This Past Weekend with Theo Von

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00:00:30.000 Hey, guys. We've got some brand new merch to tell you about.

00:00:33.500 The tie-dye Be Good to Yourself tees are now available.

00:00:38.440 You can get those in aqua, creamsicle, and indigo.

00:00:43.820 Get that and more at theovonstore.com.

00:00:47.380 And I have some new tour dates to announce.

00:00:50.620 I will be in Lincoln, California on September 15th

00:00:55.420 at the venue at Thunder Valley

00:00:57.780 and Las Vegas, Nevada

00:01:00.240 on October 27th and 28th

00:01:03.840 at Resorts World Las Vegas.

00:01:06.700 Tickets for these shows are available starting Wednesday, July 26th

00:01:11.300 with code RATKING.

00:01:13.380 We've also got some new shows in Toronto, Ontario

00:01:16.600 on August 31st.

00:01:18.860 We've added that new show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

00:01:22.720 on September 8th at the Miller High Life Theater.

00:01:27.520 Today's guest is a native of Tampa, Florida.

00:01:32.620 He's one of the most known human beings in the entire world.

00:01:38.260 He's one of the most recognizable figures.

00:01:40.400 He headlined eight WrestleManias

00:01:44.040 and he headlined my childhood,

00:01:46.860 if I'm really honest with you.

00:01:49.680 I'm grateful to get to spend time with him today.

00:01:53.240 He's an entertainer, an athlete, a movie star.

00:01:57.200 Today's guest is Mr. Hulk Hogan.

00:02:00.580 I'm going to tune my men up.

00:02:30.360 You just eat one of your own teeth?

00:02:32.420 What?

00:02:33.660 If you did, that's the toughest thing I've ever seen anybody do.

00:02:37.820 No, but I did bite a piece of bacon

00:02:39.180 when these veneers fell off.

00:02:40.220 I almost ate it.

00:02:40.940 Yeah.

00:02:42.880 I could just see you just having one.

00:02:45.400 You want a snack?

00:02:45.820 So how was Flair?

00:02:46.480 Did he behave at all?

00:02:47.720 Dude, the guy, I'm going to just go out on a limb

00:02:49.560 and say the guy's got some issues.

00:02:51.860 You think?

00:02:52.500 Yeah.

00:02:53.520 I mean, he just,

00:02:55.300 he'd drink his own blood if you told him it had gin in it, I think.

00:02:59.000 Yeah.

00:03:00.000 You know.

00:03:00.340 Are we filming?

00:03:02.020 Huh?

00:03:02.720 Are we filming?

00:03:03.400 We don't have, we will.

00:03:04.300 I don't care.

00:03:05.020 You can film every one.

00:03:05.840 Yeah.

00:03:06.260 I don't know if we're filming yet.

00:03:07.140 Are we recording?

00:03:07.940 Okay, we're recording.

00:03:08.640 Yeah, because 30 years,

00:03:11.000 I never saw him take a drink of water.

00:03:13.060 Yeah.

00:03:13.580 Brother, breakfast, hard liquor, vitamins, hard liquor.

00:03:18.160 Yeah.

00:03:18.760 Lunch, a couple beers, hard liquor, night wine.

00:03:21.580 I love him to death.

00:03:22.920 Oh, yeah.

00:03:23.280 But I never saw him drink any water until recently.

00:03:26.840 I think he's back off the water, back on the roll again.

00:03:29.900 Yeah, he said he's back.

00:03:30.760 Yeah, he said he did 30 days sober and then walked across the street to a bar

00:03:33.960 and turned in his chip.

00:03:35.160 Yeah.

00:03:36.020 For a drink.

00:03:36.540 That's right.

00:03:37.320 The funny part is.

00:03:38.420 He can, he just can, he's, that's who he is, though.

00:03:40.340 Yeah, he's the man.

00:03:41.620 The funny part is when he was, had that really serious health issue.

00:03:46.440 Yeah.

00:03:47.720 I got a call from Wendy and it didn't look good.

00:03:49.920 So I flew up, got a plane right away, flew up to Atlanta.

00:03:53.720 And I walked in, the doctor pulled me aside.

00:03:57.520 I goes, hey, your buddy here has destroyed his body, the inside of some of his intestines

00:04:03.060 and stuff were dying and stuff because he's got a 5% chance.

00:04:06.740 I'm making it through the surgery.

00:04:09.320 So he goes in.

00:04:11.520 We wait.

00:04:12.080 Jimmy Hart was with me.

00:04:13.240 We waited.

00:04:13.740 We waited.

00:04:14.120 We waited.

00:04:14.380 He comes out.

00:04:15.620 He's still alive.

00:04:18.660 His girl's crying.

00:04:19.900 His daughter Ashley's crying.

00:04:21.440 I'm sitting there holding his hand, holding his hand.

00:04:23.880 5% chance to make it.

00:04:25.160 He opens his eyes.

00:04:26.900 He looks up at me.

00:04:27.680 He goes, Hogan, get me a six pack.

00:04:30.320 I went, what?

00:04:32.120 First thing he said to me, get me a six pack.

00:04:34.440 When he woke up.

00:04:37.280 Yeah, I'm not shocked, man.

00:04:38.880 I don't know.

00:04:39.180 I was just tripping, man.

00:04:40.080 It just kind of blew my mind.

00:04:41.880 Yeah.

00:04:42.400 Yeah, he's a good guy, bro.

00:04:43.500 He's the best there ever was.

00:04:46.380 And he says that about you.

00:04:48.840 No.

00:04:49.560 He's the best there ever was.

00:04:51.180 Is he the better wrestler?

00:04:52.360 Is he the best entertainer?

00:04:54.760 Is he the best wrestler?

00:04:56.180 He was more consistent because I quit.

00:04:59.340 I really didn't care about the business.

00:05:00.920 I came from playing in a rock and roll band.

00:05:02.580 Yeah.

00:05:02.760 And that whole attitude.

00:05:04.560 But once he got in it, he was real consistent.

00:05:07.920 And he held it down.

00:05:09.540 Like when I was doing the New York Madison Square Garden thing, he held the Southern Belt thing down,

00:05:13.580 which was actually a little harder because he was going an hour every night.

00:05:17.760 Sometimes they do what they call Broadway's where nobody wins.

00:05:20.880 He'd do like two-hour Broadway's with Harley Race.

00:05:23.660 Just those two in the ring.

00:05:25.700 Yeah, because they didn't want to switch belts.

00:05:27.300 And they didn't want to make either wrestler.

00:05:28.900 That's okay.

00:05:29.420 You're going an hour Broadway tonight.

00:05:30.660 Wow.

00:05:31.260 If somebody told me to go an hour Broadway, that's going to just beat me.

00:05:33.760 I'm out of here.

00:05:34.340 I'm going to get room service and a beer.

00:05:35.980 Yeah.

00:05:36.920 But no, I say he was the best server was simply because he was so consistent.

00:05:42.120 Now, if you're talking about who drew the most money or internationally,

00:05:46.360 who saturated all the international markets over the years,

00:05:49.000 I had more time and I had more seat time, like a good race car driver.

00:05:52.460 I had more seat time in all these foreign markets.

00:05:55.900 And Rick spent the majority of his career down south and he didn't have that swing arm

00:06:01.340 to plug into Mozambique, Zambali, Malaysia, all these places where people will know

00:06:05.940 who Hulk Hogan is, but they might not know who Tom Brady is.

00:06:09.920 But he was the man.

00:06:12.060 I love working with him.

00:06:13.180 Yeah.

00:06:13.380 Yeah, he's a scrappy.

00:06:17.060 He just will not be denied, really.

00:06:19.440 There's something about him.

00:06:20.820 And there was something about that whole NWA.

00:06:24.440 I don't know if it was AWA or NWA at that time when he was really the king of it.

00:06:29.160 But it came on, I think, on Sunday night.

00:06:31.700 It was almost like I had friends that watched wrestling, right?

00:06:34.400 They knew you.

00:06:35.120 But I knew if they really watched wrestling, if they knew about NWA.

00:06:42.300 That's when you could tell if they were that next level of fucking.

00:06:45.220 It was a lot of guys that just couldn't even read and they'd be in the stands yelling,

00:06:48.760 just signs misspelled.

00:06:50.800 Yeah, you had to be dialed in to be like that whole Crockett Southern Belt promotion.

00:06:55.620 You had to be a wrestling fan.

00:06:57.260 Oh, you had to have rabies, I feel like.

00:06:58.780 I was more accessible to the housewives than the kids that didn't know what wrestling was.

00:07:03.060 So it was a whole different thing.

00:07:04.720 But then Rick came our way.

00:07:06.080 Yeah.

00:07:06.540 And I'd been begging him to come up there for years.

00:07:08.440 He wouldn't leave.

00:07:10.120 And then once he came up, then we started rocking.

00:07:13.960 Was it scary whenever he got over to WWE?

00:07:16.720 Did you feel a little bit of like, holy shit, how is this going to go?

00:07:19.420 Because that's a lot of ego.

00:07:22.300 At that point, there's a lot of ego.

00:07:24.180 There can only be so many men on the mountaintops.

00:07:28.480 Well, it's kind of like, it's hard to explain, but I play the dumb fox a lot.

00:07:32.380 And for me, I'm always looking at who's got the big dollar sign on their chest.

00:07:37.000 Yeah.

00:07:37.700 And I don't mean to be an egomaniac, but I mean, I could actually wrestle anybody at that time

00:07:42.300 and sell out.

00:07:43.940 I mean, we sold out everywhere constantly for years.

00:07:46.640 Yeah.

00:07:47.000 It didn't matter if I wrestled Flair or Kamala or Paul Orndorff, Mr. Wonderful, or it didn't

00:07:51.840 matter.

00:07:52.280 One man gang.

00:07:52.480 Oh, you could wrestle fucking Hunter Biden, dude.

00:07:54.500 I'd come watch you beat him.

00:07:55.500 But yeah, it was, it wasn't that with me.

00:08:00.520 It was, I wanted him to get over so I would have somebody to work with and chase, you know?

00:08:07.200 So that was me.

00:08:08.140 It was about, for me, it was like the old school thing, the money and the miles, you know?

00:08:12.460 So, you know, I wasn't really that into being on the road or getting beat on every night.

00:08:18.300 Yeah.

00:08:18.920 But there was so much paper involved, bro.

00:08:20.660 I was in.

00:08:21.420 Yeah.

00:08:22.620 Yeah.

00:08:22.980 Do you think that you felt more like an athlete?

00:08:25.820 Did you feel, I mean, because you came from a music background, did you feel more like

00:08:28.320 an athlete?

00:08:28.980 Did you feel more like a, like this is just, did you almost make wrestling your music

00:08:34.640 in a way?

00:08:35.160 Does that make any sense?

00:08:36.320 Yeah.

00:08:36.340 You're hitting it on all these cylinders there.

00:08:38.880 I really wasn't an elite athlete that was great on the football field or, you know,

00:08:44.600 a great wrestler, you know, amateur wrestler, or, you know, I had a baseball background,

00:08:49.400 but I didn't, you know, play major league baseball.

00:08:51.400 I had a couple of things that happened to me that stopped all that stuff.

00:08:54.020 But I looked at myself more as just, you said, it was like an art form, an extension

00:08:58.700 of my music.

00:08:59.500 And when I, once I figured out what the business was about, because you can Google Hulk Hogan

00:09:04.400 in Japan, you can see me get down and wrestle like Bret Hart and all the guys.

00:09:07.600 Cause that's how I started, you know, back in the day here.

00:09:11.220 I think I'm here on that suit, broke my leg the first day, ran me off, put me in the

00:09:15.160 dojo for two years, learned wrestling, hook submissions, you know.

00:09:18.780 So you learned it all.

00:09:19.900 Well, I went through the motions because back then, if you got your ass beating the bar,

00:09:23.660 brother, you were out of the wrestling business, you know, back in the seventies, it was back

00:09:27.540 in the late seventies, a little bit different than the performance center now with the WWE.

00:09:31.680 Yeah.

00:09:32.080 You know, oh, I can, I can only imagine me.

00:09:33.840 You had to live the lifestyle then.

00:09:36.360 Yeah.

00:09:36.520 And you had to protect the business.

00:09:38.000 And if you wanted a job, there's a 300 pound guy where there were callifiers, you had to

00:09:42.440 take the food out of his wife and kid's mouth to get in the business.

00:09:45.520 Yeah.

00:09:46.040 It wasn't like, you know, there's 40 wrestlers here that have been training, you know, at

00:09:50.000 the performance center.

00:09:50.660 We can pick one when one gets hurt and replace, replace them.

00:09:53.620 It wasn't that way.

00:09:54.400 Right.

00:09:54.940 It was way different back then.

00:09:56.180 But yeah, it was, uh, it was, uh, something that once I figured the business out, you

00:10:02.540 know, I kind of like watched a bunch of guys growing up.

00:10:05.440 Like I watched Dusty Rose law cause I was from here, you know, and then I also watched

00:10:10.060 superstar Billy Graham a lot.

00:10:11.520 And I kind of like stole a little bit from both of them.

00:10:14.880 And then I was digging and wrestling and digging and wrestling around here.

00:10:18.560 And then I quit and I went to, you know, Northern Florida through P Cola and mobile, Alabama,

00:10:25.040 Birmingham, Alabama, wrestled and wrestled.

00:10:26.740 Then I quit.

00:10:27.940 Then I went up to Memphis for a while and I quit.

00:10:30.440 And when you were quitting, what was it making you quit kind of?

00:10:32.480 Was it just the money, bro?

00:10:33.500 I was wrestling like 12, 13 times a week.

00:10:36.180 And they were giving me a check for $125.

00:10:38.060 Oh yeah.

00:10:38.440 When you're beating the shit out of somebody at a best Western.

00:10:40.580 Yeah.

00:10:40.820 I was a gig in my head for five bucks a night.

00:10:42.800 And then in between rock and roll bands, one of the lead singers in my band got me in the

00:10:48.240 laborers union here because in between bands, we'd go put our, go to the labor, labor hall

00:10:53.080 and they pull your number.

00:10:54.560 You may get a job for four days at the mall working with a pipe fitter or three days at

00:11:01.460 a government shutdown, working with electricians.

00:11:04.420 And I got a call to go be a longshoreman, help a longshoreman.

00:11:09.120 I get in the union down there.

00:11:10.900 In where?

00:11:11.640 In Florida?

00:11:11.920 Yeah.

00:11:12.320 On 22nd street causeway in Florida.

00:11:14.040 Okay.

00:11:14.280 So once I learned how to be, it was a weird place cause I was probably the first white

00:11:19.940 guy ever in the longshoreman using here in Tampa.

00:11:22.540 Oh wow.

00:11:23.040 Then I became mostly Latinos.

00:11:24.960 Latinos and blacks.

00:11:26.560 Yeah.

00:11:26.760 And so then I learned how to load the ships and I became a stevedore.

00:11:30.120 But in between wrestling, I was like, man, 13, 14 times a week, twice on Wednesday, twice

00:11:35.360 on Saturday, three times on Sunday, I wrestled for $125.

00:11:38.640 I'm going back to the docks where I was making 400 bucks a day.

00:11:41.520 Yeah.

00:11:42.260 You know, eating the gimmicks and working 14, 15 hours, you know?

00:11:45.180 It just didn't pay.

00:11:46.140 No.

00:11:46.500 So I quit, quit.

00:11:47.420 I went back and forth, back and forth.

00:11:49.040 But then I figured the business out.

00:11:51.020 Right.

00:11:51.860 Then I went back and one time I slammed somebody.

00:11:54.700 I went, I looked at the crowd.

00:11:56.620 I went like that.

00:11:57.760 And the reaction got more response than the body slam.

00:12:02.340 Yeah.

00:12:02.900 Wait a minute.

00:12:04.360 Let me hit somebody in the throat.

00:12:06.160 Yeah.

00:12:07.200 Look, and the reaction got, you know, more.

00:12:09.400 I said, okay, now I got it.

00:12:10.500 It took me a while to figure it out.

00:12:13.240 And then when I got fired from the WWF the first time by Vince Senior, when I went to make

00:12:18.360 the Rocky movie, I went and spent three years in Minnesota.

00:12:20.940 And then I figured it out.

00:12:22.600 The whole mania thing out, the ripping the shirt, the hulking up.

00:12:25.340 But I wasn't an elite athlete, but I figured the business out.

00:12:29.040 And I got real good at, instead of getting somebody in the corner and kicking them 20 times

00:12:34.660 like the guys do, I'd kick somebody once and leave them lying.

00:12:37.880 Yeah.

00:12:38.240 And I said, don't get up.

00:12:39.420 And I'd walk around and strut like a peacock and do my thing.

00:12:42.160 And I figured out how to create emotion and drama and get people really pissed off at me

00:12:48.640 or really happy with me.

00:12:49.740 So I just kind of figured it out, man.

00:12:52.260 But I had enough of an athletic ability to have balance and, you know, basically replacement

00:12:58.300 and have a cadence in the ring, which, you know, a lot of guys can figure out.

00:13:03.660 Yeah, man.

00:13:04.240 It's just, it's really, it's kind of fascinating to see like what, because I don't, as a fan,

00:13:11.320 like, dude, I remember like we would try to stay up for a Saturday night main event, man.

00:13:16.220 And we were a kid.

00:13:17.080 It was like, fuck.

00:13:18.200 I remember my brother and I holding each other's eyes open because we were, because it wouldn't

00:13:22.900 come on until 1030, right?

00:13:24.300 And like, we were fucking sitting there and we would wake up in the morning.

00:13:28.140 We'd be like, what did you see?

00:13:29.140 We missed it.

00:13:30.460 We were like, when you would come on, it was like, man, it didn't matter how poor we were.

00:13:35.900 It didn't matter if my parents were too busy.

00:13:38.540 It didn't matter if I wasn't a tough kid.

00:13:41.280 It was like, yeah, I fell in love with you.

00:13:44.800 It was like, I didn't care about the wrestling, you know, like I did.

00:13:47.760 The wrestling was cool, but I cared about whoever that, like whoever they made me, whatever

00:13:52.100 they made me feel, you know?

00:13:53.980 And when you, it was like, it made me feel like, man, this is an escape.

00:13:57.800 Like, and I fell more in love with the, yeah, the person, not the moves.

00:14:02.240 Like it didn't matter who was the most athletic, you know, snooker was fun to watch because

00:14:06.100 he had, you know, this hair coming off him and, you know, and these, you know, domestic

00:14:10.700 charges or whatever, just dangling off of him.

00:14:13.180 But he was like, but otherwise it was like, yeah, it was about the person.

00:14:18.140 It wasn't about as much the wrestling.

00:14:19.920 Yeah.

00:14:20.340 I figured that out, bro.

00:14:21.400 And that whole thing I slid into, you know, that from Venice Beach, California, of course,

00:14:26.540 I'm from here, I was here my whole life.

00:14:28.920 And that whole being tanner than everybody and having the blonde hair and, and just kind

00:14:35.020 of like the training prayers and vitamins, that impeccable baby face character, you know,

00:14:39.480 it kind of like was just perfect timing with everything.

00:14:42.940 Oh yeah.

00:14:43.320 So I kind of figured out, you know, right away, you know, that the character worked and

00:14:48.040 I saw how I kind of like came up with a little bit better character than everybody else around

00:14:52.620 me.

00:14:53.040 And I just wrote it till it dropped.

00:14:54.980 I picked it up and I wrote it some more and I spanked it and wrote it some more.

00:14:58.860 And even when Vince told me, you know, your run's over and I think you're done with it.

00:15:03.460 I said, okay, see you later.

