“Take That Smile Off”: Hulk Hogan Once Threatened WWE Legend With Millions Watching Live

The rise of Hulk Hogan happen when Vince McMahon purchased WWE from his father. Mr. McMahon always portrayed Hogan as the next major star and he did the same after getting control of the company.

When it comes to professional wrestling, Hogan was very serious about the business. Once in WCW, The Hulkster was angry over The “Narcissus” Lex Luger for breaking character. 

Sometime back appearing on The Hannibal TV, former WCW Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger, explained the WCW Nitro story. Prior to this, Luger and Hulk Hogan had only met in WWE for some time and didn’t know each other very well.

Luger said, “I hardly knew him at all and the first night didn’t go well because when we got nose to nose on Nitro. We went to commercial break and to come back out of it we were still nose to nose. The camera guys in the ring went, ‘We’re okay, we’re off’, for whatever was the minute or two.”

He added, “So I broke character a little bit when our nose to nose and there’s a live crowd there. The Hulkster is all business by business. I have never been around him, so I kind of smoked at him. And I’ll never forget, he looks at me and he goes, ‘Hey brother knock that smile. Take that smile off that face or I’ll knock it off’.”

Luger later welcomed Hogan backstage after the segment was over, but The Hulkster blew him off. The “Narcissus” later apologized to ‘The Immortal One’ for breaking character. Hogan was angry over it, but accepted the apology and told him never to make the same mistake while being on Live TV.

Vince McMahon visioned Lex Luger as the next Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan left WWE in mid-1993 and was wrestling around other promotions later joining WCW. However, Vince McMahon wanted a character who was “All-American” like Hogan. Luger was a heel at the time and was picked by McMahon for the same.

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The babyface turn happened on 4th July 1993, when Luger arrived by helicopter on the deck of the USS Intrepid. Furthermore, he body slammed the near 600-pound Yokozuna, who was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at the time.

After this he began the “Lex Express” tour, traveling the country in a red, white, and blue painted bus. This was to meet the fans and get over in the process. However, Luger’s babyface push didn’t go as planned and after losing to Yokozuna at SummerSlam, they slowed the pace of his push.

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