The Real Story Behind WWE Legend Making Hulk Hogan Tap Out

Hulk Hogan is a legendary name in the pro-wrestling industry. He is one of the names that have risen to glory both within and outside WWE.

The Hulkster has given the fans several noteworthy moments during his career. His match against The Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1984, marked the beginning of Hulkamania.

That is just one example of the extraordinary things the Late WWE Hall of Famer has done during his career.

Hulk Hogan tapped out during a match only once in his career

Back in 2002, Hulk Hogan was facing some newer superstars during the road up to the WrestleMania X8 classic. One of the young guns was Kurt Angle.

At King of the Ring 2002, Hogan faced Angle. The match ended with Kurt Angle making Hogan tap out. During his appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Kurt Angle revealed that the ending was made for Hogan to tap out so that if they ran the program again, it could be picked up from there.

What he did is, just in case we were gonna wrestle again, continue the storyline, Hogan grabbed the ropes and tapped out, so he could always bring up that excuse, ‘listen Kurt, you didn’t make me tap out, I was holding the ropes. Lets go again’. So they were leaving it open in case we wanted to do another program.

Unfortunately it never happened, so I go down in history as making Hulk Hogan tap out… I was a fanboy like holy crap I’m wrestling Hulk Hogan, I was so excited, I think he thought maybe I was gonna hurt him, but I was just so ramped up to be wrestling Hulk Hogan, I grew up watching the guy. I wasn’t even a big wrestling fan, I grew up watching Bruno Sammartino and Hulk Hogan.

However, the video shows that Hogan was not holding the rope when he tapped out.

Hulk Hogan tragically passed away on July 24th, 2025.

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