Hulk Hogan was recently a guest on The Apter Chat with Bill Apter. During the interview, Hulk spoke on a wide variety of topics about his pro-wrestling career. One of these topics was about Hogan’s reputation about not putting other talents over.
Here is what Hogan had to say about his reputation of never putting anyone over (h/t to Wrestlezone for the quotes below):
“You know the heels put the babyfaces over, of course. ‘Hulk Hogan never puts anyone over blah blah blah.’ B.S. Line ’em up, brother, I’ll put them all over. That’s the craziest urban legend. I see it every once in awhile on social media. ‘Hulk wouldn’t put anybody over. Hulk exercised his creative control.’ I think it’s funny as hell when these smart marks start popping off. I had creative control. Don’t even get me started. I didn’t even use it until one time and I’m not even going there”
On him having creative control:
“The whole thing everybody whined about was, ‘Oh, Hulk’s got creative control. He doesn’t do a job.’ The office wanted me to go over. I would go to guys like One Man Gang or The Big Bossman or Piper and say, ‘Hey brother, this is what they want.’ Whether it was three punches, boot, leg drop, or DQ, I’d say, ‘Hey, do you mind if we do that finish?’ At the time we didn’t have agents or anybody that could override me or strict orders from the office or anything like that. I was pretty much running amok on my own and Vince trusted me. If they would tell me what finish they wanted, I would just go to the boys and ask them. I said, ‘Hey man, do you mind if I drop the leg on you?’ ‘No problem brother, how much time do you need?’ It was the guys I worked with.
You know, Piper hem hawed around a little bit and didn’t want to do a job, which he never did. We’d do whatever he wanted. It didn’t matter. We were over. We had fun. The guys were so easy. That Hulk creative control thing, ‘Oh Hogan had creative control.’ It’s just a joke. It was a card I had in my back pocket that I never had to use”
On a related note, here is a hint on Hulk Hogan’s next potential appearance with WWE.