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When It Comes Crashing Down and It Hurts Inside · The 3Ts: Tables, Tailgates, and Toploaders

• WEBVTT 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:13.539 What's up friends? Welcome into another episode 00:00:13.539 --> 00:00:16.280 of Tables, Tailgates, and Toploaders. I'm your 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:19.739 host TB aka Tim Beardsley and I am so happy to 00:00:19.739 --> 00:00:22.760 have you all aboard for this very crazy episode. 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:27.280 This is episode 10. Episode 10 of the 3 Ts. It's 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:30.559 been quite the ride so far. Now when I started 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.039 this whole thing out, my goal was to have some 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:35.359 fun. But one of the first goals I had was to 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:37.780 get to episode 10 because... When I was doing 00:00:37.780 --> 00:00:40.100 research preparing to put this podcast together, 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:43.679 I was told that only 10 % of podcasts actually 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:46.399 make it to episode 10. And here we are. So we 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:51.039 have achieved great success. Great success. But 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:54.539 that's the good news. The bad news is this is 00:00:54.539 --> 00:00:58.439 not the episode that I had envisioned doing for 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:01.659 episode 10. I wanted to come on here and do some 00:01:01.659 --> 00:01:05.439 fun stuff. You know, some themed topics surrounding... 00:01:05.950 --> 00:01:08.310 the number 10 with wrestling and bills and some 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:11.530 hobby talk. But unfortunately, with the way this 00:01:11.530 --> 00:01:13.790 week went, I'm not going to get to do that this 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:16.769 week. And so this episode is going to be a little 00:01:16.769 --> 00:01:19.310 different. We're just going to talk for the majority 00:01:19.310 --> 00:01:21.409 of it. I'll give you a little peek behind the 00:01:21.409 --> 00:01:25.230 curtain. But normally when I sit down to prepare 00:01:25.230 --> 00:01:28.269 for the show, I take a lot of time. I do some 00:01:28.269 --> 00:01:31.280 research. I start by... taking some notes and 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:33.980 doing a general outline and then get a little 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:35.939 more detailed and fill in some of the blanks. 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:38.480 So I kind of try to make it seem like I know 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:40.859 what the heck I'm doing here. But there's no 00:01:40.859 --> 00:01:43.780 way around it. This week was absolute crap. Now 00:01:43.780 --> 00:01:46.359 we started on the 20th, which was last Sunday. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:48.879 Obviously, we had the death of Malcolm Jamal 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:52.400 Warner. Being a kid of the 80s, the Cosby Show 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:55.260 was huge. So that one was a little bit of a shock. 00:01:55.420 --> 00:01:59.060 And then two days later, we had the icon, Ozzy 00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:02.189 Osbourne. he passed away on Tuesday, which is 00:02:02.189 --> 00:02:05.230 a huge hit to the music industry, to the world, 00:02:05.569 --> 00:02:08.490 to the country. Just rock and roll legend. Rock 00:02:08.490 --> 00:02:10.969 and roll legend influenced so many people in 00:02:10.969 --> 00:02:14.710 so many ways with music and whatnot. And so the 00:02:14.710 --> 00:02:17.550 beginning of the week sucked. And I always worry 00:02:17.550 --> 00:02:22.069 when you see some of these celebrity passings 00:02:22.069 --> 00:02:25.389 or famous people passing, prominent people, because 00:02:25.389 --> 00:02:29.650 the idea that bad bad things come in threes it 00:02:29.650 --> 00:02:33.030 always seems to happen that way so after after 00:02:33.030 --> 00:02:36.189 um i call him theo from the cosby show because 00:02:36.189 --> 00:02:38.150 i love that show that was a great show when i 00:02:38.150 --> 00:02:41.330 was a kid but after theo and ozzy had passed 00:02:41.330 --> 00:02:43.129 you're it's kind of sitting in the back of your 00:02:43.129 --> 00:02:45.789 mind like well what's the next shoe to drop so 00:02:45.789 --> 00:02:49.430 thursday comes i am prepping for the show i'm 00:02:49.430 --> 00:02:52.710 writing notes i'm putting together An outline 00:02:52.710 --> 00:02:55.349 of what I want to talk about. Some fun segments 00:02:55.349 --> 00:02:59.150 I want to do. And just around midday, probably 00:02:59.150 --> 00:03:01.590 a little before lunch, my phone starts blowing 00:03:01.590 --> 00:03:04.189 up. I'm getting texts from my kids and my wife. 00:03:04.370 --> 00:03:07.310 And I happen to check them all right around the 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:10.729 same time. And they all say the same thing. Hulk 00:03:10.729 --> 00:03:16.509 Hogan died. And it kind of changed my preparation 00:03:16.509 --> 00:03:18.610 for the show completely. It kind of threw everything 00:03:18.610 --> 00:03:21.939 out the window. The prep for the show is... It 00:03:21.939 --> 00:03:25.039 definitely is going to be and was a lot different. 00:03:25.699 --> 00:03:28.240 Now, I have some things, some points, some notes 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:31.240 that I have taken because I just want to make 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:33.860 sure I don't forget anything. But for the most 00:03:33.860 --> 00:03:37.680 part, this is just going to be me talking about 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.319 my childhood and about memories and about what 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:45.539 this whole thing means. Now, a couple of things 00:03:45.539 --> 00:03:49.180 before we dive in. I get some of the controversy. 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:53.520 and the animosity and the hatred and the anger 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:57.300 and all that stuff that has unfortunately circled 00:03:57.300 --> 00:04:00.379 around Hulk Hogan and his life for probably the 00:04:00.379 --> 00:04:05.479 last 14 plus years. I have chosen as a host of 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:07.620 this show to not talk about any of that, and 00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:11.080 you may think that's right or wrong, but it is 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:14.439 what it is. We are all flawed individuals, and 00:04:14.439 --> 00:04:17.500 that is not what I want to focus on today. When 00:04:17.500 --> 00:04:20.339 I started with this podcast, If you go all the 00:04:20.339 --> 00:04:23.399 way back to the very first episode, number one, 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:25.259 I wanted to do this to have fun. Number two, 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:28.579 I wanted to do this because these three hobbies, 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:31.500 so card collecting, the Buffalo Bills, and professional 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:34.879 wrestling, these hobbies have meant the world 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:38.339 to me in my 46 years on earth. I started this 00:04:38.339 --> 00:04:40.519 podcast in order to talk about them. And one 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:41.959 of the things that I brought up in the first 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:44.500 episode was how do these things, how do these 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:46.699 awesome hobbies, how do these awesome parts of 00:04:46.699 --> 00:04:50.769 our lives make us feel? And so while yes, I do 00:04:50.769 --> 00:04:54.670 tend to, or I can be critical of certain things 00:04:54.670 --> 00:04:57.730 that I see in the three aspects of this podcast, 00:04:57.790 --> 00:05:02.250 today I'm going to choose to look at this man 00:05:02.250 --> 00:05:06.370 from the lens of a kid growing up in the 80s 00:05:06.370 --> 00:05:10.189 and the 90s and take that perspective. Maybe 00:05:10.189 --> 00:05:12.389 you can understand, maybe you can't. It is what 00:05:12.389 --> 00:05:14.370 it is. So we're just going to start talking. 