• Old School Wrestling Legend Celebrates His Birthday
Old School Wrestling Legend Ole Anderson (Real name: Alan Rogowski) turns 76 today.
In the 60s, he replaced Lars Anderson as Gene Anderson’s partner in the famous NWA Tag Team ‘Minnesota Wrecking Crew’, a team that lasted till Gene retired in 1985.
Later that same year (1985), Ole became one of the founding members (with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard & J.J. Dillon) of one of the greatest factions in professional wrestling history, The Four Horsemen.
He retired from active wrestling in 1990 but still stayed with World Championship Wrestling (formerly known as Jim Crockett Promotions) till Bischoff let him go in late 1993.
In his famous 2003 book ‘Inside Out: How Corporate America Destroyed Professional Wrestling’, Ole described how he told both Vince McMahon & Linda McMahon “Go F*** Yourself” after they bought Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1984 and offered him a job.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLE ANDERSON!
• Another Major Return Being Planned For WWE Crown Jewel PPV
It looks like the in-ring return of WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels might not be the only return we see at the WWE Crown Jewel PPV on November 2 in Saudi Arabia.
According to PWInsider, WWE officials are discussing bringing “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan back to WWE programming at the WWE Crown Jewel PPV. Hogan’s last live appearance on a WWE show was back in 2015.
WWE officials have been wanting to bring Hogan back for a while now. As a matter of fact, they wanted to bring Hogan back at SummerSlam 2018 PPV last month, but plans fell through.
One of the main reasons behind WWE wanting to use Hogan at WWE Crown Jewel PPV is that they want to please the Saudi Arabia officials. The Saudi Arabia officials are a big fan of Old School Wrestlers and they requested WWE to bring in multiple Old School wrestlers for the Greatest Royal Rumble event earlier this year and Hulk Hogan was one of them.
Also, WWE is making more money from these major shows in Saudi Arabia than what they make from WrestleMania. WWE reportedly made somewhere between $40-50 million from the Greatest Royal Rumble.
WWE couldn’t bring Hogan in for the Greatest Royal Rumble, but with WWE reinstating Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame, Hogan’s WWE return is only a matter of WHEN and not IF.
While WWE officials are interested in bringing back Hogan, some WWE wrestlers aren’t happy with Hogan being back.
Hogan appeared on Apter Chat last month and talked about being reinstated into the WWE Hall of Fame, apologizing to the WWE roster backstage at Extreme Rules 2018 & how the WWE roster reacted to his apology.
Below are the highlights (credit to Wrestlinginc for transcription):
On Triple H keeping an eye on what he was doing and talking with Vince McMahon:
“Triple H knew what I was doing with the Boys & Girls Club and there was a common bond there so he kept a good eye on what I was doing and I kept him aware of when I was doing appearances and what we had going.
So then we started talking about different things like Saudi Arabia and stuff like that. I said, ‘man I’d really just love to talk to Vince.’ I’d texted Vince back-and-forth on birthday and he texted me on New Years and stuff like this, but we never really good conversation. So all of a sudden, my phone rings and it’s ‘hey monster, how you doing?’ So we talked and it was like, ‘wow man,’ we had been texting back and forth but I hadn’t heard Vince’s voice and it was just so good to hear his voice.
He hasn’t changed a bit, same old intense Vince and we talked and it was a great conversation.”
On getting reinstated into the WWE Hall of Fame and apologizing to the WWE roster backstage at Extreme Rules 2018:
“I get to Pittsburgh, but right before we got to the building my phone was blowing up going ‘congratulations, you’re back in the Hall Of Fame. I had no idea they had put me in the Hall Of Fame. I thought we were just gonna go there and talk.
I thought, ‘wow, that’s so cool,’ it made me grin from ear to ear. I didn’t start crying because I had two other men in the car with me. I get to the building and they had everybody in a room and I walked in the room and I made it very clear in my head what I wanted to say.”
On how WWE wrestlers reacted to his apology:
“A lot of people accepted my apology. A lot of them heard what they wanted to hear and a lot of the narrative that came out of the meeting was on point. A lot of the narrative was really different because I was surprised to see some people interpret what I said to say I was sorry I got caught on camera or whatever they interpreted it. I never said that.
I guess the media and people go with the most negative narrative they can come out of there. But that’s pretty much what happened and that’s how I got put back into the Hall Of Fame. I was on the way to the meeting and I was put in before I got there which is really, really cool.”
It is what it is. I said those words, it was totally unacceptable and I just really wanted to get in front of all the talent and apologize because I know I hurt this business. You know I just wanna move forward. I just hope the brotherhood can get back to the way it was because you know, when you’re in the ring and somebody is bodyslamming somebody or piledriving somebody you protect your brother and you make sure physically that they’re safe.
Outside the ring you’re supposed to protect your brother, you know? In this case it’s a situation where you know, 75- 80-90% of the wrestlers are protecting me, they’re giving me another chance to move forward. But, you know there’s just a few wrestlers that kinda don’t understand the bond that the brotherhood of wrestling if someone makes a mistake you need to forgive them and move on and try to let them prove themselves.
I just feel that I wish I could kinda have one-on-one conversations with people who really don’t know me and try to maybe explain myself better. But, you know all in all it was a great day. It’s just a highlight of my life to be able to be back in the Hall Of Fame and to be able to move forward. So it’s been a great time these last couple of weeks.”
