WWE Star Almost Swiped Hulk Hogan’s Iconic Theme Song
Red and yellow, posing, ‘brother!’, and Real American are all things intrinsically linked with Hulk Hogan but current WWE star Mustafa Ali almost swiped that iconic song for his own.
Mustafa Ali has had something of a seesaw WWE career and one of his attempts to refresh it was to become a slick-talking politician and wanted to nab Hogan’s legendary song to help take it to the next level.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Ali elaborated on the plans and says after a meeting with Vince McMahon, he had the idea approved but in the end, it never happened as there were concerns the character wasn’t right for the TV networks:
“With the Real American, Hulk Hogan’s old theme music, yeah, that was an actual discussion I had. At one point, that was gonna be my entrance music. The reason for that is a few years ago we were laying the groundwork for me to do this politician-esque character. There wasn’t going to be anything political-specific about this character. He was just presented as a politician.
“He was a quick-witted, sly talker, but kinda sleazy, podium, press secretary, secret service, and I was always saying things and making promises that I would never fulfill, kinda like politicians do nowadays sometimes, right? It was just more of a tongue-in-cheek kind of another way to show some layers to my character.”
“The whole emphasis was I would be launching campaigns, whether it be against my opponent or for a title opportunity, so everything in the background was just very politically motivated as far as the presentation. I remember talking to Vince at the time and saying, ‘Hey, you know it would really get this character over because there’s nothing more American in this world than Mustafa Ali. What if I came out to Real American?’
“He was quiet. I go, ‘We own that song, right? Do we still own Real American?’ He goes, ‘Of course, we do, God dammit!’ I go, ‘Okay, so what if I came out to it?’ He goes, ‘I love it, I love it.’ As of that meeting, I had it, and I think in a few weeks we were gonna re-debut me as this political character and that was gonna be my music, but the decision was made that the character might not work for the networks and live audience, so it was pulled.”