Hogan continued, “I went, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ So I picked the phone up and go, ‘What’s up, brother?’ He goes, ‘How you doing? We heard your contract is done,’ whatever the verbiage was. ‘Vince would like to talk to you.’ I said, ‘Okay, cool.'”

Hogan explained that when McMahon brought him back in, he explained how “things have changed here,” citing the popularity of The Rock and Steve Austin. The Hulkster knew it wasn’t his time anymore, but McMahon apparently thought otherwise.

“Vince went, ‘Oh, no. You’re coming up here, you gotta really bring it.’ I knew what he meant. The workrate was faster and stuff. I didn’t say it, but my thought was, ‘If you’re asking me to bring it, you’re asking me to take it back.’ But I would never do anything to undermine, to hurt the boys and The Rock.”

“But I just kept my mouth shut and the backstory still was they didn’t think I could pull it off. I think they thought I wasn’t up to snuff to be Hulk Hogan, so they wanted me to go down to Miami and rehearse the match, which I’ve never done in my life.”