- Well, you know something brother.
Just because I eat non-dairy ice cream all day
you just can't have mashed potato muscles
and be a cream puff brother.
You gotta get your ass down to the gym
and do some hanging and banging.
Big arms, big paychecks, brother.
(fist smacking)
(knocking)
- [Host] Hey is Hulk home?
- Babe, I think there's a fan out front.
- It's probably a bill collector.
What's up guys?
Whoa.
- [Host] We're here to see your gym and fridge.
- Well, get in line.
Come on in.
(upbeat music)
- [Host] All right, Hulk, show us your fridge.
- Everything in here is organic.
We've got the yogurts, we've got blueberries,
we've got almond milk, protein, to wash down vitamins.
- [Host] Back in the hardcore wrestling days,
did people talk about protein as much as they did now?
- No, back in the hardcore wrestling days,
people talked about the money and the miles
and who could drink the most beer.
And I mean, I would start out and I would eat
12 fried eggs, in the morning,
two hamburger patties, oatmeal
and everything would have butter on it
because at the time my engine was burning so fast.
I was wrestling like 400 times a year, driving, flying
minimal sleep three, four hours a night
and this never stopped because it was just me
for a long time and there was no
John Cena or Rock or anybody else.
So, all I did was eat protein back then.
- [Host] Wow, was it hard to maintain that type of diet?
- No, it wasn't hard to maintain that type of diet
because you can go in any Denny's or any IHOP
and get that type of food.
I wasn't aware, I wasn't educated as far as quality of food
and how much quantity I should eat.
I was just hungry all the time.
- [Host] What did you eat before and after a match?
- The pre-match meal was, probably,
three Miller Lites and two Tylenols.
That was the pre-match meal.
And then afterwards the post-match meal was
probably 12 Miller Lites; so that's how it was.
- [Host] Well that doesn't sound healthy.
Do you still drink Miller Lites?
- No, I don't, I don't drink alcohol at all.
I just don't drink, don't take Tylenols,
I don't do anything except drink really good water.
Mountain Valley water in glass bottles.
- [Host] When did you give up alcohol?
- Oh, about six months ago, completely.
- [Host] Wow, congrats man.
Why'd you do that?
- [Host] Just got tired of it.
It got to be a way to kind of numb me a little bit
because I had a bunch of crazy business problems
and personal stuff going on at the time and I caught myself
after I would train, getting too aggressive once again
with the alcohol and I just decided to stop it.
- [Host] I know you recently lost 40 pounds.
What made you want to transform?
- About 15 years ago, my body kinda shut down on me
and I had several knee surgeries,
several scope jobs on my knees
and then after wrestling so many years,
after wrestling 40 years almost, my body shut down on me.
I went in for one back surgery,
was turned into 10 back surgeries.
Both knees needed to be replaced, both hips were replaced.
A couple surgeries on my face from getting my orbital socket
broken a couple times and it ended up being
like 25, 26 surgeries or a couple more
over a 10 or 12 year period.
So, it changed the game on me.
It made everything different for me
and I changed my whole lifestyle because, at the time,
being in so much pain and getting older and older,
I couldn't carry that much weight.
And when you're sedentary and you're not moving
and wrestling every night, it's easy to put weight on.
So, I decided to drop weight and get down to about 265.
And, actually, the last time I weighed 265
I was in ninth grade.
I feel great, you know, it's just without all the other
extra stuff you actually feel alive because a little bit of
pain makes you know you're alive.
- [Host] Spoken like a true champ.
What wrestler living or dead
would you most like to share a meal with?
- If I had to share a meal with any wrestler right now
and spend time with one guy, that'd be, oh yeah,
the macho man, Randy Savage, dig it.
He was my guy, I would love to sit down with him
and have a conversation.
There's a lot of stuff that we fixed in the end of our
relationship before he passed away but I still would love to
spend time with him and talk with him.
- [Host] Would you have a meal with Andre the Giant?
- Oh please, Andre the Giant was my traveling companion
for the last, whew, 15 years
and we ate all the time together.
But the 10 or 12 years before that, it was a rough go.
- [Host] So what meals do you have every day?
- Well, breakfast is a quick hit.
So it's a cup of yogurt, it's a banana,
coffee, of course, organic coffee.
- [Host] What about lunch?
- Yeah, we have lunch.
I mean we've got chicken, we've got steak,
got raw tuna, sashimi.
So, there's nothing bad in here at all.
- [Host] What does dinner look like?
- Dinner usually consists of either steak or chicken
or tuna; it's pretty much the same.
And we have, of course, the organic cookies.
- [Host] When did you drop sugar?
