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Hulk Hogan Recalls Atmosphere For WrestleMania 18 Match With The Rock, Wanting To Work With Steve Austin In WWE

April 7, 2021 | Posted by Blake Lovell
Hulk Hogan Rock WrestleMania 18 Matches

In a recent interview on After the Bell with Corey Graves, Hulk Hogan discussed his WrestleMania 18 match with The Rock, wanting to work with Steve Austin, and much more. You can read Hulk Hogan’s comments below.

Hulk Hogan on his WrestleMania 18 match with The Rock: “The fact that there were so many Hogan fans there and so many Rock fans there, the energy level was totally crazy because it was in a controlled environment. That crowd, that intensity – I’ve never experienced anything like it except the next night in Montreal. I’ve seen the footage and seen how it’s been cut up and put together, it was crazy how long I was out there. I don’t know how long it was, but that was intense too……when I gave [The Rock] the big push-off, I didn’t know he was gonna take that bump. He ended up in the corner on his knees with his eyeballs like that. All that extra stuff, that’s when we started free flowing in there and started listening to the crowd. That the type of stuff that happens that you don’t get anywhere else unless you really understand what this art form is all about.”

On wanting to work with Steve Austin when he returned to WWE: “The whole time I was keeping a good eye on the WWE because I was hoping maybe someday, I could come in and rebuild that bridge. Someday maybe I could come back. It was just crazy when I got the call from Vince to come in and work with The Rock, I said, “OK, this is it, I’m going to put my good boy pants on.’ He wanted us to come in as the nWo, this poison because we were the poison. Once we came in, my whole goal was to tear the house down with The Rock. I didn’t know he was going to split and do movies and stuff, but my whole goal was to have that run with The Rock, and I wanted to focus on Stone Cold [Steve Austin].

“As a heel, I could’ve put him over everywhere. If they would’ve put the belt back on me, he could’ve chased me. And like Stone Cold said, ‘If there’s money to be made, let’s make it brother.’ That was my goal was to get him in that Hulk Hogan zone and make him realize that the way you go to the ring and the way you feel is the same way you’re going to feel when you get done working with me on the way back. It’s going to be a nice and easy brother, but we’re going to tear the place down. My whole goal was to get him corralled and have that run, but it never happened.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit After the Bell with Corey Graves with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.