00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:17.040 Like I said, I have some notes that I took, but 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:18.879 I'm not sure where this is going to go. But hopefully, 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:22.379 hopefully this is therapeutic for me. As the 00:05:22.379 --> 00:05:24.839 day went on Thursday, I found myself getting 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:28.339 more upset about the whole thing and really thinking 00:05:28.339 --> 00:05:31.420 into the whole situation. And a lot of memories 00:05:31.420 --> 00:05:33.439 came up. And that's tough, right? Because... 00:05:33.899 --> 00:05:36.379 What I like to do on the show, I like to take 00:05:36.379 --> 00:05:40.120 deep dives into things from my childhood, nostalgia 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:42.660 trips, right? I talk about getting in the DeLorean 00:05:42.660 --> 00:05:44.959 and going back to certain moments in time. And 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:47.980 in previous episodes, I've already talked about 00:05:47.980 --> 00:05:52.779 huge matches involving Hulk Hogan and from, you 00:05:52.779 --> 00:05:56.050 know, early WrestleManias. Just last episode, 00:05:56.110 --> 00:05:59.870 I talked about SummerSlam 88, which was the Megabucks 00:05:59.870 --> 00:06:03.430 versus the Megapowers, and I literally just watched 00:06:03.430 --> 00:06:07.009 that match. It's crazy. When I'm feeling nostalgic 00:06:07.009 --> 00:06:09.990 or when I feel like I need to reconnect with 00:06:09.990 --> 00:06:12.129 the world of professional wrestling, I don't 00:06:12.129 --> 00:06:16.930 go back to very many 2000 matches, matches post 00:06:16.930 --> 00:06:23.389 -20, I don't know, 2002, 2003. I know... The 00:06:23.389 --> 00:06:25.829 Rock and Stone Cold and all those guys, like 00:06:25.829 --> 00:06:28.810 that was a huge part of being a fan. But I don't 00:06:28.810 --> 00:06:30.910 go back and rewatch a lot of that stuff. If I 00:06:30.910 --> 00:06:33.069 go back to rewatch something just to kind of 00:06:33.069 --> 00:06:36.649 unplug and to reconnect with this awesome part 00:06:36.649 --> 00:06:40.410 of me, it's always the late 80s, early 90s stuff. 00:06:40.569 --> 00:06:43.649 I go throw on a Hulk Hogan match. I go watch 00:06:43.649 --> 00:06:46.970 Macho Man. I go watch Ultimate Warrior. wrestling 00:06:46.970 --> 00:06:49.569 wise are these guys better than those in the 00:06:49.569 --> 00:06:52.209 early 2000s the are they better than the John 00:06:52.209 --> 00:06:54.110 Cena's are they better than the Roman Reigns 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:56.850 look we can talk about work rate we can talk 00:06:56.850 --> 00:06:59.250 about all this stuff but the thing that puts 00:06:59.250 --> 00:07:01.670 the biggest smile on my face is going back and 00:07:01.670 --> 00:07:04.689 watching these matches from my childhood so there 00:07:04.689 --> 00:07:06.149 that's what we're gonna that's what we're gonna 00:07:06.149 --> 00:07:09.350 dive into it's crazy so Thursday comes I get 00:07:09.350 --> 00:07:12.589 the text Hulk Hogan passes away and there's just 00:07:12.589 --> 00:07:15.120 a lot to unpack there A lot to unpack, a lot 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:18.779 to dive into. How does it make you feel? I talk 00:07:18.779 --> 00:07:20.439 about that all the time. How does this stuff 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:24.220 make you feel? And to hear that news, politics 00:07:24.220 --> 00:07:27.680 and all the nonsense aside, how did it make me 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:30.759 feel when I heard Hulk Hogan passed away? It's 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:35.420 very simple. This iconic wrestler, Hulk Hogan, 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:39.560 was such a huge part of my childhood. Such a 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:42.149 huge part of my childhood. And to get that news 00:07:42.149 --> 00:07:47.050 and to allow the floodgates of being 7, 8, 9, 00:07:47.129 --> 00:07:50.930 10, 11, 12 years old open and have these memories 00:07:50.930 --> 00:07:53.449 and these feelings and these emotions come back. 00:07:53.910 --> 00:07:56.250 It's not like anything else you can experience. 00:07:56.829 --> 00:07:59.910 It sucked. Getting this news just flat out sucked. 00:08:00.050 --> 00:08:02.509 And the more I dove into it, the more I wanted 00:08:02.509 --> 00:08:04.889 to remember certain moments, certain matches, 00:08:04.990 --> 00:08:07.529 certain points. It's so weird to talk about. 00:08:08.009 --> 00:08:12.040 But this man was such a huge. part and is, if 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:14.339 I'm being completely honest, he is the reason 00:08:14.339 --> 00:08:17.000 I love professional wrestling. There's really 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.079 no way around it. So while the passing of Ozzy 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:23.399 Osbourne was a huge impact on so many people, 00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:26.319 and I'm not going to downplay or raise up the 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:28.620 importance of one versus the other, he was a 00:08:28.620 --> 00:08:32.360 huge influence on... rock on heavy metal on the 00:08:32.360 --> 00:08:34.740 music industry as a whole and he did so many 00:08:34.740 --> 00:08:37.019 things iconic in his own right but here's the 00:08:37.019 --> 00:08:38.960 thing here's here's the difference when you compare 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:42.919 these two cultural icons if you take ozzy out 00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:45.279 of the world of rock and roll rock and roll still 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:47.830 exists it's different Don't get me wrong. I'm 00:08:47.830 --> 00:08:50.070 not saying he didn't have and leave a huge footprint 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:53.929 and wasn't an icon and paved the way and changed 00:08:53.929 --> 00:08:57.169 things for the better. I truly believe that. 00:08:57.210 --> 00:08:59.250 If you don't believe me, just go watch his last 00:08:59.250 --> 00:09:01.509 concert with all these musicians and all these 00:09:01.509 --> 00:09:03.529 people coming together to celebrate the life 00:09:03.529 --> 00:09:06.100 of him. And it was awesome. Just great. I'm so 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:08.779 glad that everyone got that opportunity. But 00:09:08.779 --> 00:09:11.279 if you go back and you look at Hulk Hogan and 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.940 his impact and importance on the future of wrestling, 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:17.799 the future of professional wrestling after he 00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:21.440 came on the scene, if you remove Hulk Hogan from 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:24.320 the equation, the current product, what we enjoy 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:28.639 today and participate in today and consume today 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:31.299 doesn't exist. It just doesn't exist. And now 00:09:31.299 --> 00:09:33.659 there's the argument for, well, who was really 00:09:33.659 --> 00:09:36.960 responsible for Hulk Hogan and the whole Hulkamania? 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:39.419 Was it Hulk? Was it Vince? Was it a combo of 00:09:39.419 --> 00:09:42.559 both? It doesn't matter. The fact is he is such 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:44.919 a huge part of that equation. If you take him 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:48.019 away, wrestling today doesn't exist. And I don't 00:09:48.019 --> 00:09:50.100 mean that it doesn't happen, like nothing happens. 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:53.259 It's just not the same. Because what this man 00:09:53.259 --> 00:09:58.519 did was he redefined what it meant. To be a professional 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:01.340 wrestler. WrestleMania. I mean the idea of WrestleMania. 