Chris Jericho comments on working with Hulk Hogan in the year 2002.
Chris Jericho just celebrated 30 years in wrestling this past week on AEW Dynamite, but he was once the young lion facing older names such as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair when they returned to WWE in the year 2002.
Speaking on his most recent Saturday Night Special Q&A session, Chris Jericho (via WrestleZone) discussed what Hogan was like to work with back then and Hulk Hogan's initial apprehension when working with younger talent due to fear of wrestling’s traditional distrusting nature.
“I love wrestling with Hulk. It was great, too, because when I first started wrestling him, obviously you have this intimidation factor because he's Hulk Hogan, I was a huge fan of his,” Jericho began. “Then we worked a few times, I think that actually the last great match Hogan ever had was against me on SmackDown in Pittsburgh and he really trusted me. We worked a bunch of shows together and he would always show up and always had some beer with him. ‘Hey, Brother, what are you doing? you got me tonight, you're going to take care of me?’ He would let me put together the whole match. I had him taking the Lionsault and hit the ropes for the leg drop and sweeping his leg and putting him into [The Walls of Jericho] instead.”
He continued, “he would even give me a second rope superplex, not from the top rope but from the second rope. He was working hard and too, he was really excited to work with me because he was thinking that back in the day and people would try and double-cross him and swerve him from behind, you know, but I think I think he enjoyed working with me and obviously our whole generation of guys.”
Hulk Hogan's last official match on television came in TNA Wrestling when he teamed with Abyss to face AJ Styles and Ric Flair. These days, Hulk Hogan is just happy to be an ambassador for WWE. Chris Jericho, on the other hand, is now helping young stars every week on AEW Dynamite on the TNT Network.
