There's only one man Hulk Hogan should face if he has one final WWE match and it's not anyone you think
Hulk Hogan is thinking about wrestling one more match in WWE, with potentially his final bow happening at the 40th anniversary of WrestleMania next year. Hogan is currently 69 years old and will be 70 years of age by the time WrestleMania 40 rolls around, but that isn't stopping The Hulkster's fighting spirit.
Hogan's last match to date occurred on January 27, 2012, as part of an untelevised TNA house show in Manchester, England. At that event, The Immortal One teamed up with James Storm and Sting in a winning effort against the three-man tandem of Kurt Angle, Bully Ray, and Bobby Roode. His final televised match happened at Bound For Glory 2011, where he wrestled Sting in a losing effort. The Hulkster's last official match in WWE happened at SummerSlam 2006, when he picked up a win over "The Legend Killer" Randy Orton.
The Hulkster has gone through a lot of pain and surgery resulting from his years of in-ring competition. Another wrestler who knows a lot about pain would be "The Hardcore Legend" Mick Foley, who infamously fell off the roof of Hell in a Cell at King of the Ring 1998. Last month, interview clips from the early 2000s resurfaced on social media, showing Hogan and Foley laying into each other with insults. The two icons have never wrestled against one another. Maybe that could all change when WrestleMania comes knocking in 2024.
Hulk Hogan & The Hardcore Legend had a 'war of words' outside of WWE
Mick Foley is one of the nicest wrestlers. Never seen Mick Foley rip someone like this in real life but Hulk had it coming. https://t.co/MZBcrJSIVm
In the early 2000s, wrestling fans got the closest thing to a Foley/Hogan rivalry when both men insulted each other on-air in separate interviews on the Canadian sports talk show Off The Record.
Hulk Hogan kicked off the war of words by saying:
"I would probably say I've trained more in the last week than Mick Foley's trained in 30 years. I went ahead while Mick Foley was sleeping and eating cheeseburgers and M&M's. I was in the gym working out. I work out two hours a day. I've been doing it for 30 years... Now, nothing against Mick Foley, I didn't have to prostitute my body and throw myself over the coals and into the fire and glass to make a dollar. I decided to train and go another way."
The Hardcore Legend didn't hold back in telling Hogan what he thought about his comments.
Foley replied to The Hulkster, saying:
"He’s never wrestled with me. I think if you ask guys like The Rock and guys like ‘Stone Cold’ if I was in shape when I wrestled them, if you ask Shawn Michaels was I in shape when I put in 27 minutes with him in 1996, I think they’d say I was in deceptively good shape… But for Hulk Hogan to say that, I think it is a lie, and I think it’s kind of cruel. And I think if Hulk Hogan were to have wrestled me in his career that he would sound more or less like a whiny girl in a porno film saying 'Not so fast and not so hard' because he didn't like the contact … He’s a great entertainer, but at the same time, you didn’t have to apologize to your friends for watching a Mick Foley match."
Mick would also mention that sometimes after watching Hogan wrestle, it was embarrassing for him to be considered in the same profession as The Hulkster "because [Hulk's] stuff was so obviously weak."
However, in more recent times, Foley has talked about how he respects Hogan for his charity work. On an episode of Foley Is Pod, Mick made note of all the many Make-a-Wish contributions that The Hulkster has made, mentioning that he'll always respect him for bringing joy into those kids' lives. Even so, Foley would say that it hurt him when he heard what Hogan had to say about him during the TSN interview, especially considering The Hulkster's standing as one of the biggest wrestling stars of all time. Foley implied that Hogan took a jab at him because The Hulkster was jealous that his book sales were a fraction of Foley's book sales.
Hulk Hogan vs. Mick Foley at WrestleMania 40 in a cinematic match
In 2021, Mick Foley reportedly mentioned that he'd be up for one more match if it were a cinematic match. Per a report from Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, when someone at one of Foley's (Nice Day Tour) comedy show called out for "one more match," Mick replied by saying "I could do a cinematic match."
In May 2023, Hulk Hogan spoke with Ariel Helwani and mentioned that he's open to making an in-ring return at WrestleMania 40. Hogan wants a retirement match and will be training to get into in-ring shape for one last bow. If Hogan had to pick a willing opponent for his last match, it would be Stone Cold Steve Austin. But considering that Austin isn't itching for one more match, maybe WWE could turn the war of words between Hogan and Foley into a match suitable for The Show of Shows.
Considering the laundry list of injuries and health issues that both Hogan and Foley endured as a result of being professional wrestlers, perhaps they'd be best suited to doing a cinematic match rather than a traditional pro wrestling match. Hogan could possibly be facing three versions of The Hardcore Legend in a 3 Faces of Foley match, featuring The Hulkster battling Dude Love, Cactus Jack, and Mankind in settings that match each character's personality.
Foley, who is now 58 years old, can close out his wrestling career alongside the man who helped make WrestleMania famous. Mick might not be Stone Cold, but nonetheless, Foley might just be the best man for the job, brother!