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:06.019 We go back to 1985. First WrestleMania. Now WrestleMania 00:10:06.019 --> 00:10:09.340 really wasn't huge. Until three years later. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:11.899 Two years later. But you had the first WrestleMania. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.019 Which is revolutionary. You're holding a huge 00:10:16.019 --> 00:10:19.379 event. Madison Square Garden. I mean, you have 00:10:19.379 --> 00:10:21.860 celebrities coming out of the woodwork. You go 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:24.820 back and watch WrestleMania 1. The main event 00:10:24.820 --> 00:10:26.659 in the very first WrestleMania is a tag team 00:10:26.659 --> 00:10:29.779 match. And Hulk Hogan, your good guy, is tagging 00:10:29.779 --> 00:10:33.769 with Mr. T, who was... also at the time so culturally 00:10:33.769 --> 00:10:37.990 relevant. He was huge in the world of entertainment. 00:10:38.370 --> 00:10:42.169 So to pair him up with Hulk Hogan in the main 00:10:42.169 --> 00:10:44.809 event of this brand new concept called WrestleMania 00:10:44.809 --> 00:10:49.169 in which they're fighting Paul Orndorff and Rowdy 00:10:49.169 --> 00:10:51.990 Roddy Piper, it was just groundbreaking. Now, 00:10:52.009 --> 00:10:55.889 is WrestleMania 1 good? That's a whole other 00:10:55.889 --> 00:10:58.509 question. If you go back and watch that, it's 00:10:58.509 --> 00:11:00.919 very difficult. to sit through WrestleMania one, 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.779 but it's a spectacle and you get all these other 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:07.500 things happening to kind of pave the way for, 00:11:07.580 --> 00:11:10.299 and I hate this term, but to pave the way for 00:11:10.299 --> 00:11:14.059 the sports entertainment that we, or that people 00:11:14.059 --> 00:11:17.360 call it today. So WrestleMania I happens in 1985. 00:11:17.559 --> 00:11:19.679 It's a big success. And then they go on a year 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:22.919 later in 1986. Who's the headliner of WrestleMania 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:26.100 II? It's Hulk Hogan versus King Kong Bundy in 00:11:26.100 --> 00:11:30.220 a steel cage match. Now, I'm only seven years 00:11:30.220 --> 00:11:32.559 old at the time, so I don't remember watching 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:34.940 this. I have since obviously seen WrestleMania 00:11:34.940 --> 00:11:38.139 II numerous times. It's kind of a mess. They 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:40.539 are putting together this show from three separate 00:11:40.539 --> 00:11:42.759 locations. You have Chicago, New York, and L 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:46.090 .A., and it's just a... jumbled convoluted mess 00:11:46.090 --> 00:11:48.629 so let's be honest but they're still working 00:11:48.629 --> 00:11:51.389 the kinks out right so one and two are kind of 00:11:51.389 --> 00:11:54.409 just there and they're kind of slowly evolving 00:11:54.409 --> 00:11:57.870 and then three hits i'm eight years old 1987 00:11:57.870 --> 00:12:01.710 wrestlemania 3 and this is considered by so many 00:12:01.710 --> 00:12:07.210 people to be the moment That redefined what professional 00:12:07.210 --> 00:12:10.730 wrestling is. And it's almost like a mark in 00:12:10.730 --> 00:12:14.730 the sand of cultural importance, cultural relevance 00:12:14.730 --> 00:12:16.909 moving forward. You have two of the greatest 00:12:16.909 --> 00:12:21.009 or two of the huge, most well -known superstars, 00:12:21.129 --> 00:12:24.350 Andre the Giant versus Hulk Hogan. Now, this 00:12:24.350 --> 00:12:26.509 is the main event. Pontiac Silverdome, Detroit. 00:12:26.590 --> 00:12:28.970 The numbers are crazy, right? They'll tell you, 00:12:28.990 --> 00:12:31.720 there's 90 ,000 people. No, that's... That's 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:33.279 nonsense. There weren't that many people. But 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:37.740 the idea still stands that this match was super 00:12:37.740 --> 00:12:42.080 important. Now, at the point in Andre's career, 00:12:42.299 --> 00:12:44.179 Andre could barely work this match. It's not 00:12:44.179 --> 00:12:46.320 that great of a match. But the fact that you 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:50.100 see a body slam, Hulk Hogan picks up Andre the 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:54.019 Giant, slams him. That moment right there redefined 00:12:54.019 --> 00:12:56.580 what professional wrestling was. And I've talked 00:12:56.580 --> 00:12:59.120 about this before. I've seen that match probably 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:03.860 50, 60 times. at this point in my life but when 00:13:03.860 --> 00:13:08.080 I was eight I don't have a memory of watching 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.500 this live what I was doing when I was eight years 00:13:10.500 --> 00:13:13.299 old I don't know but I can't say that I saw this 00:13:13.299 --> 00:13:15.879 show as it was happening and then you fast forward 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:19.500 Wrestlemania 4 WrestleMania 4 is the first time 00:13:19.500 --> 00:13:21.960 that Hulk Hogan is not in the main event of a 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:24.360 WrestleMania, but yet he's still in the main 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:27.019 event of WrestleMania. There's a whole convoluted 00:13:27.019 --> 00:13:31.100 mess happening in which prior to this, Hogan 00:13:31.100 --> 00:13:35.019 was a champ and he lost due to a ref. It was 00:13:35.019 --> 00:13:41.320 the twin Hebner fiasco and Andre beat him. thanks 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:44.480 to this nefarious ref. And then he immediately 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:47.399 hands the belt to Ted DiBiase. And anyway, WrestleMania 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:51.399 IV is essentially a huge... tournament leading 00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:55.019 up to Macho Man fighting Ted DiBiase for the 00:13:55.019 --> 00:13:57.899 title. I just rewatched this match too. So it's 00:13:57.899 --> 00:14:01.059 crazy that this stuff happens. And I don't know, 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:04.000 the old school stuff, I love going back to. Even 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:06.360 if it's a match here, a match there, you don't 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:08.379 need to sit through a two and a half hour, three 00:14:08.379 --> 00:14:10.460 hour pay -per -view, but you can go back and 00:14:10.460 --> 00:14:12.519 say, hey, remember this match? And you pop it 00:14:12.519 --> 00:14:14.740 on and you're like, that was awesome. So main 00:14:14.740 --> 00:14:18.100 event, WrestleMania 4, you have Macho Man with 00:14:18.100 --> 00:14:20.759 Miss Elizabeth and it's... at some point, he 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:23.940 can't overcome the odds because Ted DiBiase is 00:14:23.940 --> 00:14:26.340 there with Andre the Giant in his corner. And 00:14:26.340 --> 00:14:30.480 every time Macho Man gets rolling, there's some 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:33.879 shenanigans happening. And so finally, Macho 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:36.980 Man tells Elizabeth, hey, you see him like whispering 00:14:36.980 --> 00:14:39.440 and pointing to her and you see Miss Elizabeth 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:42.200 go off back behind the curtain. And two minutes 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:44.279 later, she comes out. And who does she bring 00:14:44.279 --> 00:14:47.320 with him? With her, it's none other than Hulk 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:49.320 Hogan. And so Hulk Hogan comes down. The place 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:51.899 goes absolutely crazy. He gets a steel chair 00:14:51.899 --> 00:14:54.440 and literally sits himself right next to ringside. 