On Steve Austin's podcast Hulk Hogan described working against Ultimate Warrior. Some surprising details...


- Austin himself praised Warrior's high energy type stuff that he would do. That he would call Warrior from time to time because he said Warrior was so cool to him when he came up. That he was young in business and Warrior treated him cool.


- Hogan himself discussed champions and one he praised is Ric Flair. That when he calls Flair , he will start off , "How's the greatest world champion doing..." because he feels Flair is the greatest world champion even today.


- Hogan said at the time he was being billed from Venice Beach and this golden tan California guy. That he had the pythons and look. He's rocking the red and yellow and in comes Warrior with all the colors , the perfect 12 pack and he looks at Hogan. That he sees dollar signs with Warrior. That he was a better , bigger package to draw money than him.


- Even if he'd win matches he'd ask Vince during the run what was next ? Where do we go from here. So he tells Austin he learns the finish for Wrestlemania VI and is ok with losing so he asks where he goes next from here. Vince is like , well I feel your run is kinda done since Warrior is here. And we can let you go home awhile etc. Hogan is like , well why not let me start up the ramp...and come back down and turn heel on him.

- Vince is like 'Nooo no it will never work. Your too beloved as Hulk Hogan to make it work." Hogan explains he began his career as a heel and could have done a sorta HHH/Hollywood Hogan run then there against Warrior. But Vince put the kibosh on it saying no it would never work that he was a face. Warrior's run was short as Vince called him back as they soon realized Warrior wasn't drawing so well so it was a weird couple years there.


- In the match Hogan saw warning signs. That he backstage had laid out the match and said the big points of it was A-B-C-D-E , that if they hit those points the people would love it and the match is solid. But they had to work around to each point. At one point Warrior gets gassed as Hulk puts him in a rear chinlock as he keeps going "Lets go home..." to end it. Hogan is like dude we still got 5-8 minutes left , we can't til we deliver these spots as planned. Hogan tells him what final spots they nail and gets Warrior to deliver it. But Warrior was so gassed he barely could press him at the end.


- Austin praised Hogan on protecting himself which he agrees with that a champion has to protect himself. Hulk explains as a mindset he always heard the Champion makes more money since he's the top guy. He learned that from the original Sheik coming in and once he returned he held Vince Jr to that same deal. That he as champion should earn more. Also he wanted even if he beat a guy clean or by DQ etc or lost , the guy leaving his program was worth more money to work.


- Hogan brings up the wild west aspect then than today. That if he was doing shows and say Roddy Piper or One Man Gang refused a finish (DQ or clean) he'd have to call Vince as he'd tell Hulk to work it out. Unlike today where guys don't care , then it was a lot different. So he'd propose things like say , look if I do win , how about you jump me during pose and make me do some color (bleed). That then the Hulkamania thing was so damn hot that if they sold the Spectrum and that happened ; they'd come right back again to see more matches of that guy vs him !

Roddy Piper he claims then never did a job for him. That he'd tease Roddy later in life ; how they could have done Randy Savage style business and he'd flip the belt to him and back had he done that. They could have done huge and Piper admitted he should have then. They could have done a couple title changes had Roddy let him go over then.


- So it goes back to Warrior and protecting himself. Where he told Warrior he needed 1 time to kick out of his finish and then let him go over. That he's still HULK HOGAN and now you just beat a huge monster in him. Austin praised this as he said he kicked out right at the right moment ; that it was like some Japan fighting spirit . Warrior won , but he barely won so there was that there. That Hogan was still the MAN. Plus handing the belt to him.


- Hogan said it was all calculated to do that entire thing. That Hebner was supposed to hand him the title in ring and he hand it to Warrior. So he ran out and did that there and gave him an emotional hug and handed him the belt. Then as he started up the aisle he just wished Vince would have let him go heel...to come back and attack Warrior then.


- Austin brought up the next year he beat Sgt. Slaughter and it was over. Hogan brought up that once the company started to tour the towns with Warrior as champion business took a turn and he was called back months later. He told them , if only you guys had let me go heel and feud for months ahead...I could have really put him more over.