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00:00Hulk Hogan has died of cardiac arrest in Florida.
00:03The larger-than-life legend, famous for the mustache, the bandana, and the signature,
00:07what you're going to do, brother, was the face of wrestling in the 1980s.
00:11He headlined WrestleMania for years and remained a fixture with WWE appearances as recently as last year.
00:18Hogan, born Terry Jean Balea, also stepped into Hollywood, first as Thunder Lips in Rocky III back in 1983.
00:25His legacy took a bit of a hit in 2015 when a leaked tape revealed him making racist remarks.
00:31Still, for generations of fans, Hulk Hogan was pro-wrestling's first true global superstar.
00:38And to help us give more perspective on his legacy, we bring in WWE commentator Michael Cole.
00:45And Michael, it's a career that spanned almost half a century.
00:48What did Hulk Hogan mean to the world of sports entertainment at large?
00:52Well, Al, you and I were talking before we came on the air.
00:55This has been a rough week for those of us who came of age in the 80s.
00:59Malcolm, Jamal Warner, of course, Ozzy Osbourne, and today, Hulk Hogan.
01:04Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon created sports entertainment.
01:09There is a reason that Netflix and Peacock and USA Network are bringing our shows on a weekly basis
01:17because of what they created back in the 1980s, taking this small regional promotion and turning it into this global juggernaut.
01:24There are millions and millions of people my age and your age as well who would not be professional wrestling fans today if it wasn't for the immortal Hulk Hogan.
01:33He epitomized what it was to be a superstar.
01:37The bandana, the blonde hair, the 24-inch pythons, the great shape, preaching to the children to say their prayers and take their vitamins.
01:47He was larger than life.
01:50He was Terry Bollea turned up to number 10.
01:52And in the 1980s, he was probably the most famous person on the planet.
01:59But anywhere you went, you would hear the name Hulk Hogan.
02:04He hosted Saturday Night Live.
02:06He, of course, main evented WrestleManias, as you mentioned before, Grammy Awards.
02:10He was part of television shows and feature films.
02:14Hulk Hogan created the entire rock and wrestling era in WWE and really put sports entertainment on the map.
02:20He did.
02:21And I told you this, too.
02:23I'm remembering having the plush toy of Hulk Hogan with the hair and the bandana.
02:28And you mentioned larger than life.
02:29I think one of the most iconic Hulk Hogan moments was at WrestleMania III.
02:32He body slams Andre the Giant.
02:35Can you talk about that moment in sports history?
02:38Well, Elle, there were really two moments between Hulk and Andre the Giant.
02:42This is a rivalry that really may have been the greatest in professional wrestling history.
02:46Of course, WrestleMania III, the Pontiac Silverdome, 93,000 people in attendance.
02:52Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant.
02:54And this right here, which was the body slam heard around the world.
02:57No one thought at that time that Hogan could body slam the 500-pound Andre the Giant.
03:03He did that and picked up the win.
03:05Just a year later, in a show called The Main Event on NBC, Hogan and Andre would battle again.
03:11And they would set a record, 33 million viewers.
03:17It was a record for televised professional wrestling event between Hogan and Andre.
03:23And it was absolutely incredible what these two did to transform our business.
03:27Do you have a personal favorite Hulk memory?
03:28I actually have two, Elle.
03:30The first would be probably what I consider the greatest WrestleMania match in history because of the story that was told.
03:382002, Skydome, Toronto, WrestleMania 18.
03:43It was Hogan versus The Rock.
03:4568,000 fans, as loud as I've ever heard in arena.
03:50Face-to-face.
03:51Hulk Hogan was the bad guy, so to speak, at the time.
03:54But he got incredibly cheered, as loud as they cheered The Rock.
03:57And this moment was so important for the professional wrestling industry because it was really the passing of the torch from one icon, Hogan, to the next icon, The Rock, in one of the most incredible moments in the history of WrestleMania.
04:12I think the second moment and the personal moment for me was a year later at WrestleMania, 19, in Seattle.
04:18My broadcast partner, Taz, and I were at ringside and had the opportunity to call our first Hulk Hogan premium live event match.
04:27And that was a match at WrestleMania against Mr. McMahon.
04:30Mr. McMahon, of course, was the villain.
04:32He was the guy who was running the corporate industry of WWE that people like Hulk Hogan were fighting against.
04:37And they dubbed this 20 years in the making, McMahon versus Hogan.
04:41And it was an incredible moment in my career to be able to call Hulk Hogan in a match of that caliber.
04:47You know, we just mentioned sort of generationally what Hulk Hogan meant and who he was.
04:53Of course, for us, it was because of our age, all about the wrestling.
04:57There was, of course, people who only remember him from reality TV.
05:01When you sort of think about the impact that he had, what will be his lasting legacy?
05:07Hulk Hogan's lasting legacy will be that it was probably the greatest professional wrestler of all time.
05:14I'm not just talking in-ring performance.
05:17I'm talking about the way that he brought our industry into the mainstream, into the forefront of society,
05:23where people in every country on this earth would know the name Hulk Hogan, would know the name WWF slash WWE.
05:32What are you going to do, brother, when these 24-inch pythons get a hold of you?
05:38I mean, that will go down in history as an iconic line.
05:42Hulk Hogan had a lot of detractors.
05:44He was very controversial, obviously, toward the end of his career.
05:48But no matter what you think about Hulk Hogan, his legacy as a professional wrestler will probably be the greatest of all time.