00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:58.299 And any time then, now that Andre wants to get 00:14:58.299 --> 00:15:02.919 involved, Hogan's there. Which is funny. There's 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:04.600 a point in the match where the refs turn, the 00:15:04.600 --> 00:15:06.700 refs distracted, Hulk Hogan jumps in the ring 00:15:06.700 --> 00:15:09.559 and hits Ted DiBiase on the back with a chair. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:12.320 Is that actually a good guy move? Probably not. 00:15:12.379 --> 00:15:14.919 But needless to say, right after that, Macho 00:15:14.919 --> 00:15:17.860 Man hits a diving elbow from the top turnbuckle 00:15:17.860 --> 00:15:21.639 and he is your new champion. Post -match, Macho 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:25.470 Man, who in his own right is... establishing 00:15:25.470 --> 00:15:27.870 himself or has already established himself as 00:15:27.870 --> 00:15:31.429 one of the most important wrestlers in all of 00:15:31.429 --> 00:15:33.509 professional wrestling. But look at that match 00:15:33.509 --> 00:15:36.509 in the context of what it is. He wins the match. 00:15:36.509 --> 00:15:38.830 He's your new champion, but who is right there? 00:15:38.970 --> 00:15:41.909 Who helped him to get the belt? It's none other 00:15:41.909 --> 00:15:44.169 than Hulk Hogan. The match ends, they're celebrating, 00:15:44.370 --> 00:15:46.509 and it's Randy, it's Hulk, and it's Miss Elizabeth. 00:15:46.610 --> 00:15:49.909 And those three become the most important good 00:15:49.909 --> 00:15:53.679 guy faces for the next. year because they establish 00:15:53.679 --> 00:15:56.399 the mega powers and the mega powers as a kid 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:59.360 this is like holy cow this is like your suit 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:02.120 your superheroes you know we look at the avengers 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:06.669 today it's like oh thor and and iron man they're 00:16:06.669 --> 00:16:09.029 teaming up with captain america and all and this 00:16:09.029 --> 00:16:13.429 is what it was in 1989 the mega powers is essentially 00:16:13.429 --> 00:16:17.570 my avengers when i'm 10 years old and so they 00:16:17.570 --> 00:16:21.350 start this super long story in which jealousy 00:16:21.350 --> 00:16:24.309 is involved and animosity is involved and it 00:16:24.309 --> 00:16:28.139 what starts as best friends and They're all in 00:16:28.139 --> 00:16:31.360 it together to kind of thwart off the evil bad 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:34.620 guys led by DiBiase and Andre the Giant and Bobby 00:16:34.620 --> 00:16:37.580 Heenan. And it slowly starts to unravel. And 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:41.440 it all leads up to 1989 WrestleMania V. And this 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:44.500 is where I clearly remember watching this as 00:16:44.500 --> 00:16:47.759 a kid. If you told me, hey, where did your fandom, 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:51.919 what match do you actually remember seeing as 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:54.279 it was happening? It's WrestleMania V. I was 00:16:54.279 --> 00:16:58.570 10. Mega powers explode. This was crazy because 00:16:58.570 --> 00:17:01.809 the whole story involving Miss Elizabeth and 00:17:01.809 --> 00:17:05.329 Macho Man and Hulk, it was told brilliantly, 00:17:05.430 --> 00:17:08.430 effectively, and it was just awesome. And so 00:17:08.430 --> 00:17:11.250 these two fight in the main event of WrestleMania 00:17:11.250 --> 00:17:15.230 V. As a kid, you're watching this and this is 00:17:15.230 --> 00:17:17.750 what it meant to feel something as a kid. So 00:17:17.750 --> 00:17:20.289 the mega powers explode. And then as this is 00:17:20.289 --> 00:17:23.309 happening in the background, you had the Ultimate 00:17:23.309 --> 00:17:27.960 Warrior slowly rising through the ranks. He was 00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:29.480 doing all kinds of crazy stuff. The Ultimate 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:31.720 Warrior, I talked about him in the SummerSlam 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:33.859 88 match against the Honky Tonk Man. I talked 00:17:33.859 --> 00:17:36.579 about that match last week and how as a kid when 00:17:36.579 --> 00:17:39.160 you're... Nine, eight, nine, ten years old, and 00:17:39.160 --> 00:17:41.000 you're seeing these characters, Ultimate Warriors 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:43.579 especially, with the way they are presented, 00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:46.460 the way they wrestle, the way they talk, everything, 00:17:46.660 --> 00:17:49.319 everything, the whole package. He's slowly ascending 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:51.980 up the ranks, and Hulk Hogan's already at the 00:17:51.980 --> 00:17:54.099 top. He's established himself as the top guy. 00:17:54.279 --> 00:17:57.420 And then flash forward to 1990, WrestleMania 00:17:57.420 --> 00:18:00.359 VI now. So we're six years into this WrestleMania 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:02.619 thing, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger 00:18:02.619 --> 00:18:06.299 and bigger, led by Hulk Hogan each and every 00:18:06.299 --> 00:18:09.279 year. regardless of whether he was wrestling 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:12.500 in the main event he's there right so 1990 wrestlemania 00:18:12.500 --> 00:18:15.660 6 this is the match i go back and watch probably 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:17.960 more than any other match because for me this 00:18:17.960 --> 00:18:21.359 is the moment in my childhood when i was like 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:24.299 oh my god i don't even know who to root for because 00:18:24.299 --> 00:18:26.200 ultimate when ultimate warrior hits the scene 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:30.539 i was like this is this is craziness this guy 00:18:30.539 --> 00:18:34.789 is Ridiculous. I loved Hogan and it felt bad 00:18:34.789 --> 00:18:37.210 for me to root for Warrior because I'm like, 00:18:37.269 --> 00:18:39.630 well, am I supposed to be rooting for both of 00:18:39.630 --> 00:18:42.269 these guys? But they're amazing. And so here 00:18:42.269 --> 00:18:44.509 we go. WrestleMania 6 main event. Hogan versus 00:18:44.509 --> 00:18:47.309 Ultimate Warrior. Title versus title match. Winner 00:18:47.309 --> 00:18:49.849 take all. Ultimate Warrior is your intercontinental 00:18:49.849 --> 00:18:52.450 champion. Hulk Hogan is your heavyweight champion, 00:18:52.670 --> 00:18:54.789 your world champion. And these two are fighting. 00:18:54.930 --> 00:18:56.950 And only one can win. And as a kid, you're like, 00:18:57.049 --> 00:18:58.349 well, I don't know who the heck I'm supposed 00:18:58.349 --> 00:19:01.250 to want to win this. And this is the match. This 00:19:01.250 --> 00:19:03.069 is the match I keep coming back to. And the reason 00:19:03.069 --> 00:19:08.130 all these other wrestlers were so good or deemed 00:19:08.130 --> 00:19:12.029 to be so good is because of Hulk Hogan's presence. 00:19:12.309 --> 00:19:15.509 He elevated everybody with his storytelling and 00:19:15.509 --> 00:19:18.829 with his promos. And was he the best technical 00:19:18.829 --> 00:19:20.750 wrestler? I don't even want to get into that. 00:19:20.890 --> 00:19:23.750 Yeah, I get it. Other guys would come along who 00:19:23.750 --> 00:19:27.410 were far superior with work rate and ability 00:19:27.410 --> 00:19:31.329 and all that stuff. That's not the point. Put 00:19:31.329 --> 00:19:34.579 WrestleMania on the map. Work rate did not elevate 00:19:34.579 --> 00:19:37.940 the WWF at the time into where it started to 00:19:37.940 --> 00:19:41.200 where it ended up. I understand it became an 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:43.720 important factor. But when you're 8, 9, 10 years 00:19:43.720 --> 00:19:45.880 old, you don't give a crap about work rate. You 00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:47.940 don't give a crap what moves they know and what 00:19:47.940 --> 00:19:50.640 their move set is and all this other crap. You 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:52.839 wanted to see these larger -than -life characters. 