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Eric Bischoff Recalls His Side of Hulk Hogan Allegedly Talking With WWE in 1997

September 27, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Hulk Hogan Eric Bischoff nwo Image Credit: WCW

– In the latest 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff recalled his side of the story that WWE considered trying to bring Hulk Hogan in in mid-late 1997 and whether there was any concern from him over it. Bruce Prichard said on his latest podcast that WWE was seriously considering trying to bring Hogan in as Bret Hart was on his way out the door, but that the finances didn’t support it. Hogan had a public dinner with Vince McMahon at the time, which McMahon believed was Hogan trying to get leverage against WCW for better contract negotiations.

Highlights from the discussion are below, as well as the full podcast:

On Hulk Hogan allegedly talking with WWE: “Interesting to note though that in that conversation [between McMahon and Hart], now clearly I wasn’t a part of it, but that Vince allegedly said that he had it on good authority that Hulk Hogan would be finishing up in WCW. Not sure where that came from. Clearly it could have been Hulk suggesting to Vince that he may be ready to leave, to entertain a better proposition from Vince McMahon. I could certainly believe that. But on my end, there was certainly no conversations at all about Hulk Hogan leaving WCW. So that’s an interesting note.”

On Hogan having dinner with McMahon in public at that time: “I’d have to go back and look at my notes from previous shows, but if that was the meeting I think it was, that meeting took place in Denver, Colorado while we were in Denver for Nitro. Hulk gave me a heads up that he was going to be meeting with Vince and assured me that nothing would come of that. That he was just going to take the meeting. And again, that may have been a separate meeting, could have been a different time frame, I’m not really sure. it all kind of runs together here. But if there was a meeting in public, it was probably the one in Denver where Hulk let me know he was going to take it, and also let me know he had no intentions of going anywhere. So there you go.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.