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Hulk Hogan media Tour

moofasa

By moofasa
in UK Fan Forum

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Dr.PeterVenkman Proficient

Dr.PeterVenkman

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They had Loose Women on in the pub for some reason when he was on it, you can tell how charismatic he is because within a few minutes the (few) people who were in the pub went from going "look at the state of that daft cunt" to "he's alright him"

 

I might be wrong but didn't do a thread on here once with all Hogan's best lies from interviews? wouldn't mind seeing it again if there was one

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pgi86 Proficient

pgi86

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His Sun WrestleCast interview was very fun. You can listen to the whole thing here. Here's the main stuff:

 

On the London TV tapings: For me, being with TNA for a couple of years, this is the biggest day and I'm not saying this just because I'm here in the UK right now. It's actually the biggest day for this company. This is like a pivotal point because it's a historic venue. Some of the greatest things in the wrestling business have happened in this country. There's the history with Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. So the fans know what wrestling's all about. They are the greatest fans in the world because they follow the history and they're loyal. I mean, if they liked Hulk Hogan in the 80s they're still loyal today. To be in this venue in Wembley and to have TNA here.. You know, they've got some traction now after a couple of years. We're starting to find the groove and things are starting to feel right. To be able to film the TVs here instead of just doing the tour, and the way I feel about the company, it's actually the biggest day ever for this company. It's kinda like the pivotal point. The TVs kind of give you that chance to round second base and head for the home base. It's kinda like it's on the verge of greatness because if they can keep doing business like this this is what puts you in the game and really makes you able to compete and run at an upper level.

 

On his role in TNA: I don’t know what I do. [laughs] I really don’t know. Everybody always asks me that. They’ve got a bunch of people there. They’ve got Dixie Carter, of course. They’ve got Vince Russo who is the head writer, they’ve got Bruce Pritchard who is the head of creative. Eric Bischoff is the executive producer. To me he’s between the network and the company, a middle man. I contribute, I’ll throw stuff out there creatively and every once in a while if I need to hit the ring I’ll slide on out there and do whatever, but I don’t really have a job description. I just try to be there, listen and contribute. If there is anything I can do to help or guide the direction, I’m there.

 

When I first went there there was nothing written contractually but verbally I thought Eric [bischoff] and I were going to go in there and say 'Okay, I want you to jump over this box and land on your head' that's what would happen. Then when I went home there were other people involved. It went to Vince Russo, it had to be okayed though Dixie, etc. Then all of a sudden when I saw you run around the block and have a cup of coffee I went 'Huh?! That's not what we talked about'. So I realised there was more to the equation than just Eric and I. It was kind of like we can't do things this way so let's try it another way. We've been pushing and trying to get things set up in the right direction but it's kind of like.. It's not political but there's a lot of creative people that are involved. It's a check and balance system. I may come up with some crazy idea that might be a little too much at the time and Dixie's got a good enough feel for the company so she may pull the idea back. It's a give and take situation. The fact that Eric is there certainly helps because he does have a feel like a Vince McMahon feel. He's ran the big companies, he knows the big deals, he's been a part of generating hundreds of millions of dollars so he has the big picture feel, you know. Anybody with a big picture feel just needs the right tools and resources and slowly but surely we're building that little empire to work.

 

On Vince Russo: We have a cordial relationship. If I see him I'll say hello and we'll talk. When I'm there we have booking meetings and agent meeting during the day before the TVs and I'm there. We're very respectful of each other. Vince would kind of write the basic outline of the TVs and as he would go through stuff a lot of his stuff is spot on and if it's not I'll stop and say "No, this is what we need to do' and we do that. It's a working relationship, you know. We're very cordial with each other, very friendly with each other but I would have bet my bottom dollar that we wouldn't work together again. There was a point in time where if I was to go to TNA it was him or me. The truth is Eric Bischoff sold me on it. Eric had met with Vince earlier and explained to me how things were different and we should sit down to talk. So I met with Eric and Vince Russo at the Hard Rock in Orlando and at the end of the meeting i said 'Alright, let's give it a shot and see how it goes'.