00:19:52.980 --> 00:19:55.740 You wanted to see them go through conflict. And 00:19:55.740 --> 00:19:57.799 you wanted to see them beat the bad guy. You 00:19:57.799 --> 00:19:59.700 wanted to see them overcome adversity. And so 00:19:59.700 --> 00:20:03.680 WrestleMania VI was it. I mean, this was the 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:07.420 match. Two of my absolute favorites. Title versus 00:20:07.420 --> 00:20:10.240 title, Toronto Sky Dome. Now, the Sky Dome part, 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:12.299 this is going to come back into play 12 years 00:20:12.299 --> 00:20:14.420 later, and we'll get to that. So if you look 00:20:14.420 --> 00:20:16.779 at the rise of Hulk Hogan, you look at the rise 00:20:16.779 --> 00:20:19.880 of the WWF, you look at the rise of Hulkamania, 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:23.079 who was that designed for? It was designed for 00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:26.339 me. And this is the part that I think is what 00:20:26.339 --> 00:20:29.740 makes me sad about the fact that... He passed 00:20:29.740 --> 00:20:33.420 away. Because when I look back on this window 00:20:33.420 --> 00:20:36.059 of time, and we can call it, I mean, it's safe 00:20:36.059 --> 00:20:38.619 to say that this is like a five, six year window 00:20:38.619 --> 00:20:41.920 where the rise of Hulkamania takes place. This 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:45.059 is my wheelhouse. And this, I am exactly the 00:20:45.059 --> 00:20:48.799 target demographic that the WWF is trying to 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:51.000 reach. It's me. What do they do? What's going 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:54.180 on outside of your television shows and your 00:20:54.180 --> 00:20:56.200 pay -per -views? What's going on outside of it? 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:59.079 Well, they're bringing out cartoons. So now Hulk 00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:01.279 Hogan and some of these other guys are involved 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:03.900 in cartoon programming. They're in commercials. 00:21:04.019 --> 00:21:07.440 They're doing spots for all sorts of products 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:10.960 that they're pushing now. These guys are suddenly, 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:13.619 and specifically Hulk Hogan, he's everywhere. 00:21:13.740 --> 00:21:17.660 At the time in the late 80s, he has to be one 00:21:17.660 --> 00:21:21.160 of the most recognizable faces on the planet. 00:21:21.420 --> 00:21:24.700 On the planet. And that cannot be undersold, 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:27.809 right? The fact that... Hulk Hogan is in movies. 00:21:28.289 --> 00:21:32.170 He's in cartoons. He has toys that come out. 00:21:32.250 --> 00:21:35.390 And the toy line alone, right? It's crazy the 00:21:35.390 --> 00:21:38.730 timing of this whole thing. My wife and I go 00:21:38.730 --> 00:21:41.809 to a little small town, probably about 45 minutes 00:21:41.809 --> 00:21:45.410 east outside of Philly, a little town called 00:21:45.410 --> 00:21:48.250 Quakertown, PA. And it's this old antique shop 00:21:48.250 --> 00:21:50.970 run by one of the... coolest guys you'll ever 00:21:50.970 --> 00:21:54.150 meet um it's called rinky dinks rinky dinks antiques 00:21:54.150 --> 00:21:57.049 and anyway a couple weeks ago we're there and 00:21:57.049 --> 00:22:00.349 he knew i was a huge wrestling fan i had bought 00:22:00.349 --> 00:22:03.390 some old wrestling action figures from him i'm 00:22:03.390 --> 00:22:06.470 not talking like ones you know from i'm talking 00:22:06.470 --> 00:22:09.250 old ones like some of the first ones guys like 00:22:09.250 --> 00:22:12.069 hacksaw jim duggan and virgil and million dollar 00:22:12.069 --> 00:22:15.349 man and like andre the giant and so he had put 00:22:15.349 --> 00:22:19.170 all these things aside and then he finds a Hulk 00:22:19.170 --> 00:22:22.009 Hogan collection and in this collection it's 00:22:22.009 --> 00:22:24.769 an action figure that you put on your finger 00:22:24.769 --> 00:22:26.710 if you guys remember any of these these are crazy 00:22:26.710 --> 00:22:29.150 like you could make them fight by almost attaching 00:22:29.150 --> 00:22:31.630 them to one of your fingers and then finger puppets 00:22:31.630 --> 00:22:33.309 but I don't know what they were called back then 00:22:33.309 --> 00:22:37.170 but that and I had a I had a color form if you 00:22:37.170 --> 00:22:39.289 guys know what color forms is like most most 00:22:39.289 --> 00:22:40.730 of you probably have never heard of color forms 00:22:40.730 --> 00:22:44.730 but they're essentially reusable stickers almost 00:22:44.730 --> 00:22:47.009 like magnets that you put on these background 00:22:47.009 --> 00:22:50.990 panels and you can make scenes play out in front 00:22:50.990 --> 00:22:54.250 of you well on the cover of this it's ultimate 00:22:54.250 --> 00:22:56.289 warrior and hulk hogan on the color form but 00:22:56.289 --> 00:23:00.269 the the prize of the lot is a wrestling buddy 00:23:00.269 --> 00:23:03.900 from mattel actually was it Was it Mattel? No, 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:05.599 I don't think it was Mattel. I think it was Tonka. 00:23:05.740 --> 00:23:08.920 I think things came out around 1990. These were 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:10.500 called Wrestling Buddies. If you haven't seen 00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:12.480 them, these are essentially pillows. And they 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:14.500 did a series. And I think it was five people. 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:17.839 It was like Randy, Macho Man. It was Hulk Hogan. 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:21.200 It was Ultimate Warrior and two others. I'd have 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:23.460 to look it up. But these were essentially pillows 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:26.140 that were cut out in the shapes of wrestlers. 00:23:26.299 --> 00:23:28.759 And they were probably no bigger than a foot 00:23:28.759 --> 00:23:31.339 and a half tall by a foot wide. And they had 00:23:31.339 --> 00:23:34.130 colors. looked you know the color scheme matched 00:23:34.130 --> 00:23:37.630 the wrestler and the idea was the the kids would 00:23:37.630 --> 00:23:39.390 buy them and they could practice wrestling moves 00:23:39.390 --> 00:23:41.970 on them at home and i remember having one when 00:23:41.970 --> 00:23:45.250 i was a kid and so he had a wrestling buddy and 00:23:45.250 --> 00:23:47.970 i'm like hell yeah i want this absolutely i want 00:23:47.970 --> 00:23:49.829 this so i bought that i bought the action figures 00:23:49.829 --> 00:23:53.180 oh another action figure he had which is absolutely 00:23:53.180 --> 00:23:55.680 crazy to me. It's Hulk Hogan in the white trunks 00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:59.759 and it's him as Thunderlips from Rocky III. Now 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:02.279 another, I don't talk too much about movies on 00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:05.740 this podcast, but the Rocky series is up there 00:24:05.740 --> 00:24:10.440 on list of my all -time favorite movies. Rocky 00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:13.660 I is, I consider the original Rocky, it's probably 00:24:13.660 --> 00:24:15.960 in my top three movies of all time, if it's not 00:24:15.960 --> 00:24:19.559 number one. But Rocky III, Rocky III, where Rocky 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:22.730 Balboa fights. Mr. T, and at some point, this 00:24:22.730 --> 00:24:25.589 is 1982, so obviously I'm only three. I did not 00:24:25.589 --> 00:24:28.630 see this movie when it came out, right? But I 00:24:28.630 --> 00:24:31.950 owned these movies on VHS. I own them on DVD. 00:24:32.190 --> 00:24:34.289 I have seen these movies so many times. Rocky 00:24:34.289 --> 00:24:36.210 III is probably one of my favorites after the 00:24:36.210 --> 00:24:40.190 original. Hulk Hogan is in this movie as a character 00:24:40.190 --> 00:24:42.990 by the name of Thunder Lips, and they have a... 00:24:43.500 --> 00:24:46.740 charity event in which Rocky Balboa fights Thunderlips. 00:24:46.740 --> 00:24:49.500 And this scene, it's awesome. It's just so fun. 00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:54.240 Well, he had a action figure of Hulk Hogan as 00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:56.440 Thunderlips from Rocky III. Hell yeah, I'm going 00:24:56.440 --> 00:25:00.059 to buy that, right? So now I have all these ancient 00:25:00.059 --> 00:25:03.279 action figures and a Hulk Hogan wrestling buddy. 