Hulk Hogan
Hogan battles through broken ribs
by Phil Speer WWF.com
PEORIA, Ill. - Hulkamania has been runnin' wild with two badly injured ribs.
Hollywood Hulk Hogan broke two ribs during his return match with the World Wrestling Federation - at a non-televised event in Tampa, Fla., all the way back on March 1, and he's been competing through excruciating pain ever since.
"The problem is, where I'm at - in the twilight of my career - if I took three months off, it would totally ruin what's going on," Hogan told WWF.com in an interview before Tuesday's SmackDown! taping. "It's not like I can take three months off and come back and go, 'Hey man, I'm going to be here for another 10 years,' because we don't know how long I'm going to last. At my age, anything is possible. I could have a one-year run or I could have a five-year run.
"And also I'm really surprised about how big this Hulkamania thing is. And you don't want to ruin that. So that alone is a tremendous deterrent to me taking a day off, because I don't want this to end."
It's certainly not the only injury Hogan has suffered in his illustrious career. He has torn muscles all over his body - both his biceps, his shoulder, the right side of his back. And he still has the scars to prove it -- deep crevices all over his chiseled frame - because he never had surgery to correct the tears. He kept wrestling in spite of them.
"It was the old-school, dumb, dumb, philosophy," Hogan said. "At the time, when you were the champion, if you took four to five months off, it could change your whole career."
It is no doubt partly because of that old-school mentality that Hogan has again continued to compete in spite of his broken ribs, which Hogan calls the worst injury of his career.
Hogan wrestled Rikishi in his Federation in-ring return at the Ice Palace in Tampa last month. Rikishi threw him into the corner and prepared to charge at him. Hogan, who lives in Tampa, had several friends and family in the crowd that night and said he was playing to them instead of preparing for Rikishi's squash. Not surprisingly, when the 350-pound Samoan collided with him, Hogan was hurt immediately.
"It was totally my fault," Hogan said.
Initial X-rays revealed two cracked ribs just below his right pectoral muscle. But right before WrestleMania, another X-ray revealed that one rib was cracked, and another was broken in half. Doctors told him that it would take 8-10 weeks to heal, but that was assuming that he rested, which of course he hasn't.
"Even though the ribs are healing, week after week after WrestleMania, I'd be on TV and do RAW or SmackDown!" Hogan said. "I'd get knocked down or something - even when Chris Jericho put the weight of his leg on me (for Y2J's 'arrogant cover'), it hurt like hell. I can't get back to square one because I keep getting re-injured. This is by far the biggest mind game I've ever played because I just can't seem to get by it."
It's not that Hogan is complaining. He certainly doesn't need money anymore; he says he's back in the Federation because he loves the business and because he's having fun. He has even agreed to work at additional shows. Hogan said he's using the fans to help him deal with the pain. His comments on Monday's RAW - crediting the fans with all he's accomplished since his return to the Federation - were real, he said.
"It's really true," Hogan said. "I was hurting like hell out there the other night (at Backlash), wrestling Triple H. He's very physical out there. I got to the point where I just went in the zone, man. I just listened to the people and zoned it out."