Hulk Hogan on Conan 'O brian

Conan: My first guest has been a world-wide wrestling federation champion on and off since 1984. Now here's a clip of him slamming the late, great Andre the Giant.

Clip shown of him slamming Andre at Wm3

Conan: Please welcome the star of the new action series "Thunder in Paradise", Hulk Hogan.

Hogan comes out holding back like it hurts for a second. Does the ear-cup thang and poses

Conan: I gotta ask you. This move where (cups ear) you walk out and go like that to get them to cheer louder, does that always work?

Hogan: That's the most scientific move I do. (Conan laughs) It always works.

Hogan: Man, the Giant's heavy. Man, I forgot about that. That guy was huge, God rest his soul.

Conan: You actually got him, got him completely over your head.

Hogan: yeah. it's really weird. That night that I slammed him in the Pontiac Silverdome is a really cool story because the guy that was running the building, managing the Silverdome said "Hey Hulkster man, you guys need to back off and cancel your show" and I said "why?", and he said "cause the Rolling Stones are coming here this Sunday" and to make a long story short, they did 88,000 people. The next Sunday we ran the Pontiac Silverdome, WrestleMania 3, and we did 94,000...

Hogan: and we still hold the indoor attendance record. God bless his soul.

applause

Conan: This is specifically the Andre the Giant match.

Hogan: Right, and what was so weird is the night that I picked him up and slammed him, this is the first time it was ever been done, he weighed 575 pounds.

Conan: oh man

Hogan: And it was so weird because like y'know, you get this weird back muscle here. (stands up and points to under right armpit area) Like, where your back is real...

Conan: I don't have that one.

Hogan: No but this side (looks at Conan)

Conan: you, yeah

Hogan: But on this side when I (still pointing to muscle) picked Andre the Giant up, I got a big hole in my back. Here I don't know if you guys can read this on camera but...

Conan: Oh gross.

Hogan: Right there, yeah. Wait a min.

Conan: It's like the roadkill leprechaun.

Hogan: See that? See that hole there? When I picked Andre the Giant up, I felt this thing snap, and it kinda thrown my back out but that's my wrestling story (sits back down)

Conan: Did you know, did you know Andre the Giant? Were you guys friends?

Hogan: I knew him very well, he was a great friend. He was a great guy, great friend. And what was so weird was that so many people misunderstood him because just like you're sitting in the chair here right now and you're comfortable, Andre never was comfortable. There was nowhere he could sleep or go to the bathroom or sit, and y'know, nothing fit him. And sometimes, y'know, not pointing fingers but sometimes people were so excited to see him, they sometimes were kinda cruel y'know cause I'd walk behind him in airports...

Conan: oh, right.

Hogan: ...and I'd hear him say stuff and so, thank god he was a great guy because we wouldn't have been able to handle him if he had a bad temper or something, y'know. He was cool.

Conan: Now, Thunder in Paradise, this is your new show. And i suppose you'd like to tell us a little bit about it.

Hogan: I would love to. Don't tell me I'm losing a button here (looks at shirt button) Thunder in Paradise.... Thunder in...haha. Thunder in Paradise is a brand new action show. I'm partners with the guys who produce a show called Baywatch. And we've got a...

Conan: is it the same thing as Baywatch?

Hogan: No it's not.

Conan: You and pretty women in bikinis and you run wild.

Hogan: Well you see, I own a bar called the Scuttlebutt and there's this huge hotel that Patrick McNee, he was the guy from the Avengers...

Conan: From the Avengers, that's right.

Hogan: Right. He owns the hotel and while he's up there sipping champagne with the upper echelon, I'm down on the beach arm-wrestling with my buddies. But uh, Carol Alt, umm, works for me at the bar and we do have the element of Baywatch in there with the white sandy beaches and the beautiful bodies and the men and the women out there but the whole story is a couple of ex-Navy SEALS...

Hogan: ...I play one of the Navy SEALS and Chris Lemmon is the other one. We're kinda like the lethal Weapon team and we have a boat, like a BatMobile on water, the high-tech...

audience laughs

Hogan: No, listen. The high-tech boat, y'know, like the Batmobile on water.

Conan: So you've got the plausible storyline going for you.

Audience laughs

Hogan: Exactly! We've kinda sstolen a little bit from everybody. So it's like A-team, Miami Vice, and Baywatch all in one and we're filming in Disney at MGM and we're so excited because we've got nine shows in the can and the stuff looks like a one-hour feature movie of the week and you guys are gonna see it in New York here on WWOR on the 25th, 8' o clock!

Conan: oh wow.

audience applause

Hogan: Be ready!

Conan: Now, is the boat, is this like Knightrider? Is this like Knightrider where the boat talks to you and the boat can do all these amazing things?

Hogan: Well we can go anywhere and do anything because Baywatch is the number one show in the world, right now as far as numbers go. Sorry brother.

Conan: That's ok. But we're a close second.

