“Don’t Hurt This Guy”: Hulk Hogan Once Saved Popular Hollywood Star From a Physical Assault by His Fierce Rival

If there is one man who has been given the baton the most times in his WWE career, it is Hulk Hogan. What people say about working with him amounts to nothing compared to the times he has saved the company. His popularity and charisma made people rush into stadiums in the ’80s and ’90s. He gave Vince McMahon this confidence, which made the young promoter take more and more risks with the company.

The biggest risk that McMahon took was the creation of WrestleMania. Not only did he want to make this moment the greatest in the history of wrestling, but he also wanted to bring in casual viewers. His solution for this was to bring a big Hollywood celebrity. But his plan would’ve failed if not for Hogan saving that celebrity that the last moment from other wrestlers.

Hulk Hogan once opened up about saving this Hollywood superstar in WWE

In a 2010 interview, The Voice vs Hulk Hogan, Hulkster was talking about Mr. T’s arrival in WWE. He said, “I was friends with Mr. T because I was doing the ‘A-Team’. I told Vince, hey it would be great if we got this guy in the ring and at the time nobody had done that with celebrities.”

“But I knew the guy had an amateur wrestling background from high school and since he was an actor, I figured if we could keep him calmed down, pretty much pull it off. Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff was a redneck kid from Brandon, Florida.”

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Hogan added, “He had the same mentality. Mr. T is not a wrestler, he’s an actor. We’re going to break his leg and, at the time, Roddy Piper had that same mentality. Nobody had switched gears yet. We’re going to protect this business. Even if we shoot ourselves in the foot, we’re going to hurt this guy. Basically, I had long conversations with Piper and Orndorff that don’t hurt this guy.”

Mr. T and Hogan would also go on TV shows and do interviews to promote the big event across the country. This built a relationship between them that would last till now.

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Tell us what you feel about Hogan’s story about the first WrestleMania in the comments below.