00:15:04.940 Let's work for Ted Turner for 10 years and taught everybody a lesson.

00:15:07.800 That was NWO?

00:15:09.300 Yeah.

00:15:09.800 Yeah.

00:15:09.960 And then I went in the red and yellow for a couple of years.

00:15:13.440 Then we've got, I kind of felt a little rumble.

00:15:15.460 I needed to do something evil, you know, and then that got red hot.

00:15:19.320 So you had good instincts then.

00:15:21.240 Yeah.

00:15:21.520 Did you say that?

00:15:22.000 Did you say you had good instincts?

00:15:22.860 Yeah.

00:15:23.360 Yeah.

00:15:23.640 Well, I came into New York in 77 as a bad guy because I sold out Shea Stadium with Andre

00:15:29.220 in 78.

00:15:30.200 Mm-hmm.

00:15:30.940 And then I went all around Japan.

00:15:32.660 I spent 20 years in Japan, six months out of the year in Japan.

00:15:35.280 No way.

00:15:35.720 That's what I'm saying.

00:15:36.380 Google some of my matches.

00:15:37.480 People don't know about that as much.

00:15:38.840 No, not really.

00:15:39.740 And what was that lifestyle?

00:15:40.780 I mean, you guys get over there.

00:15:42.580 First of all, you're twice as big as anybody there.

00:15:45.440 You're as big as some families don't weigh as much as you there.

00:15:47.760 Well, first off, I was single.

00:15:49.240 Right.

00:15:49.520 I didn't get married until 83, end of 83 December.

00:15:54.120 So in 77, I went over there, and the guy that broke my leg the first day was a guy named

00:16:00.480 Hara Matsuda.

00:16:01.300 Matsuda, yeah.

00:16:02.020 Right?

00:16:02.380 And then they ran me off, you know, because I had real long blonde hair all the way down

00:16:05.980 to my ass coming out of a rock and roll band thinking I could be a wrestler.

00:16:09.080 Duh.

00:16:10.220 And then I went back a few months later.

00:16:13.780 When I got home, my dad beat my ass worse than Matsuda did.

00:16:16.420 Damn.

00:16:16.820 He said, don't you ever let anybody hurt you again.

00:16:19.040 So, you know, it straightened me right up.

00:16:21.500 So a few months later, when my leg was healed, I went back, and I had that attitude, you know,

00:16:25.860 because when I was younger, I was real strong and, you know, kind of aggressive.

00:16:30.660 And so I said, I'm not going to let these guys hurt me, you know.

00:16:33.800 So I just didn't let them take my arm.

00:16:35.700 Right.

00:16:36.180 You know.

00:16:37.000 And so I went back, and, you know, then they couldn't run me off, and they did everything

00:16:40.300 they could to get rid of me.

00:16:41.700 Finally, they just said, okay, we need to teach this guy.

00:16:43.780 He ain't going nowhere.

00:16:44.420 Hmm.

00:16:44.820 So I spent a couple years in Japan learning the submissions, hooks, and all the UFC stuff

00:16:49.400 to protect myself.

00:16:51.160 Not much, but I learned enough to protect myself.

00:16:54.100 And, you know, then when I went to Japan, I had this mystique of here on Matsuda broke

00:17:00.860 me in.

00:17:01.720 And so that carried a lot of weight.

00:17:03.700 And then just like we had Elvis here, the Japanese at the time had a real famous Japanese

00:17:09.700 singer, like Elvis had his hair bleached out.

00:17:11.920 And here I come, they knew I played music.

00:17:13.720 So the first thing I did was I went in the studio, and I cut an album with the most popular

00:17:18.900 Japanese band called Pink Cloud.

00:17:21.080 So I went and cut an album with them.

00:17:23.140 And so right away, I got over.

00:17:25.320 So then they love you.

00:17:26.400 Then the other thing was I brought Freddie Blassie with me.

00:17:28.940 I don't know if you know who he is.

00:17:29.880 Classy Freddie Blassie.

00:17:30.860 Right.

00:17:31.140 And he used to wrestle a guy named Ricky Dozen in Japan, who was a mafia guy, because

00:17:36.060 all the wrestling in Japan is run by the mafia.

00:17:38.700 TV is signed.

00:17:39.420 Everything's all mafia at the time.

00:17:41.480 Right.

00:17:41.860 I hope they're not listening.

00:17:43.280 But it doesn't matter.

00:17:45.120 But no, it's cool.

00:17:45.920 It's cool.

00:17:46.400 Yeah.

00:17:46.780 But yeah.

00:17:47.260 So now I show up with Blassie.

00:17:49.200 And Blassie had false teeth.

00:17:50.660 He had a set of teeth he ate with.

00:17:52.540 Then when he wrestled, he'd follow this other set of teeth down.

00:17:55.280 Oh, that's what he would do.

00:17:56.320 Yeah.

00:17:56.540 And he would bite these guys in the head, suck the blood out of the head, and then spit

00:17:59.920 the blood in their face.

00:18:00.820 Oh, yeah.

00:18:01.660 And his first tour over there, three old ladies died watching TV.

00:18:05.080 Oh, God.

00:18:05.480 So now I come over with him.

00:18:07.560 So I got Matsuda under my belt.

00:18:09.200 I cut this music so the Japanese think I'm some superstar, because I just played music

00:18:14.200 back in the day.

00:18:14.840 And now I'm with Blassie.

00:18:16.200 So you were a king there.

00:18:17.540 As soon as I walked in there, I was over.

00:18:20.440 Was it interesting?

00:18:21.000 What was it like?

00:18:21.900 What was the fanhood like and how they treat fans different in America and Japan?

00:18:27.040 Well, over in Japan, they treat you like your royalty.

00:18:30.800 It's just like Brad Pitt and Tom Brady all in one.

00:18:35.180 You know what I mean?

00:18:35.880 Wow.

00:18:36.160 That's how they treat their wrestlers.

00:18:38.220 And they've got the sumo wrestlers, and they've got the pro wrestlers.

00:18:42.800 And even the sumo wrestlers would be bowing down to us.

00:18:45.680 It was just really a strange situation.

00:18:47.540 Like the Yokozunas and stuff?

00:18:48.980 Yeah.

00:18:49.400 Did you ever battle one of those?

00:18:50.920 Did you guys ever?

00:18:52.060 I almost did.

00:18:53.560 I almost did.

00:18:54.380 Because they're big dudes.

00:18:55.760 Yeah.

00:18:56.140 And they're mostly gristle.

00:18:58.040 Right.

00:18:58.760 So when you go into the dressing room at night, wherever you're at, there'd be a sheet

00:19:02.300 of paper on the wall, and it was in Japanese writing.

00:19:04.420 Of course, I knew my name in Japanese, you know, Hulk Hogan, Ichiban, number one.

00:19:09.120 And I would know my name, but I couldn't read who I was wrestling.

00:19:13.000 So all of a sudden, in the Japanese dressing room, before I started living and traveling

00:19:16.840 with the Japanese, I was still with the gaijins, with the Americans.

00:19:20.740 All of a sudden, I hear all this crazy stuff going on next door, because the walls are paper

00:19:24.300 thin over there, you know?

00:19:25.240 Yeah.

00:19:25.400 And all of a sudden, Peter Takahashi, the referee, comes up, he goes, oh, so-and-so,

00:19:30.280 Fuji, whatever his name was, just beat up Kabuki, the booker.

00:19:35.500 So this sumo wrestler, it was his first night, and apparently, the booker told this Japanese

00:19:45.160 guy that he wanted him to put me over, but go in and shoot with me for 10 minutes, not

00:19:50.220 work, and I'll take it easy, but really go in and shoot and try to take me down and try

00:19:53.120 to hurt me.

00:19:53.740 But then, at the end, let me win.

00:19:55.220 He goes, no, I'm not letting him win.

00:19:57.920 So they come over and tell me that.

00:19:59.120 I go, boom.

00:20:00.160 You know, just, oh, no, here we go.

00:20:01.900 So I'm going out there, bro, you know, because that's, there is no choice.

00:20:06.000 Yeah, you got to go out there.

00:20:06.860 And there's a big guy there from Vancouver named John Tenta called Earthquake.

00:20:10.780 I don't know if you ever remember him.

00:20:12.260 Earthquake, the wrestler?

00:20:13.020 Yes.

00:20:13.280 Yeah, I remember him.

00:20:13.920 He used to be a sumo wrestler, and him and I were really good friends.

00:20:17.600 He goes, no, Terry, you're not going out there.

00:20:19.400 I am.

00:20:20.560 I said, he's all yours, brother.

00:20:22.240 Wow.

00:20:22.700 And as soon as, we were watching through the curtain, as soon as Tenta went out there,

00:20:26.100 this guy tried to hook his eye right away.

00:20:28.780 And man, it pissed Tenta off.

00:20:30.020 Tenta beat the shit out of him.

00:20:31.200 And I was like, thank God I didn't go out there.

00:20:33.460 Wow.

00:20:33.800 Because I would have been ready for him to hook my eye right away.

00:20:36.020 Yeah.

00:20:36.420 You know, I wasn't thinking on that level.

00:20:38.500 Yeah.

00:20:39.080 But this guy was just really pissed and didn't, you know, he came from a sport where it's a

00:20:43.340 shoot, you know, and the ending went predetermined, and he did not want to hear any of putting

00:20:47.520 me over.

00:20:48.420 Damn.

00:20:48.840 You know, he thought he was going to wrestle me and beat the crap out of me, but John Tenta

00:20:51.920 saved me.

00:20:52.820 Dang.

00:20:53.440 So you guys became friends after that.

00:20:54.780 We were friends before that.

00:20:55.760 Before the whole tour, I put him over.

00:20:57.100 I was hiding behind him, like scared, like a mouse, you know.

00:20:59.800 So I was driving crazy for the last three weeks I was with him.

00:21:03.500 Was there a whole universe that you had going on over there that we didn't even know about?

00:21:06.960 Yeah.

00:21:07.460 Wow.

00:21:07.660 Yeah.

00:21:08.100 Yeah.

00:21:09.180 Actually, if I was like in Minnesota, for instance, and I would wrestle on a Friday night, if I

00:21:14.660 had Saturday and Sunday, I'd fly to Japan.

00:21:16.940 Wow.

00:21:17.520 Wrestle there in Tokyo, and Osaka didn't fly back for Monday TV.

00:21:20.720 Because the money was good there.

00:21:21.940 Yeah.

00:21:22.840 Yeah.

00:21:23.400 Real good.

00:21:24.400 Wow.

00:21:25.480 Yeah.

00:21:25.680 Japan.

00:21:26.140 We had, who do we have on?

00:21:27.880 We had on Jesse Ventura.

00:21:28.880 Oh, did you?

00:21:29.880 This has already gone better.

00:21:31.160 7,000 times better than that.

00:21:34.200 Jesse can be a little confrontational.

00:21:35.800 The Baja.

00:21:37.080 Yeah.

00:21:37.420 He was like, I lived, you know, I was part of the one percenters.

00:21:44.600 He's like, I lived on the seventh ring of Saturn.

00:21:49.820 Yeah.

00:21:50.460 Yeah.

00:21:51.020 You want to know why?

00:21:52.200 Oh, he hates my guts.

00:21:53.160 Does he?

00:21:53.900 Oh.

00:21:54.340 Bro, I talked to him for three hours.

00:21:56.120 I talked for 17 seconds.

00:21:59.140 Yeah.

00:21:59.680 He talked for all the other time.

00:22:02.500 And he kept saying, I'm going to leave in just a minute.

00:22:05.040 And then he would talk for 70 more minutes.

00:22:06.980 Wow.

00:22:07.740 But anyway.

00:22:08.640 It was a trip.

00:22:09.140 It was a trip.

00:22:10.200 Yeah.

00:22:10.460 That guy was just, it was the wildest interview.

00:22:12.840 The chat, wildest conversation I've ever had in my whole life.

00:22:15.280 Wow.

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00:25:28.920 Um, so whenever, uh, when you look at a lot of guys have, you know, you're in, you seem

00:25:37.260 really healthy, you know, do you feel healthier than, uh, I mean, a lot of guys in your line

00:25:43.540 of work haven't had the, a lot of the same blessings of health.

00:25:47.140 I mean, I know you've got a pretty bad spine, you know, um, what's bad on you?

00:25:52.200 Like, where's your health at kind of now?

00:25:55.020 Well, I think internally I'm healthy.

00:25:57.740 It's just, I abuse my body so bad, you know, um, in the last 10 or 12 years I've had like

00:26:05.120 25 surgeries, you know, it's kind of weird because when I went to do Rocky three, when

00:26:09.840 my mother was still alive, if you would come to my house, she'd go, yo T, come over here.

00:26:14.920 First thing I want to do is measure you, you know?

00:26:17.100 Oh yeah.

00:26:17.540 And that's what she did to me before I went to do the Rocky movie.

00:26:19.980 I was like 335 pounds.

00:26:21.380 I was six foot seven on the nose.

00:26:23.200 Well then right before my mother died a few years back, she wanted to measure me and I

00:26:27.460 was six, four and a half, you know, between the 10 back surgeries and the two knee replacements

00:26:33.540 and the two hip replacements and the abdominal stuff and the shoulders and all the surgeries

00:26:38.220 I've had, you know, and plus you get older, you shrink up a little bit.

00:26:41.360 Yeah, you get a little bit.

00:26:42.020 So yeah, I mean, other than, you know, like when I'm with Skye and we're walking, I lean

00:26:47.820 on her.

00:26:48.260 So it looks like we're in high school.

00:26:49.300 I'm like, Hey baby, what's up?

00:26:50.380 I'm really just kind of like hanging on, you know, for the ride.

00:26:53.720 Or if I'm not with her, I can pretty much walk on my own from here to that door.

00:26:57.560 But if it gets too far than that, I get like a walking stick, which is embarrassing and hell

00:27:01.380 is hell.

00:27:02.000 But Skye says, embrace it.

00:27:03.400 You're a warrior.

00:27:04.020 I said, you're right, baby.

00:27:04.880 You're right.

00:27:05.340 I am a warrior.

00:27:06.660 You know, so.

00:27:07.040 That's a good way to look at it.

00:27:07.600 Yeah, so I'm trying to adapt, but, you know, we're going in Monday, tomorrow morning for

00:27:13.500 another monogram, you know, because I'm having some more issues with my back and they're going

00:27:17.940 to see if the disc is pushing the spine above the hardware.

00:27:21.220 And if it is, then they want to go from the middle of my back up to my neck.

00:27:24.700 But if the disc isn't pushing on the spinal cord, then they said, we don't want to cut

00:27:28.980 on you anymore.

00:27:29.620 And there's because my left hip is like 25 or 26 years old.

00:27:33.480 They think there might be a problem there, but we're going to find out.

00:27:36.380 Yeah.

00:27:36.940 But it's all from that damn fake wrestling business.

00:27:40.320 Nobody told me it was fake.

00:27:43.120 Yeah.

00:27:43.540 Did it get more?

00:27:44.380 Did it get more?

00:27:46.520 Like, did the theater of it change over the years?

00:27:49.760 How did the theater of wrestling evolve over the years?

00:27:54.240 I hate to say that.

00:27:55.160 When I first got in, if you kick somebody, leave lace prints on them.

00:28:02.160 When you punch somebody, you know, we want to see black and blue marks.

00:28:07.020 Yeah.

00:28:07.680 That was the mindset when I was first in.

00:28:10.440 And I was a medium-sized guy.

00:28:12.280 I was like 3'10", 3'15".

00:28:14.140 I was like medium-sized.

00:28:16.420 Sweet Hanson, 360.

00:28:18.200 King Kong Monster, 360.

00:28:20.620 All these monsters, you know, that I was wrestling.

00:28:23.660 And it's, you know, it was hard pushing them around.

00:28:26.420 So it got to the point where, you know, these guys would beat the crap out of each other.

00:28:30.720 And it was real territorial, you know, and they'd work four or five days a week.

00:28:35.300 But then once this thing blew up and I cut a deal with Vince Jr.

00:28:39.280 After I was fired and I came back, it was like every single night there were three towns a night running, you know.

00:28:46.360 And so we kind of lightened up with the work.

00:28:49.140 And it was always supposed to be light.

00:28:50.660 But it never was because people were really laying it in and really, really.

00:28:53.980 And people get competitive.

00:28:55.200 Yeah.

00:28:55.580 I mean, would there be guys you had real kind of like, you know.

00:28:58.020 Yes.

00:28:58.300 You just had a long day in the car with them.

00:28:59.820 And you're like, tonight when we get out there, you're going to get it.

00:29:02.000 It got a little crazy.

00:29:03.060 Yeah.

00:29:03.260 And, you know, I always had a little bit more of a target on my back because I was the guy.

00:29:07.620 Right.

00:29:08.180 You know, so.

00:29:08.720 Oh, that's true.

00:29:09.360 So if you go and you break Hulk Hogan's arm, guess what?

00:29:11.400 Your career's made.

00:29:12.180 Right.

00:29:12.800 And I ran with the pack a lot.

00:29:14.540 But then I'd also fly to South Africa and wrestle the heavyweight champion in South Africa.

00:29:18.660 And I'd fly to, you know, different places and be by myself.

00:29:23.160 Yeah.

00:29:23.660 You know, and Vince is going, don't you lose that belt, monster.

00:29:26.720 I'm like, oh, great.

00:29:28.220 You know.

00:29:28.740 Oh, yeah.

00:29:29.200 Because you could get hooked real quick in there, you know, if you're not thinking.

00:29:32.040 Yeah.

00:29:32.280 And so there was all that.

00:29:33.880 And then when I come back to the States, I do this wrestling, you know.

00:29:36.400 And so it was all cool.

00:29:39.080 But just about 1980, when I went to Minnesota, instead of digging and wrestling so much, I

00:29:49.640 started, you know, playing to the crowd more.

00:29:52.960 And then by the time I came back to New York to wrestle the chic, they didn't play any entrance

00:29:58.020 music.

00:29:58.740 They didn't sell any merchandise.

00:30:00.860 I pulled Vince aside.

00:30:02.060 I said, bro, I'm making a ton of money in the Twin Cities selling t-shirts and headbands

00:30:05.500 and frisbees and all kind of stuff.

00:30:07.380 And he changed his thoughts.

00:30:08.240 And on the way to the ring, don't, don't, don't, don't.

00:30:11.780 Yeah.

00:30:12.060 The place explodes instead of just coming out with no music.

00:30:15.380 So I cranked it in the garden that first night with the Iron Sheik.

00:30:19.140 Don't, don't, don't, and the place exploded.

00:30:22.440 And Vince was like, monster, you're right.

00:30:24.520 Yeah.

00:30:25.160 You know, Jimmy Hart, my manager, sat down and wrote most of the entrance music for everybody.

00:30:29.160 Really?

00:30:29.520 He was a musician?

00:30:30.100 He was a composer?

00:30:30.520 Yeah.

00:30:31.040 Yeah.

00:30:31.220 Well, he was in a, way before your time, actually before my time, thank God, Jimmy's

00:30:36.400 79 years old, but Jimmy was in a band called the Gentries and they had a hit song called

00:30:40.960 Keep On Dancing and they recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis where Elvis recorded.

00:30:44.640 Oh, sweet.

00:30:45.120 Yeah.

00:30:45.280 I've been over there.

00:30:45.860 It's cool.

00:30:46.020 Yeah.

00:30:46.040 And so Jimmy knew everybody.

00:30:48.600 So he could get it made.

00:30:49.700 Yeah.

00:30:49.820 And he used one of those auto harps to record everything, you know, and not to record everything,

00:30:54.340 but to write everything.

