“All I know is I’m not done with this business yet,” says Hulk Hogan of the advent of his new CMT reality show Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling, debuting on the net Oct. 18. The series — which pits Hulk’s two best pals, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and Brian “Nasty Boy” Knobbs, against each other to turn D-list celebs (Dennis Rodman! Danny Bonaduce! Trishelle Cannatella!) into top-tier wrestlers — is actually the brainchild of Hogan and his former boss Eric Bischoff in response to a sports-entertainment genre they think has gone soft.
Lest you have any doubt, why yes, Hogan has every intention of making the competition nervous. And, no, he’s not afraid to say so.
I have to admit, I was worried that this might turn out to be another “celebrities live together in a fabulous mansion and make fools of themselves” deal, with a little mock wrestling on the side. But this is actually a bona fide wrestling show. Was that your intention from the get-go?
Hulk Hogan: I really don’t know what I’m doing, to tell you the truth. I’ve had opportunities as late as the last WrestleMania in Orlando to wrestle Flair, wrestle Vince, do the whole thing over again. And then I’ve had the opportunity to go to TNA and either work there or be part of running the company with Dixie Carter and helping on different levels.
Everything to me was interesting — and I don’t mean to sound like sour grapes — but it was really like a lateral move. You know, “Been there, done that.” And there’s nothing wrong with going back to the well to keep the boat floatin’. But I was interested in moving forward with situations on a personal level that I had going on, and the American Gladiators thing was in my scope, so I kinda waited that out to see if that was going to come around.
The reason I decided to do the CMT project was that it raises the bar of wrestling. I mean, our first shot out of the cannon was to work with celebrities, to go back to the art form of wrestling and not just hire the next John Cena lookalike that might wrestle like a robot. It was raising the bar on the wrestling business, with the art form and the people involved.
It’s almost like the American Idol version of wrestling … what would be the next step with wrestling. To move up to the celebrity situation and show them what the real life, the real bumps and bruises of wrestling is all about. It also gives us an open door that, if everybody loved the show, we can bring all different kinds of people into wrestling.
If you’re like a lifelong wrestling fan, you’re kind of addicted to it and you’ve had to take whatever programming is shoved down your throat because there were no other options.
So you actually do know quite well what you’re doing …
When I say I don’t know what I’m doing, I mean I don’t know if we’re gonna have years and years of Celebrity Championship Wrestling. If we’re going to have Celebrity Championship Wrestling in spinoffs. I don’t know if we’re going to have Celebrity Championship Wrestling turn into a real wrestling company.
Because with the CMT vehicle, it’s a major, major player now as far as the entertainment business goes. To be on that network kind of gives you the vehicle to go in any direction you want — so I’m just kind of like feeling the waters out.
And when I say I don’t know what I’m doing, I just don’t know — since we’ve raised the level and let people know that this is entertainment, but there is an art form. You can call it predetermined, if you want, but please don’t call it fake, because everyone gets hurt. So we don’t know if it’s going to be a TV show about wrestling or if we’re going to roll it right into a big company and be competitive on an international level after a series of seasons. All I know is that the fans will watch what I’m doing. And the wrestlers who want to have fun and to make more money than where they’re at usually follow my lead.
Eric Bischoff and I have several investors. Because whenever Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan get together, the people in the WWE camp go, “Oh my gosh! What are they doing? What are they up to?” Because we’re kind of like the only ones who are giving them a run for their money and really understand the business.
There’s a dual loyalty in the wrestling business. People are loyal to Vince McMahon because it’s the only place in town to work. Because that’s where they can make a living. But they’re also loyal to Hulk Hogan because they know the character Hulk Hogan means wrestling. And when I decide to make a move, it usually is like a momentum-shifting move for the wrestling business.
You’ve got some real loose cannons in the cast — were you worried at the outset that they might not take this as seriously as you are?
When we started doing this show, we just taught [the celebrities] three moves and they went out and performed. And these people don’t claim to be wrestlers. And they tried really hard, they got beat up and bruised up … and for some reason, they got hooked.
I thought maybe since the celebrities got all their money up front they might take this thing as a joke. But they got hooked.
Once they got in the ring and they saw that you had to really be coordinated, and that you really had to try hard — that this wasn’t just “fake wrasslin’!” — once you got in there, it’s kind of like learning to be the greatest violinist or the greatest guitar player or the greatest baseball player. Once you got in there, anybody that had any type of respect for themselves seemed to step up in this situation. And by the third and fourth week, the matches I watched were just as good as what I saw on the WWE — and some of them became better. Because there was a storyline and they made you mad and they made you laugh and they made you cheer for the good guy. And then when you saw the end of the match, you said, “Oh my gosh, what a great match!”
I thought celebrities that were kind of jaded from the real world — that were used to being actors and used to the make-up chair — might not take this serious. But when I saw them really step up and really take this seriously, I knew we were onto something. Because as soon as we switch gears and do real people or Pro-Am or whatever we decide to do with this little TV show, I think we’re off and running with something real cool.