Hogan: There ya go. And like Hulk Hogan is known in everybody's home like if it was Tom Selleck or somebody like that, they may not know them in Lebanon or the Middle East.But they know Hulk Hogan everywhere so the fact that we're at Disney now, they're letting us shoot at EPCOT and use the theme building so instead of just shooting around Florida...

Conan: Can you use all the Disney characters?

Audience chuckle

Hogan: I guess we could save Mickey Mouse brother. But anyway, no. What's cool, what's so cool about it is that one week we could be in Japan fighting the ninjas, and the next week fighting in Morocco fighting the princes, prince, or something like that. But it's an international show and we're like modern-day pirates for hire. So I mean the boat can do anything or go anywhere and with Disney and the special effects, it can go sub-oceanic if we want it to....

Conan: Sub-oceanic?

Hogan: Yeah man

Conan: Oh, it goes underwater.

Hogan: Yeah, you got it . Or, if we wanted to be like Star Trek, we could make the boat fly with the special effects and like the machines that Spielberg used to make the dinosaurs, we can do anything. You guys better be ready for this, it's gonna be the best thing on TV (blows on finger like pistol and holsters it)

audience applause

Conan: You've got all the moves worked out. alright

Hogan: I'm ready man. Y'know what? I would love...

Conan: yes?

Hogan: What do you think about bringing this guy down to the beach, putting him in a pair of Speedos (referring to Conan) and have him bea guest star?

Conan: oh man. Just what America wants to see

audience cheers

Hogan: How bout it? Conan in a pair of...in a thong bikini!

Conan: I'd wear one of those 1920's bathing suits. Those go over really well. Y'know, the kind with the striped...

Hogan: Oh, it'd give a new meaning to the Rising Sun.

audience chuckles

Conan: We'll decode that after the show. Alright now, you started out, I want to ask you something, you started out in wrestling as a bad guy initially, didn't you...

Hogan: (goes into Hulkster voice) Well brother of course I'm a bad guy, that's why they like me so much because instead of fighting like a good guy, I get up there and poke these guys in the eye and that's why they love it so much but (back to normal voice) I didn't do anything different, man. I mean, I've always cheated, I've always, when guys tried to punch me, I always bite their hands and everything. And the thing is that's what the people liked. Y'know there's poetic justice, like do unto others before they do unto you in the wrestling ring and that's what they liked about Hulk Hogan is I would do anything I had to do to win.

Conan: Now what turned you into a good guy then? Was there some moment in your life where you saw that crime didn't pay and you became a force for good?

Hogan: well, no, ha ha. It was about 1979. Sylvester Stallone was on a roll. He was like 70 feet high in the public's eye and then all of a sudden he asked me to come out and do a cameo part in Rocky III.

Conan: Oh that's right, you were in Rocky III.

Hogan: Yeah, and they saw him standing here and I was standing there and they said "oh my god! that's what a wrestler looks like?" and so ummm, it kinda, that was the break, when, there was that, all the people y'know that really didn't go to wrestling saw me, after that, they wanted to find out where I was wrestling and when I came to their town they came out to see me. Oh hey! Chris Lemmon! (Hogan twiddles a thumb above his forehead and displays the peace symbol with his other hand)

Conan: (laughs) What does that mean?

Hogan: That's our uhh, what do we call it Jimmy?

Conan: You just made Chris Lemmon happy and confused 30 million other people.

Hogan: (talking to Jimmy hart off-camera) huh? No, what do we call this? oh, this is the...I can't remember what we call it but we always do it...

Conan: We call it the time-waster.

audience laughs

Hogan: (still doing it) Chris Lemmon and I always do this when things are going good...

Conan: Yeah!

Hogan: ... and then when things are going bad, we go like this. (holds nose)

Conan: Ok. Well anyway..

Hogan: Anyway...

Conan: (laughs) we're gonna, we're gonna step away, we're gonna step away one second, Hulk, but this show will return in just a few moments after we make lots of money. We'll be right back....

(Hogan stands up and chokes out Conan)

(Bumper photo of Ultimate Warrior's body with Conan's face on the body with facepaint and all. Pretty funny)

Commercial break

Conan: We're back. here with Hulk Hogan. Now one of the people in the audience actually had this (holds action figure of Hogan). This is your action figure doll, is that right?

Hogan: Yeah and they had this (holds up another one)

Conan: Yeah

Hogan: Then they had this (holds up another one which is flimsier)

Conan: mmmm very nice.

Hogan: Yeah, this is Hulk Hogan with hair.

Conan: isthis one, I hope this one is cheaper (holding up flimsy one) than this one (other one).

Hogan: i hope so too.

Conan: oh, (laughs). Is this a bootleg?

Hogan: It looks like it. Uh oh, wait a minute brother. (takes flimsy doll)

Conan: Someone just took the head from someplace else.

Hogan: (pulls up pants of flimsy Hogan doll and moons audience with it) audience laughs

Conan: well, that's classy. very classy, very nice. When I have my action figure, I won't be wearing diapers. That's one thing I will not be doing

audience laughs

Hogan: ohhhhhh..

Conan: no c'mon! No. It was just my personal choice.

Hogan: Ok ok!

