“I Was So Nervous”: Hulk Hogan Was Afraid of Losing His Job Before Vince McMahon’s Daredevil Move Proved to Be a Game Changer for Him in 1987

While Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins enamor fans today, in the ’80s, everyone was a Hulk Hogan fan. His star power was through the roof around that period. Not only WWE fans, but even people who didn’t watch wrestling that well were aware of Hogan. Starring in movies, and TV shows, and breaking standards for wrestlers, Hogan excelled at everything.

But there was a time when even Hogan was scared about his job at WWE. Even though Vince McMahon featured Hogan in the previous two main events at WrestleMania, the third one had a lot hanging in the balance. In addition to that, McMahon had mortgaged everything for this event to take place, so there was a lot hanging on Hogan’s shoulders.

Hulk Hogan shares how Vince McMahon gambled the entire WWE’s stake for WrestleMania III

On the Full Send Podcast, Hogan sat down to talk about his career in retrospect and share secret details about the backstage during his time in WWE. While talking about his iconic moment with Andre the Giant, he also revealed the stakes surrounding WrestleMania 3 event in 1987. The stakes were so high that it threatened his position in the industry as well.

Hogan revealed, “I was nervous because if we screw this up, this was WrestleMania 3 and everything was on the line. Vince mortgaged everything he had, and we already had the building. When I was sitting in the back with Andre, I was afraid that if WrestleMania sucked or the main event sucked, it would be the end for the WWF. So I was sitting next to Andre and said, so boss, what do you want to do? He said, don’t worry.”

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Luckily for McMahon and Hogan, WrestleMania III became a milestone in the company’s history. Hogan also revealed that while The Rolling Stones and The Pope had come to the same arena, both events didn’t attract as much audience as WrestleMania 3.

But there’s much more about that specific time that Hogan revealed in the interview. From his own anxieties around the event to his meeting with Andre just before the match.

More details about the iconic slam heard around the world

In the interview, Hogan tells the hosts about how the wrestler gets to know about the finish. But for this specific match, he didn’t care if he won or not. He was much more focused on making the show a big event. So, he knew about Andre’s back problems, for which Andre had been in surgery in the UK a few months ago.

Despite that, Andre persevered and called the shots in the ring, telling Hogan to slam him to the ground. While they tried it the first time, it didn’t happen, but the second time, Hogan connected with the slam.

After delivering his finisher, The Leg Drop, Hogan pinned Andre, thinking The Giant would kick out, but he didn’t in the end. This is something made for a heartfelt moment for Hogan as he revealed in a video on his channel.

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Tell us what you think about Hogan’s story about McMahon’s gamble on WrestleMania 3 in the comments below.