Bill Apter Talks Vince McMahon Regretting Not Taking His Angle, Hulk Hogan Getting Rocky 3 Role
Recently on Talk Is Jericho, Bill Apter from 1Wrestling.com discussed bringing Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler together as well as putting Hulk Hogan forward for the role of Thunderlips in Rocky 3.
During the podcast, Apter mentioned that he put Kaufman and Lawler together for their controversial angle. According to Apter, he met Kaufman backstage at a wrestling event. Kaufman wanted to break into professional wrestling; however, Vince McMahon, Sr. was not interested. Apter indicated that Vince McMahon, Sr. wanted no part of Kaufman in pro wrestling because the New York State Athletic Commission probably would not have allowed Kaufman wrestle and Vince McMahon, Sr. was more interested in pro wrestling than show business.
Apter said that Kaufman ended up over at Apter's apartment in Queens, New York that night and the two talked about Buddy Rogers and Freddie Blassie till one o'clock in the morning.
"I said, 'listen, I know this guy, I haven't talked to him in a while, his name is Jerry Lawler. And he said, 'oh, I've seen him in the magazines'." Apter continued, "we call Lawler now and he says, 'you've got Andy Kaufman, the star of Taxi, in your little roach-infested apartment in Queens?' and I said, 'yeah', and I put him on the phone, so that's how it started!"
Apter said that he was told by a wrestler much later that Vince McMahon, Jr. admitted that the Andy Kaufman/Jerry Lawler angle was one angle that he wished that he had.
As for Apter's role in Hogan starring in Rocky 3, Apter said that Hogan got the role on his own merits, though Apter played a part in getting the ball rolling.
"What happened was [Sylvester] Stallone's office called the magazine office and they were looking for a type to play Thunderlips in Rocky 3. They called me. I sent them pictures of 'Superstar' Billy Graham and this new guy named Hulk Hogan. There was no internet or anything, so we had to FedEx overnight. So I get a call the next day saying, 'can you send us more pictures of Hogan and have him call us and get in touch with us? We may be interested in pursuing this.'" Apter added, "but it became, around the internet, that Apter says he got Hogan the part. I didn't. I helped kickstart [it]. I sent pictures of Graham too. They wanted Hogan. They wanted to pursue that, so Hogan got it on his own merits."
In addition to these topics, Apter talked about his theory on the Chris Benoit tragedy, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage wanting to kill him, and much more. To listen to the rest of the podcast, click here.
Source: Talk Is Jericho