 

On Bobby Roode not winning the Title at Bound For Glory: They were setting him up for failure. They had his parents and everybody saying what a great guy he was. You put the belt on him and he’s a good guy but he’s plain white milk toast and who is he going to work with? When I was sitting at home and I watched the interviews of his parents and his kids and his wife saying what a great guy he was I thought ‘You’ve got one of the greatest wrestling angles set up here that I have ever seen and you don’t even know it!’ Don’t let him win the belt, have him screw everybody, turn heel, put some heat on him, keep him heel for a long time, get him red hot, and then when you turn him babyface he’s got a chance to be a Rock or a Stone Cold or a Hogan. I thought before Bound For Glory the way you guys have him set up now he’s going to be just one of those 'TNA originals' that has 'five-star matches' that don’t mean nothing. Give the guy a chance!

 

On Abyss not being utilised to his full potential: Yeah, they basically just needed Abyss to take care of all the business. 'We need you to do a job, we need you to beat somebody up, we need you to be a monster, now we need you to be afraid of your own shadow'. It's kind of like they had him doing so many things they couldn't get him focused. Right now we finally got him to the point where we pulled him off TV - which will be coming up soon - and we're re-directing his character and trying to get him on track. There have been a lot of guys who have been utility players and Abyss was one of them. He was so talented, he looked like a wrestler, he was scary, he was the monster, he was the bad guy and they kept asking him to do so many things that he would just try to plug all the holes in the boat to keep the boat floating. Now we're trying to give him direction.

 

On who he sees as the future of TNA: It's hard to describe and I don't want to be negative and knock anybody but there are a lot of second base players. There aren't a lot of home run hitters. And when I say a home run hitter that's a guy that crosses the media barriers. You know, the John Cenas, the Andre the Giants, the Rocks, the Hulk Hogans, the Steve Austins. There are a lot of guys that can go out and have that 'five-star match' and they can do all the flips and all this crazy stuff but that's just a very small part of this business. That's maybe 10%, you know. They don't have the other 90% of the business which whether it's talking to the media or doing a national commercial or whether it's what they actually do on their time off which means a lot. What kind of person are they really. What are they doing with their time. What are these guys all about. There's more to it than just that little bit of wrestling. Once you get the wrestling part that kind of puts you on the map but it's what you do after that that transcends and makes you a larger than life character. Also in the ring there are certain guys.. Everything's about timing and selling. So many of the guys in the business now have it backwards. They think it's all about fighting back and the comeback and what a great comeback you're making, and it's not about that. One of the best examples that I can bring up would be Jeff Hardy because all he does is sell but when he's selling he's shining. He's actually cashing all his chips in the bank so when he does come up it means something. When he does the Twist of Fate or that Swanton gimmick all that stuff means something. If he was always fighting back, and coming up, and coming down, and getting cut off, and starting a little comeback like so many guys that I see that are always fighting and won't stay down so when they do come up for the big comeback it doesn't mean anything. There's also psychology in the ring that I would call a big man psychology like Giant Haystacks who was the star of this country. He didn't do anything except splash people and he was the superhero and is talked about to this day. It's how you do what you do. There aren't a whole lot of guys who have that psychology down. This business is about selling and staying down and I don't think they understand that. It's the way you work in the ring and it's the way you look too. Jeff Hardy for example has the look. He's a really good-looking kid. He paints his face up - that's cool. George "The Animal" Steele had a really crazy look and he connected with the crowd so you don't have to be a really good-looking guy to connect like Jeff Hardy. Like Abyss could be one of those guys. It's not his work in the ring and it's not his look - Abyss' problem is how the promotion has used him and it's not his fault. There are certain problems and certain tweaks that need to made with certain guys. Everybody's got a different story, you know. Everything is fixable. Some guys you kind of need to re-educate - some of the guys that have been there from day one, the 'TNA originals' who are having the 'five-star matches'. Their mindset is so screwed up that they're going to have 'five-star matches' 10 years from now and they're still not going to draw any money. That's the thing. If we can get to these guys and save them. Whether they think they're great and their stuff doesn't have any holes - it still isn't working. They're all just second base players, midcard players, even if you put them in the main events they still do the same thing.

