Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair has a strong relationship, despite their differences in the past.
Rory Karpf, director of the 30 for 30 documentary "Nature Boy", spoke to Neal Pruitt on his Secrets of WCW Nitro podcast, talking about the movie. He said that there were three cuts of the film, with one in particular getting the attention of ESPN, though not in a good way:
We did three completely different rough cuts...the first one was a very linear progression of Ric's story. (For) cut two, we really made the film all about 1980's wrestling, so much so that some other people were featured as well. It was really about 1980s culture and kind of the boom of '80s wrestling. ESPN hated that cut. They thought it was terrible.
He also talked about the relationship between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. Hogan was among the first people within the world of pro wrestling to visit Flair, even before some of his friends in the business:
Those two have really become pretty good friends over the last couple of years. Ric said he wasn't surprised to hear [Hulk] put him over like that [in the movie]. From what I understand, they had maybe a little bit of a strained relationship going back to WCW, but then Hogan brought him to TNA, Hogan loaned him some money, they went on a tour together. In fact... when Ric was in hospital, from what I was told, Hogan visited him twice - and was the first person to visit him - whereas a lot of wrestlers you might think [would] visit him didn't even reach out.
"[Hogan] sent me a really nice email that I thought was really kind. Mainly again - even in the email - Hogan put over Ric. I'm hoping that Hogan will get to come back into wrestling, because that's where he belongs, and I think that's his number one love as well as [Flair].
Hogan's name has been brought up in the past regarding a future WWE return, but it would depend if people feel that his situation won't cause a media backlash.
