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Chris Jericho Recalls Working With Hulk Hogan In WWE, How He Came Up With Finish For WrestleMania 19 Match Against Shawn Michaels

October 9, 2020 | Posted by Blake Lovell

In a recent edition of Saturday Night Special, Chris Jericho discussed his memories of working with Hulk Hogan, how he and Shawn Michaels planned their WrestleMania 19 match, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Chris Jericho on working with Hulk Hogan in WWE: “I loved wrestling with Hulk. It was great too because when I first started wrestling with him, obviously you have this intimidation factor because he’s Hulk Hogan, and I was a huge fan of his. And then we worked a few times – I think, actually, the last great match Hogan ever had was against me on SmackDown in Pittsburgh maybe it was? He really trusted me. We worked a bunch of house shows together and he would show up and always have some beer with me – ‘Hey brother, whatcha doin’, you gonna take care of me tonight?’ I said ‘Yeah, Hulk, I gotcha’ and he would let me put together the whole match, and I had taking the Lionsault and hitting the ropes for the leg drop and sweeping his leg and putting him in the Walls instead. He’d give me a second-rope superplex – he was working hard, man. He was really excited to work with me………and obviously our whole generation of guys – Edge, he loved working with. I remember the first time he worked with Kurt Angle, he was like ‘Vince, what’s with the Olympic guy? He’s a little bit stiff.’

On how he came up with the finish for WrestleMania 19 match against Shawn Michaels: “Amazing. Definitely the best match on the show, which is what everybody always aspires to do. And we actually did that. I know Kurt and Brock had a great match too, but ours was better because we didn’t have a fucked up finish. Also, it was the first time we’d ever been in the ring together. The angle was great, everything was put together so well, and I just remember I was looking for a pair of black speedos to use as under tights – that’s what I use to use as under tights – and I was in Dick’s Sporting Goods, and boom, this finish just hit me. I went and borrowed a pen and some paper from the checkout girl and just wrote down the finish. It wasn’t the whole thing, but it was probably 65-70 percent of the finish. So, I went to the venue to go over it with Shawn and we see each other, and we both pull out a piece of paper. He goes ‘Listen, I don’t have anything for the finish, but I came up with what I think is a great beginning.’ I said ‘That’s hilarious because I don’t have anything for the beginning, but I think I came up with a pretty good finish.’ And we just went through all our ideas and we were done in like 15 minutes. Then went out there and destroyed it at WrestleMania. That goes to show when you’re putting together matches, it shouldn’t take hours, it should take minutes if you’ve got something great.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Saturday Night Special with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.