle as a little kid. I know people necessarily don't love the earthquake angle now, but I got to tell you as a kid at the time, they were aiming that programming for me and it hit in a big way. And I still remember one of the all time great video packages. There was like a sad instrumental version of real American. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I