Mick Foley Recalls Patching Things Up With Hulk Hogan, Says He ‘Electrified A Crowd Like No Other’

In an interview with WRAL (via Fightful), Mick Foley spoke about the legacy of Hulk Hogan, who passed away yesterday at the age of 71. Foley recalled Hogan apologizing to him for comments he made in 2002, mocking Foley and calling him a ‘glorified stuntman.’ Here are highlights:

On Hulk Hogan’s passing: “He was one of those guys who was larger than life. He just assumed, and he didn’t appear to age. So you never thought that the last time you saw Hulk Hogan to be the final time you saw Hulk Hogan.”

On Hogan apologizing to him during WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures: “Yeah, it was a really nice moment. I mean, it was a show, but I believe he was 100% sincere, because he not only apologized to me for something that was said at least 25 years earlier, but he insisted on apologizing to me a second time. I mean, I accepted it. I considered him a friend before that, but it definitely helped bond. That was a nice bonding moment for us.”

On forming a bond with Hogan: “The two things I think of is that I had a really nice talk with his daughter at one of these conventions, and got to know her dad through her. Also, from reading his book, where I was like, ‘You know, we’re actually quite a bit alike.’ The second memory is not something I saw, but it’s something that a friend of mine, who worked with Hulk in WWE before I got there, saw, and I told Terry or Hulk, because this was the one thing that mattered to me, like anything else is just commentary, but that Hulk Hogan, ‘My friend said, ‘Those kids from the Make-A-Wish and other wish organizations, they’d go in there and they’d just be beaming.’ You can’t feign the type of joy that Hulk brought to those kids. Like that was real in his heart, which is why it seems so effortless. But he was great at it. He made a lot of people happy above and beyond what he did in the ring, and for wrestling in general, he was great to those children. That’s his legacy to me.”

On seeing Hogan at Madison Square Garden: “Well, I’ll be thinking about the times that I went to Madison Square Garden, not as a Hulkamaniac, per se. I was going to see a couple of the other matches, but when that music hit, I was all in. I was a Hulkamaniac for those few minutes, but he electrified a crowd like no other. The lessons that we learned from him, we’ve passed down to the next generations, and so his legacy is alive and well in wrestling and beyond.”