Warlord On Sharing The Ring With Hulk Hogan: 'Everything Just Goes Black For A Second'

Hulk Hogan was never known for his in-ring prowess but no wrestler ever evoked emotions from a crowd quite like the Hall of Famer. Among the many wrestlers who benefited from sharing a ring with "The Hulkster" was Warlord, who entered a brief program with Hogan for the WWE Championship in the early '90s. 

"When you step in the ring with Hogan, and when he rips that shirt off, I'm the one who's got the goddamn goosebumps all over me," Warlord told "WrestlingNewsCo" in a recent interview. "Everything just goes black for a second. It's like, 'Wow, I'm in with the biggest name ever in professional wrestling.' It's the coolest thing in the world to feel." 

Warlord then tried to debunk the notion that Hogan wasn't very welcoming and friendly in the backstage area. "He was very nice to everybody," Warlord stressed. "He was just one of the boys back there, you know? I always respected him and he always respected me, and that meant a lot to me."

"He changed the business for a big man," Warlord continued. "No one had ever seen a big man crawl to the knees and sell the way he did. He actually got sympathy [from the crowds] as a big man."

Over the years, many fans criticized WWE for utilizing the same formula in every Hogan match, whereby Hogan would "hulk up" and overcome adversity with his signature comeback routine — finger wag, shaking of the head, finger point, finger wag, blocking a punch followed by thunderous punches, Irish whip and boot to the head, followed by the leg drop. While the routine may have felt monotonous, Warlord stressed that fans in the arena were always entertained.

"The people knew what Hulk was going to do [with the comeback routine] but they didn't care. They loved it anyway."