Koko B. Ware Talks Helping Hulk Hogan, Talking The Rock Out Of Quitting The Business, Frankie'

Evan "Tech" Prout recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer Koko B. Ware on Under the Mat Radio in Baltimore, MD, which airs live every Tuesday from 7pm-9pm ET at this link. During the interview, Koko discussed his start in WWE, the Piledriver album, The New Day and more. You can listen to the full interview by clicking here, they sent us these highlights:

Frankie's status:

"A bad tragic thing happened a few years ago. I do have Frankie Jr now? the original Frankie was caught in my original house that caught fire. Every time I go home, the new Frankie Jr. is like a carbon copy of the original Frankie."

How he helped Hulk Hogan:

"I worked out with Hogan and [Brutus] Beefcake, they were Terry Boulder and Eddie Boulder at the time. I worked out with both of them, because Hogan wanted to do some things. He wanted to learn to dropkick and all this stuff. I told him, 'you're too big to do a dropkick, it's OK if Beefcake does it.' I took them to a little old barn in Tennessee – this man had a little ring behind his house – and worked with them. See, Hogan's not going to ever tell this story because he don't want people to know another African American helped train him."

Helping The Rock not quit on the business:

"I knew the Rock since he was a little itty bitty kid, he used to ride in the backseat when me and his dad [Rocky Johnson] would go around the Memphis territory. When the Rock came down here from Miami he was a big, pretty, good looking young man and he was so depressed about not making no money in the wrestling business. When they had him down there in Memphis, Tennessee, he was starving to death and one night he was stretched out on the couch and said, 'I'm going to go get me a real job.' I told him, "keep working out and go to New York (WWE)." He said, 'I know but my dad already been up there and burnt all bridges.' And I told him, 'You get a change. Go up there, you ain't like your dad... go up there and keep your mouth closed."

Koko also talked about who got ribbed a lot in the 80s, his honest thoughts on Bill Watts, his gospel group and more. You can check out the full interview by clicking here.