When Eric and I decide to compete on some kind of level, we know how to do this. And everybody knows that. That’s what’s so much fun about it.
Were you looking for anything — or anyone — in particular when you were doing the casting? Because you have everything from Dennis Rodman and Butterbean, who get the pro-athlete thing, to Nikki Ziering who looks like she could hurt herself crossing the street …
[Laughs] Eric and Jason Hervey had a lot to do with that. I was still beating the American Gladiators up, shooting the second season, so they had a lot to do with the casting.
But the weird part is that a lot of the wrestlers and a lot of the WWE guys are now calling me up and going, “OK … is this for real? Is this going to keep going? Can we be involved?” From the Goldbergs to the Rob Van Dams … I don’t want to name drop a lot of people who are under contract right now for the next few months. But there are a lot of WWE guys who are on Team Hogan and want to run with us. So it’s getting really, really interesting — especially to see how excited CMT is about the project. They really gave us a shot in the arm when they saw the rough cut of the first four or five shows. The feedback was great.
The girls really stepped it up, too — or at least some of them. When Trishelle and Butterbean did the Nature Boy strut …
Tiffany and Erin, too — all the girls really got on a level where they really started competing with the guys right out of the shoot. I was just really surprised. I thought the girls would be the first ones to go. You know, I thought, “OK, these girls will all quit in the first week.” Some of the best hits were the girls hitting the guys, to where I thought, “Oh my gosh, I’m glad it’s them and not me.” It got real interesting the more the celebrities got into it and they got passionate about it, about doing good and looking good.
And then there was the week where we sic Jimmy Hart on everybody, where it was all about finding their characters and their identity in the ring. You know, instead of just plain Butterbean or just Rodman, they had to turn into their characters and they had to be this logical extension of what was inside of them already. And they really took it seriously. The girls did a great job hanging.
Was there anyone in particular who really, I mean, really surprised you — either with spectacular natural talent or a complete lack of it?
I think the guy that has it in his blood more than anyone is Dustin Diamond. He reminds me of Andy Kaufman a lot. He’s got the timing down … and he’s got the “charasma.”
Really? Because he’s gone out of his way to become one of the most universally loathed figures on the reality circuit …
I was surprised, because he has been on that circuit and I thought, “Oh my gosh, here we go. We’re already getting someone who’s been used up.” But it was quite the opposite. He’s a totally different Screech — if I can say it that way — than you’ve ever seen before. I think he’s really going to set people straight on what he’s all about when they see the show.
Did Knobbs and Brutus actually have first and final say in the team members they chose — or was there a little guidance … ?
Well they had a little bit of say in it, but we wanted to make sure that there was a little bit of balance, that everything was in perfect harmony and that everybody had a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We wanted to make sure that we had Bonaduce and Rodman on different teams — we didn’t want those two psychos on the same team.
How did you make the decisions about which moves to teach the cast? Are there any maneuvers that are off limits?
I sat down with Knobbs and Brutus. We wanted to not only give them some basics, but we wanted to give them some moves that they could adapt and have a match with right away. We didn’t want to get into a situation where there’s headlock and [they] take someone over. Because once you take someone over and take them down on the mat, then you have another problem: How do you get back on your feet gracefully and continue the flow?
So we were very calculating in the moves, and giving them one move like an elbow smash which you can use 15 different ways — in the corner, on the back, on the head, on the chest. We tried to give them generalities and moves that were adaptable to get them through a 15-minute match. We were very careful on what moves we gave them each week.
Everybody, when you talk about wrestling, is like “I wanna body slam! I wanna body slam!” First thing that comes out of everybody’s mouth. Well that’s really something where, when you pick that other person up, they’re giving you their body and it’s up to you to protect them. So the last thing I wanted was somebody that was inexperienced picking someone else up. Like if you had Danny Bonaduce pick you up and then all of a sudden, when you thought you were going to be slammed on your back, you landed on your head and got your neck spiked. I just didn’t want an accident like that. So we stayed away from the high-risk moves until like the fifth or sixth week.
But there eventually are body slams?
There’s some coming off the top rope, there’s some body slams, some hip tosses … there’s some great action. Todd Bridges — I think he was the best athlete we had.
Seriously? Because he barely registered in the pilot episode …
[SPOILER ALERT]
You know what happened? That was Brutus’ decision to put him in the managerial position and that was a really tough spot for him. But at the end of the match, they had this run-in at the end. And when I saw Todd Bridges run in, jump 10 feet in the air and come down with this elbow, I said, “You know something guys? You guys made a mistake making him a manager, so don’t even talk about putting him on the chopping block. Let’s keep an open mind, because I got a feeling there’s something there.” And I was right. He’s the best athlete we had — he just blew Rodman away as far as athletic ability.
