Hulk Hogan Talks Harley Race Pulling Out A Gun On Him At WWE Show, Trying To Set Ring On Fire, Dusty
Recently on WOOOOO! Nation with Ric Flair, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan told a story about when WWE went to Harley Race's Kansas City territory and discussed the late great Dusty Rhodes.
According to Flair, Race was so enraged about WWE and Vince McMahon invading the NWA territories that he left an ongoing NWA live event to confront WWE and Hogan.
"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," Flair said. "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'".
Hogan added that Race attempted to set the WWE ring on fire before the show and that Race pulled a gun on him as he was coming out of the bathroom.
"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. 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."
As for whether Rhodes' polkadot attire was a rib by McMahon, Flair said that he did not think so.
"I hear that, too, about it being a rib and that, but Dusty never relayed that to me, and, I'll tell you something, if it was a rib, which I don't think it was, Dusty did make it work, obviously".
Hogan said that he did not know whether the polkadots were a rib, but knew that Rhodes would get it over if he got TV time.
"Sometimes Vince's vision is different or better or more long-term than some of ours, so when Vince came up with the polkadots, I wasn't used to seeing that because I was used to the 'American Dream' Dusty Rhodes, but I knew if he got the TV exposure and I knew that if he got into the gimmick he would get it over. I just didn't know what the endgame was. I didn't know if it was a rib or if it was a shoot, so I was just kind of sitting there watching to see how it played out."
On this edition of WOOOOO Nation! with Ric Flair, Hogan talked about his regrets in WCW, his most cherished mementos from professional wrestling, and much more. Check out the entire podcast here.
Source: WOOOOO! Nation with Ric Flair