WWE Superstar Chris Jericho’s latest episode of his podcast Talk Is Jericho features his conversation with The Brooklyn Brawler. You can check out some highlights from the conversation here:
On traveling with Hulk Hogan:
“Do you know what the funniest thing about being an enhancement guy was? I was doing TV every single month in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Reading, Pennsylvania, and I was, like, working with [Paul] Orndorff. And then, like, an hour later, I would work with [Iron] Sheik. An hour later, I would work with [Roddy] Piper. And then, all of a sudden, Hogan comes into the territory. Hogan takes a liking to me and tells Vince [McMahon] he wants me with him everywhere. Yeah, so I traveled with Hogan for two years. I stood in his house. All of a sudden, from a job guy, doing jobs for all these guys, I’m on Learjets [and] limousines. We’re going to The Love Boat. We’re doing this, we do that. I said, ‘oh my God!’ I was getting heat!”
On marking out for Hogan:
“Well, I was marking out for him because he just got offered the Rocky movie and he came in and I go, ‘man, you’re bigger than life! You’re that.’ He goes, ‘brother, stop marking out!’ Obviously, he must have liked that. He likes getting put over. He likes having a driver, actually.”
On The Ultimate Warrior being green:
“Warrior was green, very green, in the beginning. He was very green in the beginning and he knocked me out twice. He knocked me out. I said, ‘give me a simple headlock’ and he gave me an elbow to the head, to the temple. But he wasn’t coming along. I mean, he was never the greatest worker, but he was a great draw. He would blow up just running to the ring. As soon as he got to the ring, he’d be out of breath.”
On trying to help Warrior when he was being tested:
“The office told me, ‘we’re going to tell Warrior that you’re going over to test his attitude’. Now, I liked him so much, I took him to the side and I said, ‘Warrior, they’re testing your attitude. Just say ‘yes’.’ That’s a secret between me and Dana [Warrior]. I promised Dana I would never say anything. Dana, it’s out!”
On The Rock:
“When I first looked at him, I said, ‘oh, he’s a jock.’ You know what I mean? ‘He’s a football player. I don’t think he’s going to make it.’ This and that. So it was planned that I’d have his first match, so I said, ‘can you do this? Can you do that? Can you do this? Can you do that?’ He says, ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ But then, in his book, he writes, ‘I went in the corner and I took a napkin and wrote every little spot he said down.’ Double leapfrogs and all this. He hit every single thing on the money. And then, he gets a contract. And then, we go out to dinner and then he’s telling me, ‘I’m not happy’. I said, ‘shut your mouth!’ He didn’t like the [dollar] figure and the figure was a good figure. I said, ‘how could you not be happy? You have seven dollars to your name.'”
On his match with Ricky Steamboat:
“This is what happened. I was getting squashed. No one there would give me [anything]. They wouldn’t give me [anything]. Ricky Steamboat comes in. Ricky Steamboat and I have a competitive match. He starts selling for me like I was experienced, but I was experienced by then. So I remember, I go back to the dressing room and Tito [Santana] comes up to me. He goes, ‘how did it feel?’ I’m like, ‘how did it feel?’ And then, after Ricky Steamboat did that, all of the boys starting giving me more. Do you know what I mean? He broke a barrier.”
(All transcribed quotes courtesy of Wrestling Inc.)