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:06.400 And then a few weeks later, this news breaks. 00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:08.960 Like I said, the timing of this stuff is just, 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:11.240 it's just crazy. When I say cultural phenomenon, 00:25:11.880 --> 00:25:14.960 It can't be understated how big this was. You 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:18.240 can compare it to, is it crazy to say the Beatles? 00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:21.420 I don't know. I wasn't around for when the Beatles 00:25:21.420 --> 00:25:24.900 were huge, but the Beatles were a global cultural 00:25:24.900 --> 00:25:28.980 phenomenon in the same way that Elvis was before 00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:31.960 them and Michael Jackson was after them. But 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:35.180 Hulk Hogan, I'm not going to put him on the same 00:25:35.180 --> 00:25:39.289 level as those, but it can't be far off. It can't 00:25:39.289 --> 00:25:42.009 be far off, people. He was huge. He's in movies. 00:25:42.250 --> 00:25:44.950 He's on your TV, not just for wrestling, but 00:25:44.950 --> 00:25:47.210 for cartoons and for commercials. And he's got 00:25:47.210 --> 00:25:49.849 toy lines. And little kids like me are using 00:25:49.849 --> 00:25:53.250 these pillows to, instead of slamming their brothers 00:25:53.250 --> 00:25:56.049 and sisters and hurting people, they're now being 00:25:56.049 --> 00:25:58.970 able to practice moves on their beds or floors 00:25:58.970 --> 00:26:00.430 or wherever the hell they're doing it, using 00:26:00.430 --> 00:26:02.509 these awesome wrestling buddies. So I'll tell 00:26:02.509 --> 00:26:05.470 you how far it even went for me. Later on in 00:26:05.470 --> 00:26:07.970 life. I get a cat. What do I name the cat? I 00:26:07.970 --> 00:26:14.170 name the cat Hogan. I name a cat Hogan because 00:26:14.170 --> 00:26:18.230 of what this man meant to me as a kid. He had 00:26:18.230 --> 00:26:21.369 such lasting impact on me as a kid that I thought 00:26:21.369 --> 00:26:23.549 that was a badass name. So I want to name my 00:26:23.549 --> 00:26:26.349 cat after the immortal Hulk Hogan. It's just 00:26:26.349 --> 00:26:28.529 crazy to me. I don't think it can be understated 00:26:28.529 --> 00:26:32.970 how important Hulk Hogan was to really skyrocketing 00:26:32.970 --> 00:26:36.670 the WWF. into the next stratosphere. It was gaining 00:26:36.670 --> 00:26:39.089 steam. It was popular. But when WrestleMania 00:26:39.089 --> 00:26:43.170 3 is over and it's the body slam heard around 00:26:43.170 --> 00:26:46.829 the world, it just takes off to a whole nother 00:26:46.829 --> 00:26:50.049 level. WrestleMania 3, WrestleMania 5, WrestleMania 00:26:50.049 --> 00:26:52.730 6 against the Warrior. And then at that time, 00:26:52.789 --> 00:26:57.009 things kind of take a little bit of a turn. I 00:26:57.009 --> 00:26:59.890 think six years, seven years is a long time for 00:26:59.890 --> 00:27:02.299 someone to be riding that. peak of the wave. 00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:04.779 And so I think people had started to kind of 00:27:04.779 --> 00:27:07.640 get tired of it. Because now, right after that, 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:10.480 you have 1991, WrestleMania 7, he fights Sergeant 00:27:10.480 --> 00:27:12.700 Slaughter. A lot of things culturally are going 00:27:12.700 --> 00:27:15.259 on in the world. We're overseas, the United States 00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:18.500 is overseas. And there's a lot of political parallels 00:27:18.500 --> 00:27:20.819 that your wrestling programs are now running 00:27:20.819 --> 00:27:24.460 with your political events and your cultural 00:27:24.460 --> 00:27:27.980 events. And so I'm not sure if people were really 00:27:27.980 --> 00:27:30.789 okay with that. WrestleMania 7 was a bit of a 00:27:30.789 --> 00:27:33.329 chore. Obviously, we wanted him to beat Sgt. 00:27:33.369 --> 00:27:35.490 Slaughter, but I just think that there were so 00:27:35.490 --> 00:27:38.349 many other things going on in the world. And 00:27:38.349 --> 00:27:40.890 it's funny because that was, Bills fans, that 00:27:40.890 --> 00:27:44.869 was the Bills Super Bowl, wide right. So what 00:27:44.869 --> 00:27:47.349 a time. What a time to be alive as an 11 -year 00:27:47.349 --> 00:27:49.509 -old or 12 -year -old, whatever the heck I was 00:27:49.509 --> 00:27:51.970 at the time. You got Sgt. Slaughter versus Hulk 00:27:51.970 --> 00:27:54.230 Hogan, our country's at war. You're learning 00:27:54.230 --> 00:27:57.289 all about this at school, and then your favorite 00:27:57.289 --> 00:27:59.170 team loses in the last against the Super Bowl. 00:27:59.289 --> 00:28:02.589 Great. Great. Awesome. Yeah. Love to go back 00:28:02.589 --> 00:28:06.930 there. What a mess that was. Anyway, he's everywhere, 00:28:07.210 --> 00:28:09.650 and he's got his catchphrases. He's got his gear. 00:28:09.809 --> 00:28:11.829 He's got the theme song. The theme song alone, 00:28:12.190 --> 00:28:15.170 the real American theme song, I can put this 00:28:15.170 --> 00:28:18.609 song on today, and it's still a banger. This 00:28:18.609 --> 00:28:21.670 song. is awesome you know when it comes crashing 00:28:21.670 --> 00:28:23.589 down and it hurts inside that's going to be the 00:28:23.589 --> 00:28:27.910 name of this podcast i i'm i i just decided but 00:28:27.910 --> 00:28:31.990 like that you hear that guitar riff and you know 00:28:31.990 --> 00:28:35.789 it's on you know that the entire mode and mood 00:28:35.789 --> 00:28:39.869 of the show of whatever you're watching it's 00:28:39.869 --> 00:28:43.269 changing because you know here comes hulk hogan 00:28:43.269 --> 00:28:45.650 and he's gonna do something cool with his 24 00:28:45.650 --> 00:28:49.269 inch pythons and his like The headband, the gear, 00:28:49.410 --> 00:28:52.789 the red and yellow. I never liked red and yellow, 00:28:52.849 --> 00:28:55.509 but to see red and yellow on this guy, he's 6 00:28:55.509 --> 00:28:57.809 '7", he's 300 pounds, he's moving around like 00:28:57.809 --> 00:28:59.869 crazy, like he's dropping leg drop after leg 00:28:59.869 --> 00:29:01.849 drop. Was he a good wrestler? We already discussed 00:29:01.849 --> 00:29:04.410 this. He's probably not the greatest, but he... 00:29:04.650 --> 00:29:06.569 It wasn't the worst because if you watched late 00:29:06.569 --> 00:29:09.630 80s wrestling, there was guys a hell of a lot 00:29:09.630 --> 00:29:12.109 worse than Hulk Hogan. But like I said, he elevated 00:29:12.109 --> 00:29:15.930 these other guys and made everyone else so much 00:29:15.930 --> 00:29:19.230 more important. That's how big Hogan was. But 00:29:19.230 --> 00:29:21.210 to say your prayers, take your vitamins, you 00:29:21.210 --> 00:29:23.210 know, those things, what you're going to do, 00:29:23.269 --> 00:29:26.829 brother. And the catchphrases, those still are 00:29:26.829 --> 00:29:29.690 said today. Now everyone needs a catchphrase. 00:29:29.750 --> 00:29:33.130 Now it's like you're not at the top. Unless you 00:29:33.130 --> 00:29:35.490 have some sort of catchphrase. Because it's, 00:29:35.490 --> 00:29:38.150 you know, I'll take this from The Rock. It's 00:29:38.150 --> 00:29:40.869 sing along with The Rock. You remember when that 00:29:40.869 --> 00:29:43.910 was happening. But Hogan started this. Because 00:29:43.910 --> 00:29:46.269 he found these phrases that were working. And 00:29:46.269 --> 00:29:48.650 he kept repeating them over and over again. And 00:29:48.650 --> 00:29:51.029 it was a way to market himself and the product 00:29:51.029 --> 00:29:53.930 and the company. And just a huge success. Huge 00:29:53.930 --> 00:29:57.130 success. And to downplay his importance. He, 00:29:57.250 --> 00:29:59.730 you know, everyone likes to do their Mount Rushmore's. 00:29:59.829 --> 00:30:02.609 It's him. It's him. And there's really no one 00:30:02.609 --> 00:30:05.869 else. Some will argue Ric Flair. I get it. Ric 00:30:05.869 --> 00:30:08.650 Flair was great as well. But to me, we don't 00:30:08.650 --> 00:30:10.609 have what we have today if it wasn't for Hulk 00:30:10.609 --> 00:30:13.650 Hogan. In my opinion, an absolute fact. And then 00:30:13.650 --> 00:30:16.309 as I'm trying to think back through what I want 00:30:16.309 --> 00:30:18.490 to talk about and I hit on some of the matches. 