WWE News: Hulk Hogan Says Vince McMahon Rejected His ‘Triple H’ Idea
When Hulk Hogan turned heel and formed the New World Order faction in 1996, he revitalized his career and proved his doubters wrong. Wrestling fans were used to the “Real American” version of the Hulkster, but his dominant babyface gimmick had grown stale in the eyes of many as wrestling entered an edgier era. When he became Hollywood Hulk Hogan, though, he changed the game all over again.
According to Hogan, however, he understood the need to turn heel long before he joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and co-founded the nWo. During an interview on a recent edition of The Steve Austin Podcast, he revealed that he proposed the Hollywood gimmick to Vince McMahon in the lead up to WrestleMania VI match against The Ultimate Warrior — only for Vince to reject it.
“When I was told to put the Warrior over, I asked those questions and Vince said, ‘I think the red and yellow is over, we have gotten everything we can out of it.’ And I was like, ‘Damn, Vince what if after the finish I point to God, give him the belts and leave, but I do that slow Three Stooges turn, I go back and gaff his a** and call myself Triple H, Hollywood Hulk Hogan? He said, ‘that would never work and you can’t be a heel.’ So, he squashed that.”
In the interview, he noted how the Ultimate Warrior was Vince’s new golden boy at the time. His physique was arguably more impressive than Hogan’s, and Vince saw dollar signs as a result. Despite going on to headline three more successive WrestleMania pay-per-views afterwards, the WWE Hall of Famer understood that his time as the boss’s top guy was coming to an end.
After WM18 if I could have had the chance to work with him people would still be talking about Austin/HollyWoodHogan today,we talked about what could have been and we both agreed we should have done it,Steve is a solid first class guy and I’m grateful for his friendship brotherHH pic.twitter.com/nFMor3vdSj
— Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) July 28, 2019
Hogan opened up about several other subjects in the interview as well. Earlier this week, The Inquisitr reported how he told Austin about his real-life heat with “Macho Man” Randy Savage, over an altercation involving Miss Elizabeth.
He also told his fellow WWE Hall of Famer that he wanted to be an accountant before he decided to embark on a wrestling career. While his decision to become a grappler ultimately paid off in the end, success didn’t arrive overnight.
According to the Hogan, he spent three months sleeping in his van until a friend offered to let him sleep in his apartment. Luckily for Hogan, though, it didn’t take long until he was wrestling all over the world, which eventually led to McMahon bringing him to WWE and making him a star attraction.