00:30:55.260 I mean.

00:30:55.320 Yeah.

00:30:55.480 Yeah.

00:30:55.800 Yeah.

00:30:55.840 Write everything.

00:30:57.220 And so, yeah, once Vince saw the music and, you know, got into the merchandising and

00:31:02.980 changed the game because, you know, when I went up there to work for Vince Jr., I lived

00:31:08.520 right next door to him up there in Greenwich.

00:31:10.640 And so I was in the office every day, you know, for the first three or four years.

00:31:14.180 It was me and Vince in the office.

00:31:15.500 So you really got dialed into the business side of it.

00:31:17.980 Yeah.

00:31:18.260 A long time, long time ago before I went back there.

00:31:21.260 Right.

00:31:21.520 The three years in Minnesota were a great education for me because I was with a guy named

00:31:25.000 Vern Gagne.

00:31:25.800 Yeah.

00:31:26.340 And I was real tight with him and his son.

00:31:28.560 He owned that area.

00:31:29.380 Didn't he own that?

00:31:30.040 Yeah.

00:31:30.160 He owned everything.

00:31:30.960 And I was single.

00:31:31.780 I had nothing to do but just learn, you know.

00:31:34.400 And plus, I just, I just, you know, took it like a duck to water, man.

00:31:39.820 I found a way to, you know, really, you know, progress and generate a ton of revenue.

00:31:45.580 It was easy for me.

00:31:46.840 Right.

00:31:47.000 I had a feel for it, you know.

00:31:49.060 And I could wrestle anybody.

00:31:50.320 And I didn't even know if I was going to wrestle him.

00:31:53.000 All he goes tells me who's going to win or lose.

00:31:54.500 I don't mean we don't need to talk about anything.

00:31:56.040 I never talked about a match.

00:31:57.320 Really?

00:31:57.820 Except one time with The Rock and we didn't do anything we talked about.

00:32:01.160 So a lot of times you're out there, you're just kind of figuring out like you guys each

00:32:03.940 at a certain point, especially if the guy's good enough or seasoned enough, you know,

00:32:07.080 you know, you can make it great.

00:32:08.720 I could go out there with Randy Orton, not say a word.

00:32:11.040 Matter of fact, when I wrestled in the SummerSlam, we didn't even talk.

00:32:14.180 You know, Vince told us we wanted to win or lose and then I did it.

00:32:16.860 Randy Orton's old school.

00:32:18.020 Yeah.

00:32:18.480 I could do that with Cena.

00:32:20.320 You know, I'd have to talk, listen.

00:32:23.140 I mean, you have to, I have to lead the match, but I could do it with Cena because he's good

00:32:26.660 enough.

00:32:27.220 Yeah.

00:32:27.680 Um, Rock all day long, Stone Cold all day long.

00:32:31.040 These guys are really good in the ring, bro.

00:32:33.140 Yeah.

00:32:33.640 Flair all day long.

00:32:34.700 Me and Flair never talked.

00:32:36.200 Nothing to talk about.

00:32:37.520 See you out there, brother.

00:32:38.980 You know, so that's how I learned Andre.

00:32:41.800 You know, I'd go to Andre.

00:32:42.520 Hey boss, is there anything you want to do that?

00:32:43.960 Do out there tonight?

00:32:44.660 Don't worry.

00:32:45.360 Don't worry.

00:32:46.700 Okay.

00:32:47.260 Well, uh, you know, how do you want to start the match?

00:32:49.520 Don't worry.

00:32:50.500 Okay.

00:32:50.780 No, I ain't worried.

00:32:52.000 You know, scared me to death.

00:32:53.960 You know, did a guy like Andre, like what kind of, like if you guys were cruising in

00:32:57.100 the car, like what did he have to sit in the back or did he have to like be under a tarp

00:33:00.480 in the trunk or the truck or something?

00:33:02.780 Or how would you even get like, but how would you get something that big somewhere?

00:33:08.000 Um, well, we didn't travel together, you know, and yeah, cause the car wouldn't go.

00:33:13.280 Yeah.

00:33:13.540 Yeah.

00:33:13.740 Well, we, we, we drove for a lot of years, you know, like if I was wrestling, I was wrestling

00:33:17.960 in Atlanta tonight and I had to be in Minneapolis tomorrow night, I'd drive.

00:33:21.600 Right.

00:33:22.180 So if you guys drove, like if, if, if I, how could Andre be in a car?

00:33:25.640 Could he be in a car?

00:33:27.840 He, he, they had a van that drove me in, but then we started flying.

00:33:31.280 Right.

00:33:32.520 Early eighties, we started flying a lot, so it made it easier.

00:33:35.020 But, um, if you can imagine there was never a chair he could sit in, he couldn't sit in

00:33:41.480 that chair, couldn't sit there.

00:33:42.780 Oh yeah.

00:33:43.500 There was never a chair.

00:33:44.640 There was never a bed.

00:33:46.060 There was never a knife.

00:33:47.140 There was never a fork.

00:33:48.520 He was never comfortable.

00:33:50.400 Oh.

00:33:50.840 When he sat on a plane, his head would be sideways like this where the overhead is.

00:33:55.020 He'd be flying like this.

00:33:56.660 And every plane probably just goes to the Bahamas that he's on, you know?

00:34:00.520 But the hardest thing for me was, you know, the first eight or nine years, he didn't like

00:34:06.180 me at all and tortured me.

00:34:08.340 Why?

00:34:08.480 Was he jealous?

00:34:09.700 Well, I was, I was, I was hardheaded, bro.

00:34:11.740 When I was younger, I thought I could beat anybody up and I thought I could beat him up.

00:34:15.560 Did you keep that energy?

00:34:16.680 Like when you were in person too, kind of like outside?

00:34:20.320 Not, not, he just didn't like me.

00:34:21.820 He just really didn't give me the time of day.

00:34:23.340 But when we got in the ring, he showed me how much he didn't like me.

00:34:25.780 Right.

00:34:26.600 You know, and then I made the mistake of bringing a flight attendant to the Capitol

00:34:33.440 Center in Washington.

00:34:34.420 Oh, we've all done that.

00:34:35.700 And I put her right in the first row and I didn't tell Andre, I didn't tell anybody.

00:34:40.440 And then I kind of kept rolling out of the ring where she was, you know, and had Andre

00:34:43.500 chase me out there.

00:34:44.300 And then when he chased me, I'd turn around to catch him real quick.

00:34:47.500 And then he heard her saying, come on, Terry, come on, Terry.

00:34:50.360 And he figured out she was with me and he about killed me.

00:34:55.060 He took me back in the ring.

00:34:57.120 You know how you tie the ropes up?

00:34:59.000 He tied the bottom rope in the second.

00:35:01.220 I put my neck in and put a size 26 foot on it.

00:35:03.840 It was just almost broke my neck in the ropes.

00:35:07.240 Then I had those yellow tights on.

00:35:08.560 He picked me up like a damn stork.

00:35:10.360 Yeah.

00:35:10.860 With my balls and my ass hanging out and carried me around the ring in front of this

00:35:14.180 girl with all my junk hanging out.

00:35:15.960 Yeah.

00:35:17.040 No more girls.

00:35:18.740 Yes, sir.

00:35:21.120 No more girls.

00:35:22.080 I get it.

00:35:23.360 But, you know.

00:35:23.680 He just didn't want that energy there, huh?

00:35:25.060 No, because he knew I was showing off.

00:35:26.520 Oh, yeah.

00:35:26.900 He didn't want to be used as part of showing off.

00:35:28.240 Yeah.

00:35:28.260 And I was trying to get over by showing him off.

00:35:30.540 And he would beat my ass for that, you know.

00:35:33.220 That's awesome, dude.

00:35:34.580 That's so much fun.

00:35:36.600 For you, maybe.

00:35:38.920 Yeah, that's true.

00:35:39.880 Yeah.

00:35:40.020 Was there a part where it started to like, where did it start to, because everything I

00:35:44.060 noticed, like there's a part where it's fun, it's beginning, and then it becomes

00:35:47.920 work, you know.

00:35:48.960 Yeah.

00:35:49.260 It is hard to feel like that at a certain point.

00:35:50.940 I mean, even if you're a hero to the world, it's still.

00:35:53.220 Yeah, I hate it.

00:35:54.220 Yeah.

00:35:54.520 I hated it.

00:35:55.040 I hated the business because of the traveling.

00:35:58.120 And, you know, the no sleep.

00:36:00.640 You have to make a choice between eating, sleeping, or working out.

00:36:04.640 So, the priorities were working out first.

00:36:07.980 Yeah.

00:36:08.800 Eating, and sleep was the third priority.

00:36:11.760 So, like if we wrestled in Madison Square Garden tonight, you know, and all of a sudden

00:36:16.480 we're supposed to fly to St. Louis.

00:36:18.980 Short flight, hour and a half to St. Louis.

00:36:20.740 Well, all of a sudden you get to LaGuardia, the plane's canceled.

00:36:23.660 You know, oh my God, you can't, you know.

00:36:25.780 Yeah.

00:36:25.960 Oh, now it's delayed.

00:36:26.680 It's delayed.

00:36:27.080 And it just, you spent all days in the, all day in the airport.

00:36:30.300 And then when you land in St. Louis, you know, do you go to the hotel first and check

00:36:35.720 in and waste time?

00:36:36.600 Or do you go to the gym first?

00:36:37.940 So, I'd always go straight to the gym and work out.

00:36:40.620 And then usually I wouldn't have time to go to the hotel.

00:36:42.920 I'd usually go to the arena.

00:36:44.660 And I was always on last.

00:36:46.080 So, I'd miss room service and food.

00:36:48.440 So, that was always a scramble.

00:36:49.960 And then I'd check in the room later at night, you know.

00:36:52.440 So, it was just a potluck.

00:36:54.240 Sometimes the flights would be on time and sometimes they wouldn't.

00:36:56.860 But the traveling, I hated the traveling because it was, I was flying 300 days a year.

00:37:02.280 And it burns you down.

00:37:03.700 Oh, yeah.

00:37:03.980 It's brutal.

00:37:04.660 Even with stand-up comedy, it's like we get to, sometimes you take the overnight flight

00:37:07.720 because it's the cheapest back then.

00:37:09.100 So, sometimes when I was living in California, we'd fly.

00:37:12.100 So, I'd get in at 530.

00:37:13.280 You get in at 630 in the morning or something.

00:37:15.420 So, then they take you straight to radio, right?

00:37:18.100 So, then you're there for two hours and then you get back to your hotel.

00:37:20.880 Now, it's around like 11 a.m.

00:37:22.300 But you haven't slept really.

00:37:23.340 So, you try to get a few hours of sleep and then you get up and want to live.

00:37:25.980 It's just, the traveling burns people out, man.

00:37:28.920 Yeah.

00:37:29.180 Yeah, and you get off stage last, the food call's already been done.

00:37:31.700 You're like, fuck, man.

00:37:32.940 I remember I used to tease John Belushi, you know, because we'd jump on a blower Friday

00:37:37.280 night out of JFK.

00:37:39.540 What do you mean a blower?

00:37:40.680 All night, you know, nonstop.

00:37:41.980 Oh, okay.

00:37:42.440 Nonstop, nonstop.

00:37:42.860 I was thinking an eight ball.

00:37:43.760 That guy died of coke, I think.

00:37:45.740 Whatever.

00:37:46.060 But I'd jump on the Pan Am, you know, to go to L.A.

00:37:50.960 And we'd land.

00:37:51.840 I said, all right, brother, I'll see you Monday.

00:37:53.280 You know, because he was on the flight back Monday morning, I'd be on.

00:37:56.320 And he'd see me and he goes, oh, man, this is beefy, this is traveling.

00:37:59.380 Well, I said, since you got here Friday night, bro, I've already been back to New York and

00:38:02.840 back once.

00:38:03.700 I had to fly back to wrestle at the Capitol Center.

00:38:05.780 I've been back.

00:38:06.600 So, since you've been here wrestling for 48 hours, I made the trip there and back again.

00:38:10.920 He goes, no, you didn't.

00:38:11.800 I said, I swear to God I did, bro.

00:38:13.000 You know, because you're out of your mind, I said, well, so there was a lot of, but that's

00:38:17.620 the part I hated was the traveling.

00:38:20.120 The only thing that I really dug was, you know, being in the ring because when I was in

00:38:27.340 the ring, you know, I was real present, you know, I didn't think about anything else, you

00:38:33.520 know, ex-wives, ex-girlfriends, kids, business problems, money problems, three or four guys

00:38:39.420 that wanted to kill me in the back.

00:38:40.560 I didn't think about anything.

00:38:41.560 You know, when I was in the ring, I was completely in the moment, you know, and when I, the one,

00:38:46.800 the one thing that really worked for me was once I clicked, I was not Terry Bollea.

00:38:52.420 When I went to that ring, I was Hulk Hogan, brother.

00:38:54.960 I believed it.

00:38:56.060 I mean, I believed when I was in there, I wasn't afraid of anybody or anything.

00:39:02.080 And I just, that was my attitude, you know, because if I didn't believe it, you're not

00:39:06.640 going to get them to believe it that they're watching.

00:39:08.180 I believed it.

00:39:08.900 So I was so dialed into that character, man.

00:39:11.820 I lived through that thing and it got me through a lot of craziness.

00:39:14.540 You know, it helped a lot.

00:39:15.560 Yeah.

00:39:16.280 How tough was it?

00:39:17.520 Because you have a family, right?

00:39:19.960 Yeah.

00:39:20.140 And how tough was it?

00:39:22.480 I always wondered, like, to your kids, like, to be, because you're everybody's hero.

00:39:28.340 Like, you were like, you know, you were a hero to so many people, right?

00:39:32.560 I wonder if it's tough for a child to be like, oh, how do I make my dad seem like my hero?

00:39:40.040 You know, like, how do I make my dad seem like my hero if he's everybody else's hero?

00:39:45.620 You know?

00:39:46.000 I wonder if that's tough for a kid, you know?

00:39:48.780 I'm sure it is.

00:39:49.980 You know, the kids were real aware of who I was.

00:39:54.360 But, you know, the moment I would come home, bro, that Hulk Hogan thing was dropped.

00:40:00.180 Really?

00:40:00.680 At the front door.

00:40:01.260 I didn't have any pictures in my house of me, no wrestling crap in the house at all.

00:40:06.520 I didn't want it in my house.

00:40:07.600 Some guys have belts hanging and pictures of themselves and stuff.

00:40:10.860 But would you ever mess up?

00:40:11.680 Would you ever be like, go to your room and don't come out to the bell rings or something?

00:40:15.460 Like, would you ever, like?

00:40:18.700 No, brother.

00:40:19.380 I didn't do that.

00:40:20.080 But the thing was, you know, I was, I dropped that Hulk Hogan persona.

00:40:24.940 And the moment I'd walk in the house, I'd take the bandana off the bald head.

00:40:28.240 And I was just dad or Terry.

00:40:29.600 And I was, you know, I could switch gears pretty easy because I just didn't live that character.

00:40:34.760 Like, ooh, yeah, brother.

00:40:36.360 And like, Bret Hart thinks he's the greatest wrestler ever and all this crazy crap that these guys think.

00:40:41.380 You know, I just let it go, man.

00:40:43.180 It was a job.

00:40:44.600 And I was real good at what I was doing.

00:40:45.880 There had to be a degree of separation with me because you'll end up killing yourself.

00:40:51.640 You know, you can't live up to that character.

00:40:53.320 I mean, all my guys are dead.

00:40:55.100 And I was the ringleader.

00:40:56.920 You know, I was a ringleader.

00:40:58.100 I was running them all hard.

00:40:59.680 And I'd come to the edge.

00:41:01.280 I'd stop after about four days.

00:41:02.620 You got to keep going.

00:41:03.400 I'm out, you know.

00:41:04.860 So it's, I had to draw a line in the sand.

00:41:08.320 So you were able to do that pretty, pretty, it came naturally for you.

00:41:11.080 It was pretty easy to do.

00:41:11.920 I'm really good at stopping things or starting things.

00:41:14.940 And she's been around me a little while now, but.

00:41:18.880 She's beautiful.

00:41:19.620 Yeah, she is.

00:41:20.360 I mean, you're handsome, but she's better.

00:41:23.040 Well, you're not my type, brother.

00:41:24.240 Okay.

00:41:25.000 You just hold your horses back, all right?

00:41:26.940 And same, brother.

00:41:28.000 Same, brother.

00:41:28.960 Yeah.

00:41:29.340 I like sisters.

00:41:30.340 But with that baby, I got me a whole new family, too.

00:41:32.200 So I'm good.

00:41:33.180 I'm really good.

00:41:34.200 Nice.

00:41:34.720 Congratulations.

00:41:35.180 What were you talking about?

00:41:37.020 I look at her and I forget what I was talking about.

00:41:38.760 Look, I feel you.

00:41:39.700 I look.

00:41:40.260 I agree with you.

00:41:41.080 You just look.

00:41:41.520 That's all you get.

00:41:42.200 I'm not going to look again.

00:41:43.020 Don't look again.

00:41:43.580 Don't look again, brother.

00:41:45.380 I'm over here, brother.

00:41:46.520 Yeah.

00:41:46.680 Cool.

00:41:47.020 We're good now.

00:41:49.420 Yeah.

00:41:49.820 There's a lot of guys that have passed away.

00:41:51.460 Did you go to some of the guys' funerals?

00:41:52.860 What was some?

00:41:53.340 Yeah.

00:41:53.720 And I quit doing funerals and weddings because I walked in on so many hotel rooms where the

00:41:59.900 guys were passed away, you know?

00:42:02.520 Oh, over the years?

00:42:03.760 Yeah.

00:42:04.340 Yeah.

00:42:04.480 I mean, if you, I don't know the numbers now, but you could probably Google it.

00:42:07.540 One of your guys could tell you right away.

00:42:08.700 But, you know, with baseball, let's say over the last 20 years, what do you got?

00:42:12.040 20 guys died.

00:42:12.980 Or basketball, 20.

00:42:14.200 Maybe it's 30 or 40.

00:42:15.120 I don't know.

00:42:15.960 You know, hockey, maybe 10, 15, 20.

00:42:18.440 Wrestling, 350.

00:42:19.860 Yeah.

00:42:20.420 I mean, everybody's dead.

00:42:22.940 Yeah.

00:42:23.280 You know, I got a retail store right down on Clearwater Beach.

00:42:26.460 And, you know, we sell pictures and posters and, okay, there's six guys in the picture.

00:42:32.740 I'm the only one still alive.

00:42:34.340 It's freaky, man.

00:42:35.660 I'm sure.

00:42:36.260 You know, especially because my mom and dad are dead and my brother's dead.

00:42:39.380 All my friends are dead.

00:42:40.560 So, it's kind of like the mortality thing can get to you after a while.

00:42:43.300 So, when you ask how my health is, I'm cool, you know, with all the back surgery.

00:42:48.340 I mean, you can have one back surgery and end up in a wheelchair.

00:42:50.480 I've had 10, you know?

00:42:52.320 And so, I'm very blessed, very lucky, bro, you know, and just, like I said, I'm either

00:42:58.980 all the way in or I'm all the way up.

00:43:01.440 If we're going to party, bro, we're going to party.

00:43:03.340 Yeah.

00:43:03.600 If I'm going to go straight, I'm going to go straight, you know?

00:43:06.400 And right now, I'm on a straight run.

00:43:08.120 Yeah.

00:43:08.460 No alcohol, no.

00:43:09.760 Actually, I did take two Tylenols.

00:43:11.180 I was hurting so bad today.

00:43:12.300 But I didn't take Tylenols, Advil, or leave for months now.

