Vince McMahon opens up about relationship with Hulk Hogan

When it comes to the story of professional wrestling in America, it simply cannot be told without two names: Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon.

The biggest star of the most popular era the sport has ever seen, and the promoter who helped him break through the glass ceiling of niche entertainment, the two men changed the game forever, turning wrestlers into Superstars and laying the groundwork for generations to come.

So naturally, when Hogan passed away unexpectedly at 73, fans wanted to know what the former promoter thought about the news, with TMZ setting up an interview with McMahon to find out just that.

Asked how he felt when he learned that Hogan was gone, McMahon, who turns 80 later this month, admitted he was shocked, as it felt like he lost a family member.

“Shock. You just don’t think about someone, a family member or someone that close to you, you don’t think about them passing away,” Vince McMahon admitted via 411 Mania. “Terry had kicked out, so to speak, of so many surgeries. He had to get like 20 surgeries on his back, plus others on his knees and hip or something. He overcame all that. It was a tremendous shot. It was a blow to my heart.”

Did McMahon see Hogan get booed by fans in Los Angeles during RAW’s debut on Netflix? McMahon admitted he did and felt bad for his friend, noting how much that must have hurt him in the moment.

“It wasn’t set up properly. I’m sure he was probably despondent after that. I was angry because we’ve known each other for a lifetime, professionally and personally,” McMahon noted. “Setting up, so to speak, this larger than life super hero, you don’t just let him walk out there. He deserved something very, very special. More than anyone, they owe him. It’s just like, ‘Okay, here comes Hulk Hogan.’ I got angry because that’s not the way I would have done it, and he deserved much more.”

In the end, McMahon was not present for Hogan’s 10 bell salute on SmackDown, RAW, or NXT, even if he might have wanted to, as he left the company back in 2023 in disgrace after being named in the ongoing Janel Grant lawsuit. Like Hogan, his legacy will be judged disproportionately by its ending versus the decades before it, but that doesn’t change the fact that, after five decades working together in one form or another, McMahon now has to look back at the business he created without one of his brightest stars here to reminisce.