Hulk Hogan is aware of his catalog of matches against giants but he enjoyed the versatility of working with names like The Rock, Roddy Piper, and Chris Jericho, too.
Hulk Hogan was in or around the main event of the first nine WrestleMania events. In many of those matches, Hulk Hogan was toppling a behemoth like Andre the Giant or Yokozuna, but he also wanted the opportunity to show that he could get a reaction out of live crowds, by working with a more traditional heel.
One match that never came to be was the advertised match between Hogan and Ric Flair for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 8. While it was originally announced and promoted on TV, WWE switched to Ric Flair defending the title against Randy Savage and Hogan having his "farewell" match against Sid Justice.
During a recent interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Hogan said he wanted to wrestle Flair because he enjoyed creating magic with a wide variety of opponents.
“I wanted to work with Ric,” said Hogan, who was adaptable to a wide array of opponents. “There’s no doubt he was one of the greatest ever. Earlier in my career, I wanted to work with Piper and Orndorff. Later on, I loved working with Chris Jericho. He was just amazing. I wrestled a match with Randy Orton, and I loved that. I always loved wrestling, and I liked the challenge of working with different guys. I loved wrestling The Rock. If you’re going to create magic, there is a formula, a feel, a timing, and a placement. That’s the ‘It Factor’–you need to be able to see it and feel it."
Hogan even praised the modern work of Roman Reigns and Randy Orton, saying that it pulls down to having a feel for the crowd that he believes he and Ric Flair would have had in Indiana at the Hoosier Dome in 1992.
“I know I wrestled a lot of giants, and I enjoyed that too, but I also knew I didn’t need to get squashed by Earthquake to make the crowd respond. If Piper brought me down to one knee in the sleeper, we could make the place rumble. Nowadays, you see that in Roman’s matches. You see it with Randy Orton, too. There’s a feel for the crowd, and they have it. I think me and Ric would have had it there, too.”
Hulk Hogan recently stated that if he could wrestle now, he would want to wrestle Randy Orton once again. Read his comments here.
While Hulk Hogan was the star of many WrestleMania events, this year, it's all about a new generation of performers. Check the full card of Wrestlemania 40 here.
