Hulk Hogan’s style of self-promotion often put his own legacy before that of anyone else’s. The late WWE Hall of Famer had a habit of stretching the truth or outright inventing stories whole cloth in the name of having something attention-grabbing to say during an interview, such was the case when Hogan appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” in August of 2023. During the appearance, Hogan claimed that he wrestled Brock Lesnar when Brock returned to professional wrestling, following his success in UFC.
“I got him first when he came back from the UFC. I was kind of winding down, putting guys over and doing my thing, and Vince goes, ‘I want you to work with Brock.’ I went, ‘Okay,'” Hogan recalled. “We kept an eye on him, you know, but when he came back from UFC, they gave him to me first, and he was really intense, brother. He was really intense.”
Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012, immediately working a program with former WWE Champion John Cena, before taking a part-time schedule through the rest of his WWE career. Hogan would’ve been in TNA Wrestling at the time, and not likely one of the people WWE Chairman Vince McMahon would call to help Lesnar shake off the ring rust, as TNA was very much its own brand back then, unlike today. Hogan kept claiming to have wrestled Lesnar after his UFC stint well into this year, when he once again touted the imagined accomplishment while promoting Real American Freestyle.
Lesnar did wrestle Hogan in Lesnar’s rookie years, resulting in one of the few non-pinfall losses of Hogan’s career. So, unless Hogan is somehow conflating the 2002 match with Lesnar’s return a decade later, his memory of wrestling Brock in 2012 never happened. It will have to be added to such Hogan inventions as Hogan’s claim to being considered as a bassist for Metallica.
Hogan passed away at the end of July at the age of 71, following numerous health issues.