00:43:16.200 And I haven't drank since January 1st.

00:43:19.340 But when I go the other way.

00:43:21.620 You can ask Flair, it gets ugly.

00:43:23.640 You're going in, huh?

00:43:24.440 I'm going in hard.

00:43:25.040 Oh, yeah.

00:43:25.560 Well, Flair, I mean, yeah, Flair definitely, I mean.

00:43:29.840 He can say whatever he wants about me, but I put his ass to bed every time.

00:43:33.360 Yeah.

00:43:33.640 Oh, I believe that.

00:43:34.880 Because he's at 9 o'clock.

00:43:36.340 Vo, come on.

00:43:37.520 9 o'clock, he's down.

00:43:39.960 Last night, he invites us out, right?

00:43:41.820 So, we get out of work.

00:43:43.120 We had a show last night.

00:43:44.180 We get out.

00:43:45.480 We text the lady, his assistant or whatever.

00:43:49.560 She's like, oh, he just.

00:43:50.900 Who's that now?

00:43:52.120 Who's the new victim?

00:43:53.160 Her name's Gia.

00:43:54.180 She's.

00:43:54.840 Gia, yeah.

00:43:55.740 I mean, I'll tell you this.

00:43:57.800 She lifts chest a lot.

00:44:00.900 I'll tell you that.

00:44:01.520 There you go.

00:44:02.040 I'll say that.

00:44:03.120 Typical Flair.

00:44:03.900 I love it.

00:44:04.400 She skips arm and leg day, but she really.

00:44:09.440 Yeah.

00:44:09.840 And she said, oh, it's not.

00:44:13.060 He just went to bed, you know.

00:44:14.520 I just put him to sleep.

00:44:15.800 But he lives that thing.

00:44:17.400 He usually sneaks off on you, though.

00:44:19.020 Really?

00:44:19.460 I could see that.

00:44:19.980 You'll be drinking at the bar, drinking at the bar, and you'll think he's going to the

00:44:22.800 bathroom.

00:44:23.100 He don't come back.

00:44:24.020 Yeah.

00:44:24.660 And there's usually this huge tab that he leaves.

00:44:27.440 So he's got it down, brother.

00:44:30.240 Believe me, I know.

00:44:31.280 Yeah, yeah.

00:44:31.860 That's crazy.

00:44:33.920 Yeah.

00:44:34.140 That's hilarious.

00:44:34.640 Short story.

00:44:35.160 Flair story.

00:44:35.680 Yeah.

00:44:35.980 In between back surgery number four or five or six, whatever it was, I booked this Hulkamania

00:44:44.160 tour.

00:44:44.620 The first time I've ever booked a tour on my own overseas, right?

00:44:47.680 Australia.

00:44:49.080 So I hire Flair and I hire a bunch of wrestlers to come with me.

00:44:52.900 Flair goes, hey, I need my money up front.

00:44:55.720 Okay, Rick, sure.

00:44:57.080 Probably for one of his wives, I bet.

00:44:58.620 He brought one of them with him.

00:45:00.040 Yeah.

00:45:00.580 Actually, he divorced right up.

00:45:01.740 He's always got a wife on him somewhere.

00:45:03.380 Yeah.

00:45:03.580 And so I paid him up front and all of a sudden we're getting ready to go to Australia.

00:45:09.140 Oh, my back, you know, goes out again.

00:45:11.140 And now the tour's booked.

00:45:12.260 I'm following Britney Spears around.

00:45:13.680 I'm a day behind her tour.

00:45:15.640 Picking up leftovers, I thought.

00:45:17.660 I thought.

00:45:18.600 And so my back amount, I had to have another back surgery right before I left.

00:45:23.480 And I had stitches on my back when I went over there.

00:45:25.900 You know, still, that's how crazy I used to be.

00:45:29.080 You know, you need.

00:45:29.480 Yeah, we need to travel with stitches.

00:45:30.740 You need to lay in bed about six months after your back surgery.

00:45:32.960 Yeah, I'd be like, fuck that.

00:45:33.580 Gone, let's go.

00:45:34.420 On Wednesday, we're out of here.

00:45:35.620 Yeah, so I told Flair, yeah, thank you.

00:45:37.200 Yeah.

00:45:37.480 So we get over there.

00:45:38.960 And the greatest thing was the first night in Sydney, Australia, Britney Spears got mad

00:45:42.960 and shot the crowd a bird, right?

00:45:44.880 So nobody came to her tours, right, the rest of the tours.

00:45:47.780 So we bounced around and picked everybody up, you know.

00:45:51.200 And I wrestled Flair a bunch over there.

00:45:53.860 And every night he'd come to me, he goes, hey, I need another five grand tonight.

00:45:58.300 What?

00:45:59.500 I already paid you.

00:46:00.340 He goes, oh, no, I need another five grand.

00:46:02.600 I said, okay, well, here's five grand.

00:46:04.180 And then he kept doing it.

00:46:05.240 I said, Rick, why am I giving you five grand?

00:46:07.460 Well, you know, we're drawing such big crowds.

00:46:09.660 You know, you need to pay me another five grand.

00:46:11.980 So I paid another five grand.

00:46:12.820 I went down to the bar.

00:46:14.220 He's buying drinks for everybody.

00:46:15.420 I mean, paying for everything.

00:46:17.060 That's what he's doing with the five grand.

00:46:19.000 He's keeping everybody in the bar to party with him all night, you know.

00:46:22.260 And he wasn't going to bed at nine o'clock back then.

00:46:24.520 He doesn't like to be alone, he said.

00:46:26.380 He said there's been times in his life where he didn't, he couldn't, absolutely couldn't

00:46:31.420 stand to be alone.

00:46:32.860 Yeah.

00:46:33.300 I thought that was interesting.

00:46:34.360 Yeah.

00:46:34.640 Because some people, they like their piece.

00:46:36.240 They like their space.

00:46:39.120 Yeah, he just, it was interesting when even talking to him, he just is who he, it seems

00:46:43.780 like there's not a lot of getting, he's just the nature boy.

00:46:47.900 That's who he is, bro.

00:46:48.900 That's who he is.

00:46:49.660 It's very admirable and it's interesting, you know.

00:46:52.280 But I mean, that is who he is.

00:46:54.060 He likes to have a good time and he will find it no matter what.

00:46:57.380 And he wants you to have a good time too.

00:46:59.280 Yeah.

00:46:59.740 I don't think I could be Hulk Hogan 24 hours a day.

00:47:02.440 Yeah.

00:47:03.280 I don't think I could, I wouldn't make it.

00:47:05.740 Yeah.

00:47:06.120 I wouldn't make it.

00:47:07.340 Well, that's what I can imagine.

00:47:08.360 Yeah.

00:47:08.500 Being a hero to so many people and how it is, yeah, to be able to be then, to then be

00:47:13.560 a dad would also seem like tough, you know.

00:47:18.860 What about if you could, when you look back on kind of your career, because you've had a

00:47:22.680 lot of different angles, you've had wrestling, you've had entertainment, right?

00:47:27.780 You've had movies, we went and I remember seeing, what was the one with you against

00:47:32.640 No Holds Barred.

00:47:33.720 Yeah.

00:47:34.220 No Holds Barred.

00:47:35.380 Yeah, dude.

00:47:36.100 That was fucking crazy when you did that, dude.

00:47:38.800 That was a wild one.

00:47:39.900 Yeah.

00:47:40.140 And we went and see you had the thing and we're like, what is going on here?

00:47:44.320 Yeah.

00:47:44.460 Tiny past late, man.

00:47:45.980 Tiny past late.

00:47:46.600 Yeah.

00:47:46.800 I was sorry to see that.

00:47:47.960 He's my boy.

00:47:48.860 That was a couple of years ago, right?

00:47:50.500 Yeah.

00:47:50.960 Yeah.

00:47:51.160 Yeah, do you start to get like, why didn't you, why have you had better luck than some

00:47:57.440 of these guys?

00:47:59.740 I kind of reeled it in, bro.

00:48:01.280 You mean, why am I still alive?

00:48:03.640 Yeah.

00:48:04.020 Is that what you're asking me?

00:48:05.020 Yeah, I didn't want to say it like that.

00:48:06.160 No, no, that's cool.

00:48:06.800 It's cool.

00:48:07.280 I think, honestly, if we stayed up for three, four nights in a row partying, I would still

00:48:14.340 go work out.

00:48:15.160 Right.

00:48:15.440 Nobody else would.

00:48:16.340 I would still go train.

00:48:18.280 I would still eat good.

00:48:19.680 I was the training prayers and vitamins.

00:48:21.300 I was actually doing that, you know, praying that I wouldn't die.

00:48:24.480 Yeah.

00:48:24.800 The vitamins.

00:48:25.360 Still a prayer.

00:48:26.140 Yeah.

00:48:26.940 But, but yeah, the vitamins are Percocets.

00:48:29.540 Yeah, whatever.

00:48:30.300 You know, maybe a couple more, but a couple more than a couple.

00:48:35.500 I mean, look, when they came out with Somas, dude, I'm I drove a car into an invisible

00:48:39.240 driveway.

00:48:40.220 Yeah.

00:48:40.780 Yeah.

00:48:41.060 And went to get.

00:48:42.560 That was one of the drugs of choice for the wrestlers.

00:48:45.140 Yeah.

00:48:45.260 It was very dangerous for them because it was shut.

00:48:47.240 People's throat down.

00:48:48.100 My buddy, Richard, died.

00:48:49.080 He choked on some chicken that he didn't even know he was eating.

00:48:51.480 And yeah, but he took some of those muscle relax.

00:48:54.620 They relax your throat so much.

00:48:55.880 You're it doesn't pull the food down.

00:48:57.740 A lot of people choke today.

00:48:58.600 Yeah.

00:48:59.040 Yeah.

00:48:59.220 A lot of guys would get the Soma shakes.

00:49:00.920 I don't know if you ever saw that, but that's a little scary.

00:49:03.640 God, it sounds like a tick tock trend almost.

00:49:05.840 It's just like somebody beating it and they can't stop or they'll be walking and they freeze

00:49:10.060 and they I mean, I've seen it happen so many times when you're eating 10, 20 of

00:49:13.940 a time, you know, but people were taking that much pain pills to feel OK, huh?

00:49:19.160 Oh, yeah.

00:49:19.880 Oh, yeah.

00:49:21.120 And, you know, for me, I would always I never went down that road.

00:49:26.260 Yeah.

00:49:26.420 You know, if you're supposed to take one or two, that would be it.

00:49:29.520 I never went down that road five or 10.

00:49:31.480 I never did that.

00:49:32.420 You know, never.

00:49:32.820 We didn't have addiction.

00:49:33.620 It doesn't sound like.

00:49:34.440 No, man.

00:49:34.680 No, I've been, you know, when it came to weed or this and that and the other, I could

00:49:37.980 quit and not do it for three, four or five years.

00:49:39.740 It wouldn't matter.

00:49:40.540 Yeah.

00:49:40.980 You know, so it's like.

00:49:42.820 But, you know, I just think because I was real consistent with the training and actually

00:49:47.500 trying to eat good in between all the craziness of the drinking and raising hell,

00:49:51.800 I kind of like stayed on track where I would see these guys defect for weeks and not go

00:49:58.440 to the gym and just drink constantly and just not eat, not sleep.

00:50:02.540 And I just I can't handle it, man.

00:50:03.640 I had to be the lead dog, man.

00:50:05.120 Right.

00:50:05.480 I still had to be the main event where they get beyond the match underneath me to be

00:50:08.600 slacking.

00:50:09.320 Right.

00:50:09.740 I had to I had to blow the place.

00:50:11.520 You had to sell the ticket.

00:50:12.380 Yeah.

00:50:12.800 I mean, I had to deliver.

00:50:14.700 You know, I didn't want anybody stealing my spot because they were all trying, you know,

00:50:19.200 every night.

00:50:20.080 Yeah, I guess it's strange because your teammates, but at the same time, they're low key trying

00:50:24.540 to take your throne.

00:50:25.940 Yeah.

00:50:26.300 Yeah.

00:50:27.420 I slipped on a banana peel.

00:50:28.720 I got hurt.

00:50:29.120 They'd be more than happy to replace me.

00:50:30.960 And how much do you have to make sure the promoter and the owners that you stay in their

00:50:36.760 good graces so that you also stay the lead dog?

00:50:39.700 Is that like a whole nother thing going on?

00:50:41.880 That that helps.

00:50:43.140 That helps.

00:50:43.800 Um, I just get myself in a position that the character became so powerful, even if I

00:50:51.760 really did piss somebody off, they still had to use me.

00:50:54.060 Yeah.

00:50:54.660 You know, because if I went somewhere else, I put them out of business, you know, so the

00:50:58.120 character, it had a long run.

00:50:59.600 I mean, you know.

00:51:00.220 Oh, yeah.

00:51:00.740 It's still running for me right now.

00:51:01.820 The whole red and yellow, bro, through the 80s and all through the 90s.

00:51:05.600 And then when I went back, you know, that last time when I wrestled The Rock and a couple

00:51:10.120 other people, I was still red hot, man, you know?

00:51:12.780 Oh, yeah.

00:51:13.240 I remember seeing a poster.

00:51:14.340 It said it said, fuck Ronald McDonald and that of him with red and yellow.

00:51:19.720 And then it said Hulkamania.

00:51:21.120 Yeah.

00:51:21.880 And that's when I knew you had just done it.

00:51:24.300 Yeah.

00:51:24.640 Yeah.

00:51:24.820 There was there was real a real iffy thing when I came back to the WWE the last time because

00:51:32.120 I'd spent 10 years trying to put him out of business, you know, with Ted

00:51:35.440 Turner and we were beating the crap out of him for a long time.

00:51:39.020 And then there were a bunch of business decisions and American Online and Turner Broadcasting

00:51:43.180 merged and they didn't want wrestling as part of their portfolio.

00:51:47.100 They wanted Turner Classics, new movies of the week and new programming.

00:51:50.560 Was that AOL they merged with that?

00:51:51.780 Yeah.

00:51:52.160 And they took my boss, Ted Turner, and kicked him to the curb.

00:51:55.580 He had some off his way in the back of the building where I couldn't even find him

00:51:58.000 half the time.

00:51:59.560 And they just didn't want wrestling, even though on TBS and TNT, we had three to one ratings

00:52:04.340 of the highest shows they had.

00:52:06.520 And so when all that started to decline and demise, you know, I get a call from Vince,

00:52:12.860 you know, and he says, hey, man, I want you to come back and, you know, put the red and

00:52:17.760 yellow rub on the rock, you know?

00:52:19.880 I said, well, I don't want to come back as a good guy.

00:52:21.740 I'm going to come back as Hollywood Hogan, you know, because if I'm going to do it right,

00:52:24.880 I want to put this kid over right, you know?

00:52:26.380 And plus he, I knew his dad.

00:52:28.180 I traveled with his father for years.

00:52:29.720 Yeah.

00:52:29.860 Yeah.

00:52:30.020 You guys, you started with the father.

00:52:31.360 Yeah, I started with his dad.

00:52:32.560 We traveled one everywhere together.

00:52:33.880 And I mean, I remember when Rock was like seven or eight years old, I threw my headband and

00:52:36.840 he caught it in the crowd at the garden, you know?

00:52:38.740 So I had a long history with the family and all the Samoan brothers.

00:52:42.000 They're all my guys.

00:52:43.800 Yeah, I was there when the Rock came back, dude.

00:52:45.460 I was there when he came back.

00:52:46.820 I think it was 2014 or something.

00:52:48.340 But anyway, go on.

00:52:49.160 So yeah, so when I wrestled him, you know, I did everything I could to get heat, you know?

00:52:52.720 Right.

00:52:53.120 Hit him in the back of the head with a hammer.

00:52:54.620 I put him in an ambulance, chained the ambulance.

00:52:56.180 I ran him over with a semi.

00:52:57.700 I mean, I did everything I could to make people hate me.

00:53:01.820 Then when I went out at WrestleMania 18, they cheered me out of the building.

00:53:04.520 Whenever the Rock would punch me, they'd boo him.

00:53:06.260 I was like, oh, my God.

00:53:08.060 You know, so I said, all that stuff we talked about, we ain't doing it.

00:53:10.600 Just listen.

00:53:11.160 We're going.

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00:58:06.680 So I guess in the end, the crowd is the real determinant of whatever script they're writing, if it's going to play or not.

00:58:13.800 Yeah.

00:58:13.980 Ah, that's so interesting.

00:58:15.600 Yeah, because, you know, like I said, we'd never, um, I had never talked to anybody about having a match before.

00:58:23.500 And when I went back, Vince was worried.

00:58:25.760 Well, things have changed, monster.

00:58:27.460 You know, if you're going to come back here, you've got to really bring it.

00:58:30.800 I didn't say anything, but in my mind, I'm saying, if I bring my shit, you're going to ask me to take it back.

00:58:35.400 You know, because I can still go.

00:58:37.660 And so I didn't say anything.

00:58:39.320 And then all of a sudden, I get a call from Vince.

00:58:41.040 You know, we'd really feel comfortable if you'd go down to Miami and rehearse the match.

00:58:46.040 I said, Vince, I've never rehearsed a match in my life.

00:58:48.020 What are we going to talk about?

00:58:49.100 Yeah.

00:58:49.380 I don't know what I'm going to do until I listen to the people.

00:58:51.600 You know, I listen to my ear and my heart.

00:58:54.120 I don't.

00:58:55.080 Yeah.

00:58:55.540 You know, so I go out of respect.

00:58:57.600 Vince asked me to go down there.

00:58:58.680 So I go down there and Rocky Johnson's there, his dad.

00:59:02.280 Oh, yeah.

00:59:02.740 He played football at Miami, didn't he?

00:59:04.260 Yeah.

00:59:04.520 And it's hot as a bitch in this warehouse they had, middle of summer.

00:59:08.640 And this other guy named Pat Patterson, who knows a lot about wrestling and kind of helped me when I first started.

00:59:13.720 So I get in the ring with Rock and he kind of told me what he wanted to do, you know,

00:59:17.320 and kind of walked me through what he wanted to do.

00:59:19.160 And I was thinking, man, you know, what if the crowd doesn't like what we're doing?

00:59:24.080 Are we just going to keep doing this?

00:59:26.120 You know, so out of respect, I listened to him, you know, because, you know, of his dad and him and the family.

00:59:31.280 I listened to everything I wanted to do.

00:59:32.540 And then Pat Patterson goes, okay, let's go through the match.

00:59:35.180 I said, are you fucking crazy?

00:59:37.200 So if I fall down here, I'm going to get hurt.

00:59:38.980 Yeah.

00:59:39.240 I need 80,000 people, bro.

00:59:41.020 You know, I mean, I'm a one-time around-the-block guy.

00:59:44.720 I ain't going to reverse this crap.

00:59:45.540 Yeah, me too, dude.

00:59:46.340 Yeah, so anyway.

00:59:46.900 It's embarrassing a lot of times.

00:59:48.340 I said, look, just we're cool.

00:59:50.140 And Dwayne's father, I mean, Rock's father's going, Dwayne, listen to Hogan.

00:59:54.060 He's just yelling at him from outside.

00:59:55.480 Just listen to Hogan.

00:59:57.260 You know, so we get up to Toronto, right?

01:00:00.420 And, you know, everybody thinks I'm going to get booed out of the building and they're going to cheer him

01:00:04.120 because he's been the number one baby-faced guy there forever.

01:00:06.360 So we're in the dressing room and Rock starts going over.

01:00:10.120 What we kind of planned, I'm listening and listening.