00:30:18.589 --> 00:30:21.269 Like I said, after 90, after WrestleMania 6 versus 00:30:21.269 --> 00:30:23.589 The Warrior, I think that was the peak. I think 00:30:23.589 --> 00:30:27.369 that was the peak of Hulkamania because... He 00:30:27.369 --> 00:30:30.529 loses this match, Warrior wins, and things seem 00:30:30.529 --> 00:30:32.789 to change a little bit. So Warrior's your champ. 00:30:32.910 --> 00:30:34.789 Now, obviously, Hogan gets it back. He goes on 00:30:34.789 --> 00:30:37.569 to feud with a lot of guys at that point. Yokozuna 00:30:37.569 --> 00:30:39.930 comes into the picture. He's fighting Yokozuna. 00:30:39.950 --> 00:30:42.490 He's fighting Sergeant Slaughter. These are fine 00:30:42.490 --> 00:30:45.890 feuds, but they just don't match up to his Andre, 00:30:46.150 --> 00:30:50.000 his Macho Man, and his Warrior feuds. And so 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:52.519 things seem to die down a little bit. Then he 00:30:52.519 --> 00:30:55.339 goes away. He goes away. He goes to join WCW. 00:30:55.440 --> 00:30:58.039 And I'll be completely honest with you. I was 00:30:58.039 --> 00:31:02.019 not a WCW kid. I was WWF all the way. I felt 00:31:02.019 --> 00:31:05.819 like betraying these superheroes if I were to 00:31:05.819 --> 00:31:09.240 turn on WCW. I knew what was happening because 00:31:09.240 --> 00:31:10.960 I had friends that would watch it. But he goes 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:13.680 to WCW and wrestles there for a couple years, 00:31:13.779 --> 00:31:17.519 still under the normal good guy moniker, right? 00:31:17.869 --> 00:31:21.069 And then he, again, changes the industry. He 00:31:21.069 --> 00:31:24.809 changes the industry 10 years later in 1996. 00:31:25.589 --> 00:31:29.569 WCW bash at the beach, one of the most iconic 00:31:29.569 --> 00:31:33.069 last, what, 25, 30 minutes of a pay -per -view 00:31:33.069 --> 00:31:35.269 in the history of professional wrestling. You 00:31:35.269 --> 00:31:38.509 have Scott Hall, you have Kevin Nash, and they're 00:31:38.509 --> 00:31:41.009 running amok. And they have been advertising 00:31:41.009 --> 00:31:44.009 a mystery third member to join their faction. 00:31:44.450 --> 00:31:47.720 And there's a big... schmaz at the end of this 00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:50.920 bash at the beach and here comes hogan and you 00:31:50.920 --> 00:31:53.099 think he's gonna you think he's gonna square 00:31:53.099 --> 00:31:57.319 up and go against nash and and hall and and he 00:31:57.319 --> 00:32:00.240 shocks the world and joins them and creates right 00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:03.640 then creates he does two things he creates one 00:32:03.640 --> 00:32:06.279 of the most iconic if not the most iconic stables 00:32:06.279 --> 00:32:08.240 in the history of professional wrestling creating 00:32:08.240 --> 00:32:17.549 the nwo and One of the greatest heels of all 00:32:17.549 --> 00:32:20.710 time. And I can't say that's ever been duplicated. 00:32:20.809 --> 00:32:23.210 We've been waiting for 20 years for John Cena 00:32:23.210 --> 00:32:25.430 to do it. We knew he just did it earlier this 00:32:25.430 --> 00:32:30.349 year, February. He turned into a heel. What's 00:32:30.349 --> 00:32:32.009 the first thing you think of when John Cena turned? 00:32:32.130 --> 00:32:35.670 You thought of Hulk Hogan turning into Hollywood 00:32:35.670 --> 00:32:39.269 Hogan. And then gone are the red and yellow. 00:32:39.410 --> 00:32:44.809 Now he's rocking the white and black. He's dying 00:32:44.809 --> 00:32:48.809 his beard. You want to talk about reinventing 00:32:48.809 --> 00:32:52.210 yourself into a way that just shakes the industry. 00:32:52.430 --> 00:32:58.569 This single move put WCW ahead of WWF. The creation 00:32:58.569 --> 00:33:02.109 of the NWO and turning Hogan into a bad guy elevated 00:33:02.109 --> 00:33:05.089 the WCW into another stratosphere just like he 00:33:05.089 --> 00:33:07.470 had done, what is it at this point, eight, seven, 00:33:07.509 --> 00:33:09.549 eight years earlier with what he had done in 00:33:09.549 --> 00:33:13.640 WWF? He took WCW, which was fine. They were fine, 00:33:13.859 --> 00:33:16.920 but they were the Monday Night Wars and they're 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:18.900 fighting, Ted Turner's fighting Vince McMahon 00:33:18.900 --> 00:33:21.859 trying to gain the upper hand. And these two 00:33:21.859 --> 00:33:24.000 companies are duking it out. And Hogan turning 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:26.680 into a bad guy, creating the NWO is one of the 00:33:26.680 --> 00:33:30.059 greatest creations ever. And again, flips the 00:33:30.059 --> 00:33:32.079 industry on its head because no one saw this 00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:34.640 coming. No one. Go back and watch the end of 00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:37.099 Bash at the Beach. It's insane. Look at the ring 00:33:37.099 --> 00:33:40.019 at the end of that pay -per -view. and tell me 00:33:40.019 --> 00:33:42.220 those fans aren't feeling something? I don't 00:33:42.220 --> 00:33:44.539 know what to tell you. I wasn't a WCW guy, but 00:33:44.539 --> 00:33:47.839 looking back at that, I'm like, holy crap. This 00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:51.759 is crazy. And because of that, they went on a 00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:55.920 run and started crushing the WWF because of Hulk 00:33:55.920 --> 00:33:58.279 Hogan. So anyone that wants to sit here and tell 00:33:58.279 --> 00:34:00.740 me he's not the guy and everyone else is below 00:34:00.740 --> 00:34:02.740 him, you're wrong. You're just wrong. And again, 00:34:02.779 --> 00:34:04.579 it's not just about work rate. It's not just 00:34:04.579 --> 00:34:06.180 about, well, how many moves can he do? It's not 00:34:06.180 --> 00:34:08.599 just about all this other crap. It's about what 00:34:08.599 --> 00:34:10.780 are you bringing to the table? The whole package. 00:34:11.320 --> 00:34:13.440 How are you talking? What impact are you having 00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:15.420 on other wrestlers? How are you elevating other 00:34:15.420 --> 00:34:17.619 people? How are you helping your product? What 00:34:17.619 --> 00:34:20.460 are you doing to lift your company? What are 00:34:20.460 --> 00:34:23.679 you doing to get it through dark days? What are 00:34:23.679 --> 00:34:26.519 you doing to continue it at its peak? This was 00:34:26.519 --> 00:34:29.460 the guy. This was the freaking guy. I don't know, 00:34:29.460 --> 00:34:35.309 man. And then, and then, oh man, then 2002 hits. 00:34:35.469 --> 00:34:38.510 We didn't even talk about this, 2002. We're at 00:34:38.510 --> 00:34:41.289 WrestleMania 18 back at Toronto Sky Dome and 00:34:41.289 --> 00:34:45.429 Hogan had come back to the WWF and they were 00:34:45.429 --> 00:34:48.489 setting up quite a match. Y 'all remember this 00:34:48.489 --> 00:34:51.630 one. It's The Rock versus Hulk Hogan. Toronto 00:34:51.630 --> 00:34:54.710 Sky Dome, WrestleMania 18, Icon versus Icon is 00:34:54.710 --> 00:34:57.090 the way they build this. And this match is, I 00:34:57.090 --> 00:34:59.489 think, I think it's the third to last match on 00:34:59.489 --> 00:35:02.150 the card. Well, they could have turned the program 00:35:02.150 --> 00:35:04.230 off. Because I know Triple H was coming. And 00:35:04.230 --> 00:35:07.289 I got to be honest with you. Triple H was not 00:35:07.289 --> 00:35:11.130 liked by me at this part of my wrestling career. 00:35:11.630 --> 00:35:15.309 My wrestling fandom. I couldn't stand Triple 00:35:15.309 --> 00:35:18.250 H. Looking back, I appreciate what he did. But 00:35:18.250 --> 00:35:20.570 there was a section of time when I was the... 00:35:20.570 --> 00:35:24.210 I hated Triple H. Because I thought he was pushed 00:35:24.210 --> 00:35:27.260 to the moon. And he was the focus. It was all 00:35:27.260 --> 00:35:29.659 garbage as far as I'm concerned. But I think 00:35:29.659 --> 00:35:31.780 your main event there is Chris Jericho versus 00:35:31.780 --> 00:35:34.880 Triple H. But as far as I'm concerned, Hogan 00:35:34.880 --> 00:35:37.219 versus Rock, go back and watch this match. Tell 00:35:37.219 --> 00:35:40.099 me that the people in Toronto Sky Dome are not 00:35:40.099 --> 00:35:42.940 feeling something. Hogan comes in as the bad 00:35:42.940 --> 00:35:45.300 guy in this match. Hulk Hogan's the bad guy. 00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:47.860 He should be hated. By the end of this match, 00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:51.380 every single person in Sky Dome is rooting for 00:35:51.380 --> 00:35:53.820 Hulk Hogan. Watch this match. I've seen this 00:35:53.820 --> 00:35:56.820 match so many times. It's one of the most important 00:35:56.820 --> 00:35:59.800 matches you can watch because it talks. This 00:35:59.800 --> 00:36:02.559 is what my podcast is about. What are we feeling? 