Kurt Angle Reveals How Hulk Hogan Reacted To Tapping Out

Hulk Hogan has a bit of a reputation “not wanting to put people over” in the wrestling business. Fans and bitter ex-wrestlers assume The Hulkster was more concerned with going into business for himself rather than whichever promotion he was working for.

Considering the amount of political sway Hogan had backstage with both the WWE and WCW, he often had creative control over his character, which meant he would have the final say on whether he would win or lose.

WWE Hall of Fame inductee Kurt Angle recently discussed this very topic when he participated in a Reddit Q&A to promote his new addiction recovery app, AngleStrong.

WrestlingInc.com transcribed some of the highlights, including how Hulk Hogan reacted to being told that he was going to have to tap out to Kurt Angle at the King of the Ring pay per view in 2002.

“I didn’t think he was going to do it! You know, I remember meeting with Vince McMahon and Hogan came into the room. Vince had us together and we were staring each other in the eyes – it was a pretty intense meeting. Hogan and I were sitting where our knees were touching. Vince was just off to the side. He basically just said, we were looking at each other and I hear Vince say, ‘Alright Terry, you’re going to tap out to Kurt tonight.’

“Terry paused for about five seconds and he looked me in the eyes and he said, ‘Okay. Let’s do this.’

“I was shocked! You know, you hear some rumors about Hulk Hogan, that he has difficulty putting guys over. But he didn’t do that. So the whole rumors were thrown out the window for me. And whether they are true or not, I don’t believe them.

“I think Hogan has always been about the business, but also, Hogan is and was the business. So, I think, looking out for the business, he had to go over 98% of the time because it was always good for the business. I don’t think Terry ever had a thing about what was best for business. I just think he always did the right thing, it was just for almost all his matches, the best thing was for Hulk Hogan to win. So, I’ve never had any hard feelings about Hulk Hogan. I think that if anything, I respected him more that night for tapping out to me.”

Hulk Hogan’s history of winning is fairly legendary. While he did lose cleanly to The Rock, Angle and Lesnar during his 2002 run, there weren’t many times that he took a loss without some type of “dusty finish.”

In fact, WhatCulture.com broke down the list of all of Hogan’s 26 losses, which you can see here.

Kurt Angle is scheduled to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at this year’s WrestleMania weekend.

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