01:00:11.980 I said, okay, brother, if it's there, we'll do it.

01:00:13.340 If it's there, we'll do it.

01:00:14.200 If it's there, we'll do it.

01:00:15.340 And his dad's going, Dwayne, listen to Hogan.

01:00:17.660 So we get out there, bro, and it was booing him, cheering me.

01:00:21.240 I said, this ain't going to work.

01:00:23.180 So we kind of flipped things around in the ring and he was so good in the ring, bro.

01:00:26.940 He's like an audible man.

01:00:28.120 He's like that second generation, third generation wrestler instinct, man.

01:00:32.660 He was there.

01:00:33.560 So it was fun.

01:00:35.020 But it took me about 10 minutes to get things turned around to where they were pissed at me

01:00:39.160 and halfway pissed at me and, you know, halfway for each of us.

01:00:43.060 But it was an amazing night.

01:00:45.300 I've never experienced anything like that with a crowd.

01:00:48.260 That was a lot of quit thinking on our feet out there.

01:00:51.140 That's cool, man.

01:00:52.960 But that's how it always was with me.

01:00:54.320 I never wanted to talk about anything.

01:00:56.520 I want to go out there and see what these people want.

01:00:58.220 Please start deciding for them.

01:00:59.780 Oh, I remember screaming so loud.

01:01:01.300 I thought you could hear me through my television, you know?

01:01:03.420 Well, you know what?

01:01:04.680 That what you're talking about, that main event, that night at WrestleMania, we had 33 million

01:01:09.400 people watch that night.

01:01:10.880 Still the largest TV audience for NBC.

01:01:14.320 Dude.

01:01:14.880 Oh, I can't imagine how many younger siblings are in wheelchairs because of you guys.

01:01:21.300 Oh, thanks, brother.

01:01:22.920 And look, and proudly in wheelchairs, too.

01:01:25.200 Thanks, brother.

01:01:26.360 Can we get some class action lawsuits?

01:01:28.420 I'm just saying.

01:01:30.040 Thanks, brother.

01:01:31.740 I remember once wrestling came on, I knew to put on my knee and elbow pads because I

01:01:36.740 was a young because I was a younger brother, dude, and we were going to get it, brother.

01:01:41.960 That's cool, man.

01:01:42.760 That's cool.

01:01:43.620 What's been a tough thing?

01:01:44.740 Like a lot of you guys travel so much.

01:01:46.960 A lot of it's tough on families.

01:01:48.080 What's the tough?

01:01:48.600 What was the toughest part?

01:01:49.780 Like, was it tough on your family with I'm sure with the dad being gone, it's got to be

01:01:53.660 really tough.

01:01:54.620 You know, looking back, was there ways you think that you could manage it better?

01:01:58.100 Or like Flair said, the career just takes so much time.

01:02:01.240 You just can't be home.

01:02:02.820 I had kind of a, and this just sounds terrible to say, but I have to say it.

01:02:06.900 I had a luxury that a lot of guys didn't have.

01:02:09.640 I kind of like got myself in a position where like, if I took time off for a movie, Vince

01:02:16.380 would go, my God, I can't write your name down.

01:02:18.080 It's hard to book.

01:02:19.480 Because, you know, Vince had a book, old school book, and he put Hogan versus Kamala or Hogan

01:02:25.100 versus Andre the Giant.

01:02:26.480 And then, you know, there's A, B, and C town.

01:02:28.600 There's the A town I was on, the B town the Warriors on, and C town would be like a tag

01:02:32.280 team.

01:02:34.060 Yeah, maybe.

01:02:34.420 Greg Valentine and Brutus, and everybody wanted to be on the A town, you know, because if

01:02:38.180 you're in the first match in my town, you make like two, three, $5,000.

01:02:41.500 Right, you're making money.

01:02:42.400 And if you're in the C town, you know, the first match, you make $250 or $350.

01:02:45.520 Yeah.

01:02:45.900 You know, so Vince would go, oh man, you know, it's just so hard to book when you take time

01:02:51.260 off to do a movie or whatever.

01:02:52.500 I did 16 or 17, 12 budget kids movies, you know, and TV series and all kind of weird stuff.

01:02:57.340 But, you know, so I put most of my time in, and the luxury that I was afforded was the

01:03:04.440 character was so powerful.

01:03:06.760 Honestly, you could put my name down.

01:03:08.040 And I said, it don't even matter.

01:03:09.220 Just put my name down and say Hulkamania is coming to Washington, D.C.

01:03:12.160 If you want to put an opponent there, fine.

01:03:13.500 But you don't have to.

01:03:15.040 And the character was so powerful as far as the drawing power that once my daughter, Brooke,

01:03:23.160 was about two, not about three years old, and she started noticing I was gone, I started

01:03:27.760 winding down a little bit.

01:03:29.240 And I started working more part-time.

01:03:31.740 But I was chartering planes all the time.

01:03:34.120 Right.

01:03:34.480 So you're using your time to the best you could.

01:03:36.600 Right.

01:03:36.820 So if I was in Madison Square Garden one night and I had Tuesday off, I'd fly home.

01:03:40.580 Right.

01:03:41.080 And then Wednesday, if it had to be in Mexico City, I'd fly to Mexico, you know, and it

01:03:44.980 got to the point where I had to buy my own plane, you know, to get this done.

01:03:50.000 Oh, wow.

01:03:50.280 You were really doing some business.

01:03:51.380 Yeah, I was doing real good.

01:03:53.840 And, you know, so when my kids got up, and Nick was two years behind, so by the time Brooke

01:03:59.080 was four or five and Nick was two or three, I started to slow down.

01:04:02.480 So I spent a lot of time at home, you know, the last 15 or 20 years of my career.

01:04:08.080 But I still banged it out, man.

01:04:10.260 I still had some crazy deals going on where I still generated a lot of revenue.

01:04:14.740 Yeah.

01:04:14.960 And did you have full ownership of your own, of your own character?

01:04:20.780 How did that work out with, because it's, you create it within the WWF.

01:04:26.780 Yeah.

01:04:27.380 Right.

01:04:28.060 So was there partnerships in it and stuff like that?

01:04:32.240 You ready for this story?

01:04:34.100 Maybe.

01:04:34.620 And if it's uncomfortable, I don't want you to.

01:04:35.860 No, no, no.

01:04:36.080 It's way cool.

01:04:36.760 Okay.

01:04:36.960 It's just, it's just really a little twist here.

01:04:39.480 I own everything.

01:04:40.540 I own Hulk Hogan.

01:04:41.600 I own Hulk.

01:04:42.060 I mean, I own Holster.

01:04:43.080 Congratulations.

01:04:43.400 I'm one of the few guys that own their name and the rights and the trademarks and licenses.

01:04:47.680 I own everything.

01:04:48.400 Yeah.

01:04:49.280 So when I first, the name I was wrestling, I had several names.

01:04:53.360 Super Destroyer, Terry Boulder, Sterling Golden, Terry the Hulk Boulder, different colors.

01:04:58.260 Sterling Golden sounds, no offense, I know it's you, but I don't love that one.

01:05:03.620 I know.

01:05:03.940 Well, that was a guy named Jim Barnett, who's a very nice man.

01:05:06.800 Yes, Jim Barnett was cool.

01:05:08.240 Yeah, he was cool.

01:05:08.960 He, you know.

01:05:11.360 Okay.

01:05:11.600 A little light in the loafers, but he's a good guy.

01:05:14.080 Yeah, not everybody.

01:05:14.940 Loved him to death.

01:05:15.340 Loved him to death.

01:05:16.920 But, yeah, he called me Sterling, my boy.

01:05:19.560 Oh, yeah.

01:05:20.060 That's what I'm saying.

01:05:21.100 That freaked me out, man.

01:05:22.400 Yeah.

01:05:23.020 But anyway, so anyway, I went through all these different things.

01:05:25.780 And finally, when I quit and I was working on the docs, I'll never wrestle again.

01:05:30.520 I'm done.

01:05:31.400 I'm, you know, five or six times I've quit.

01:05:33.080 I'm over this crap.

01:05:34.140 I get a call from Vince McMahon and a couple of local wrestlers, Jack and Jerry Briscoe,

01:05:39.300 who are here in Florida.

01:05:41.000 Jack was an NCAA champion, world heavyweight champion.

01:05:43.500 Wow, so they were real wrestlers.

01:05:44.820 Yeah.

01:05:45.100 They said, you know, Vince McMahon, this is perfect for you.

01:05:49.420 This is Madison Square Garden.

01:05:50.880 This is where all the really big wrestlers go.

01:05:53.900 And they kept pounding on me, pounding on me.

01:05:55.980 I said, okay, well, I'll go up there, but I'm not taking my wrestling stuff with me.

01:05:59.520 I'm like, what kind of a horse's ass is that?

01:06:02.400 So I fly up there, and they had just got rid of superstar Billy Graham because he'd kind

01:06:06.560 of like, they'd had some problems with him.

01:06:09.180 As soon as I walked in, I mean, I was jacked.

01:06:12.260 I was all yoked up on something.

01:06:13.960 I was like 330 pounds.

01:06:16.080 I was working on the docs, running game on the docs, arm wrestling everybody and stuff.

01:06:21.340 So I walk up there in the whole building.

01:06:23.140 I came, slid through the building.

01:06:24.960 I didn't know how to get in correctly.

01:06:26.740 So I had to cut through the crowd for about 20 or 30 feet, and the whole building started

01:06:30.360 yelling, superstar, superstar.

01:06:31.900 I thought I was Billy Graham.

01:06:33.200 And I had a tie-dye tank top on.

01:06:35.020 I didn't even think about it.

01:06:36.640 And Vince McMahon Sr. goes, don't you ever wear that tie-dye in here again.

01:06:41.260 I guess he just had a blowout with Billy Graham.

01:06:43.880 So anyway, I met with him, and he talked about what they wanted to pay me, you know,

01:06:48.580 because I just get tired of getting screwed over.

01:06:50.940 And they talked about getting me a place to live and having a guy travel with me, which

01:06:54.980 was one of the worst decisions they ever made.

01:06:57.660 They hooked me up with one of the biggest con men ever.

01:06:59.780 Really?

01:07:00.320 Yeah.

01:07:00.960 I don't know if you know who Lou Albano was.

01:07:02.620 Yeah, Captain Lou Albano, dude.

01:07:04.100 Okay, well, his partner, Tony Altamore, they were the Sicilians tag team champions.

01:07:07.520 I remember Tony.

01:07:08.400 Okay, well, Tony was the biggest con he ever met.

01:07:11.960 Wow.

01:07:12.280 And he taught me everything.

01:07:13.060 How to slip and fall in a grocery store and walk out with two, three grand, how to do

01:07:15.860 everything, you know?

01:07:16.400 Yeah.

01:07:16.980 So it just, it was horrible to put me with him, but it smartened me up to what the world's all

01:07:20.780 about.

01:07:21.020 So anyway, as I'm talking, he goes, you know what?

01:07:25.200 I want you to be Hulk Hogan.

01:07:27.040 I said, well, what does Hulk Hogan mean?

01:07:29.460 He goes, well, I got Ivan Putsky for the Polish Americans, Bruno Sammartino for the Italian

01:07:33.300 Americans, Chief J. Strongbow for the Native American Indian Americans, and I want you to

01:07:39.080 be Hulk Hogan for the Irish Americans.

01:07:41.580 Here's two bottles of red dye.

01:07:43.180 I want your hair red.

01:07:44.040 And, you know, and they put me with Fred Blassie, and I told Fred, I said, brother,

01:07:50.520 I'm going bald-headed as it is.

01:07:52.000 If I put this red dye in my hair, the party's over.

01:07:54.180 So Dye goes down the toilet, oh my God, he's going to fire you.

01:07:57.160 I said, I could care less.

01:07:58.900 And they didn't fire me.

01:07:59.880 Yeah.

01:08:00.520 But that's how I get the name.

01:08:02.060 Right.

01:08:02.500 Hulk Hogan.

01:08:03.000 Hulk Hogan to represent the Irish Americans.

01:08:04.980 Dang.

01:08:05.480 And Vince gave you the name.

01:08:07.500 So now Vince dies.

01:08:08.660 The Irish goodbye.

01:08:09.660 That could have been your finishing move.

01:08:10.840 Ooh, strong, brother.

01:08:12.440 I like that.

01:08:12.960 Sorry.

01:08:14.040 That would have been really good.

01:08:15.400 Not trying to tell you what to do, but it could have been neat.

01:08:16.840 It could have been.

01:08:17.500 But what you did worked great.

01:08:18.920 Yeah.

01:08:19.760 So anyway, Vince dies.

01:08:21.820 Vince, his son, takes over.

01:08:24.120 And right when this Hulk Hogan thing takes off, we get a call from Marvel Comics.

01:08:28.400 You're infringing on our mark.

01:08:30.880 Reasonably similar.

01:08:32.320 Lou Ferrigno's character.

01:08:34.100 With the cartoon character.

01:08:35.280 Incredible.

01:08:35.560 In the magazine.

01:08:36.620 It was before the TV series.

01:08:38.120 Right.

01:08:39.020 You know, you're infringing on our mark.

01:08:40.780 We're going to sue you.

01:08:41.720 Put you in litigation.

01:08:42.420 So we went ahead and let them have the name.

01:08:48.340 Didn't license the name, but they only had, I only had to pay them one tenth of one percent.

01:08:53.880 Oh, wow.

01:08:54.640 So out of a dollar, if I got a penny, I only had to pay them one tenth of a penny.

01:08:58.540 And that went from 85 to 2005, 20 years.

01:09:03.660 Fast forward to 2005, it's over.

01:09:08.620 You know, now I can't use Hulk Hogan again.

01:09:10.800 I'm red hot in 2005, man.

01:09:13.600 I'm still jamming.

01:09:15.220 So I went to my attorney.

01:09:16.240 I said, I don't give a damn what deal you make.

01:09:18.100 You're going to make that deal because I need the name.

01:09:20.660 So what happened was we went in and I got a one-year extension.

01:09:23.820 I had to pay on 30% of everything I made.

01:09:26.820 Movies, TV, wrestling, they got 30% of everything.

01:09:30.380 But if they decided to sell the name, they had to give me first shot at it.

01:09:36.820 They couldn't, you know, sell the name or do anything, you know.

01:09:39.760 Right.

01:09:40.260 At a fair market value.

01:09:41.880 So all of a sudden, Marvel Comics gets in a bitch fest with the WWE about intellectual properties that they can't re-air old Hulk Hogan matches, which Vince was re-airing all that stuff.

01:09:56.960 They've lost.

01:09:58.020 Marvel Comics lost.

01:09:59.560 And they owed Vince like $35 million.

01:10:02.580 And they made the huge mistake.

01:10:04.680 Of including that in the deal?

01:10:05.880 And they said, no, instead of paying you $35 million, how about if we give you the Hulk Hogan name?

01:10:10.800 And I heard about it.

01:10:12.540 And I went, you guys screwed up now.

01:10:15.060 Because now I don't have to pay $35 million for the name.

01:10:17.480 You have to sell it to me at a fair market value, which is only like $750,000.

01:10:22.100 Wow.

01:10:22.920 Yeah.

01:10:23.180 So I bought the name back.

01:10:24.460 And Vince wanted to buy the name for me.

01:10:26.000 I went, nah, I think I got this one.

01:10:27.280 Let me get this.

01:10:27.860 Yeah, I got this one.

01:10:29.040 Wow.

01:10:29.520 Did that feel pretty?

01:10:30.380 Yeah.

01:10:30.580 That must have been a cool moment because then it's almost like you own yourself.

01:10:33.100 Yeah.

01:10:33.440 So I bought the name back and I just own everything.

01:10:36.640 Wow.

01:10:37.140 Congratulations, man.

01:10:37.820 Yeah.

01:10:37.980 It's really hard to do in the world.

01:10:39.660 How many guys, you know, that have that can say that?

01:10:42.300 Yeah.

01:10:43.620 Was there ever some products?

01:10:45.140 Like people sometimes will try to get me involved with different types of things.

01:10:48.320 You know, have there been interesting products or something you got involved or things that

01:10:51.280 you got involved with?

01:10:52.160 Like I did some pyramid scheme.

01:10:53.400 I lost money in pyramid schemes when I was younger.

01:10:56.040 But that was just like somebody tried to do like a somebody sold us like glitter mining

01:11:01.660 or something like some guy came in our town and said they were selling like some shares

01:11:06.580 of like glitter mining or something.

01:11:07.980 But have you ever had crazy products over the years?

01:11:10.420 You're like, what the fuck?

01:11:11.300 What is this that we're even doing?

01:11:13.360 Well, I mean, we've I mean, you've had a lot of very successful stuff, but it's ever

01:11:16.760 just been anything crazy.

01:11:17.820 Like we're going to make Hulk Hogan like Ferris wheels or something.

01:11:20.660 And you're like, well, I mean, I think I've had like 70 or 80 action figures made.

01:11:25.720 Yeah.

01:11:26.280 I've got a couple at the in my childhood room.

01:11:28.980 Yeah.

01:11:29.660 Well, the one they made that kind of got a little wonky and got a little weird was they

01:11:33.000 made a Hulk Hogan vibrating action figure, which got real funky, you know, and brother.

01:11:38.380 Yeah.

01:11:38.660 Yeah.

01:11:38.840 I've got a little scary, brother.

01:11:41.920 Now, look, if you keep one for the lady.

01:11:45.420 OK, I thought I told you not.

01:11:47.200 And I didn't look at it and say nothing, sir.

01:11:49.240 I don't even know what's over there.

01:11:52.000 What do you guys do for fun dates now?

01:11:53.700 Because you guys seem like you have a nice rapport.

01:11:55.360 What do you guys like to go do together?

01:11:58.280 We love to eat.

01:11:59.560 Yeah.

01:12:00.180 We love to eat.

01:12:01.620 We used to love to drink, but that's over for now.

01:12:05.700 I just love spending time with him.

01:12:07.080 I'm a beach bum.

01:12:07.800 I lived on the beach my whole life.

01:12:09.200 The only reason I leave the beach is to make money.

01:12:10.940 You can't get me off this beach.

01:12:12.420 Yeah.

01:12:12.960 I just live right up the street, maybe two blocks.

01:12:15.380 Oh, that's awesome.

01:12:16.260 Yeah.

01:12:16.780 So it's really clear.

01:12:18.060 I've never been to Clearwater before.

01:12:19.660 I know I heard crazy stories that John Daly used to live in a Hooters here.

01:12:23.460 Yeah.

01:12:23.860 Did you ever know about that?

01:12:25.200 Yes.

01:12:25.740 Yeah.

01:12:26.000 Yes.

01:12:26.360 I know Ed Drossey, the guy that owns Hooters.

01:12:28.380 Oh, that's cool.

01:12:29.280 Yeah.

01:12:29.560 Yeah.

01:12:29.800 I always heard that he used to live inside of a Hooters somewhere, and that always blew

01:12:32.700 my mind.

01:12:34.000 That's funny.

01:12:34.800 There's some great stories about him and John Gruden.

01:12:38.140 Yeah, Gruden was across the street.

01:12:39.720 Does he?

01:12:40.300 Yeah, and there's an apartment series of the penthouse over there.

01:12:42.980 I hear he's a really neat guy.

01:12:44.220 Yeah, he's cool.

01:12:44.900 He's cool.

01:12:45.280 Is he a pretty intense dude?

01:12:47.240 He's a good guy.

01:12:48.100 Yeah, I just know him from being around here.

01:12:49.740 I mean, I've got him back home a couple times when he's been out running around, so to make

01:12:54.980 sure he's home safe.

