Hulk Hogan Slams WWE & Vince McMahon, & More

Thanks to William Clifford and PWInsider.com for the following recap:

Hulk Hogan appeared briefly on the Drake and Zeke Morning show today in Memphis to promote the big wrestling event this evening. It was for the most part typical Hogan stuff. He begins talking about the event and who is going to be there, says he got involved because it was going to be the last event at the Mid-South Coliseum.

The WWE mess is brought up, and Hogan of course slams Vince for his actions, and expresses regret about not fighting Lawler, because it was supposed to just be something fun, not the big mess the WWE has made it into.

He the says he was in a Starbucks this morning and a woman approached him and told him that her daughter knew of him from Hogan Knows Best but not wrestling, so she is bringing her to the show tonight so she can see him wrestle. Hogan says that this was an epiphany for him. He said he had never thought about that. He has not wrestled much in the last few years so many of the young fans only know him from Hogan Knows Best. He says it gives him extra incentive for tonight.

The conversation goes back to the WWE, and Hogan talks about how he was supposed to headline Wrestlemania. He said he was in talks with Vince about re-creating the Wrestlemania 3 main event where he slammed Andre. Says that was the plan all along. He said during one of the conversations, Vince stated that he had 10 or 12 top guys so the compensation for Hogan wouldn t be the same as before. Hogan said he told Vince, Well if you got 10 or 12 top guys you don t need me then . He actually admitted he walked away because he wanted to be the top paid guy. It was surprising. He did concede that he thought Vince would ask him back to the table to negotiate, but he never did. He said he thought that even though it didn t pan out for Wrestlemania, he didn t expect hard feelings from Vince, as demonstrated by WWE pulling Lawler and other WWE talent from the Memphis show.

They then asked him if this was his last hurrah . Hogan said that it probably isn t. He said he has never run an independent tour, he has always been under someone else s banner, but he is very surprised about the hype for this event, and depending on the attendance outcome, he might consider his own tour, so fans in other cities could enjoy the same type of show as is happening in Memphis tonight.

They then discussed the Hogan match with Paul Wight. Hogan says he is a big man, so it will be an entertaining match. One of the hosts asked him if he was going to bodyslam Wight. Hogan said that Wight is over 500 pounds, so every time he things about that he thinks about what would break if he picked him up. The host said, Well, you picked up Andre the Giant . And Hogan s reply was That was 20 years ago, brother.

Overall it was a short interview and Hogan was pretty tame.