Hulk Hogan On How Andre the Giant Made His Career At WrestleMania III

Hulk Hogan’s match with Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III is one of the most famous matches in wrestling history, and Hogan recently talked about how the match made his career. Hogan talked about the famous bout on the Full Send Podcast and you can check out highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):

On the lead-up to the match: “I’d never beaten the giant before, and there was no shame in getting beat by him because no one had ever beaten him. I asked Vince. I said, ‘You know here we are the night before, what are we doing tomorrow?’ Vince goes, ‘I don’t know […] I’m sure Andre will do the right thing.’ Vince wanted me to sit in the dressing room with Andre just to try to, like, make things cool, you know. I got to the building at noon and I sat next to Andre and I watched him drink three-fifths of Crown Royal. [I asked him the plan and he said], ‘Don’t Worry.'”

On the actual match: “All of a sudden, when the match was almost over he goes, ‘Slam!’ I thought I heard what I heard, and as he came towards me I took a step back and scooped him, and then got his momentum and I barely got him over. Then I dropped a leg thinking that he was going to kick out, and he didn’t kick out.”

On the win settling in backstage: “I realized what he had done for me. He had just made my career there brother. I was on a roll anyway, that was like hitting double nitrous buttons for me. [Vince] was excited. He knew we pulled a rabbit out of the hat. It could have went the other way because Andre was hurt real bad. […] There was a damn good chance we could have s**t the bed that night and ruined everything.”