01:12:55.880 Oh, yeah.

01:12:56.500 Yeah.

01:12:57.200 He's a good guy.

01:12:58.680 Yeah, it was funny.

01:13:00.940 If you said you quit drinking, I haven't drank for, let me see, 14 months.

01:13:03.980 I'm 14 months sober, so I don't do drugs or alcohol.

01:13:06.200 But what made you quit?

01:13:09.120 Were you just taking a break?

01:13:10.820 I had been with my girl Sky for a while, and everything that I've ever had happen in my

01:13:16.700 life, both of my two marriages, everything that's ever bad happened to me has had to do

01:13:21.020 with alcohol.

01:13:21.820 Oh, yeah.

01:13:22.280 And during those marriages, there was a lot of alcohol use at times, which caused major

01:13:28.580 issues, major problems.

01:13:31.100 And so, for me, it was really easy to eat a couple of Percocets and drink a couple of

01:13:37.000 shots of tequila and a couple of 8% white cloths.

01:13:41.080 And, okay, brother, I'm ready.

01:13:42.300 Yeah.

01:13:42.580 And, but then, you know, when I got with Sky, I started getting an edge, right?

01:13:48.380 You know, if things weren't said correctly or I didn't like the way things sounded, I

01:13:52.020 would pick, you know, and I'd kind of like dig and start shit.

01:13:55.540 And all of a sudden, I started losing something I didn't want to lose again.

01:13:59.240 So I said, I'm done drinking.

01:14:00.540 That it made just communication a little bit hectic at times.

01:14:03.380 Well, it made me not go off like a hot pocket whenever I didn't hear something I didn't

01:14:06.740 like, you know, because I was, I could be very, when I drink, I could be a prick.

01:14:12.240 Yeah.

01:14:12.720 You know, and real quick on the trigger finger, especially the men.

01:14:15.620 Yeah.

01:14:16.020 You know.

01:14:16.400 And men have probably tried you a lot over the years, huh?

01:14:18.680 Because you were.

01:14:19.700 I've had some issues.

01:14:20.700 Yeah.

01:14:20.920 But I, I, I got to tone my thing down.

01:14:24.260 You know, I'm tired of getting sued all the time, you know?

01:14:26.080 So.

01:14:26.520 Yeah.

01:14:26.920 The main thing was that.

01:14:28.220 Is there other stuff that you want to do with your life?

01:14:30.040 You've had a really amazing life.

01:14:32.060 Do you feel like it went by so fast sometimes?

01:14:34.880 Or do you, when you look back on your life, like, and you still have, I mean, you could still

01:14:38.520 probably live for another 25 years, you know, but, or maybe 30.

01:14:42.040 I don't know.

01:14:42.600 You could live forever.

01:14:43.360 Maybe I don't know what your plan is, but, um, do you feel like, did you ever, was it

01:14:49.220 like you were always looking for like a sense of accomplishment or what do you think like

01:14:52.660 was like your driving force a lot of the times?

01:14:56.360 Probably the thing that really pushed me more than anything was, you know, I didn't want

01:15:01.000 to do the woe is me story, but I grew up and I didn't know we were, I don't even want

01:15:07.780 to say poor.

01:15:08.520 I don't even want to say that.

01:15:09.580 I grew up not knowing that we didn't have money.

01:15:12.000 You know, my mom was a housewife.

01:15:14.300 My dad worked construction and I had one bicycle that got stolen.

01:15:18.740 I never got another one.

01:15:19.760 Yeah.

01:15:20.220 And I had two little trucks to play with.

01:15:21.980 I still had this little pink truck that I had and I had a big yellow Tonka trunk, truck.

01:15:26.680 And I played with that in the dirt all day because my dad was a construction worker.

01:15:30.020 Oh, you wanted to be like him?

01:15:30.780 Yeah.

01:15:31.620 And so I kind of grew up, you know, and then when I got older, I realized, you know, once

01:15:35.540 a month on a Friday, we had one of those little minute stakes, you know, and I just kind of

01:15:40.380 grew up and I started realizing, you know, looking around that, okay, you know, I guess

01:15:45.840 they did the best they could, but I don't want to live like this when I grow up.

01:15:51.540 So I had this crazy thing I didn't even know it was an affirmation.

01:15:54.300 I started telling myself money comes quick and easy to me.

01:15:56.680 And I just kept, would always say that in my head and I said, I'm not going to die the

01:16:01.720 poor Tampa death because in Tampa, there's a road called Gandy Boulevard.

01:16:06.600 And if you're South of Gandy, you're a SOG, South of Gandy.

01:16:09.720 Okay.

01:16:10.380 And I grew up South of Gandy and everybody from South of Gandy either becomes a professional

01:16:15.660 athlete or a drug dealer or you die or you work construction your whole life.

01:16:21.040 Yeah.

01:16:21.240 And I didn't want to die the poor Tampa death.

01:16:23.100 Right.

01:16:23.740 You know.

01:16:24.160 So you wanted to get Nog, you wanted to get on the other side.

01:16:25.980 Right.

01:16:26.320 So I wanted to fight my way out of that town.

01:16:28.020 Yeah.

01:16:28.940 I didn't want to be a drug dealer.

01:16:30.060 I didn't want to die.

01:16:30.720 I didn't want to work construction because I tried construction as a bitch.

01:16:33.380 It wasn't me.

01:16:34.240 Yeah.

01:16:34.560 Okay.

01:16:34.800 So I said, I'm going to fight my way out of this town, you know, plus I played music

01:16:39.100 because I would do anything to avoid working a real job.

01:16:41.520 Yeah.

01:16:41.980 Okay.

01:16:42.240 So I played music for 10 years and did real well at that.

01:16:44.540 But then it got to the point where I was playing the same clubs and just, am I going to

01:16:51.420 do this forever?

01:16:52.520 Right.

01:16:52.780 You know, and so I just switched gears and went after the wrestling thing, you know,

01:16:57.980 and it took me a while to adapt to it, you know.

01:17:02.520 Yeah.

01:17:02.900 It sounds like that.

01:17:03.560 But I was pretty aggressive when I was a kid, you know, and I just kept pushing.

01:17:08.320 You know, I made the big mistake of telling everybody in this town I was going to be a

01:17:10.880 wrestler.

01:17:11.420 Did you really?

01:17:12.500 Yeah.

01:17:12.980 Yeah.

01:17:13.120 That's what got my leg broke the first day.

01:17:14.940 But that's such a scary.

01:17:16.440 You know who did that?

01:17:17.060 The Miz.

01:17:17.600 I'm friends with The Miz, right?

01:17:18.660 Yeah.

01:17:19.200 And he.

01:17:19.740 Hey, by the way, that brother does keep this art form alive.

01:17:22.260 Every time I see him, I tell him how much I love him.

01:17:24.700 Yeah.

01:17:25.100 For what he's done.

01:17:26.040 But because he understands his business a lot more than most of the guys.

01:17:31.560 There's probably two or three guys that I can pick out that understand that business.

01:17:35.300 He's one of them.

01:17:36.060 Yeah.

01:17:36.720 And he gets it.

01:17:37.720 He lived.

01:17:38.380 I mean, he's always been that.

01:17:39.520 I remember him telling us before he was a wrestler, he's like, I'm going to be a wrestler.

01:17:43.040 And we thought he was crazy.

01:17:45.260 And then he proved us all wrong.

01:17:47.320 Dude, I was.

01:17:48.100 I was down in Ybor City.

01:17:50.180 And there was an old track, Blues Image, called Ride Captain Ride, an old song.

01:17:55.420 I just walked over to the other studio and laid the scratch bass line down for Mike Panarin,

01:17:59.820 the Blues Image Band, way before your time.

01:18:01.880 But then I went back over to the studio and we had a chance to go on a national tour with

01:18:05.860 Blackfoot, you know.

01:18:07.160 And I just came off tour with this lady named Jeannie Conroy.

01:18:09.900 And we came back to the studio and everybody was screwing around.

01:18:16.280 One guy was getting married and one guy's girlfriend was having a baby.

01:18:19.500 And so we can leave in two weeks and go on the road with these guys.

01:18:22.820 And Mother's Finest, I don't know if you know who they are, that song CM Punk comes out

01:18:26.520 to, called Personality, that band Mother's Finest.

01:18:28.240 Oh, yeah.

01:18:28.820 Called Personality.

01:18:29.160 Out of Atlanta.

01:18:30.160 We were going to go with them at Blackfoot.

01:18:31.800 We were going to open for them.

01:18:32.800 I said, bro, this is our chance because our shit's straight right now.

01:18:35.840 Two of the guys didn't want to leave.

01:18:37.600 Fuck.

01:18:38.040 And I was so pissed off.

01:18:39.260 I said, let me tell you guys something.

01:18:40.280 I'm done.

01:18:41.560 I've been doing this for 10 years.

01:18:43.020 I've been doing this for 10 years with a couple of you guys.

01:18:46.240 And I'm done.

01:18:47.320 I'm quitting.

01:18:48.060 I'm going to go be the greatest wrestler that ever lived.

01:18:50.340 And all five of these guys fell on the ground laughing.

01:18:53.480 They busted out laughing.

01:18:56.280 And it pissed me off so bad.

01:18:57.740 I didn't know what I was talking about.

01:18:59.360 I just said it because I was mad at them because they wouldn't run the road.

01:19:02.160 Yeah.

01:19:02.680 And then I said, okay, damn it, I'm going to go be a wrestler.

01:19:04.880 You know, it was just the whole thing was crazy.

01:19:06.320 But I had a couple of altercations with wrestlers in bars and had met a few of them.

01:19:10.780 So I wasn't scared to death of them like I was.

01:19:13.680 Because back in the 70s, you know, they all had cauliflower ears and teeth knocked down the noses.

01:19:17.920 I was scared to death of a wrestler.

01:19:19.720 Yeah.

01:19:20.040 Because back in the day when Eddie Graham here had the promotion, if you said wrestling was fake, they'd punch you right in the mouth.

01:19:25.600 Wow.

01:19:26.080 I mean, there was no lawsuits, no lawyers or nothing like that.

01:19:28.580 Yeah, I love that.

01:19:29.740 I wish I was alive then.

01:19:30.720 So I got like, I was scared to death of them.

01:19:32.580 But then I kind of got used to seeing them come in the bar because we had a really hot local band at the time.

01:19:36.920 They would come in to hear us play, you know.

01:19:39.220 And then I kind of would watch them and I wasn't so afraid of them, you know, as I used to be.

01:19:43.580 But yeah, it just all changed, man.

01:19:46.360 Was your, so your father did construction, did, were you at one time able to like say, hey, dad, you don't have to work anymore?

01:19:51.640 Was he always a worker his whole life?

01:19:54.580 Yeah, well, the son, the son burned him up, bro, because he worked outside here in this Florida heat.

01:19:58.760 Oh, God.

01:19:59.340 He started out in the Panama Canal was where he met my mother.

01:20:02.700 My father's Italian, my mother's Panamanian.

01:20:04.980 Oh, cool, man.

01:20:05.940 Yeah, so I don't have to really go in the sun too often.

01:20:08.560 Yeah, my father's from Nicaragua, so.

01:20:10.040 There you go.

01:20:10.560 I have to be careful how I say that word, but also I don't have to go in the sun all the time.

01:20:14.920 Yeah, if you go out there for 10 minutes, you turn purple.

01:20:16.580 Oh, I'm fucking awesome.

01:20:17.280 Yeah, I'm on that team.

01:20:19.680 Yeah, so, you know, it's kind of like, what was the question?

01:20:23.580 Was your father pretty proud of you?

01:20:25.100 I guess that's what I was going to ask you.

01:20:26.280 It got to a point where my family was kind of like not the most feely, touchy, loving family, you know?

01:20:36.440 Oh, yeah.

01:20:37.540 You know, I had a couple brothers, one half-brother, and then another middle brother that didn't do too well in life, you know, and he got killed.

01:20:46.520 He was riding with a bunch of motorcycle clubs and stuff and didn't do too well.

01:20:50.240 But, you know, my dad and mom, I don't ever, ever remember my dad, you know, really being affectionate until later on in life, you know, when I started doing good.

01:21:02.880 And I quit college after four years, which I should have had a degree, but I quit, go play music again.

01:21:08.900 And that really didn't work too well.

01:21:11.880 Probably made him nervous, huh?

01:21:12.940 Yeah, and then when I told him I was going to be a wrestler, that really upset him, you know?

01:21:18.500 And then later on, I brought him up to Madison.

01:21:21.380 Actually, the night I beat the Sheik, I brought my mom and dad up to Madison Square Garden to see that.

01:21:26.580 And my dad had just retired, so I just, from that point on, I just paid for everything.

01:21:33.020 And then when my brother got killed, I was real young at the time, and I got three kids, you know, that were his.

01:21:39.120 His wife got murdered first here in Tampa.

01:21:42.980 He's in the motorcycle gang guy?

01:21:44.680 Yeah, yeah.

01:21:45.280 My brother was riding with a club, and he'd done a couple years in Rayford here.

01:21:48.960 And then when he got out, he'd get in trouble again, and he moved to Houston, changed the name, and then he was riding with the, I don't even want to say the club, but the Oakland chapter in California.

01:21:57.900 But while he was riding in Oakland, his wife was running a hotel, managing a hotel, and she was dating this mafia guy.

01:22:05.720 And she was on the dance floor after work, just dancing with the customer.

01:22:09.820 He came in and shot her in the chest twice, killed her.

01:22:12.440 So then shortly after that, my brother had a little problem with one of the clubs, and they killed him.

01:22:18.920 And so, actually, it's not true.

01:22:22.280 He died of an overdose, and nobody helped him.

01:22:25.340 That's the real truth.

01:22:26.280 I don't want to say it that way.

01:22:28.400 But, so I ended up with three kids, you know, kind of like having to support him.

01:22:32.880 Right.

01:22:33.160 And so, I was running so hard, I had to let my parents help, and then the other side of the family helped.

01:22:39.420 But I was the guy, you know, and taking care of the kids and my parents.

01:22:45.220 Well, so you had a lot of responsibility then suddenly to really to be the guy who's helping keep things going.

01:22:51.040 Basically, I couldn't quit wrestling anymore, okay?

01:22:52.920 Yeah.

01:22:53.240 I had to make it work.

01:22:55.060 I had to make it work.

01:22:56.140 So, it's been a test, you know, test of faith.

01:22:59.220 So, you know, it's all good.

01:23:00.260 Did y'all go to church and stuff growing up, or was there any faith in y'all's home?

01:23:04.840 I went to Ballast Point Baptist Church.

01:23:08.820 I went to Ballast Point Elementary School over in South Tampa.

01:23:11.760 I went to Ballast Point Baptist Church with my mom once.

01:23:15.980 And then one of my buddies was there that I went to elementary school with, and I started going with his family every Sunday.

01:23:22.180 Oh, yeah.

01:23:22.900 Did they have donuts and stuff over there?

01:23:24.600 They have everything.

01:23:25.300 God, I love that, dude.

01:23:26.500 The Lord will freaking get you with that.

01:23:28.120 Yeah, and so I didn't get it because I was so young.

01:23:30.800 But then later on, I was like 13 or 14 years old.

01:23:32.920 I was playing guitar.

01:23:34.460 A buddy of mine who I played football with in junior high school, he had a little Christian youth group.

01:23:40.060 And he said, we need somebody to play guitar.

01:23:42.280 So, I went up there with this guy named Hank Lindstrom, and I started playing guitar.

01:23:46.440 And then that's when I started listening to scripture.

01:23:49.620 And then when I heard the John 3, 16, God's love of the Lord, he gave only the Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

01:23:57.240 Bam, it hit me, you know.

01:23:59.620 And I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 14.

01:24:02.200 I was saved, but then, of course, I derailed.

01:24:04.640 Yeah.

01:24:05.040 For a long time, you know.

01:24:07.180 And went back and forth to church every once in a while.

01:24:10.660 And my first wife was a Catholic, and that really wasn't my thing.

01:24:16.000 You know, my kids went to a Catholic school and went to a Catholic church.

01:24:18.780 I just, I didn't feel, it didn't resonate with me.

01:24:21.840 And then my second wife was spiritual, but she wasn't a believer, so that didn't work for me.

01:24:27.700 And so, this lady here is on the team.

01:24:30.320 So, we go to church every Sunday.

01:24:32.160 Oh, nice.

01:24:32.960 And it's a Christian, Indian Rocks Christian church.

01:24:38.440 It's nice having faith, huh?

01:24:39.860 Actually, I took a buddy of mine with me today, a guy named Mel Chancey.

01:24:42.760 He was the president of Hell's Angels chapter from Chicago.

01:24:46.800 Really?

01:24:47.160 The Baja?

01:24:48.040 I was a one percenter.

01:24:49.580 Yeah, I took him, and he was.

01:24:51.340 This guy was, too?

01:24:52.080 Yeah.

01:24:52.340 Oh, yeah.

01:24:52.660 Oh, yeah.

01:24:53.180 Sorry, Ventura just told me that so many times.

01:24:55.040 Yeah, yeah, but Mel, you know.

01:24:57.520 And he went with you guys today?

01:24:58.900 Yeah, he'll tell you the story.

01:25:00.600 He told my minister today.

01:25:01.400 He went away for nine years.

01:25:02.980 Oh, he was incarcerated.

01:25:04.300 Yeah, for Rico and for a couple attempted murders.

01:25:07.440 And then he came out, and he found the Lord, and we reconnected.

01:25:14.100 So, I took, and he's got his own little ministry thing on the internet, he does.

01:25:17.280 Really?

01:25:17.660 What's it called?

01:25:18.020 Mel Chancey, is his name?

01:25:18.840 Yeah, Mel Chancey.

01:25:19.700 It's John 316 Devotional.

01:25:21.440 Okay.

01:25:21.880 Is that the name of it, Bo?

01:25:22.800 John 316 Devotional.

01:25:24.120 Have to check him out.

01:25:24.600 Is he a pretty cool guy?

01:25:25.260 Is he a pretty interesting guy?

01:25:26.740 Oh, you'll dig him, bro.

01:25:27.980 He's straight, man.

01:25:28.980 He's really cool.

01:25:30.100 Well, what's interesting, because a lot of you, a lot of wrestlers, some of them were

01:25:34.400 almost like pastors to us as kids.

01:25:36.840 They were, you know, it was like, it's where you got your message of hope, you know?

01:25:42.680 Yeah.

01:25:42.880 I think that's a lot of what faith is for people.

01:25:44.880 I know it is for me.

01:25:45.700 You know, it's like, where do I get a message for hope, you know?

01:25:48.440 And yeah, sometimes just hearing like, yeah, somebody like, you can do it, you know, like

01:25:54.900 take your vitamins, say your prayer, you know, like, or just anything that inspires, like,

01:25:58.980 where do you find your hope as you go along through life, you know?

01:26:02.120 And a lot of times for when we were kids, it was, I mean, wrestling is really what hit

01:26:06.660 me first.

01:26:08.000 It was probably my most favorite sport until I started watching UFC.

01:26:11.380 Yeah.

01:26:12.360 Which I really love, you know, UFC is awesome.

01:26:14.860 Do you ever watch any of that?

01:26:15.940 Yeah.

01:26:16.320 Yeah.

01:26:16.760 There was, there was an opportunity to buy it a long time ago and Vince and I passed on

01:26:20.420 it, you know, it was before the referees stopped things and they were kicking people

01:26:25.620 in there on the ground and it just was so violent when it was brought to us.

01:26:29.600 We went and that was a huge mistake.

01:26:33.900 Like, but yeah, no, it's, uh, it's an entertaining sport.

01:26:38.580 Yeah.

