WWE HOFer Hulk Hogan Disputes Common Refrain On Guaranteed Contracts In Pro Wrestling

Kevin Nash has often said that guaranteed contracts in professional wrestling didn't exist until he and Scott Hall went to WCW in 1996, as often wrestlers worked off of a handshake agreement and were paid per their draw and their merchandise sales. Nash's NWO compatriot Hulk Hogan disputed that claim in a new interview with "Live The Outbound Life," where the WWE Hall of Famer said Vince McMahon signed him to a guaranteed contract in the 1980s.

"When I came back, January 23, 1984, I won the [WWF Championship]. I was back a couple months before then doing TV. I had a guaranteed contract back then. I had a 10-year guaranteed contract then," Hogan explained. "That was way before they signed Kevin Nash." According to the former WCW World Champion, he'd grown big enough in the '80s that McMahon knew he needed more than a handshake with the budding film actor.

"Vince [McMahon] wanted to lock me down because, at the time, I had the gimmick figured out, and I was so hot," Hogan explained. "I was leading the charge on a lot of fronts. The guaranteed contract was a constant ... I was making a couple movies a year. That was extra money on the side." Hogan has said that the win in January 1984 didn't just give a boost to his professional career, but also greatly affected his personal life, recently revealing that his father admitted he was proud of Hogan the night he defeated The Iron Sheik.