05:56Thank you so much, Michael Cole, for your insight and just offering some perspective on Hulk Hogan
06:01and what he meant to not only wrestling, but to the sports entertainment world at large.
06:05Thank you so much, Michael.
06:06Fellow wrestling legend Ric Flair said that his friendship with Hogan meant the world to him
06:11and no one will ever compare.
06:13Hulk Hogan was 71 years old.
06:16WWE Hall of Famer Robert Remus, better known as Sergeant Slaughter,
06:21joins us now for more on the life of Hulk Hogan.
06:25Sarge, thank you for joining us.
06:27You had plenty of battles with Hulk, including headlining WrestleMania 7 in 1991.
06:32You tweeted, I guess God needed an incredible angel.
06:36What was your initial reaction upon hearing the news of his passing today?
06:40Well, it was very, very sad.
06:42And I knew Terry Bollea long before he was in the WWWE, F, I should say, and saw that he really wanted the business.
06:58He loved the business.
06:59And so I kind of kept an eye on him.
07:02And he was there for a short while, then he left.
07:05Ended up being in a movie with Sylvester Stallone, Rocky III.
07:10And I got a call one day while I was wrestling in the WWF, and it was from Vergania, who was the promoter of the AWA.
07:20And he said, some kid called me by the name of Terry Bollea, he didn't know how to pronounce his name.
07:29And so I said, Terry Bollea.
07:31He said, yeah, he wants to come in and wrestle.
07:33I don't know anything about him.
07:34What do you know about him?
07:35I said, bring him in tomorrow.
07:37And he said, why?
07:38I said, he just finished a movie with Sylvester Stallone, Rocky III.
07:43Bring him in.
07:44So the next thing I see, he's got Johnny Valiant doing probos for Hulk Hogan coming in, like five, six, seven weeks of my man's coming, my man's coming.
07:58And when Hulk Hogan showed up and walked down to the ring, he got a standing ovation.
08:04And so Johnny Valiant was out of a job.
08:07See you, Johnny.
08:08And Hulk Hogan became the biggest professional wrestling name in the history of professional wrestling right there and then.
08:18And as he progressed and lost the title in the AWA, he won the title and was taken away from him the same few minutes later, it killed the AWA.
08:33I mean, they just, they loved him so much there.
08:37So off he went to the WWE and the rest is history.
08:43He and I ended up, he was going after the title and I was going after the Iron Sheik because I declared war on the Iron Sheik.
08:52And in between, Hulk Hogan got a match with him at Madison Square Garden and beat him out of the title, which didn't matter to me because I didn't need a title.
09:02I had the United States military behind me and the USA and the American flags and the fans and Hulk had the championship.
09:11So the WWE saw the writing on the wall and put us both in different areas, different towns every night.
09:20And we were both selling them out and they were farting through silk.
09:24Yeah, that is such a great story.
09:26We appreciate you sharing that with us.
09:28And we knew you two as rivals in the ring.
09:30But can you describe your relationship and who he was as a person?
09:34Well, I really didn't know Terry Boya that well.
09:39Every once in a while, we would pass each other here or there.
09:43We were always kind of in the opposite locker room.
09:47So when I came back from my stint with G.I.
09:52Joe after six years being gone, WrestleMania 7 was coming up and I got a call from Vincent Kennedy McMahon asking me if I was ready to go back to the WWE because he saw that my contract with G.I.
10:08Joe was up.
10:09And I said, yeah, I'm ready to go.
10:11He said, well, come to my house.
10:13I got an idea for you.
10:14So I went there and he brought me into his home, into his library and showed me a layout of the WrestleMania 7.
10:24And it was the L.A. Coliseum.
10:27He said it would hold 104,000 fans.
10:30And he wanted to beat the Detroit record of 93,000.
10:34And he wanted Hulk Hogan and I to sell it out for him.
10:37And I said, great.
10:38How are you going to make Hulk Hogan the villain?
10:41He goes, Hulk, no, I want you to be the villain.
10:43And so he gave me this big, I guess, I'm not sure what it was, but he wanted me to be an Iraqi sympathizer and go against Hulk Hogan and go against my country and the military.
10:59And so I said, well, it's a main event.
11:03I'll do it.
11:03So off to the races we went.
11:05And later, one day, Hulk Hogan and I were on the same plane together.
11:12We hadn't locked horns yet.
11:13And we were on opposite aisles.
11:16And he says out of the side of his mouth, hey, good to see you back.
11:20And I, side of my mouth, I said, good to be back.
11:24He said, I told Vince I wanted you back.
11:27I said, what?
11:28And he said, yeah, I told Vince to bring you back.
11:34He wanted me to wrestle the Ultimate Warrior again or Tombstone or Earthquake and Tugboat.
11:43And he said, I don't want to wrestle them.
11:44You get slaughtered back here and I'll do WrestleMania 7.
11:48So he kind of opened up the door for me to come back.
11:52And although I wasn't the hero when I left, I came back as the villain.
11:58And I called him the golden goose from that point on because every time we stepped in the ring together, we made a lot of money.
12:07Yeah, stories like that are always great to hear when someone has passed away.
12:10We really appreciate you, Sarge, for sharing with us and joining us on SportsCenter.
12:15Well, thank you very much, Hulk Hogan.
12:18You're up in heaven now.
12:21I want that rematch for WrestleMania 7.
12:24You told me face to face and you told the whole world that I really want that match.
12:31So get ready, Hulk Hogan.
12:32I'm not ready yet, but I'll be there soon.