01:26:38.920 So many guys, you know, that I know, you know, finally start believing more in the unseen than

01:26:43.540 the seen and they, and they kind of like figure this life out, you know?

01:26:47.520 Yeah.

01:26:47.940 Hopefully not too late, but, uh, it's pretty amazing once you kind of figure it out.

01:26:52.460 Yeah.

01:26:53.380 Well, it's nice to not feel alone.

01:26:55.020 I think, you know, I think a lot of people are looking for that these days, you know,

01:26:58.680 I wonder like societally, have we taken, like, I wonder if our society will look back

01:27:02.660 and be like, what a weird detour we took, like thinking that we could find happiness

01:27:06.480 in so many different things, you know?

01:27:08.280 I don't know.

01:27:09.440 I like thinking about that stuff sometimes.

01:27:11.420 That's pretty crazy, man.

01:27:12.420 A lot of people will just, in this human incarnation, bro, they're just all about materialistic

01:27:17.140 stuff, you know?

01:27:18.000 Yeah.

01:27:18.680 And, uh, as soon as they have a lich with their health or something, they change their

01:27:23.600 tune right away.

01:27:24.380 Oh, yeah.

01:27:24.660 Yeah.

01:27:24.940 You know?

01:27:25.340 Oh, definitely.

01:27:26.100 You'll start drawing pictures of the Lord immediately.

01:27:28.420 Shoot you out, man.

01:27:29.200 I get a couple, I get one bad blood test, dude, and I'm on, you know, I'm on bible.org

01:27:34.460 or whatever.

01:27:34.960 There you go.

01:27:35.720 There you go.

01:27:36.460 Um, what, um, do you guys take any vacations?

01:27:40.660 You and your lady, do you have a vacation plan for the summer?

01:27:43.060 We don't have one yet.

01:27:44.180 I guess you live in a vacation.

01:27:45.840 Yeah, we do.

01:27:46.460 We don't have one yet.

01:27:47.340 We're talking about going some places.

01:27:49.500 Last year on our birthday, we were going to go to Miami, but I was sick as a dog or something.

01:27:53.740 But, you know, we've got, uh, we're planning some stuff now.

01:27:57.120 Things have kind of straightened out.

01:27:58.820 It's been a really busy year this last year.

01:28:01.760 Has it been?

01:28:02.700 Yeah, it's been crazy, man.

01:28:04.060 I decided to go back to work again.

01:28:06.940 Are you, you're going to wrestle again?

01:28:08.600 No, no, no, no, no.

01:28:09.260 But I mean, business-wise.

01:28:10.580 Okay, understood.

01:28:11.400 I mean, no disrespect to Vo and Darren Prince and stuff, but they can, they can tell you,

01:28:16.440 you know, or anybody that, you know, they call me for stuff all the time.

01:28:20.620 And I think in the last couple of years, I've made just like one appearance, you know, maybe,

01:28:25.840 maybe one, but, you know, I did one this year already, but they, for years and years, they'd

01:28:32.180 call me to do stuff and, you know, don't just wasn't interested.

01:28:35.860 And once I shut down, I shut down, brother.

01:28:37.920 You know what I mean?

01:28:38.280 Yeah.

01:28:38.820 Cause this, I'm, I'm like a beach bum, you know, I'm not really into it for you, you

01:28:42.760 know?

01:28:42.880 So, I mean, it's kind of like, I've turned down a bunch of movies, whole bunch of movies,

01:28:47.060 whole bunch of TV, I mean, you know, I get calls all the time.

01:28:51.080 Oh yeah, TV, yeah.

01:28:52.020 Cause, you know, with the content I have now, with the bar and the restaurant, the retail

01:28:56.220 store here and the retail store in Atlanta, and my son's back here and my daughter's here

01:28:59.540 and my new baby here has got three kids and there's, there's all kind of content, bro.

01:29:04.280 And everybody's banging me all the time to do reality shows and stuff.

01:29:07.140 And I'm just like, I just shut it all down.

01:29:09.740 And even with appearances and autograph sessions, you know, I mean, I use Vogue and Prince marketing,

01:29:15.780 you know, when I do do stuff and, you know, sometimes the WWE will call me to do stuff

01:29:21.080 and I'll just kind of, I still work for them, you know, and, you know, I'll kind of pass

01:29:26.140 on that and, or I'll do it, you know, it just depends on what the weather's like, you

01:29:31.460 know, out back.

01:29:33.680 We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight.

01:29:36.080 Rocky's vacation.

01:29:37.240 Here we come.

01:29:38.180 Whoa, is this economy?

01:29:40.880 Free beer, wine, and snacks.

01:29:43.360 Sweet.

01:29:44.420 Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.

01:29:48.500 And with live TV, I'm not missing the game.

01:29:51.520 It's kind of like I'm already on vacation.

01:29:54.700 Nice.

01:29:55.960 On behalf of Air Canada, nice travels.

01:29:58.960 Wi-Fi available to airplane members on equipped flights.

01:30:01.080 Sponsored by Bell.

01:30:01.720 Conditions apply.

01:30:02.420 CRCanada.com.

01:30:03.560 Oh, yeah.

01:30:03.940 But no, no, I got in business with Tyson and all these guys to,

01:30:08.000 you know, for this whole wellness thing that we're moving forward on.

01:30:11.420 You guys have a CBD line.

01:30:13.040 Is that right?

01:30:13.480 Yeah, we do.

01:30:14.140 We do.

01:30:14.400 When's it come out?

01:30:15.080 Bo, help me.

01:30:15.820 August.

01:30:16.620 August.

01:30:17.500 Okay.

01:30:18.400 Yeah, and this is some of the packaging and stuff, man.

01:30:21.000 Oh, sweet.

01:30:21.460 Let me see.

01:30:22.020 Yeah.

01:30:22.280 So it's, we're going for a.

01:30:25.720 Oh, nice as a vape.

01:30:27.020 Yeah.

01:30:29.380 Yeah, we're going for the whole wellness aspect of it because after.

01:30:32.840 Yeah, boy.

01:30:33.920 After being in so much.

01:30:35.200 Yeah, look at you.

01:30:36.080 What is he going to do?

01:30:37.780 Yeah.

01:30:38.020 Sorry.

01:30:38.880 What if every time I hit it, it made it so that's how I talk, bro?

01:30:42.740 It would work.

01:30:43.640 That would be awesome.

01:30:44.900 It would work.

01:30:45.460 Dude, this is a vibe, man.

01:30:46.720 Yeah, because the ones they have are so generic.

01:30:49.480 I've vaped on and off for about a year and a half, so.

01:30:52.000 Yeah.

01:30:52.640 I've been at the bottom of one of these bitches, boy.

01:30:55.240 I've been through it all.

01:30:57.340 God, I can't even sleep.

01:30:59.540 Yeah, this thing will fucking make you drive all night.

01:31:02.880 You're too much, man.

01:31:04.000 So if it's wellness, like what type of stuff?

01:31:06.680 So CBD?

01:31:08.400 Yeah, well, we got CBD for energy and for sleep, and we're also going down the THC road.

01:31:13.600 Okay, yeah.

01:31:14.180 Because there's so many people that got hooked on prescription pain pills and prescription drugs

01:31:20.040 and different drugs to sleep, you know, halcyons and Xanax that, you know, it seems like,

01:31:25.300 you know, going down that road with the THC is an option for people.

01:31:29.540 Much safer.

01:31:29.880 A healthier option, you know.

01:31:30.960 Yeah.

01:31:31.660 And so, you know, I partnered with, and, you know, and what I didn't understand at the time

01:31:35.820 is to sell the THC, you know, you have to partner with somebody from the same state.

01:31:42.900 Oh, really?

01:31:43.580 So we're starting, yeah, I didn't know that, you know.

01:31:45.540 So if you're in Michigan, you got to partner with a grower in Michigan.

01:31:48.180 So in Florida, we partnered with Sunburn, and they've got 150 dispensaries around the state,

01:31:54.640 and we start August 1st with them.

01:31:56.120 So I'm really excited because, you know, it's kind of like a, it's a gradual transition.

01:32:00.420 It's a way to back out slowly from, you know, stuff that can be really addictive,

01:32:06.440 such as the perks, the pain pills, and whatever else, you know, people, you know,

01:32:11.420 numb themselves with the alcohol and everything else.

01:32:13.820 So I just think it's a more realistic way to wind down and get healthier.

01:32:18.340 So I'm on the team, man.

01:32:19.740 I'm really excited about it.

01:32:20.920 And will you be, like, featured on their products?

01:32:24.040 Is it, like, Hulk's meta?

01:32:26.120 Is it, like, a…

01:32:27.000 Yeah, it's going to be Hulk's products, yeah.

01:32:31.860 Okay.

01:32:32.120 And then we're going to, with the Delta 8 and a couple things,

01:32:35.800 we came up with a kind of cool little thing, kind of like an inside joke that,

01:32:41.780 you know, when I was the bad guy, Hollywood Hogan, we were always riding dirty, you know.

01:32:45.600 We always had beer in the car, we were partying in the car, I mean,

01:32:49.600 Ash and Hall doing all kinds of crazy stuff.

01:32:51.580 So when you go with Hollywood Hogan, you know, and you're going to go ride dirty,

01:32:57.040 we're going to have something called the mustache rides.

01:32:59.300 Oh, yeah, boy.

01:33:00.740 So ride dirty, get a mustache ride with Hollywood.

01:33:03.200 I've given a couple.

01:33:04.000 I think I've given a couple.

01:33:04.980 I don't even know what it is.

01:33:05.800 I'll have to Google it.

01:33:06.580 Need to grow the mustache, bro.

01:33:07.680 Okay, well, yeah.

01:33:08.940 Those were lip rides.

01:33:09.920 Oh, yeah, there we go.

01:33:10.680 Yeah, those were lip rides, too.

01:33:12.080 Yeah, those were front teeth rides.

01:33:13.620 Some of them, I'm really, I'm pretty uncoordinated.

01:33:16.360 So that's awesome, though.

01:33:18.360 Congrats, man.

01:33:19.140 Yeah, so it should be interesting to see, you know, how my brand performs in that arena.

01:33:24.040 Well, I'm sure, look, in anything you've gotten into, you've performed well,

01:33:27.600 so I'm sure this shouldn't be different.

01:33:29.320 Yeah, well, it makes sense.

01:33:30.520 You know, it's a logical extension of where I'm going and where I've already been,

01:33:34.940 so just the whole thing makes sense at this point.

01:33:36.920 You know, everybody's kind of aware on how much this will help, you know, certain individuals.

01:33:42.540 Let's get some healing.

01:33:43.620 Yeah, thank God, brother.

01:33:44.840 Thank God.

01:33:45.960 But, yeah, I love them.

01:33:47.280 But that's nice.

01:33:47.900 You have your whole family here now.

01:33:49.360 Yeah, yeah.

01:33:49.960 Your whole family's in town.

01:33:50.780 Nick moved back, yeah, and he helps me a lot.

01:33:52.960 He's real good on the stick, man.

01:33:54.220 He runs Monday nights for us.

01:33:56.100 I don't know if you're around tomorrow.

01:33:57.960 I might actually be staying until Tuesday, so if I do.

01:34:00.820 You have to come to my bar tomorrow night.

01:34:03.500 You guys do karaoke.

01:34:04.200 It's Monday night karaoke.

01:34:04.880 It is insanity.

01:34:06.360 Really?

01:34:06.620 It is insane what goes on in there.

01:34:10.760 I mean.

01:34:11.320 Karaoke's unbelievable, isn't it?

01:34:13.080 Well, my partner said karaoke wouldn't work.

01:34:16.760 I said that, man, son, who's doing it, brother?

01:34:18.460 Yeah.

01:34:19.120 You know, so it gets really sick over there.

01:34:22.460 Yeah.

01:34:23.180 They got some real singers in this town, huh?

01:34:25.320 Well, it's either really good or it's really bad.

01:34:27.680 Oh, yeah.

01:34:28.180 There's no in-between, so yeah, but if you're around, please come over, man.

01:34:31.460 Yeah, maybe I will because I think I'm going to stay.

01:34:33.620 I was going to go maybe.

01:34:34.820 It's right across the street.

01:34:36.160 Are you staying there?

01:34:36.220 We walked in yesterday.

01:34:37.680 No, we're staying in.

01:34:38.880 We got shows in Tampa.

01:34:39.800 I have one more tonight.

01:34:40.340 Oh, okay, okay.

01:34:41.540 But I wanted to come to the beach tomorrow, so maybe I would make that work,

01:34:44.580 and I wouldn't leave until Tuesday.

01:34:46.440 No, that'd be cool.

01:34:47.340 Yeah.

01:34:48.380 Who is somebody that you miss wrestling or just spending time with?

01:34:51.160 Who is somebody that you miss?

01:34:53.520 Well, I mean, across the street, there used to be right where my restaurant's at

01:34:59.740 across the street, that plaza right next door to it,

01:35:02.540 there used to be a gym upstairs, and the Bushwhackers had a gym up there.

01:35:05.320 Oh, really?

01:35:06.100 So for a long time, the wrestlers would come there,

01:35:08.040 and then right down the street, there was a world's gym.

01:35:10.880 And during the 80s and 90s, every morning,

01:35:13.040 there would be like 30 or 40 wrestlers in there.

01:35:15.440 Wow.

01:35:16.040 And they all lived up and down the beach.

01:35:17.820 You know, I'd bring them here to hang out for a couple days.

01:35:19.640 Next thing I knew, they'd move.

01:35:21.200 It was like crazy, you know.

01:35:22.500 And then the whole wrestling was based out of here for a long time.

01:35:26.140 Yeah.

01:35:26.420 All the travel from Connecticut.

01:35:27.960 Everybody's flying out of Tampa.

01:35:29.600 It was like crazy to go to Tampa Airport and where you see 20 or 30 guys

01:35:32.820 on the same plane, you know.

01:35:34.080 Wow.

01:35:34.700 But my guys that were here all the time that I really miss was Randy,

01:35:39.100 the macho man.

01:35:39.880 Mm-hmm.

01:35:40.300 We were together every single day.

01:35:41.960 Were y'all really?

01:35:42.960 Yeah, every day, man.

01:35:44.160 And it's kind of like I miss him a lot, you know.

01:35:47.660 And so I spent years and years and years with him,

01:35:50.000 and he used to babysit my kids for me.

01:35:51.800 He did?

01:35:52.500 Yeah, well, him and Elizabeth.

01:35:53.900 Yeah.

01:35:54.700 But sorry, not just Randy, him and Liz.

01:35:57.780 It's bedtime, brother.

01:35:59.700 And the other brother that I miss was one of the road warriors, Hawk.

01:36:03.320 Oh, yeah.

01:36:03.980 I introduced him to his wife here.

01:36:06.120 You know, she was a-

01:36:07.000 Was Hawk the longer hair?

01:36:08.220 He had the-

01:36:08.580 No, he had the two-

01:36:10.420 Yeah.

01:36:10.960 Well, they both were the spikes.

01:36:12.800 Yeah, yeah.

01:36:13.160 God, they were good, man.

01:36:14.640 Yeah.

01:36:15.020 And so Hawk was a Minnesota boy, and when I was in Minnesota, you know,

01:36:20.060 I used to train at a gym with Brad Riggins, the head Olympic coach.

01:36:23.620 And Brock Lesnar used to come down and work out with us back in the day.

01:36:27.920 And another guy named Kevin Kelly, who was a real tough kid, man.

01:36:31.920 And so I would tell those guys, I'd tell Lesnar, I'd tell Kevin Kelly, look, bro, I'm the main event guy.

01:36:36.680 Yeah.

01:36:37.300 Brad Riggins, the Olympic coach, he's in the preliminary matches.

01:36:39.840 You guys beat him, you can try me.

01:36:42.720 So Brad saved me from these guys, right?

01:36:45.440 You know, but I used to watch Brad torture him, you know, it was great.

01:36:48.620 Wow.

01:36:49.180 Yeah, so Hawk was up there in Minnesota, and when I was training up there,

01:36:52.360 he was just some high school kid in the gym, him and animal.

01:36:56.080 You know, they'd watch us like Hawks and watch us like Hawks.

01:36:58.640 The next thing I knew, I'd come back like two years later and go to that gym, and they're jacked up.

01:37:02.820 They've each gained 100 pounds.

01:37:04.060 I was like, holy crap.

01:37:05.420 Yeah.

01:37:05.780 You know, we're going to be wrestlers.

01:37:07.180 I said, good luck.

01:37:08.940 Don't touch me.

01:37:10.600 And they went down to Atlanta and broke in, and they had a good gimmick.

01:37:13.620 Yeah.

01:37:13.860 The road warrior thing worked, but Hawk moved down here.

01:37:17.060 I introduced him to his wife.

01:37:18.480 She was in aerobic construction.

01:37:19.680 I said, look, I'm going to introduce you to her, then I'm out.

01:37:22.460 Yeah.

01:37:22.840 Because she's a wild one, okay?

01:37:24.140 Yeah.

01:37:24.700 And so no matter what happens, we're cool because I got nothing to do with it from this point on.

01:37:29.780 You want to meet her?

01:37:30.380 Here she is, Dale.

01:37:31.360 Here's Hawk.

01:37:32.260 They ended up getting married, you know.

01:37:34.060 Ah.

01:37:34.320 And so he was always here.

01:37:36.020 And I miss seeing him a lot, you know, because I hung out with him a lot.

01:37:38.760 And he, they moved away?

01:37:41.240 He died.

01:37:42.100 Oh, he passed away.

01:37:42.860 I didn't know that.

01:37:43.600 He passed away.

01:37:43.620 He overdosed, yeah.

01:37:44.640 Oh.

01:37:45.180 And she's still around the neighborhood somewhere.

01:37:47.580 I haven't seen her forever.

01:37:49.100 And then another one of the guys that I traveled with for 40 years on the road, Brutus Beefcake.

01:37:53.800 Yeah.

01:37:54.120 Him and I had a falling out.

01:37:55.720 The barber, huh?

01:37:56.640 Was he a real barber?

01:37:57.540 Somebody said he went to, he didn't really go to Redken or something, or was it?

01:38:02.080 He wasn't a real barber.

01:38:03.800 And we had a little bit of a falling out, and so we don't even talk anymore, you know.

01:38:07.180 I mean, we don't, there's no, nothing to talk about.

01:38:09.640 Yeah.

01:38:11.060 Do you think y'all will ever patch that up?

01:38:12.520 Um, it's got a lot to do with the lady he's married to, you know.

01:38:16.560 Oh, it does.

01:38:17.340 Yeah.

01:38:17.580 Nothing really to do with him.

01:38:18.880 Yeah.

01:38:19.960 So, um, I'll pass.

01:38:22.740 Yeah.

01:38:23.320 I'll pass.

01:38:24.680 What was the, you know, what was, uh, yeah, this is one thing, the last thing I was about.

01:38:28.580 What was the steroid use like?

01:38:30.220 Because I used steroids when I was in high school.

01:38:32.200 You know, we would get tests 200 or 400.

01:38:34.800 I don't know.

01:38:35.540 Somebody made us, I think made us some 700 one time.

01:38:39.420 Um, one time we snuck it back from Mexico.

01:38:42.100 Like shampoo bottles and stuff.

01:38:43.620 So we'd have like, we'd have like soap.

01:38:45.560 Like we'd, there'd be like soap in it a little bit too, but we were using it, you know, was

01:38:50.380 it pretty hectic?

01:38:51.100 Was it pretty just a normal thing that people were using?

01:38:54.860 Yeah.

01:38:55.340 I mean, you know, it's like, uh, I think it was 1990.