- When I realized it caused a whole bunch
of inflammation in my joints.
Sugar had to be eliminated immediately
cause I was trying to figure out why being completely
healthy was much more important to me than,
you know, making my body numb.
- [Host] We've heard that you fear no man, no beast or evil
but is there any food you can't stand?
- Wow.
The one food that I cannot stand is sea urchin.
When I go to a Japanese restaurant,
I can eat everything except sea urchin.
The first time I ate it in Japan it tasted like baby poop.
You know, not that I know what baby poop tastes like
but I know what it smells like from being
around young kids and it tastes like that.
- [Host] How about cheat day?
- Yes, I do have a cheat day every once in a while.
I had a cheat night last night at Hogan's Hangout.
I actually ate french fries
and dipped them in Thousand Island dressing.
I woke up all swolled up this morning from the pump.
- [Host] Do you mind telling us
what you do at Hogan's Hangout?
- No, it's okay, it's okay.
I mean, when I go to Hogan's Hangout,
it's karaoke night and my son introduces me.
I come in and it's usually a bunch of screaming Hulkamaniacs
and then to get the party started
I say we respect all the old school wrestlers
and out of total respect for that
no good rattlesnake Stone Cold Steve Austin,
if you want one free shot from Hogan's Hang Out,
give me a hell yeah.
It makes the karaoke much livelier.
- [Host] Do you take any supplements?
- Do I take any supplements?
No, I take no supplements at all.
The only thing I have here is kryptonite and rocket fuel
and jet fuel and of course I take supplements.
- [Host] How about CBD?
- Well, when Rick and Mike came at me, they
when they come at you, they come at you wide open.
I mean full tilt boogie, no filters.
So, when I did my research it was such a smart move
compared to seeing all these athletes that live on
Xanaxes and Halcyon and speed and you know, pain pills.
Been there, done that, okay.
You know, it's not my first rodeo.
I've been around the block a few times,
tried a few different things
and this is something that's healthy and it works for me.
Enough of the gaga, okay.
You guys cut to the chase,
straight to the good stuff brother.
(whooshing)
Oh, can't even open it; I've lost my power.
(Hulk grunting)
Okay.
Vanilla sandwiches, almond milk,
mocha chocolate fudge almond milk,
caramel crusted, non-dairy frozen dessert.
You guys know what that is?
Whew, bad to the bone.
We've got plant based.
These things are bad to the bone too.
Sea salt,caramel swirls, brother.
Whew, yeah, mmm.
Well you know something brother.
Just because I eat non-dairy ice cream all day
you just can't have mashed potato muscles
and be a cream puff brother.
You gotta get your ass down to the gym
and do some hanging and banging.
Dumbbell curls, good looking girls like Skye Daley,
big arms, big paychecks, brother.
(Hulk grunting)
(upbeat music)
- [Host] All right, Hulk.
It's time to see your gym.
What are your fitness goals now?
- My fitness goals, now?
Well, I'm gonna be 70 years old in August
and my fitness goal is when I walk down the beach
with my girl Skye, and my shirt's off,
I look better than the 30 or 35 year old guy
that's walking down the beach like the cock of the walk.
I wanna make sure that I look better
than all these other guys around here
cause this is my beach, brother.
This is North Beach, Hogan territory, man.
Sacred ground brother.
I never beat anybody up out there on the beach, but I could.
I'm just teasing.
- [Host] What does a week of training look like for you?
- Well, starting on a Monday, I'll do chest and back.
Tuesday, I'll do shoulders, a lot of cardio, ab work.
Wednesday, I do bis and tris, arms.
Thursday, I'll do legs, of course.
And then, I may take a day off or I may not.
- [Host] What's your favorite machine?
- Yeah, this is the crippler.
This is my main machine for running people off.
And usually the guys, the wrestlers or my friends
would go out and puke outta one of those doors.
And one time, the Big Show didn't want me to
catch him puking, so I heard him in my bathroom puking.
So, I put $5 and I put a sticker up there
to see the incredible puking giant.
But this is the machine.
He's my boy, I'm just teasing; but that did happen.
So anyway, this is a strive piece of equipment
to train around injuries.
Workouts have different intensities and different links.
There's different strategies to get the muscles to grow
or to maintain size, especially,
when you're 69 years old, almost 70, brother.
See how you feel when you get to be 70, brother.
- [Host] Have you always had a home gym?
- The gym's has been scaled down quite a bit
since I was the world's champion,
in the eighties and nineties.
Before it used to be probably three or four times as big.
And it's training smart and training hard.
And as you get older, when you get to be about 69
or 70 years old, you realize this becomes also a religion.