Conan: a lifestyle...now listen uh, Tonya Harding, have you heard this? Tonya Harding, they've approached her, a wrestling promoter has said that he will pay her $2 million dollars if she steps into the ring.

Hogan: I believe it.

Conan: You believe it?

Hogan: Sure, sure.

Conan: Now what do you think of this, what's your take. Do you think she could be a good wrestler?

Hogan: Uhhh, I wouldn't let her, I'd make sure I protected my legs, definitely.

audience thought he made a Kerrigan joke

Hogan: Oh hey! Naw naw! She'd be good at, at the single-leg or something

Conan: (laughs) I couldn't believe that though, two million dollars, I guess, I mean you don't think about it but there is that much money in wrestling, isn't there.

Hogan: Oh yeah, definitely.

Conan: and you think she has the stuff to go all the way.

Hogan: Well, I, y'know, with the thighs that she has, if she gets you in one of those...

audience starts to laugh

Hogan: ...no no really, y'know. She's so muscular, y'know in her legs and if she was to get you in a crooked headscissors.

Conan: I see

Hogan: You'd probably submit right away.

audience laughs

Conan: Now I was a...lovely image. Now I was a reading up on you, you actually, you have a singing career going, don't you?

Hogan: Yeah, ummm, it's kinda like we're on the charts over in the UK, uhh, and the name of the band is called Hulk Hogan's wrestling boot trashcan band and that guy over there Jimmy Hart (points at him), the Mouth of the South, my manager

(shot of Jimmy Hart)

Conan: Ahh, there he is.

Hogan: Way before your time. Was in a band, , yeah yeah, he was in a band, he was in a band called the Gentrys and they had a hit song called Keep on dancing so we kinda just started writing music and the next thing you know, we cut a deal with Arista Records.

Conan: and now do you sing in this band? What do you do in the bamd, do you wrestle people?

Hogan: well I sing and I play bass guitar because that was in my last life , I played bass, I was a studio musician and all that type of thing so we do a little bit of everything and it all started with a little boy, he got killed over in the UK, a 2-year old boy named Baby James, he got killed by a couple of 8-year old kids and I wrote a song called "Another Hulkamaniac in Heaven". From that we wrote a public service message song called "I wanna be a Hulkamaniac" I wanna have fun with my family and my friends, we said hey man, this stuff is good so we kept on writing. And we got enough stuff for an album and we signed a deal with Arista.

Conan: So you're on the charts over there in the UK.

Hogan: Yeah. And we took a song by a guy called Gary Glitter, he's like the Elvis of England...

Conan: mm hmmm.

Hogan: and it's called "I'm the Leader of the Gang" and we cut that with a band called Green Jelly...

Hogan: and uh, it took off.

Conan: Alright. now you've been out of the ring for a while, did you ever think about getting back into it and wrestling?

Hogan: Yeah man, y'know we've been working overseas brother, we've wrestled in Japan not too long ago in the Egg Dome, and, had about 80,000 people there

Hogan: and uh, I've been talking with uhh, a couple of different wrestling promotions now, and I'm getting ready to cut a deal brother, I'm gonna have an announcement here in a couple of weeks that's gonna knock the wrestling world on it's heels.

Hogan: (into Hulkster voice) because the Hulkster, brother, is alive and well and I just might take THIS dude (Andy) as my partner.

audience cheers

Hogan: no no, I miss it. no, i miss it, i miss it, i miss it so much.

Conan: (laughs) Are you...

Hogan: you guys... (at same time)

Conan: Are you...

Hogan: you guys...

Conan: Are you all...

Hogan: Shut up (to Conan)

audience shock

Hogan: you guys think, no, you guys think I should get back in the ring?

audience cheers

Conan: Alright.

Hogan: Plus my kids want me to it.

Conan: You told me to shut up so I'm not gonna plug your show

Hogan: Please talk, please talk.

audience laughs

Conan: alright I will. Look for Thunder in PAradise in syndication premiering next week. And , thank you Hulk for coming on.

Hulk: I'm not leaving.

Conan: Good to have you. No, but you'll stick around on the couch.

And folks, we'll be right back.

COMMERCIAL

Conan: (tells about tomorrow's show. Not relevant)

Conan: Alright now uh, very briefly, before we continue with the show, I thought since Hulk Hogan is here and we have a very receptive studio audience, maybe someone out there has a question for Hulk Hogan, anyone here?

Robert Vaughan stands up in audience. Vaughan: Yeah, I have a question. What is it exactly that you are running from? Where are you running to? You see, I'm not by fooled your tricks like these others. They look at you and they see a smiling bigshot. I look at you and I see nothing but a cringing, craving coward

audience laughs

Even as you sit there, you're running. Running for your life on a treadmill of your own making

audience laughs

You're no bigshot. You're a scared, little, squirrel. (makes squirrel face)

Hogan: (bites nails)

audience laughs

Conan: You've got a lot to think about there Hulk

Hogan: Boy he's got me down doesn't he.

Conan: Just shrug it off. You've faced meaner opponents.