Hulk Hogan Details Importance Of Andre The Giant To His Career
Hulk Hogan has reflected on what Andre The Giant meant to his career when The Hulkster was the top guy in WWE.
The main event of WrestleMania 3 was 36 years ago and it remains one of the most famous pro wrestling matches. Whether you have watched pro wrestling for decades or you don’t know much about it, a lot of people know the names of Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant.
At WrestleMania 3, Hogan put the WWE World Heavyweight Title on the line against Andre The Giant, who had turned heel on Hogan several months earlier to set up the massive matchup. It wasn’t their first match together since they wrestled many times in the past, but it was a huge match with Hogan as the WWE Champion and Andre as the top heel that was a huge threat.
The Hulkster beat Andre that night with a legendary body slam followed by the leg drop for the pinfall win.
During an appearance on the Full Send Podcast, Hulk Hogan detailed how Andre The Giant made his career at WrestleMania 3 in 1987.
“I’d never beaten the giant before, and there was no shame in getting beat by him because no one had ever beaten him. I asked Vince. I said, ‘You know here we are the night before, what are we doing tomorrow?’ Vince goes, ‘I don’t know […] I’m sure Andre will do the right thing.’ Vince wanted me to sit in the dressing room with Andre just to try to, like, make things cool, you know. I got to the building at noon and I sat next to Andre and I watched him drink three-fifths of Crown Royal.”
As the story goes, Hulk Hogan claims that he didn’t know he was going to beat Andre at WrestleMania 3 until they were in the ring and Andre called for the key spots in the match.
“All of a sudden, when the match was almost over he goes, ‘Slam!'”
“I thought I heard what I heard, and as he came towards me I took a step back and scooped him, and then got his momentum and I barely got him over. Then I dropped a leg thinking that he was going to kick out, and he didn’t kick out.”
When looking back at that moment, Hulk Hogan spoke about how big it was that Andre did that for him.
“I realized what he had done for me. He had just made my career there, brother. I was on a roll anyway, that was like hitting double nitrous buttons for me. [Vince] was excited. He knew we pulled a rabbit out of the hat. It could have went the other way because Andre was hurt real bad. […] There was a damn good chance we could have s**t the bed that night and ruined everything.”
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