Hulk Hogan, who is unarguably one of the most iconic and influential figures to ever grace a professional wrestling ring, appeared on Rover's Morning Glory radio show recently, and discussed his steroid use in the early part of his career.
A video of the interview can be seen below:
Hogan, who became famous with the worldwide spread of "Hulkamania" throughout the 80's and early 90's during his time with the World Wrestling Entertainment, now works for rival promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, but discussed his current relationship with WWE as well as his history with doing steroids early on in his career.
"It was kind of a wave of what was the correct thing to do at the time," Hogan told the radio program of his early steroid use. "[In the] '70s, 80′s, doctors would write you a prescription for a steroid, where every sport in the world was doing it and the mindset was, 'it was safer than taking sugar.' Well, everybody's been re-educated. Steroids are for injuries and certain medical uses, but not for bulking up and enhancing athletic ability."
Hogan, really named Terry Bollea, added: "So, I think the mindset changed around '90 when it became illegal... There was an era when the steroids were predominant in every single sport across the board, but now I think even though it's prevalent, it's not as inundated as it was back then. I think you can pull out isolated incidences in any sport and point people out."
Hogan was very influential in gaining mainstream media attention for professional wrestling, helping WWE Chairman Vince McMahon launch the famous WrestleMania franchise and winning the WWE Championship six times in his career before jumping ship to now-defunct rival promotion World Championship Wrestling in 1994. He didn't appear in a WWE ring again until 2002.
Even though Hogan is once again working for a rival company, he maintains that he has a good relationship with the WWE from a friendship standpoint.
"On a personal level I'm friends with them, but on a business level, I'm the bitter enemy," Hogan joked on the show. "I'm not the enemy; we don't compete with the other company because they are a totally different entity. They're a PG company, we're pretty aggressive. It's not like we want wrestling how it used to be, but wrestling how it should be [with] a lot of physicality and back to the bare necessities of what this business is about. So we're really not competing, but on a business level we're not on the same team, that's for sure. But on a personal level, I'm friends with everybody."
Most wrestling entities test for steroids now, which is different from when Hogan got his start when steroids weren't thought of as harmful.
Hogan, who made his debut in the squared circle back in 1977, is still very much a part of the business at age 60.
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