WWE Hall of Famer and host of WrestleMania 30, Hulk Hogan participated in a conference call for reporters where he spoke about many WrestleMania moments from the past & the present. Check out some quick highlights below and the complete conference call at the bottom.
– His Favorite WrestleMania moment still has to be slamming Andre the Giant at the Silverdome.
– What he sees as the biggest change to wrestling compared to when he wrestled: The unbelievably fast pacing in storylines and even the wrestling in the ring is a lot quicker. Where he could cut a promo with Andre in December of ’85, they wouldn’t have a match until the following December. Now someone issues a challenge and they fight 3 hours later.
– The opponent he regrets not being able to face: “That no good Stone Cold Steve Austin” (laughter)
– He had absolutely not preparation for the WrestleMania XXX opening as he had to do a press conference just minutes before the show started. When he arrived back at Gorilla, Steve Austin and The Rock were there and he had no idea what was going on.
– While he has great memories and moments of every one of his WrestleMania matches, his match with The Rock at WrestleMania 18 was his favorite.
– His favorite match at WrestleMania 30 was easily Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar. He said he noticed that Undertaker was knocked out within minutes of the match starting and was astounded that he was still wrestling, especially against the very physical Brock Lesnar. He just assumed that Undertaker was going to win and was stunned when Lesnar got the 3.
– Getting into a match with Vince McMahon was surreal but he didn’t think it would happen. He thought the match turned out great because Vince was a natural opponent, great performer and would never ask someone to do anything that Vince wouldn’t do himself.
– Roddy Piper was creating his own hype and running his own angle going into WrestleMania XXX but Hogan said it was never discussed as he is still recovering from the back surgeries.
– Triple H asked Hogan not to approach Warrior during WrestleMania weekend but they could all sit down after Raw to see if they could make amends. In a twist of fate, Hogan accidentally ran into Warrior backstage before the PPV and they were able to discuss their past and forgive one another for any past animosity.
– When asked about some of the new talent taking over the WWE, he called Dean Ambrose the new Roddy Piper but he’s in incredible shape and in ring work is awesome. He sees nothing but greatness in Seth Rollins considering his work ethic. And thinks that Roman Reigns is a modern-day, larger than life Hulk Hogan. The crowd reactions he’s getting so young in his career is amazing.
– When it comes down to WrestleMania 1, Hulk Hogan happened to share agents with Mr. T and having guest-starred on the A-Team television show, WrestleMania just grew from there. They are still good friends today.
– Hogan said he was extremely nervous before coming out at WrestleMania XXX because he didn’t know how the crowd would react. If the crowd didn’t pop, we wouldn’t be talking with us today. He said thank God the fans were receptive and even lighthearted with the “Silverdome” comment.
Listen to the entire call below and remember “Wrestlemania 30: The World Television Premiere” airs on Sunday August 3 at 7pm ET on NBC.
