On the latest edition of the Kurt Angle Show the Olympic Hero spoke about the passing of the legendary Scott Hall, and how he got to work with the Bad Guy, as well as Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash shortly after they returned to the WWE as the NWO. Highlights can be found below.
On getting to work with Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash:
“They were all legends, what they did in the business in the 80s and 90s was nothing short of incredible. I didn’t follow wrestling when I was a kid and I knew who Hulk Hogan was, everybody knew. He was a household name so I wanted to wrestle Hulk Hogan. He’s one of the guys that inspired, from my friends standpoint, Hulk Hogan was the man. When I finally wrestled him, they were going crazy, they couldn’t believe I was wrestling Hulk Hogan when they were watching him in the 1980s thinking this is crazy. Wanting to wrestle Hulk Hogan was definitely on my list and Kevin and Scott. Scott was a great in-ring performer and Kevin too, Kevin had some issues but for the most part he was pretty damn good too.”
Says he was stern with Hogan after he showed up late to a house show:
“This was the 2nd time I met him, we became really good friends after this which is crazy but I remember we were having a 6-man tag in Madison Square Garden and I was in there all day, we’re doing a house show, main eventing. Hulk Hogan doesn’t come till seven at night, the show started at 7:30. Hulk Hogan comes in, we’re sitting there having the match and he walks up and says ‘what’re we doing tonight?’ I looked at him and I said ‘you know what you’re doing? You’re doing this and this.’ I told him what he was doing, I didn’t give him a choice because he wasn’t there all day, he didn’t put the match together. I was like ‘yanno, this guy, he thinks he can come in…’ and it wasn’t even because he was being an a—–e. He was late because he had an obligation, I didn’t know this. So I’m ripping on him and I’m telling him you’re not doing anything, you’re going to do what I tell you to do because we have a 6-man match and we have all the spots back to back where we need them and this is your area where you can shine.”
How the incident made him and Hogan good friends:
“Do whatever you want in this area and that’s what I said to him. He was like ‘wow, this kid’s an a—–e’ and eventually I became good friends with him. But he came across to me coming in late at 7 at night when you’re supposed to be there at 1 in the afternoon and it was like ‘hey, what’re we going to do tonight? I have ideas,’ and I was like ‘no, you don’t have ideas, we already put them together. You’re going to do what I tell you to do. You have to understand, I didn’t watch professional wrestling when I was younger, I didn’t know the respect you had to give wrestlers. Especially someone like Hulk Hogan, such a legend and an icon. Here I am, I’m disrespecting him because I thought he was disrespecting the business and I didn’t know at the time and I did smarten up eventually.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)