"He's going over to the convention center to kill Hulk!" - When a wrestling legend pulled a gun on Hulk Hogan in real life at a WWE event
Despite being a legend, Hulk Hogan is not the most beloved person in the wrestling world at the moment. His past actions and beliefs have turned a large part of the wrestling fanbase against him. But even those fans would not want him shot, which is what one of the biggest wrestling legends of all time, Harley Race, threatened to do at a WWE event.
There was a time when WWE was not the established company that it is today. The national territory system was still in full swing, and WWE was breaking it slowly as it expanded across the nation. That didn't sit well with a lot of people, and several were upset with Vince McMahon.
As the face of WWE at the time, Hulk Hogan was often the target of the wrath of a lot of these stars. When WWE went to Harley Race's NWA Kansas City territory, the legend lost his temper and left a WWE event to confront McMahon and Hogan.
On Ric Flair's WOOOOOO! Nation podcast, The Nature Boy, described the situation. He said that Harley Race was so angry that he left Flair to wrestle Bruiser Brody in front of the 3000 people present to go confront Hogan and McMahon with a gun.
"Harley was so goddamn mad at WWE, WWF at that time, and he's leaving me to wrestle [Bruiser] Brody over there and we had 3,000 people. He's going over to the convention center to kill Hulk! He pulled out his 9 mm tucked into his pants and goes, 'I'll be back.'" [H/T Wrestling Inc]
Race stood as a truly mythical character in wrestling whether it was getting in a car crash that nearly ended his career until a local promoter drove to the hospital to stop the operation or when Harley went into a WWF locker room and supposedly pulled a gun on Hulk Hogan https://t.co/cry53HGLMu
What happened when Harley Race confronted Hulk Hogan with a gun?
Race was so upset that he tried to set the WWE ring on fire before the show. However, the ring crew would replace it. The ring crew then let Hogan know that Race wanted to kill him, so he went to a bar and tried to avoid meeting the legend. He returned to the WWE show before the main event and went to the toilet when he heard that Race had arrived.
"The ring crew said, 'he'd already been here and tried to light the ring on fire' and they all told me he wanted to kill me, so I went across the street to the Rusty Scrupper and drank two bottles of wine and I just come sliding back there, right before the main event, hoping I'd miss him. I'm sitting on the toilet, going number two and I had my pants down, and Davey Boy Smith goes, 'Harley's here! Harley's here! Harley's here!' and Davey Boy Smith started screaming."
Hulk Hogan was so terrified that he just pulled his pants up and came out of the bathroom. He was then confronted by Race, who had a gun in his hand. He said that he had gone there to blow Hogan's kneecaps off but admitted that he would rather work with him.
"And I pulled my pants up, but didn't wipe my rear end, just blowing out of the bathroom to find him, and he was standing right there with a gun in his hand going, 'I came here to blow your damn kneecaps off, but I'd rather work with you guys.' He scared the hell out of me."
Harley Race Taking It To The Champion - Hulk Hogan ‘87 https://t.co/GDCwUadv6p
Thankfully, nothing ended up happening, with Hulk Hogan not being shot. Race worked with WWE and Hogan as well, with the two wrestling in the subsequent future.
What do you think of Hulk Hogan's reaction to being confronted by the legend? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.