00:36:02.739 --> 00:36:04.980 Why do we do these things? Why do we watch these 00:36:04.980 --> 00:36:06.639 shows? Why do we invest in these characters? 00:36:06.840 --> 00:36:09.300 Why do we participate and go to these events? 00:36:09.480 --> 00:36:12.159 It's for this moment right here. WrestleMania 00:36:12.159 --> 00:36:14.500 18, Hogan vs. Rock. This is the moment. This 00:36:14.500 --> 00:36:16.320 is what it's about as a wrestling fan. Watch 00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:19.760 that match. Put yourself. And now I'm, I don't 00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:21.739 know, I'm obviously much older at this time. 00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:27.639 So I'm 23 years old. So I get it. They're no 00:36:27.639 --> 00:36:29.739 longer superheroes to me, but it's still fun, 00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:31.679 right? And I'm still feeling something watching 00:36:31.679 --> 00:36:35.019 this match at 23 years old. The match is awesome. 00:36:35.179 --> 00:36:36.739 I can never get tired of watching that match. 00:36:36.860 --> 00:36:38.760 Now you want to tell me, well, there's no great, 00:36:38.880 --> 00:36:41.460 awesome movesets and all this. It doesn't matter. 00:36:41.500 --> 00:36:44.519 Look at what is actually happening during this 00:36:44.519 --> 00:36:47.539 match and tell me this match doesn't have extreme 00:36:47.539 --> 00:36:50.750 significance in the history. a professional wrestling. 00:36:50.929 --> 00:36:53.210 And who's at the forefront? Hulk Hogan. So you 00:36:53.210 --> 00:36:56.949 put it all together and yeah, it's tough. And 00:36:56.949 --> 00:36:59.650 maybe this podcast has turned into me rambling 00:36:59.650 --> 00:37:02.449 on, but there's a lot I had to talk about and 00:37:02.449 --> 00:37:05.070 just feel with you all. Because that's what I've 00:37:05.070 --> 00:37:06.869 asked you from the beginning. Come on this journey 00:37:06.869 --> 00:37:09.530 with me and feel something with me. We want to 00:37:09.530 --> 00:37:12.010 talk about things that make us feel some way. 00:37:12.110 --> 00:37:15.289 And this week just flat out sucked because it 00:37:15.289 --> 00:37:17.570 made me feel something again. You know, if you've 00:37:17.570 --> 00:37:21.269 grown up in the... 80s and the early 90s as a 00:37:21.269 --> 00:37:24.250 kid you've seen a lot of these guys unfortunately 00:37:24.250 --> 00:37:27.130 pass away many of them many of them much too 00:37:27.130 --> 00:37:30.289 soon many of them and it's devastating i still 00:37:30.289 --> 00:37:33.670 look back at the day warrior passed away i still 00:37:33.670 --> 00:37:36.429 go back and watch his speech on monday night 00:37:36.429 --> 00:37:39.349 raw and it's eerie to think about that he came 00:37:39.349 --> 00:37:42.670 out to the ring on monday night raw and gives 00:37:42.670 --> 00:37:46.380 this crazy speech almost asking for forgiveness 00:37:46.380 --> 00:37:48.699 or however you want to interpret that speech 00:37:48.699 --> 00:37:52.199 it was a great speech and warrior's another guy 00:37:52.199 --> 00:37:55.019 that had his own demons and then that's a whole 00:37:55.019 --> 00:37:56.840 nother topic for a whole nother day but again 00:37:56.840 --> 00:38:00.019 here is a here is someone that at seven eight 00:38:00.019 --> 00:38:04.260 nine ten years old i looked up to like holy cow 00:38:04.260 --> 00:38:07.719 and so now i'm seeing this you know as a grown 00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:09.980 man i'm watching this other grown man talk about 00:38:09.980 --> 00:38:12.000 the things he talked about in that monday night 00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:15.690 raw promo And then not even, what, 24, 48 hours 00:38:15.690 --> 00:38:18.449 later, he's no longer with us. So that one hurt. 00:38:18.570 --> 00:38:21.170 And then other guys, Scott Hall, Mr. Perfect. 00:38:21.489 --> 00:38:26.829 I mean, the list of 80s wrestlers and managers 00:38:26.829 --> 00:38:29.550 and everybody that's known. It was crazy watching 00:38:29.550 --> 00:38:32.829 SummerSlam 88 and going through the roster and 00:38:32.829 --> 00:38:34.690 realizing how many of those guys are not with 00:38:34.690 --> 00:38:36.789 us anymore. That's the tough part of the nostalgia 00:38:36.789 --> 00:38:40.210 if you want to get dark with it. But most of 00:38:40.210 --> 00:38:44.239 these guys. don't get to live to be 71 like Hulk 00:38:44.239 --> 00:38:47.920 Hogan. So it's awesome that he was able to live 00:38:47.920 --> 00:38:50.440 that long. Unfortunately, like I said, the last 00:38:50.440 --> 00:38:53.460 14 years are filled with a lot of demons. And 00:38:53.460 --> 00:38:56.039 to be able to separate that from what he brought 00:38:56.039 --> 00:38:59.340 to the table and what he brought to who the target 00:38:59.340 --> 00:39:01.739 audience was at the time, which is me, that's 00:39:01.739 --> 00:39:03.599 what I was trying to do here today. At the end 00:39:03.599 --> 00:39:05.099 of the day, it's supposed to make you feel something. 00:39:05.179 --> 00:39:07.420 When I'm a kid in the 80s and the early 90s, 00:39:07.420 --> 00:39:11.429 wrestling was Hulk Hogan. I would not be the 00:39:11.429 --> 00:39:13.750 fan I am today without him. And so yeah, losing 00:39:13.750 --> 00:39:16.909 him on Thursday, it made me feel something all 00:39:16.909 --> 00:39:19.070 right. So I wanted to share that with you all. 00:39:19.510 --> 00:39:22.190 Maybe it was too long. Maybe it was me rambling 00:39:22.190 --> 00:39:24.829 on and on, but I think it was a necessary podcast. 00:39:24.949 --> 00:39:29.550 I had other things in the other tees. I had stuff 00:39:29.550 --> 00:39:32.289 written out, talk about bills and talk about 00:39:32.289 --> 00:39:34.250 cards. And we're going to save that for another 00:39:34.250 --> 00:39:38.090 episode because I think it's important. And I 00:39:38.090 --> 00:39:41.989 think he, Deserves it. Right or wrong. Whatever 00:39:41.989 --> 00:39:46.070 you think. Doesn't matter. I think he deserves 00:39:46.070 --> 00:39:49.829 to have this whole podcast. And yeah. So Hulk 00:39:49.829 --> 00:39:53.389 Hogan. Thank you for your contributions to my 00:39:53.389 --> 00:39:56.690 childhood. Thank you for turning me into a huge 00:39:56.690 --> 00:40:00.590 lifelong wrestling fan. I would not be here loving 00:40:00.590 --> 00:40:03.929 this show. Loving this product. Loving the. I 00:40:03.929 --> 00:40:05.469 wouldn't be here loving professional wrestling 00:40:05.469 --> 00:40:07.780 today if it wasn't for you. and what you brought 00:40:07.780 --> 00:40:11.400 to the table to six, seven, eight, nine, 10 year 00:40:11.400 --> 00:40:14.400 old me. It can't be understated. I'm going to 00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:15.800 miss the hell out of you. I'm going to miss, 00:40:15.900 --> 00:40:18.039 it's going to be a lot harder going back and 00:40:18.039 --> 00:40:20.679 watching these matches now, but I'm going to 00:40:20.679 --> 00:40:22.500 keep saying my prayers and taking my vitamins 00:40:22.500 --> 00:40:26.780 and hulking up and working on my 24 inch pythons. 00:40:26.780 --> 00:40:30.880 And hopefully if y 'all get that nostalgia feeling, 00:40:31.019 --> 00:40:33.570 go back and watch some of these matches. Whether 00:40:33.570 --> 00:40:36.469 it's WrestleMania 3, WrestleMania 5, WrestleMania 00:40:36.469 --> 00:40:39.829 6, or WrestleMania 18, I encourage you all, go 00:40:39.829 --> 00:40:42.469 back and watch these because these are time stamps. 00:40:42.750 --> 00:40:47.389 Time stamps on the historic scale that is professional 00:40:47.389 --> 00:40:50.309 wrestling. These are moments in time involving 00:40:50.309 --> 00:40:53.030 one of the greatest, the greatest of all time. 00:40:53.510 --> 00:40:57.349 R .I .P. Hulk Hogan. You will be missed.