WWE News: Hulk Hogan Wants To Wrestle Ric Flair At ‘WrestleMania 32’
Hulk Hogan has been wanting to return to the ring ever since he made his WWE return last year. At WrestleMania 30, WWE had Hogan host the event. At this year’s WrestleMania 31, Hogan did a run-in as part of the NWO during the Sting vs. Triple H match, and actually took a bump outside of the ring. At next year’s WrestleMania, according to Ric Flair, Hogan — who will be 62 by the time next year’s WrestleMania takes place — wants to wrestle Ric Flair, who will be 67 come WrestleMania 32.
“The Nature Boy” said in a recent interview that Hulk Hogan has been pitching him the idea of a Hogan vs. Flair match at next year’s WrestleMania for a long time now. Flair also added that Vince McMahon will never allow him to do another match in WWE, so him wrestling Hogan is out of the question, even if Flair would want to.
“Hogan’s been pitching me and him for Dallas forever. I could pull it off. I’d need like six months of really serious training and dieting, because I’ve never been a cosmetic dream. But, it’s not going to happen. You know [Vince McMahon] respects us, but he’s not going to allow us to go back in time.”
Flair and Hogan nearly main evented WrestleMania 8 back in 1992, but, the main event was changed to Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice, and Flair took on “Macho Man” Randy Savage for the WWE Championship. At the time, Hogan vs, Flair was a longtime dream match. However, WWE ultimately decided to not pull the trigger on the match because, according to Dave Meltzer, “Vince McMahon loves big guys,” and he had previously promised Sid Justice that year’s WrestleMania main event against Hogan if he left WCW and joined WWE.
Yesterday, Hulk Hogan was in Australia to announce that he will be a part of WWE’s Australian tour in August. During the tour, Hogan will be the general manager on three shows. During the press conference, Hogan said that he’s planning on wrestling at next year’s WrestleMania, and that there’s no way WWE will do WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium without him. Hogan also added that Vince McMahon told him that he’s looking forward to seeing Hogan return to the ring next year.
During the press conference, Hogan didn’t mention a match with Ric Flair, but he did mention that he wants to take on Rusev. It’s a match that makes sense character-wise, but it’s a match that Rusev would likely have to win, which wouldn’t sit well with Hogan.
WWE is trying to gather as many big, recognizable names from the past to be a part of next year’s record-breaking WrestleMania, and Hogan will likely be at the event. As of right now, no one knows in what capacity.
[Images via WWE]
