Bruce Prichard Says WWE Considered Trying to Bring Hulk Hogan Back in 1997, Talks Hogan Using That To His Advantage

– On the latest Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard recalled WWE talking about trying to get Hulk Hogan to come back in 1997. At the time, WWE was floundering against WCW and had just gotten out of its 20 year contract with Bret Hart due to the difficult financial shape the company was in. Prichard recalled that there was a lot of talking about potentially using some of that money as well as savings from other cost-cutting measures to try and lure Hogan, whose contract was coming up, back away from WCW.

Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

On if there were discussions about bringing Hogan in: “We had talked about it, we talked about it extensively. We looked at what that would cost and what all that would entail. I don’t think that Hulk was enamored with coming back to the Northeast and living in the Northeast permanently, either. But the reality of the situation by this point in the game was that we need to make do with what we have. We need to tighten up what we have, and it’s either gonna be make or break. So yeah, Hogan was [discussed]. But that wasn’t a secret. It wasn’t a secret on our end.”

On Hogan getting the news out there: “It was the worst-kept in the business, you could say. Because Hulk let it be known that ‘Hey, I’m coming up, my time is coming up. It made Hulk more valuable by doing that. It was a smart business move on his part, because it truly was his contract coming up. So WCW now, if everybody else knows, well s**t. If there’s interest there, then we’re gonna have to up our price. So yeah, that was all real. So it was an opportunity for Bret to maybe, if WCW was looking at ‘Well, if Hulk leaves, maybe we could have Bret.’ And that opened a door for Bret that normally would have been as wide open.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.