Obviously, this interview was not conducted entirely out of character by Hulkster – and comments in those kinds of interviews can be hard to discern between honest & kayfabe.
Usually, even the “worked” statements contain some truth as to how the person really feels, as I suspect is the case here.
Yes, Hogan is full of himself – as usual – but for good reason. There’s only one Hulk Hogan, and he’s it.
I like some of his ideas, and I hope he can get them off the ground.
Times & people have changed since his two biggest runs, but if he can come up with a version of that formula that will work in today’s climate, he’ll be onto something big.
Hogan already has an advantage, in that he can learn from the mistakes that his competition is making right now – just as Vince has done over the years.
Not to slight him, but he could probably still work pretty much the same style now as he did years ago because he never took any big bumps or did any high risk stuff. I believe there is still a market who wants to see Hulkster on camera and in the ring
sometimes.But he also needs to heed his own advice and not shove it down the fans’ throats.
And most of all, he needs to keep his ego in check and not book himself all the glory.
He mentioned briefly the good old days of wrestling, but he alluded a lot more to his NWO days:
I'm getting ready to take over the helm and it's going to be the number one wrestling company in the world just like when I did back in the 90s when I formed the nWo and we took over the wrestling business. I'm gonna do that again.
If he thinks he’s gonna come in and just repeat the NWO angle, he may be sorely mistaken with the result.
It’s been done/played out.
Vince tried reviving it, and it was hot for a few months, but played out again.
Hogan’s also gonna have to be willing to give the younger guys a chance – something that NWO-era WCW often failed at.
A lot of the same guys Bisch & co. held back/did not push in WCW went on to become big money headliners in the Fed – Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho – because Vince recognized their talent and gave them the chance.
Bottom line is this:
WCW failed.
Russo may have driven the final nail in the coffin, but he took over from Hogan & Bischoff because THEY WEREN’T CUTTING IT while at the helm.
This could go either way.