Hulk Hogan Recalls How He Learned About Ultimate Warrior’s Death

In a recent sit down interview with Grantland, Hulk Hogan recalls how he learned about Ultimate Warrior’s death, and describes the encounter that he had with Warrior during WrestleMania weekend. Hogan is obviously thankful that he and the Warrior ended their multi-year bout of personal attacks and feuding prior to his death, which can be seen during the WWE Network documentary, “Warrior: The Ultimate Legend.”

Hogan discusses WWE officials such as Triple H telling him not to talk to or come in contact with Warrior during WrestleMania weekend. He then talks about Warrior looking “off” and “not looking good” during those last days. He says,

“On “RAW,” he went out there and put on the little Warrior mask. He had a hard time getting it off. I don’t know if you noticed, when he tried to get it off, he had a hard time getting it off.” 

Hogan was backstage watching Warrior’s in-ring promo during “Monday Night Raw,” where he urged WWE cameramen not to film Warrior upon returning to the backstage area.

“I don’t know if anyone heard me, I was afraid he was going to fall down the stairs. He came back, I gave him another big hug after “RAW,” kinda like a ‘na-na-na-boo-boo I talked to him’ type-deal. He took a picture with me and [Pat] Patterson. 

Next night [at the April 8 SmackDown taping] I go in the ring with Daniel Bryan doing the “Yes!” thing, the ear thing and posing. I come out of the ring and Vince [McMahon] is standing over there. He was staring at me. What’s up with that?”

So Hogan signals for Vince to call him or something, but then tells Jimmy Hart that he never does that, something’s weird. So Hogan approached McMahon behind the curtain.

“I never do that and then I walked off. I told Jimmy Hart, “Jimmy, something’s weird. You know, Vince never just stands there and stares at me like that,” recalled Hogan.

“So I went back and I said, ‘Are you cool, are you okay?’ He goes, ‘Sit down for a minute, let me tell you something.’ I don’t know if another rib’s coming. I don’t know what he’s going to set me up with, ’cause you never know, he’s full of it. And he goes, ‘Nobody knows yet, but while you were in the ring, we got the word that Jim passed away.’ I said, ‘What?!?!’ Thank God I got to talk to him, ya know?”

You can view the video below.