 

On Magnus: Nick's got something. He's really come on in the last month with Samoa Joe, since they teamed up. I've watched him with Doug Williams before but he didn't really poke his head up. But all of a sudden, with the Joe thing, he started talking with Joe. Joe came at him like a tough guy and Magnus stood up to him and said 'Don't worry about me. I'll take care of my s**t, you take care of yours'. He just had that little bit of fire that I hadn't seen out of him. And then in the ring he was really aggressive as opposed to before where he just doing the moves and having all those 'five-star matches' that don't mean anything. There is something there now. I don't know if it's being with Joe but we definitely need to pay a lot of attention to him. He definitely, without a push and without any help, he is starting to shine through.

 

On where he would like to see TNA a year from now: I really hope they're still working with Spike TV because Spike understands the product. I'm not sure how long the contract is for or what's in the future. The momentum over here in the UK is kinda like unprecedented. I would hope what's going on here in the UK happens everywhere else because then TNA would be in a really good spot. I just hope the guys like Bobby Roode, AJ Styles and all these guys keep getting it, keep figuring out not only do we have this type of talent in the ring but I want them to take all those skills and start using them outside the ring to try to make themselves bigger stars. Because if they can do it in the ring and really got it figured out in the ring - the guys like AJ, Daniels, Roode - I think it shouldn't be that hard for them to get off this rasslin' mentality. 'Okay, I'm talented and I can work in the ring so let me go out and work the public, the fans, the film studios, the media'. I think as long as they're larger than life characters in and out of the ring I think the whole company's gonna grow. Sting has just an amazing way of being Sting in and out of the ring and the fans buy into it whether he's got the make-up on or not. The whole thing with Hardy works in and out of the ring. I can switch into the 'Hey, brother, what's up?' It's just an easy transition and I think the more these guys figure out this transition once they get out of the ring it would really boost the company. I think a year from now TNA is going to be much, much, much more competitive not only in the wrestling genre but in the whole entertainment area because Dixie Carter's on track. She's got the right feel for where this company should go. She really does. I had no idea a good-looking lady like Dixie would have a good feel for wrestling but she really does.

 

On the differences between Dixie Carter and Vince McMahon: The biggest one - I think Dixie sleeps. [laughs] I don't think Vince sleeps. I think Dixie lays down for a couple of hours at night while Vince is like a terminator - he just changes a battery in his forearm when nobody's looking.

 

On not losing to Shawn Michaels and their feud: The WWE is Vince's show, and when we went to the dressing room, Vince came in and said 'I want Hogan to go over'. Those were Vince's wishes. When Vince wanted Shawn to do the job, we went out and had the match, and everybody said 'Shawn oversold and he was making fun of you' and this, that and the other. I can look at it and see why people may say that. If Shawn was really doing that, you'd have to ask him. He's done it several times, not just with me. The reason the feud then didn't go any longer was because I shut it down. The next day, on the interview, I was expecting to return the favour. You beat me now I beat you and get the third one and keep it going. Because he was such a great worker I thought we were going to have a great run. It could be my fault, maybe I had my feelings too much involved, but I thought his interview was going to be, 'You know what, I gotta give it to Hogan. He was better than me on that one night. But it will never happen again. I'm faster than him, but just at that moment the crowd were with him and he had the momentum, but it will never happen again'. I thought that was going to be the interview. I thought it was going to be a business interview but he came out and (sarcastically) went 'Ooh, he was too fast, he was too young, he had too much hair' and I went 'Ugh, I'm out'. I said to Vince 'Your boy... it's business'. It wasn't a creative control thing. I just said 'If it's going to be a clown show from this point on then I don't want to be out there'. I thought this guy wanted to dig and draw some money. I've been around Shawn since then and there is not that attitude at all. We've talked on the phone and hung out together and stuff. That piece of business is behind us.

 

On Bret Hart and Montreal: I still don't understand what happened with Shawn and Bret. Was it a shoot or a work? It was a shoot. Everything's a shoot with Bret. He's in a business which is a work. But when it comes to him having the belt it's a shoot. How come you can't do a job in Canada? So I can't do a job in Florida? Vince asks Bret to drop the belt but he won't do it? It's Vince's business. I don't understand him not putting Shawn over. It's fake wrestling! It's acting! If it was a competitive sport, Andre the Giant would probably never have been beat and Kurt Angle would probably be the champion now. It sure wouldn't be Bret Hart or Hulk Hogan.

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