WOIO-TV CBS Cleveland entertainment reporter Chris Van Vliet had the chance to interview Hulk Hogan this morning and get his thoughts on many topics. You can read some highlights below:
What caused him to call the Superdome the “Silverdome”:
“I didn’t realize it until the second time I had said it. We have a thing called the Gorilla position and I was ready to go out. They pulled me for a quick interview and we talked about the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, and I had a tough time a few days ago with that. My manager Jimmy Hart and I just stood and stared at the statue and when I looked at his face, I lost it and I was totally rattled for at least half that day. It really upset me, in a good way. So in that interview when we talked about the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal and then I went straight out there I guess my mind was still thinking Andre. But the crowd sure let me know that I was saying the wrong name of the venue. So I apologized to them and I made sure that I tagged it at the end again with the Skydome. Oh man, the Superdome.”
Being part of WrestleMania 1 and WrestleMania 30:
“Well it’s huge. We started this thing out in Madison Square Garden, we were just a “rasslin” company and Vince McMahon had this crazy vision that he was going to take wrestling all over the world. Little did we know that when we brought Mr. T in that the ship would kind of point towards entertainment. So here we go, fast forward thirty years later and it’s the largest entertainment company in the world.”
Did he think The Undertaker’s streak would come to an end:
“No. No I didn’t. I thought that the streak would go on forever until he decided to rest in peace.”
Whether Daniel Bryan’s title run will last:
“It’s his time, this is a new era. And last night in the Superdome the people really let everybody know what they wanted and who they wanted to be champion so I think everybody gets it.”
His favorite WrestleMania moment:
“For me it was Andre. In the Silverdome. Not the Skydome, not the Superdome (laughs). That was a huge moment. It was the largest indoor attendance record and it still stands today and I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get him up and slam him and I wasn’t sure that he was going to pass the torch. It was a very different time in sports entertainment and we were still pretty barbaric in our thinking. That was my favorite moment because if it hadn’t have been for him, I never would have been shot of a cannon like I was.”
What made him leave TNA to come back to WWE:
“It wasn’t what made me want to come back, it was that I needed to come back. This was my home. I mean I started here in the late 70s with Vince McMahon Sr. and I was his guy, he brought me along and he named me Hulk Hogan. He gave me this super huge push way back in the day in Shea Stadium when I wrestled Andre The Giant. It just made sense. After all of the years that I’ve been gone and I wasn’t wrestling, with all of the surgeries I’ve had and when they told me that I wasn’t going to be able to walk again after the sixth back surgery. Finally after the ninth back surgery I’m on my feet and I’m running and it just made sense to come back. And for me to come back with the Network and to be the host of Wrestlemania 30 in the Superdome, the whole thing just kind of came together perfectly and I’m here to stay.”
