Hulk Hogan – “Andre The Giant Scared Me To Death”

Hulk Hogan has told plenty of exaggerated wrestling stories over the years, but judging by his tone and choice of words here, this one might be the truth.

Hulk Hogan hasn’t been shy about sharing his thought and opinions on different wrestlers and happenings within the wrestling business. As one wrestling’s biggest success stories, Hogan has traveled all over the world and wrestled some of the best wrestlers of all time.

But there’s one wrestler he will likely never stop talking about: Andre the Giant.

Most fans know of the fabled scoop slam heard around the world at WrestleMania III; after all, WWE has referenced and promoted it countless times since it first happened.

However, the history between Hulk Hogan and Andre the giant goes much farther back…to a time when Hogan was much lower and the totem pole and Andre didn’t hold back his disdain for him.

On a recent episode of the This Past Weekend podcast, Hulk Hogan described how much Andre the giant terrified him during Hogan’s pre-Hulkamania days. According to Hogan, Andre wouldn’t let him know what was going to happen in the ring when they wrestled, and would only say “don’t worry about it” when it came down to figuring how the match’s layout.

Andre the Giant tried to embarrass Hulk Hogan in Washington

Additionally, Hogan told a story of how Andre would cause him immense anguish, simply because Andre didn’t like him.

“The hardest thing for me was — the first 8 or 9 years — he didn’t like me at all and tortured me. When we got in the ring, he showed me how much he didn’t like me.”

“I made the mistake of bringing a flight attendant to the Capitol Center in Washington, and I put her first row and I didn’t tell Andre.

He heard her say ‘Come on, Terry!’ and he figured out she was with me and he about killed me. Took me back in the ring … he tied the bottom and the second rope and put my neck in it, took his size 27 boot … almost broke my neck in the ropes.

Then I had those yellow tights. He picked me up like a damn stork, with my balls and my ass hanging out and carried me around in front of this girl with my junk hanging out.”

Despite Hogan’s attention to detail in this story, one must keep in mind that Hulk Hogan has earned a reputation of sorts for exaggeration and embellishment, so his statements here should be taken with a grain of salt.

h/t WrestlingInc for the transcription