- [Host] Has wrestling taken a toll on your body?
- Wrestling has taken its toll.
I wrestled almost 40 years off and on
and I probably should have quit at the 20 year mark.
But with the Hulkamania running wild all those years
and then when I turned into a bad guy
and I became Hollywood Hulk Hogan,
it was like jumping on another lightning bolt
and I had no idea that we were gonna
reinvent the wrestling business.
So I got hooked, I got sucked in
and I just rode that thing till it dropped.
So, wrestling's been really tough on my body
with multiple surgeries and multiple injuries.
Nobody gave me the memo that this stuff was fake, wow.
- [Host] What's the worst injury you've received?
- Probably the worst injury I had
in the ring was at WrestleMania Three.
Everybody says Hulk Hogan slammed the 500 pound giant.
Well, Andre was having some back issues
and he would either go between 500 and about 650.
And when I got under him to slam him and scoop him,
once I picked him up here, as you can see,
I never had my biceps fixed.
I tore both of my biceps and this part of my back is solid
but this part is all torn away.
But that was the worst injury,
to tear both biceps and my back in one shot.
And the weird part was I had to keep wrestling after that.
I couldn't go get things fixed and have a sling on both arms
and my back fixed and take nine months off.
I had to keep going every night.
So that injury was a tough one.
- [Host] What's the best advice you've received?
- To be consistent.
That's the best piece of information I've ever learned.
And back in the day, you know,
when Arnold said milk is for babies, you know,
which I agree, Arnold says something really
really important that I picked up on one time.
He said, even if you don't feel good,
even if you don't feel like training,
still go to the gym anyway.
Pick some lighter weights up,
you'll get motivated before you know it,
you'll be in your rhythm and you'll get a good workout
and even if you use lighter weights.
So that's the main piece of advice I got
and it was from Arnold.
And his wisdom was to be consistent
and do not miss workouts.
- [Host] How do you keep your mind fit?
- Mental Health?
Well, it's a constant struggle
because I'm legitimately crazy.
That's what they say.
Aren't all wrestlers crazy?
But I'm just very grateful, you know, for everything.
I'm so grateful for this beautiful life.
I'm just so grateful, you know,
for my friends and my family, my kids being healthy.
I'm grateful for finding a companion that loves the Lord
like I do, my Lord and Savior.
I'm just so grateful to be alive, you know?
So it's looking forward, you know,
in the windshield instead of worrying about
what's in the rear view mirror now.
And that's the only thing that keeps me sane.
Because if I digress and I start worrying about
oh my gosh, this happened or that happened,
or this person's gone or that person's gone,
you know, things happen for a reason
and my God takes people outta your life for a reason.
So for me to stay focused and dialed in,
I stay in the moment qnd that seems to work well.
- [Host] You've had an intense journey to recovery.
- It can mess with you, especially, you know,
when when you come outta surgery number six
and they tell you you're never gonna walk again.
And so you kind of like are in one chair for a couple years
and then you meet a doctor that says,
I can get you back on your feet,
but we need to perform extra surgeries;
which from six to 10 was mind blowing.
So yeah, it's been, it's been mentally
a check and balance system of highs and lows
But to get onto the other side
and to have faith and to to believe,
it was a test of faith; so I'm good.
- [Host] All right, Hulk,
it's time for rapid fire questions.
Workout, 7:00 AM or 7:00 PM?
- 7:00 AM.
- [Host] Squat or deadlift?
- Squat.
- [Host] Favorite song on the workout playlist?
- Livin' on the Edge.
- [Host] CrossFit, yay or nay?
- No.
- [Host] Dumbbells or kettlebells?
- Dumbbells.
- [Host] Pull-ups or chin up?
- Pull-ups.
- [Host] Run on a treadmill or in the great outdoors?
- Great outdoors.
- [Host] Cardio or weights?
- Weights.
- [Host] Big legs or big arms?
- Big paychecks.
- [Host] Biggest compliment, jacked, ripped, cut or swole?
- Jacked.
- [Host] If you could wrestle any historic figure,
who would it be?
- It would be Bill Clinton.
- [Host] If you could work out with anyone in the world,
dead or alive, who would it be?
- Muhammad Ali.
Okay guys, enough's enough.
You know, I spent hours and hours here.
If I would've had free time,
I could've been making millions of dollars
with all the time I've wasted with you guys.
You know, if you don't leave brother
I'm gonna siick the dragon, the dragon power on you.
So, whatcha gonna do when Hulk Hogan throws you
and your camera crew out on the street?
Whatcha gonna do, brother?
(Hulk yelling)
(rock music)