‘We’ve got a problem’ – Hulk Hogan claims The Rock almost derailed their iconic WrestleMania X8 match before he made major decision
Hulk Hogan claims he scrapped Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s plans for their iconic WrestleMania match and mapped out a whole new outing virtually on the spot.
The 1980s WWE megastar met The Rock in the key bout of what’s considered to be by many wrestling fans as the best WrestleMania of all time.
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Johnson had, by that time, begun to transition away from the wrestling world in favour of movie commitments in Hollywood, but was still regarded as the biggest star of his generation.
Hogan, meanwhile, still held iconic status with WWE fans for his stellar career in the company and in WCW, making it an all-time must-see match.
What fans ended up getting was a classic, but Hogan has wildly claimed that he had to tear up Johnson’s original plan for their clash in favour of something altogether on the fly.
on Logan Paul’s 'Impaulsive' podcast to tell the lengthy tale, veteran Hogan claimed he was summoned by then WWE chief Vince McMahon to meet Rock in Toronto to rehearse their match – something he claimed he’d never previously done.
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“He said: “I need you down in Miami tomorrow,” Hogan explained. “I said: ‘Miami, why Miami?’ He said: ‘The Rock wants to rehearse the match.
“I said: ‘Rehearse what?’ – I’d never rehearsed anything in my life. And he said: ‘We just want to make sure you can still go.’
“So out of respect, I go down to Miami and they’ve got this ring set up in a hot a** warehouse.
“Thank god The Rock’s Dad was there, Rocky Johnson, who I’d travelled with, he’s one of my guys. Pat Patterson was there, and I got in the ring with The Rock, out of respect, and I hadn’t seen him since I threw my headband out and he caught it, when he was a kid.”
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The 71-year-old went on to explain how he and The Rock were at odds with their approach to the match, to the point Hogan even refused to a request to walk through the actual clash itself.
He went on: “We’re talking about it, ‘okay, we’re going to lock up’, and he’s telling me. He’s got this whole thing in his head. ‘We’re going to lock up, go to the corner, you go to throw a punch, I’ll block it…'
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“I just lead the match. I just listen in my ears and my heart, I can hear what they want.
“So, at the end of the day, The Rock said: ‘Okay, duck this punch, bang, bang, bang, then get some heat on me, shut me down, duck the clothesline, two dropkicks, over the top…’
“He’s telling me all this stuff, I’m like: ‘You got the whole match planned out? What if this doesn’t work? What if the people s*** on it? Are we gonna keep doing this?’
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson shows off nasty injury he suffered while filming his upcoming UFC movie 'The Smashing Machine'
“He goes: ‘Oh, it’ll be fine,’ this that and the other… Rock’s dad is going ‘Dwayne, listen to Hogan!’
“Then Pat Patterson goes: ‘Now he wants you to go through the match,’ I said: ‘No. If I go through this match now, I’m going to get hurt, there’s no way in hell I can wrestle in front of no people, I need 50, 60, 70 thousand people.”
Hogan was pitched as the heel - a bad guy – for the match with Rock, who was being portrayed as the fan favourite of the piece.
As is often the case in Canada, though, fans had other ideas. Growing uneasy at their respective receptions, Hogan claims he took matters into his own hands.
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“I thought for sure I’d p***** people off,” he went on to say. “I tried whatever I could to get heat, [but] I go out to the ring in Toronto, and they cheer like crazy. I thought: ‘Oh s***, we’ve got a problem.’
“He comes out and they boo the p*** out of him. We start the match like wanted to, and all of a sudden, as he’s hitting me, they’re booing the s*** out of him.
“[I gave him] a thumb to the eye, [hit him] in the throat [and said]: ‘just slow down, brother. It will take us a few minutes to get this back on track.’”
In the end, none of Rock’s planned spots for the match ended up being used, at least according to his rival.
Finally giving some due credit to megastar Johnson, in his own right one of WWE’s great figures ever, the leader of the Hulkamania movement said his opponent eventually settled into the match with ease.
“I wish we’d never talked, because we never did any of the s*** we talked about,” he lamented.
“Usually, I call the match in the ring, but he was so good that he was talking to me, too. When somebody’s that good, I listen, brother.
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“That’s how it works. It’s an art form, it’s all instinct and it’s heartfelt.”
Retired Hogan last wrestled for WWE in 2006, while The Rock made an epic return after a lengthy absence at this year’s WrestleMania.
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