Hulk Hogan is looking forward to “topping off his career” in Tampa, where it all began for him.
This year, WrestleMania will have two different hosts for the first time ever. Hulk Hogan, a Tampa resident and WWE legend will co-host with Titus O'Neil, a well-known name in Tampa for his various charitable efforts in the community.
Speaking on WWE After The Bell, Hulk Hogan spoke about how excited he is to work with Titus, who he joked could be the mayor of Florida soon.
“To come back to Tampa, where this all started, WrestleMania 37 -- I started in '77 and a come back here in my hometown and to have Titus with me, hopefully, the new mayor of Florida, who knows, but to have Titus with me... we're coming in wide-open, guns a-blazing, to show everybody that the Super Bowl was cool but WrestleMania is the greatest show in the world.
“We are so excited, brother. For me, in my hometown, this tops my career off like I never thought it would be topped off.”
This year, WrestleMania is back in business meaning that this is the first time since March of last year that WWE will have a crowd. For Hulk Hogan, the crowd is everything and WrestleMania just isn't the same without one. Hogan also stated that he was supposed to host WrestleMania last year before the pandemic changed everything
“I mean this is a huge statement. WWE, once again, raising the bar on how things should be played out from this point on. I was devastated last year, you know, I talked to the upper hierarchy at the WWE and they asked me to host WrestleMania last year everything went awry. Gronk did a great job, but I mean, as I watched it, there was like a hole in my heart because there was no crowd and it was so different you know what I prayed that it would never happen again.
“So all of a sudden to be back out there in front of this crowd. that was my thing man to listen to the crowd, to feed off the crowd I mean everything that I ever did had to do with a crowd, you know, I didn't need to anything else so that crowd just makes Hulk Hogan go crazy, it makes Hollywood Hogan go crazy, and the WWE Superstars just raise the bar on their performance once they get in the ring in front of that crowd so this is going to be off the charts this WrestleMania.”
Continuing on, Hulk Hogan said this event is the ultimate high for him and that he feels fortunate to do this in Tampa because the people in Tampa know his whole story, good and bad and he just hopes that the raucous WWE Universe blows everybody away.
“This is going to be the ultimate high for me because I've lived here 67 years. I'm not some newcomer who just moved here 20 years ago. I've been here and I've seen all the changes and these people know me. They know my history. They know the good, they know the bad. They know I'm just a normal guy running around here in Tampa and at the end of the day, the scars and everything I've been through, these people in Tampa know me. So this is really going to be cool for the WWE. That's what I'm praying for. I hope it's just so intense that it blows everybody away, including Vince McMahon.”
Hulk Hogan made a surprise appearance at WrestleMania 35, which was hosted by Alexa Bliss, and was recently featured on an episode of WWE Raw.
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