Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff on WWE’s Next Breakout Star, Mr. Fuji & What Kevin Owens Should Do Now

– Eric Bischoff spoke with Hulk Hogan for part one of a three-part interview on his latest Bischoff on Wrestling podcast. You can listen to the audio and see some highlights below:

Bischoff on what’s going through Owens’ head as WWE Universal Champion: “I know he’s going to make the most of the opportunity. I know that first hand from asking him. At the end of the day, it all depends on how well he figures the game out. Booker T used to say, “Don’t hate the player,” like when someone like Brock Lesnar or Hulk Hogan gets a big break. Booker T used to say, “Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.” At the end of the day, this wrestling business, as much as you do or do not want to admit it or may not want to understand it. All these smart marks really don’t get it at all. “Hogan’s a politician!” or “He’s a politician! John Cena’s a politician!” Truth is… this business is about relationships on every level. If you want to be a main event guy. If you want to be consistently configured in the main events for twenty or twenty-five years, however long you want to do it, you’ve got to be a great politician. You’ve got to be a politician in the ring. You’ve got to be a politician in the dressing room. You’ve got to be a great, smart politician when you’re working with Vince and Triple H. You’ve got to be a politician when you’re out in public, especially. You’ve got to be a politician when you’re with a group of men or women. It’s all about having that finesse to really make sure in every different situation that you understand the game. I don’t know how much Kevin understands the overall game but that has a direct influence on how long he’s going to become a dominant force. Or stay a dominant force in this business. He has to understand the game.”

Hogan on Mr. Fuji’s passing and his memories of Fuji during their time working together: “I didn’t even call him Mr. Fuji, we called him ‘Uncle.’ And sometimes we’d call him Uncle Harry, but we had a great time, a great run behind around each other. I looked at him as the calmer head, you know. Because as all the craziness was going on back in the day when we were making towns and everything was real territorial, guys would speculate ‘Oh my gosh, this and that, and what if this happens?’ And Mr. Fuji, Uncle Harry was always the calmer head, and he kinda like — he kept things in perspective and he’d say ‘Okay Hulk, don’t worry about this, this is what’s going to happen.’ He really had a good train of thought, or a good wrestling theory to predict direction and careers. And guys like me, guys who were trying to listen to all the chatter around me, Uncle Harry would kind of set me straight.”

Hogan on who has the potential to be a breakout star: “It’s tough, you know. I really don’t kinda look at it that way, because that just really doesn’t exist. I kinda, when I watch it, I kinda like wait for something to come out that just seems so natural to me. It doesn’t matter about the size, it doesn’t matter about the shape, it really doesn’t matter. There’s people who have natural heat or that are naturally over, have a natural look or they walk into a room and they command a presence. As weird as that sounds, one of the guys when I was in the WWE before they let me go — one of the guys that I told Triple H, and I don’t know if he was on anybody’s radar or anyone was watching him but one of the guys that you would never expect Hulk Hogan to point out was Kevin Owens. I told Triple H, ‘This kid Kevin Owens, no matter how he looks, no matter what you think about him. When he walks out he’s over in such a weird way.’ He’s got natural heat and when he gets in the ring, I watched him work on an NXT match and he was just grinding old-school like an heel. Getting the heat, staying on the guy, letting him sell, walking away…and then when it was time for the babyface to come up, I saw the babyface try to come up at the wrong time several times, he had enough instinct to cut him off. And then when he did let him come up, he was backpedaling like a Pat Patterson or like a Hollywood Hogan or a real big, chickens**t heel, and he was over so well as a heel, I told Triple H, ‘If you get this guy up and running he could turn into one of your greatest babyfaces.”