Hulk Hogan Reveals WWE WrestleMania 40 Retirement Match Could Become a Reality

WrestleMania is an event that always has the potential to shock the wrestling world with long-awaited and unexpected returns, and Stone Cold Steve Austin’s amazing return at WrestleMania 38 immediately comes to mind as a perfect example. Many were hoping to see The Rock make a return at 39, but while that didn’t happen, John Cena came through and ended up having a match. Now it seems we could see another surprise return happening at WrestleMania 40, as Hulk Hogan has revealed he’s been pitched on a WrestleMania match. In an interview with The MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani, Hogan revealed he was asked by Shane McMahon if he had one more match in him, but he wasn’t able to make WrestleMania 39 work (H/T CagesideSeats).

Hogan said that Shane pitched him some storylines for a WrestleMania match, with one being Shane going after Hogan in revenge for Hogan walking out on WWE and Vince McMahon. Hogan is 70 years old, so even if he’s in great shape he’s going to be limited, but Shane apparently told Hogan that all he has to do is stand in the middle of the ring and Shane will do the running and bumping for him.

Hogan stated his back isn’t quite where it needs to be in order to have a match, so WrestleMania 39 was not possible. Hogan has wanted a retirement match and says he wants to keep training and working towards that, evaluating where he is in about six months.

“I said, well right now my back needs a little more work, but that’s something we can talk about next year,” Hogan said. “I have always wanted to have a retirement match, but now I’m not moving around the way I should be. So, I’m gonna keep working and keep training, and keep doing rehab and see where I’m at about six months from now. But all I found out in the wrestling business, brother, is you never say never.”

Hogan said that due to the training and rehab he’s been doing as of late, he’s in better shape than most he seems on the beach. He also said if he could pick one wrestler to face for his retirement match, it would be Austin. We’ve also heard of Austin being wanted for another match after the success of his return at WrestleMania 38, but nothing has happened on that front yet.

As for Shane, he did return at WrestleMania 39 for a segment with The Miz and Snoop Dogg, but unfortunately, that ended up getting derailed due to injury. McMahon went up in the air to evade Mia and ended up tearing his quad when he came down. He couldn’t get up and the segment was quickly coming unglued before Snoop Dogg jumped in and hit the Miz, following it up with a People’s Elbow and saving the whole segment.

Would you want to see Hogan vs Shane at WrestleMania, and do you want to see Hogan have a retirement match? Let us know in the comments!