Hulk Hogan Talks Randy Savage, Writing No Holds Barred, Being Happy About No New Stars, Andre, More

Hulk Hogan appeared on Bill Simmons' BS Report today to promote WrestleMania. The WWE Hall of Famer and Simmons talked about a variety of subjects. The interview was filmed yesterday before their appearances on last night's Monday Night Raw.

* Hogan says he wasn't the only guy who created WrestleMania, there were a lot of people involved. He named Vince McMahon in particular. He said he never dreamed that when they did WrestleMania that it'd generate "billions of dollars" 30 years later.

* Simmons and Hogan talk about his heel run, noting he had a program with Andre the Giant. Simmons said that Rocky III changed all that. Hogan says he loved Vince McMahon Sr because he kept him on track, but he fired Hogan over Rocky III. Hogan said he would have pushed a broom in those movies just to be in it.

* Hogan said back in the day wrestling had a barbaric mindset, and if someone said wrestling was fake, you usually choked them out or knocked them out. Surprisingly, he didn't mention actually choking out Richard Belzer on TV.

* He says Vince Jr had a different vision and wanted to capitalize on Hogan's momentum to launch the worldwide expansion. Hogan said Vince laid out this plan of global expansion in 1983 and he thought McMahon was crazy.

* Hogan said back in the day he would have two days off, but would use them to go to Japan and make money. He said doing that ended in 1987 or 1988 because the work schedule made it impossible.

* Simmons told a story about how Hogan was at the Stanford Mall when he was in high school and word got out. A huge mob showed up around Hogan. Hulk says that mobs like that happen more now because of social media and younger people discovering his matches on WWE Network.

* They show Hulk Hogan's comeback in 1983, as Bob Backlund brought him in to help fight the Wild Samoans. Hogan said he hadn't watched that footage in years, and his face lit up when it came in. He said the Samoans were some of Hogan's best friends. He notes that Sika is Roman Reigns' dad.

* Hogan said even though he did the "Hulkamania" gimmick for three years in the AWA, he still hadn't perfected it. He said that it took about a year after being the Iron Sheik to get there.

* Hogan claims that he was wrestling "400 times a year" at one point. He said in the 70's they drove everywhere, but as the business progressed, things changed.

* Hogan said his best friend in the business was Brutus Beefcake. He said the one he spent the most time with was "Macho Man" Randy Savage, due to their schedules. He said his normal voice was the same as his promo voice.

* Simmons keeps showing Hogan old footage, and it's apparent that Hogan hasn't seen it in forever. With each clip, he's glued to the screen. They show the MegaPowers split. After they show it, Hogan says that Savage was so successful because he was commited and lived the gimmick.

* Hogan talked about the Paul Orndorff angle, and called the piledriver "pretty snug." He said their jealousy angle was so easy because it made sense.

* Hogan said that getting a good reaction was important and you needed two guys that?were over back then to work well. He mentioned Roddy Piper, Savage, Andre the Giant and Paul Orndorff. He also said that one that surprised him was Kamala, and put him over big.

* Hogan says that he and Andre the Giant became friends later on, but early on Andre didn't like him. He said that back in the day, Andre would beat the crap out of him in the ring. He said that Andre was never 500, he was between 600 or 700 pounds. He said they weighed him once and he was 650 pounds.

* Hogan said Japan was intense and him succeeding helped make Andre respect him.

* He says he was really nervous before WrestleMania III, and that Andre wasn't in good shape. He wasn't sure Andre would go along with the match and there was nothing he could do about it. Vince McMahon reassured him things would be fine.

* Hulk says that he kept trying to go over the match with Andre and he just kept being told "don't worry." Hogan states that there were "94,000" fans in the arena. Hogan said he tore his biceps picking up Andre.

* Hogan says that he and Vince McMahon wrote No Holds Barred at a hotel over three days. Hulk says that they hired a scriptwriter who cleaned it up and got all the credit for it.

* Hogan claims that Mr Nanny and Suburban Commando, which lost millions, put New Line Cinema on the map.

* When Hogan started doing movies, he said that he thought he got "all the blood out of the turnip" of Hulkamania. Hogan said that new stars supposed to develop, but that didn't happen, and finally admitted that he was happy about it.

* Hogan says he went to WCW to "put Turner on the map." He said the Hollywood Hogan character got him another several years.

* Hogan wondered aloud why Bobby Heenan said "but whose side is he on?" during his heel turn. He said the crowd was throwing trash and batteries and other objects at him, Hall and Nash.

* Hulk says that back in his day, the heels led the matches. He said he had to slow the match down when he was working with The Rock. He said while it isn't his favorite, it's one of them. He says the Andre match is his favorite

* He also says he was in there with two broken ribs at WrestleMania 18. He said it happened in a match with Rikishi because he forgot that Rikishi was doing a spot where he squished in the corner.

* The two put over the WWE Network, and Hogan compliments Simmons' knowledge of wrestling.