Hulk Hogan was a guest recently on Steve Austin’s podcast. The two talked about Hogan’s long career in the wrestling business including an interesting story regarding the time Vince McMahon Sr. fired Hogan for performing in the movie Rocky III.
“The mindset back then wasn’t like it is now,” Hogan responded when Austin asked him why he got fired from WWF for filming Rocky III. “That we want Stone Cold to do his TV show and we want Stone Cold to do Expendables and we want the Rock to do… Back then, 78-79, if you were a wrestler you didn’t do TV, you didn’t go do a movie, if you were a wrestler you were a wrestler.”
Hogan started performing as a heel in Vince Sr’s promotion in 1979. He would leave in 1980 due to the conflict over his filming of Rocky III. Afterward, he performed in Japan, and would also end up in the AWA by 1981.
Hogan’s popularity ended up exploding because of the film but Verne Gagne was hesitant to put the title on him because he didn’t have a legitimate wrestling background. As a result, Hogan ended up going back to New York, this time signing with Vince McMahon Jr. and kick-starting Hulkamania and the wrestling boom of the 1980s.
Hulk Hogan on Vince Sr. Firing Him
Hogan and Austin would continue to talk about how at first, Hogan didn’t believe he was being offered the part in Sylvester Stallone’s movie.
“Vince Sr. fired me for doing the movie because you weren’t supposed to do movies or TV shows back then,” Hogan continued. He then talked about going to Japan after and enjoying that as he had a girlfriend over there. Hogan ended up in Minneapolis working for Verne Gagne in the AWA shortly after as well.
Stallone has talked about Hogan’s portrayal of Thunderlips in the film as well. He said that Hogan put multiple guys in the hospital during production of the film. Stallone made the comments in an Instagram post:
