Legendary wrestling manager and personality Jimmy Hart was a recent guest on the Battlegrounds podcast to discuss a multitude of topics, including his thoughts on managing Hulk Hogan and how he came up with the NWO Wolfpack theme. Highlights are below.
Looks back on his WWE run and managing Hulk Hogan:
“Hulk and I met many years ago. We started in Memphis wrestling with Jerry Lawler down there. I was managing all the bad guys back then, and Hulk came through and he was one of the people I’d managed. We became friends back then and so finally, in 1984 when I left to go to New York, the first thing when I walked in, I saw Hulk there. He goes, ‘I hope you’re coming to manage me.’ I said, ‘Nah, Hulk, I’m sorry. I’m managing all the bad guys.’ What a great run. We’ve been friends for so many years – almost 40 years. So, I had a chance to manage him and Brutus Beefcake and we fought Ted DiBiase and IRS for the belts at WrestleMania 9. It was just a great time being back with him again. I’d had a great run with The Hart Foundation, The Nasty Boys, The Rougeaus, Terry Funk and Dory Funk, and Earthquake and Typhoon. Altogether, I think in New York I had 23 different people that I had managed at one time or another, not counting the Memphis territory. I’ve had a great run. I’ve been blessed, man.”
Discusses his favorite theme songs he’s written:
“Well, the one that has the most plays on Spotify is the one for Shawn Michaels. That’s number one. Some of my favorite ones – I loved the Rougeau Brothers because we got to write our stuff and make it silly and funny. One of the verses was, ‘We don’t like heavy metal, we don’t like rock and roll, all we like to listen to is Barry Manilow.’ I loved doing Hulk’s “American Made.” One of my favorites is the “American Dream” for Dusty Rhodes. Dusty was so great……he loved the song. The Wolfpac one with Nash and Hall. We loved that one. The Road Warriors, The Hart Foundation, the list just goes on and on. We had fun doing all of them. I’m just glad I was able to present them to the guys and if they liked them we used them, and if they didn’t, we didn’t. Thank god they liked everything we did. I was very happy with that.”
Says he came up with the NWO Wolfpack theme:
“Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were kind of cool and Hulk was in with them too. Hulk has always been my main man, so I wanted to make sure I did something great for them. We came up with a song called the Wolfpac and that’s what we called the second tier of the nWo when they wore the red and black instead of the black and white. That’s when Nash and Hall split off on their own and did it. I took it to Kevin and Scott, they loved it, and we went with it. I got a good rapper to rap it for me and we cut it right here in Tampa, Florida over at Morrisound Studio. It turned out to be really, really good for us.”
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)