“I Just Told Vince…”: Hulk Hogan Once Revealed Why He Pulled the Plug on “Deal” Between Him and a WWE Legend

Hulk Hogan has given fans some of the most memorable and iconic moments in pro wrestling history. He has feuded with many legendary names in his time and even had a revival of his career in the mid-2000s with WWE.

During this time, The Hulkster went up against some big names and put on a show. However, one of his matches from this era is remembered for all the wrong reasons.

His bout against the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam 2005 was a big contest that didn’t exactly deliver. It was mainly because of Michaels’ overselling and antics during the match. Apparently, Michaels wasn’t happy about him being turned heel and wanted to do a face vs face match, which Hogan declined.

It lead to tension between the two stars and after their SummerSlam debacle; the feud was dropped despite the initial plan to have three matches.

Hulk Hogan detailed why the feud between him and Michaels was cut short

Hulk Hogan vs Shawn Michaels was a dream match for fans worldwide and WWE realized it. They billed the match as Legend vs Icon and it garnered fan attention. Two faces of their respective wrestling generation were going to collide at their biggest event of the summer, SummerSlam. Michaels had put forward a deal of three matches between the two, culminating in a cage match and the story would be a good guy vs a good guy.

But Hogan disagreed over this dynamic and wanted a heel-face feud. This led we dropped to some real-life friction between the two and the feud after only one match.

At their SummerSlam match, HBK flipped and flopped across the ring, overselling the slightest of Hogan’s moves and the match supposed to be legendary, went down as a mockery of wrestling. During an appearance for Wrestling Shoot Interview in 2015, Hogan admitted he pulled the plug on the initial plan for three matches between him and Shawn and ended their feud prematurely.

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Hogan said, “The reason it didn’t go any longer was because I shut it down. Because the next day, I was expecting to, you know, return the favor and then, ‘Okay, now you beat me and I beat you, let’s build to the third and then go to the cage and keep it going.

He explained he was ready to have more matches but Shawn Michaels sarcastically acknowledging Hogan after the loss in a promo prompted him to put an end to the prospect.

He continued, “I thought this was going to be the business interview. But when he came out, ‘Oooooh, he was too fast, he was too young.’ I went, ‘I’m out.’

The Immortal One then approached Vince McMahon and told him it was not business. He recalled, “I just told Vince, ‘Your boy… You know- It’s not business.’ So I pulled the plug on that deal. That’s where it ended up, and it wasn’t a creative control thing. I said, ‘I just don’t want to if it’s going to be a clown show now from this point on. I thought this guy really wanted to dig and draw some money.”

It is unfortunate that fans didn’t get to see an extended feud between these two greats due to tension between them. Their shambolic SummerSlam match is the only memory the fans have from their feud.

Hogan said he put a lot of people over during his time

One criticism leveled against Hogan is that he didn’t do the job for others and refused to lose even when it made sense. In the same interview, Hogan addressed these claims and argued it wasn’t true. The Hulkster said he lost more matches than he won in the last 15 years.

He said he tried to get over wrestlers like Triple H, The Undertaker, and The Rock in his last run with the company as an active performer. The WWE legend also mentioned that he would have lost to Michaels had Vince McMahon made that decision. Hogan said he had no problems in doing the job contrary to the popular belief.

Although the stats suggest otherwise, he did lose clean quite a few times, especially during his last tenure in WWE. Brock Lesnar, The Rock, and Kurt Angle were among those who beat Hulk Hogan clean in the ring.

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