Hulk Hogan Says He Was "Scared to Death" of Andre the Giant
Watching Hulk Hogan fight Andre the Giant in WrestleMania III back in 1987 is still one of my favorite wrestling matches of all time. I don’t watch a lot of wrestling these days, but when I was a kid, I loved watching that awesomeness, and these two wrestlers were the ultimate rivals!
Over the course of their legendary careers, the pair wrestled 42 singles matches against each other starting at Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1979 and ending at a WWF house show in Atlanta in 1988.
During a recent interview with Theo Von, Hogan admitted that Andre the Gaint consistently "scared me to death." He explained:
"The hardest thing for me was — the first 8 or 9 years — he didn't like me at all and tortured me. When we got in the ring, he showed me how much he didn't like me."
Hogan then shared the story of a time when he invited a girl to the arena to watch one of his matches, which was something Andre was very much against. He said:
"I made the mistake of bringing a flight attendant to the Capitol Center in Washington, and I put her first row and I didn't tell Andre.
Hogan says he repeatedly rolled out of the ring to the area in which the flight attendant was sitting, then Hogan made the big mistake of breaking kayfabe with the woman:
"He heard her say 'Come on, Terry!' and he figured out she was with me, and he about killed me. Took me back in the ring ... he tied the bottom and the second rope and put my neck in it, took his size 27 boot ... almost broke my neck in the ropes. Then I had those yellow tights. He picked me up like a damn stork, with my balls and my ass hanging out and carried me around in front of this girl with my junk hanging out."
Andre the Giant was obviously a wrestler you didn’t want to get on the bad side of! This is a great story and if you’re into wrestling and were fans of Hulk Hogan or Andre the Giant, I know you’ll appreciate it.
Who were your favorite wrestlers growing up? Do you remember watching these two wrestlers fighting!? It was glorious!