Hulk Hogan Says Vince McMahon Didn't Trust Other Big WWE Stars of The 1980s

Hulk Hogan was recently a guest on the Full Send Podcast and discussed his time working in the WWE during the Golden Era of the 1980s. Hogan was the obvious star attraction for the company throughout the era, racking up a record eight WrestleMania main events and four WWF Championship reigns, the first of which last a whopping 1,474 days from 1984-88. He has since admitted in interviews that a big part of his success was his ability to navigate the political landscape backstage and noted in the interview that McMahon had trouble trusting some of the other stars of the era if they weren't willing to lose matches. He specifically named "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. 

"So I called Vince up. 'Hey, Vince, just talked to Mr. Wonderful. He says he doesn't want to do the job, one-two-three.' (Vince said) 'Okay, well, then, if he doesn't want to do the job, you figure it out.' Great! That's how it was in the beginning," Hogan said (h/t Cageside Seats) while describing an instance where Orndorff refused to "put over" Hogan with a loss. 

"Piper wouldn't do a job. Orndorff wouldn't do a job. The reason 'Macho Man' Randy Savage was a champion so many times, he'd do business," he added. "If I said, 'Brother, I need to beat you,' he would be there. And then here's the belt, I'm gonna go do a couple of movies, here's the belt, go make a bunch of money. When I come back, I knew he'd drop the belt back to me...Yeah, but you know, Vince didn't trust Piper or other guys who wouldn't do a job."

Hogan talked elsewhere in the interview about how much the wrestling landscape has changed since he retired and how different the typical wrestler looks now compared to then. "The Hulkster" finished his career with 12 world championship reigns and two WWE Hall of Fame inductions.

WWE Money in the Bank 2023 Card (So Far)

• World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
• Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Ricochet vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar vs. Butch vs. Damian Priest
• Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Zelina Vega vs. Zoey Stark vs. Becky Lynch vs. Bayley vs. Iyo Sky vs. TBD
• Cody Rhodes vs. Dominik Mysterio