01:38:58.560 It became illegal.

01:39:00.160 Oh, it was legal before that.

01:39:01.580 Oh yeah.

01:39:01.940 You'd go to the doctor, get a prescription for it.

01:39:03.840 Oh wow.

01:39:04.640 You know, that was another thing the guys had a problem with.

01:39:07.220 They would take so much of it.

01:39:09.060 They would ramp their system up.

01:39:10.500 I think they stress their system, their heart's out.

01:39:12.600 I don't know if anybody ever really died from just steroids, but if you had the steroids

01:39:16.680 or the somas and the perks and the alcohol and the Coke, okay, you're going to create

01:39:21.180 a fire, you know?

01:39:22.500 Yeah.

01:39:23.460 So for me, you know, up until the nineties, I was always street legal.

01:39:29.840 I mean, if I had a bottle of Deca or a bottle of test on me, it was a prescription from the

01:39:33.680 doctor and it was legal.

01:39:35.060 Oh, so the doctors used to prescribe it?

01:39:36.660 Oh God, yes.

01:39:37.400 I didn't even know that.

01:39:38.220 I had my blood checked, my levels checked, everything.

01:39:40.240 Wow.

01:39:40.600 To make sure I didn't, you know.

01:39:41.480 Right.

01:39:41.800 So you were trying to use it as safely as possible.

01:39:43.720 Yeah, because when you turn 30, that's the peak of your biological clock.

01:39:47.220 And then from that point on, it's down.

01:39:49.060 Oh shit.

01:39:49.900 You know, so I don't know how old you are.

01:39:51.000 I'm 43, man.

01:39:52.560 You're on the way down.

01:39:54.020 Fuck, man.

01:39:54.800 So there's a bunch of good HRT doctors around hormone replacement doctors that can hook

01:39:58.220 you up.

01:39:58.640 I know.

01:39:59.120 I've thought about that.

01:40:00.060 I don't want to lose my hair, though.

01:40:01.460 That's the scary part.

01:40:02.620 You know, you won't lose your hair.

01:40:03.840 You don't think?

01:40:04.440 No.

01:40:05.600 Maybe I'll start looking into that.

01:40:07.280 Yeah.

01:40:07.620 But anyway, long story short, about 1990.

01:40:11.080 And before then, everybody I knew, because I knew a lot of baseball players, I knew a

01:40:15.680 whole lot of football players, I knew a lot of hockey players, all professional guys,

01:40:20.000 they all used steroids.

01:40:22.480 There was only one guy I actually knew that didn't use them, and that was Bob Backlund.

01:40:26.540 Bob Backlund.

01:40:27.460 Yeah.

01:40:27.980 He was a champion before I came along.

01:40:30.160 Okay.

01:40:30.640 Red-haired kid.

01:40:31.200 I've heard of him.

01:40:32.080 Yeah.

01:40:32.340 So anyway, but everybody I knew dabbled in it, and even if they said they didn't, they

01:40:36.820 did, believe me.

01:40:37.700 And so at the end of the day, when it became illegal, we kept yoking up, you know, because

01:40:42.560 we were out tearing biceps like this that wouldn't get fixed, and muscle tears everywhere,

01:40:48.060 and your thumb gets broken, and the Philadelphia Spectrum at 1 o'clock, you go to Brussels

01:40:52.000 Madison Square Garden that night, you don't want 10 weeks, it's got to be healed in six

01:40:55.340 weeks.

01:40:55.680 Yeah.

01:40:56.580 So we just never really stopped.

01:40:58.780 And then Vince McMahon was on his, you know, major role with his company, doing great,

01:41:05.560 and the federal government targeted him, you know.

01:41:08.340 So we had to clean things up.

01:41:09.540 Well, yeah, eventually.

01:41:11.180 They targeted him, and they drugged the poster boy in.

01:41:14.700 You know, we're going to go for Vince.

01:41:16.960 Let's get Hogan.

01:41:17.980 And so we had a rough go of it for a few years with the federal government, but Vince went

01:41:22.640 to trial, and all the stuff they said he did, he didn't do.

01:41:26.280 You know, he didn't distribute it.

01:41:27.280 He didn't sell it.

01:41:28.620 Yeah.

01:41:28.940 You know, I mean, you did it on your own.

01:41:31.540 Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:41:32.440 It had nothing to do with Vince.

01:41:32.780 Oh, I'm not going to get it from my boss.

01:41:34.580 Yeah, so that's what they were trying to paint him in a corner.

01:41:36.860 It wasn't true.

01:41:38.260 And they tried to get me to testify otherwise.

01:41:40.920 Wow.

01:41:41.540 You know, which I said I would.

01:41:44.100 And then when I got on the witness stand, I told the truth and made a quick exit and didn't

01:41:47.420 go back to New York for five years.

01:41:48.980 Really?

01:41:49.520 Oh, yeah.

01:41:50.420 Because that's where the feds were?

01:41:51.800 Because that's where Vince was?

01:41:52.800 Yeah, they were trying to prosecute him out of Brooklyn.

01:41:55.600 Wow.

01:41:55.920 So when I went to work for Ted Turner, I couldn't even wrestle anywhere in New York for five

01:41:59.340 years.

01:41:59.780 So they thought you were going to rat on him.

01:42:02.020 Yeah.

01:42:02.520 And you just said he didn't do it.

01:42:04.360 Well, I became a government witness.

01:42:06.260 Wow.

01:42:06.620 Because to avoid prosecution, you know, because they were they were going to get somebody and

01:42:12.620 they were going for Vince.

01:42:14.140 And then if they weren't going for Vince, they pulled me aside and actually told me what

01:42:18.160 was going to happen to me.

01:42:19.700 If I didn't say this, I went, I don't know that.

01:42:22.400 No problem.

01:42:23.060 No problem, brother.

01:42:23.940 You got it.

01:42:25.180 So when I got on the witness stand there in Brooklyn, I had a Learjet waiting at Teterboro

01:42:32.260 Airport.

01:42:33.640 I had Alec Isaacman, one of my attorneys that handled the Larry Flint trial.

01:42:38.500 I had another attorney Henry Holmes with me.

01:42:40.500 And when I got off that witness stand, I didn't even go sit in the courtroom.

01:42:42.900 I went out the side door, got in the car, went to Teterboro Airport and didn't come back

01:42:46.980 for five years until the three prosecutors, Charlie Rose or either Charlie Rose or Sean

01:42:55.220 O'Shea, one of them got busted with a bunch of kilos of coke.

01:42:58.280 And then the other one died of cancer.

01:42:59.880 I can't remember who was who.

01:43:01.700 But the third guy, the head of the FBI flag, him and I became good friends.

01:43:04.900 Oh, really?

01:43:05.480 Yeah.

01:43:06.120 So once that was over, then I went back to New York.

01:43:08.900 Yeah.

01:43:09.720 But yeah, it was a crazy run.

01:43:11.960 They were just trying to target Vince and trying to do what the government always does

01:43:17.320 to people, you know?

01:43:18.340 Oh, yeah.

01:43:19.060 And he just basically didn't do anything they said he did.

01:43:21.280 And he was not that guy.

01:43:23.700 Yeah.

01:43:25.200 Did you ever get to meet Michael Jackson?

01:43:27.540 Yes.

01:43:28.140 Yeah.

01:43:28.880 I was asked to get off a Disney bus because of him.

01:43:31.520 No way.

01:43:32.540 Why?

01:43:33.020 Because what happened?

01:43:33.800 Well, they have these little buses they'll cart tourists around on at Disney.

01:43:40.380 Yeah.

01:43:40.540 Oh, yeah.

01:43:41.120 It's like little trolleys is what they look like.

01:43:44.020 Oh, yeah.

01:43:44.040 But not the carts that are hooked together.

01:43:46.100 It actually looks like a little minibus, a little red trolley.

01:43:48.440 Okay.

01:43:49.340 And so all of a sudden, I was sitting there with my family, my first wife and my two kids

01:43:56.520 watching the fireworks at Disney.

01:43:58.440 And all of a sudden, the security guards come in and go, well, you need to scoot down.

01:44:01.320 You need to move the far side of the cart.

01:44:03.700 And they moved to the far side of the cart.

01:44:04.960 And then Michael Jackson came in.

01:44:08.120 Just by himself?

01:44:09.340 He was by himself with a couple security guards.

01:44:13.580 And he came over.

01:44:14.520 He goes, oh, I'm very sorry about them making you move.

01:44:17.080 And I said, it's okay, brother.

01:44:18.260 Not a big deal, man.

01:44:19.140 It's all cool.

01:44:19.700 I get it.

01:44:19.880 Did you know it was him?

01:44:21.000 Oh, yeah.

01:44:21.620 Yeah.

01:44:22.160 And so I really didn't talk to him other than that to say it was cool.

01:44:25.140 But that's the only time I've met him was when they made us move down and got out of

01:44:28.460 his way.

01:44:29.020 You know, I don't think they wanted us looking at him or anything.

01:44:32.020 But he came down and apologized.

01:44:33.540 Oh, he did?

01:44:34.180 Yeah.

01:44:34.440 Did he look like little or did he seem like kind of not?

01:44:36.980 What did he seem like?

01:44:38.520 I don't know.

01:44:38.900 I was just sitting down.

01:44:39.980 He just, he looks like he does on TV to me.

01:44:42.420 You know, he had the black hat on.

01:44:44.640 Wow.

01:44:45.540 And he was all covered up and had the glove, the thing glued on.

01:44:48.920 Because he was like, I mean, that must have been interesting for you to see.

01:44:51.540 He had, right?

01:44:52.080 Yeah.

01:44:52.100 My daughter, Brooke, was flipping.

01:44:53.720 Yeah.

01:44:54.220 She was like seven or eight years old.

01:44:55.820 I can't remember.

01:44:57.240 Yeah.

01:44:57.620 But that's the only time I ever met him.

01:44:58.760 He just was real polite.

01:45:00.360 But the security guards were pricks.

01:45:02.040 Yeah.

01:45:02.480 But I understand why they had to do it.

01:45:03.940 I get it.

01:45:04.620 Yeah.

01:45:05.460 Yeah.

01:45:05.780 He's probably paying him a lot.

01:45:07.420 Yeah.

01:45:07.620 Plus, say he didn't want his picture taken and didn't want to be asked for autographs.

01:45:10.720 So I get it.

01:45:11.380 Yeah.

01:45:12.060 And what about Michael Landon?

01:45:13.900 Did you ever meet him?

01:45:14.800 No, I didn't.

01:45:16.200 Why would you bring that up?

01:45:17.280 I love Michael Landon.

01:45:18.260 So do I.

01:45:18.880 Yeah.

01:45:19.540 Really?

01:45:19.840 Yeah.

01:45:20.020 Little joke.

01:45:20.500 Oh, dude.

01:45:21.480 He was my favorite.

01:45:22.200 Highway to Heaven, even that show.

01:45:23.800 Yeah.

01:45:23.940 Little House on the Prairie.

01:45:25.280 I loved Michael Landon.

01:45:26.200 I was more of a bonanza guy.

01:45:27.620 Were you?

01:45:27.960 Were your time?

01:45:28.500 I respect that.

01:45:29.320 Yeah.

01:45:29.480 You seem like a little more bonanza.

01:45:31.400 But yeah, I loved Michael Landon, man.

01:45:34.520 That's cool.

01:45:35.080 There was just something about.

01:45:36.160 I just.

01:45:36.660 Yeah.

01:45:36.760 I don't know.

01:45:37.060 He played like that father, like the hero.

01:45:39.040 You know, he was like.

01:45:40.640 I mean, you probably looked at him the way we looked at you.

01:45:43.080 You know, it was like, man, that guy.

01:45:45.580 Not really.

01:45:46.440 I was looking more like a horse.

01:45:48.680 Oh, yeah.

01:45:49.420 Yeah.

01:45:49.620 Maybe not.

01:45:50.020 But that's that's great.

01:45:53.420 But yeah, Hulk, it's nice to meet you, man.

01:45:55.180 And it's an honor.

01:45:55.940 And thank you so much for just being a great entertainer all these years.

01:45:59.100 Thank you, brother.

01:45:59.820 I'm glad you're a fan.

01:46:00.940 I had no idea.

01:46:01.940 Oh, yeah, man.

01:46:02.920 No idea.

01:46:03.640 We needed you, dude.

01:46:04.660 We fucking I don't even know our TV.

01:46:06.700 We fucking balance the shit on the back and we would fucking hold each other's eyes open.

01:46:10.780 Like, don't you fucking miss this, boy?

01:46:13.000 And we would fucking miss it, dude.

01:46:14.840 Sometimes.

01:46:15.320 Sometimes we wouldn't, man.

01:46:17.260 When Gene Okerlund would be on there.

01:46:19.620 God, and we were ready, boy.

01:46:21.380 We would fucking wear tuxedos.

01:46:22.800 We didn't have tuxedos, but we had like these like we would cut a black sweatshirt with like the white shirt under him and pretend like we were the guys, you know?

01:46:29.820 Yeah, he was my guy, Gino, and I brought him from Minnesota with me.

01:46:33.380 Yeah.

01:46:33.900 Because I was in Minnesota and met him there.

01:46:36.340 The Baja.

01:46:37.260 And then when I went back to New York when they wanted me to come back and do this crazy international thing with Vince Jr., I brought me and Gene with me.

01:46:46.280 Mm.

01:46:46.840 He was my guy.

01:46:47.780 Yeah, he seemed like a cool guy to have around, huh?

01:46:49.680 Yeah.

01:46:49.960 And was he just a little bitty guy?

01:46:51.860 Yeah, he was a little bitty.

01:46:52.740 When I moved to Minnesota, I was single, and I had an apartment behind the Met Center with the Mall of America's.

01:46:59.080 There was a place called the Met Center there, and there were the Versailles apartments behind there, and that's where all the Northwest stewardess lives, right?

01:47:06.960 Oh, yeah.

01:47:07.160 So I got an apartment there.

01:47:08.420 Yeah.

01:47:08.780 Me and Gene came over one time, and he was married, and he wouldn't go home.

01:47:12.100 He stayed in my apartment for like a year and a half.

01:47:13.860 I said, dude, aren't you ever going to go home?

01:47:15.600 He wouldn't leave.

01:47:16.940 He just stayed there and lived with me.

01:47:18.260 I said, okay, fine, whatever.

01:47:20.500 He just wouldn't go home.

01:47:21.480 He's just interviewing stewardesses.

01:47:23.480 Hey, Claire, you're headed to work today.

01:47:25.740 He was brutal, man.

01:47:26.900 That's hilarious.

01:47:27.740 He was fun.

01:47:28.260 Did you see Prince over there in town?

01:47:29.940 Yes.

01:47:30.440 God, yes.

01:47:31.120 Yeah, I used to go down and play at a bar called Caboose.

01:47:35.540 There was another bar that they – was that the bar you played at all the time?

01:47:38.420 Yeah, downtown Minnesota.

01:47:39.920 Okay.

01:47:40.420 Minneapolis, and then I played at Boyd's in the River all the time.

01:47:42.760 There was a band called Fragile there.

01:47:44.080 Bonkers is a place we used to –

01:47:45.360 Are you familiar with Minnesota?

01:47:46.960 Yeah, some.

01:47:47.400 We used to go – what was that place we went to, Bonkers?

01:47:51.480 Boyd's on the River.

01:47:53.820 I can't remember.

01:47:54.740 Burnsville Bowl, any of these places.

01:47:56.540 I mean, I'm talking the 80s.

01:47:57.920 Okay.

01:47:58.780 But they had real pimps.

01:47:59.720 I'm not my first real pimp in Minnesota.

01:48:01.280 Yeah, oh, no doubt.

01:48:02.180 Yeah, but right on Hennepin Avenue where Moby Dix was, there was a bar called the Caboose,

01:48:07.220 and I used to always go in there after I wrestled or whatever since I was single.

01:48:10.880 I didn't have anything to do, so I'd just go down there and drink beer and play guitar

01:48:13.520 all night with all these bands.

01:48:14.620 And, you know, I was fresh off playing, so I could still play.

01:48:18.320 Yeah.

01:48:18.600 You know, like my fingers hadn't been broken and screwed up in so many times, so I could

01:48:21.840 still play pretty well.

01:48:23.420 So I'd go down there, and I always go into Prince's Club, you know, First Avenue there.

01:48:28.640 And the first day I went in there, he walked in on stage and started playing.

01:48:32.020 Wow.

01:48:32.400 You know, the very first time I walked in the place.

01:48:35.140 And so, you know, that got me coming back a lot.

01:48:37.780 Yeah.

01:48:38.120 You know, and I only saw him two more times there, but he would come in there and just

01:48:42.540 play, like, for three hours because it was his club.

01:48:45.320 Yeah.

01:48:46.080 And we'd just sit there and listen to him, and it was amazing to watch him.

01:48:49.920 You know, I met him one time, said hello to him.

01:48:51.940 It was just a brief passing.

01:48:53.340 He goes, yeah, I'm a wrestling fan.

01:48:54.840 I said, oh, thank you, man.

01:48:55.600 Cool.

01:48:56.980 Yeah, I just never sat and talked with him or anything.

01:49:00.320 Pretty magnificent, though.

01:49:02.240 Just to even see him, you know.

01:49:04.200 Yeah, he was cool, man.

01:49:05.140 He was cool.

01:49:05.680 But, you know, I just really dug his music, man.

01:49:08.620 Oh, yeah, man.

01:49:09.820 Yeah.

01:49:10.380 Yeah, he could do it.

01:49:12.160 You could do it, man.

01:49:13.340 Thank you for all the music you put out in the world, you know.

01:49:15.960 It's all good, brothers.

01:49:16.900 We're not done yet.

01:49:18.060 No.

01:49:18.360 Yeah, and you're not.

01:49:19.480 I mean, I didn't mean to make it seem like that.

01:49:21.380 I'm still here for a reason.

01:49:22.900 I just haven't figured it out yet.

01:49:23.940 Well, all right on, dude.

01:49:24.940 Well, we're glad you are.

01:49:26.220 And thanks for all you've done so far, man.

01:49:28.340 Oh, thank you, brother.

01:49:28.960 Very cool.

01:49:29.520 It's been awesome to witness and to be a fan of.

01:49:31.620 Thank you, brother.

01:49:32.220 Very cool.

01:49:32.640 Now I'm just floating on the breeze

01:49:36.220 And I feel I'm falling like these leaves

01:49:39.160 I must be cornerstone

01:49:42.480 Oh, but when I reach that ground

01:49:47.060 I'll share this peace of mind I found

01:49:49.860 I can feel it in my bones

01:49:53.360 But it's gonna take

01:49:55.940 I'm gonna turn on the breeze

01:49:59.520 Amen

01:50:01.500 Oh, my God

01:50:02.360 Oh, my God

01:50:03.400 My God

01:50:03.840 God

01:50:04.520 Oh, my God

01:50:05.360 Oh, God

01:50:06.700 Go

01:50:07.800 Oh, my God

01:50:12.280 Yeah

01:50:13.240 Oh, my God

01:50:13.620 Imagine

01:50:13.980 Oh

01:50:14.680 Yeah

01:50:14.720 Oh, my God

01:50:16.360 Oh

01:50:16.900 Oh, my God

01:50:19.000 Oh, my God

01:50:19.320 Oh, my God

01:50:20.180 Oh, my God

01:50:20.840 Oh, my God

01:50:22.000 Oh, my God

01:50:23.380 Oh, my God

01:50:23.740 Oh, my God

01:50:24.320 Oh, mynh

This Past Weekend with Theo Von - July 25, 2023

E455 Hulk Hogan

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