There has been no shortage of commentary from the wrestling and pop culture worlds surrounding the life and times of the late Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, since his death in late July. Former WWE superstar and UFC Hall of Famer is the latest to chime in, reflecting on a few personal interactions she had with Hogan during her career on the latest episode of “The Lapsed Fan.”
Asked what Hogan did in the ring to impress her, Rousey centered on his story-based approach to matches as opposed to high spot after high spot and recalled advice he once gave her in person. “One word of advice that he gave me,” Rousey said, “was ‘Keep your boots on the ground, kid.’ He was basically telling me don’t go out there and do a bunch of crazy s*** because you need to preserve your body. I think he was more of [the type to ask] ‘How do I tell a story by doing as little, physically, as possible?'”
Rousey also remembered former WWE producer Brian Kendrick giving her a tape of a match between Hogan and The Undertaker as a study tool. “He basically did nothing,” she recalled. “But to be able to get Undertaker to take a knee, you know what I mean? To be knocked down for the first time ever, he didn’t have to do a crazy spot for that.”
Slide 2
As a decorated athlete, Rousey said she sought to put that natural athleticism into her wrestling matches, so while she appreciated Hogan’s advice, she also explained that she’d prefer to take a different approach, telling him, “I respect that very much but I’m also not that person. I want to do the cool, athletic s*** because I’m an athlete.”
Another recollection of Rousey’s regarding Hogan was her tribute to a tweet that Hogan posted in 2011 (and later deleted), where she subbed in her “rowdy ones” for his “Hulkamaniacs” in posting, “Goodnight rowdy ones and jabroni marks without a life that don’t know it’s a work when you work a work and work yourself into a shoot, marks.” When asked why she was inspired to do so, Rousey explained another connection to Hogan as the source.
“He was like, ‘Everybody doing this, they’re all a bunch of f***ing nerds,'” she said. “It used to be that these were a bunch of guys, working the crowd, conning them, and now, the people that were conned have taken over and they’re conning themselves and so [it was] a nod to that—that the inmates have taken over the asylum.” With her wrestling career now “pretty much over,” Rousey is looking back at what it once was, as opposed to, (at least in her mind) what it’s become. “This is supposed to be fun and games,” she said. “We’re supposed to be working the crowd and they end up working themselves.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Lapsed Fan” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
